[from my myspace] Thirteen

[intro]
I used myspace.com blogs for the past few years for my randomly-spaced blogging. Therefore, I am jumpstarting my blog here with most of those blogs, lightly edited.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original posting: Saturday, February 03, 2007, 6:48 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

After posting blog #13, I realized that for some reason, I changed the format of the subject line just for thirteen.... Spooky? I think so! I didn't even mean to do it too!!!

So for Rant 14, I've decided to think back to 13. I mean, it's the least I could do since some buildings skip floor 13 and just dub it "14," so the floors magically go from 12 to 14. Number 14, you are now consumed by 13 for the purpose of this blog/rant/thingamajig.

Skipping an entire floor due to superstitions is really kinda stupid. I mean, why don't books skip Chapter 11? They're sorta dooming themselves to bankruptcy if they include it, right? If I ever write a relevant book, I'll be skipping chapters 11 and 13, just for kicks.

This 13 puzzle got me curious, so I researched it (even though I should be researching the economics of global cities for a class....). Here are some of the reasons 13 has grown to be a funky and unlucky numeral:
1) It is one more than 12, a highly composite number, so when groups of 13 are divided up, there's always an "unlucky" person left over.
2) In the Last Supper, Judas betrayed Jesus and just happened to be the 13th one to sit.
3) The Code of Hammurabi does NOT contain a 13th law.
4) In the olden days, there used to be 13 months in a year.
5) In Persian culture, it's considered 'unlucky' to stay at home on the 13th day of the year.
6) Race cars carrying the number 13 have never won the Indy 500 or NASCAR Nextel Cup.
7) In Egyptian lore, there are 13 steps between life and death.
8) It's the first 'teen' year. (I made this up.)
[Thanks wikipedia for your help on this list!]

Anyway, that was a brief list of possible origins or effects of the eeriness of 13. OooOOooh!!!

I wish I could continue ranting about this, but I'm not too superstitious about the number 13. I mean, I believe in supernatural occurrences for the most part, but I don't deal with the unluckiness of 13 on a day-to-day basis or anything.

Hm, this year, my birth month (April) will have a Friday the 13th! Has anyone ever wondered why in particular Friday the 13th is considered unfortunate? Why not Tuesday the 13th? I mean, Tuesday is the worst day of the week. To satisfy myself, I decided that if you counted the days of the week started with 1 on Sunday, you'd reach 7 on Saturday and have to start over. However, if you go onto the second week and continue with 8 on this second Sunday, you'd reach 13 on Friday.... So Friday is the 13th day of the first week! Coincidence??? Maybe.... Either way, I've always gone with this explanation as to why Friday the 13th is such a 'big deal.'

I'd like to also add a few things before concluding: I believe in ghosts. I believe in parallel universes. I believe in time travel. (But I don't believe time travel will distort present-day history. I mean, if time already projected that time travel would occur, then the time line would anticipate any and all time-travelers wanting to tamper with the past and would make it so that their tampering had to occur in order for the future/present to occur the way it was. It's like in Futurama when Fry goes back in time and makes himself his own grandfather so that in the present year of 3000, he could prevent the big brain creatures from conquering the universe.) I believe in fairies (yay Peter Pan!). I believe in magic. I believe in witchcraft/sorcery/oracles. (I think that in our society, males would have the intellect, while females have the innate ability of magic, although both would be capable of either. It's just that one gender would be more naturally talented in one thing rather than the other.) I think the Eastern World is where magic will eventually "originate," since the Western World already corrupted the world with its 'technology.' I believe in higher being(s), but I am not religious! I believe in a bunch of other crap that might take me a while to list.

I'm going to eat more Oreos and Twizzlers now.