Behind the Blog #22 – Fourteen
Behind the Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts, Faye, Kathe, and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or other media they find interesting!
Do you believe in lucky numbers, or certain number combinations/sequences? Do you have a favorite number? Any numbers that you feel are unlucky?
In relation to books and media, what are some books or movies that focus on specific numbers?
Growing up, mathematics was one of my more treasured subjects. I could understand numbers and equations. There was only one right answer, but usually there were many possible ways to get to that one answer. It was straight-forward. It was logical. And to me, it just made sense. After all, one plus one would only ever equal two.
Generally speaking most people will either excel at mathematics or english. The two subjects require two different brain powers, logic and analysis. English requires your brain to engage with subject matter and to come up with your own idea behind the words, to work out the meaning for yourself. There is, essentially, no wrong answer in english as it is entirely to do with interpretation. Mathematics on the other hand requires you to sort through equations to come to the only correct answer. There is no room for interpretation. However, every once in a while, someone will be good at both – though it apparently isn’t very common.
I happen to be someone who is good at both – sort of. I don’t excel at maths and I don’t excel at english – at much as I wish I did both. When I apply myself to maths I can be great, when I apply myself to english I can be great but I have never been brilliant in either subjects – no matter how much I tried to tell myself I was. The reason for this is because when I did mathematics, I used my creative english brain to get to the answer a new way – which is fine if you’re a teacher but when you can’t use the formula you’ve been taught, you don’t get brilliant marks, especially when you forget to show your workings. And when I do english, I sometimes look at things structurally, I can sometimes struggle to come up with my own interpretation because I look at it too logically.
That being said, despite being a writer, taking a humanities subject at university that had me writing essay after essay, and despite being an avid reader, mathematics and numbers have always come easier to me. I can remember numbers ten times better than I can remember words and their meanings – I constantly look at the dictionary when I’m writing. I can do equations (fairly) quickly in my head and whenever I’m reading I actually calculate how far, percentage wise, I am into a book every now and again to keep my brain calculating something.Yet, despite this, because I stopped dealing with mathematics and numbers six years ago, I am nowhere near as good at the subject as I should be.
I don’t believe in lucky numbers or equations, nor do I believe in unlucky ones. But then, that could also be because I don’t believe in superstitions either. I also don’t really have a favourite number. But if I had to choose I would probably always go with 14 because it is the day of my birth and that, I suppose, could be counted as a lucky day – or unlucky, depending on if you’re my friend or not.
What about you? Are you better with numbers or words? Do you have a favourite number?
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