Over the past two days, I've had a series of coincidences, all, coincidentally :p, linked to one another (with one exception [Coincidence No. 1]).
Coincidence No. One:
You metropolers are going to think that I'm grade A lazy (and you are probably right), but a couple of days ago I awakened at teatime (showering at about 5, leaving my bedroom about 7).
I emerged onto the computer after eating the microwaved portion of that day's supper. I booted-up the old Facebook and Windows Live Messenger, and told a friend in an i.m. about my ridiculous late emergence. Flicked over to facebook and read a status update about someone who had "Just got up after waking up at 6.". Now, out there, someone else rose at a ridiculously late time—they're English (same timezone). However, coincidences happen, so I chuckled, and thought nothing of it till the next day … when I learned of Coincidence No. Two which happened a couple of hours before coincidence number one …:
Coincidence No. Two:
It all began when Mum bought me one of those self-help books (a general make your life better book, not based around a particular condition) called 'The Rules of LIfe' (by Richard Templar). I read it, perhaps partially, and put it in a box—where it's remained for two years—and forgot about it.
Fast-forward two years, to 2 hours before coincidence number 1, and two people I know were talking about me. This book, 'The Rules of Life' was one of one of their favourite books, and they thought that a book similar would help me. They had no idea that I already had it.
Had they been able to see me, however, then their faces would have been a brilliant photograph …
… because whilst I was leaving the shower (at around 6pm) that very book (which I hadn't read for two years) popped into my head, and I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom, crouched, with my towel around me, reading … 'The Rules of Life', thinking (without knowing that they had already read it) that the person above would love that book, and looking forward to showing it to them.
I didn't discover coincidence number 2. until this person saw this book on my desk in my bedroom, and exclaimed "I love that book!", and told me that she was talking about that book the evening before. We figured out about the coincidence after we worked out that they both happened at teatime. I then, whilst sitting in my bedroom, noticed coincidence number three …
Coincidence No. Three:
A couple of years ago, the school where I did my GCSEs bought an Edexcel GCSE maths set. It was being thrown out, however the box ultimately ended up in my possession when one of the staff thought that I could use it for storage. I've used the two GCSE maths set boxes to store my DVDs, Playstation games and books ever since. … Books, including 'The Rules of Life', who I noticed, whilst in my bedroom, had the logo of their publishers, 'Pearson' on. I'd heard of Pearson before. I looked up at the Edexcel GCSE maths set where I store it, and read "Edexcel: a Pearson company".
Coincidence No. Four:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
I find myself talking to an aquaintance who is a mathematician, who studied at Cambridge, a lot. You'll find out about him in coincidence number 5. He told me about one of his teachers, Conway, who produced a game called 'The Game of Life': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life. He showed me its 'Wikipedia' article. It is a computer model where there is a grid, and the player puts down some pixels. Then some mathematical rules are applied, and the game is to see what develops/forms. I'd never heard of it before.
ANYWAYS …
I was so bowled-over by the coincidence that I put coincidence number two on my facebook (this was before coincidence number three). One of my friends asked what the name of the book was. I'd forgotten the author's surname, so I searched 'Rules of Life' into 'Wikipedia', and Conway's 'Game of Life' (that I'd never heard of before my conversation) article came number three in the search list.
Coincidence No. Five:
I was telling the mathematician from coincidence no. 4 about the coincidences that had happened. I wanted his opinion. When low-’n’-behold, coincidence number 5. happens. I suggested that it was magic, not maths, when he said 'Mathmagic', the name of the film he told me he'd been watching earlier that day.
Coincidence No. Six:
All of the coincidences (except coincidence number 1
) are connected to 'The Rules of Life', or a 'Rules of Life' coincidence.——————————————————————————————————
When I think about it, some of the coincidences seem less weird. I'm writing a self-help book of my own, so that probably triggered both the person I know and me to think of that book. However it is still *spooky*.
What do metropolers have to say about their experience of themselves and the unexplainably weird?
Edit: UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!!!!
LATEST COINCIDENCES:
I showed this thread to the mathematician, and he went on in the conversation to tell me about a lecture he heard which argued that statistics was more important than calculus. He explained it with the analogy that statistics is like a roof—it is more important than the walls, but he argued that without the walls, the roof would collapse and that you could live in a house without a roof in some circumstances (like in a hot country). I suddenly remembered last night's dream where it started raining and the roof of the single-storey parts of the building had lots of holes in it, and being in these rooms was like being outside.
Later in the conversation, he used the birthday problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem on a place where there are at least 23 people. Granted, there was a shared birthday … HOWEVER, the particular shared birthday in question happened to be today! I.e., he'd managed to achieve the feat of talking about the birthday problem and talking about the shared birthday on the actual day of the particular birthday in question, and that is just a 1/366 chance.
