No geek
is an island

I’ve finally finished working my way through Day 2 of 24. It may have been full of twists and characters whose motivations wander like mad, but it was excellent. Yes, Kim Bauer does just deliberately get into scrapes to make it more suspenseful, but suspenseful it is. Top notch cliffhangers throughout (that’s the Doctor Who fan in me coming through), and most notably the final shock in the closing seconds.

The last episode of Day 3 is being broadcast in the US tonight. If it’s anything like the finale of Day 2, it will be worth waiting for.

As if coming up with colours for concepts wasn’t enjoyable enough, another excellent game to pass the time (or waste it) is Consecutive Number Plate Spotting, courtesy of TV’s Richard Herring. He has been playing for nearly 18 months and has passed the 700 mark. I’ve been playing for week and have reached 10. I will, of course, keep you up-to-date with my progress. If you’d like to join in, read the rules and get started!

Just in case you visited the eBay link in the previous entry and wondered why on Earth I was drawing attention to it: I visited the auction just after it was mentioned on HIGNFY and noticed the hit counter was then at over a thousand and the bidding had passed five pounds.

A few minutes later, there had been more than ten thousand hits and the bidding had reached several hundred pounds. That’s when I posted my blog entry. Shortly afterwards, a couple of idiots started bidding in the millions. There have now been over seventy thousand hits, but the seller has cancelled the sale. Perhaps they’ve decided the photo is too famous to sell. And who wouldn’t be tempted.

Have I Got News For You got a laugh at Ian Hislop’s expense after showing an eBay auction of a signed photo of him that had had only six hits and no bids even at the 99p starting price. They’re probably still laughing, but for different reasons.

Thank you to everyone who’s wished me happy birthday today. Even to the person who texted me thus:

Happy birthday! As a mathematician, you will realise that your age now rounds up to 30 rather than down to 20. Enjoy!

Who decides these things? Clearly more intangible concepts should have colours. So from now on:

• turquoise is the international colour of itchiness
• beige is the international colour of amnesia
• puce is the international colour of tweeness
• grey is the international colour of onomatopoeia

A fun game for all the family that would make any journey fly by at half the speed.