Day 73 - pi, crisps and balls

Now that's more like it! I started today by bouncing a basketball from Shrewsbury to Telford (with a pause whilst sat on the train). I couldn't dribble all the way as I had to walk past houses as 6.15am so I dribbled courteously. It's an American thing to raise awareness for Women's basketball, the NCAA I think it's called. There were a few posts about it in social media but it wasn't anywhere near as popular as Pi Day.

Who knew that a little mathematical symbol would be so popular. You no doubt know that the first three numbers of pi are 3.14 hence why we celebrate today (March 14th - using the American dating system). If you need to find pi on the calculator on your phone then turn it horizontally and it becomes a scientific one. Useful right? To celebrate Pi Day I bought some apple pies for my colleagues but they could only eat them if they could calculate the circumference. I accept for the purists amongst you that a baked apple pie will have an irregular edge, so it isn't a perfect circle and therefore the calculation won't be correct, but it's close enough for cash,  or in this case, pie. I was tempted to watch The Life if Pi tonight to celebrate but I've seen it before and don't have the DVD.

For Potato Chip Day I started by making crisp sandwiches for lunch. I'm not a big fan of such things but thought I'd give it a go, cheese and onion. The crunchiness was lost in the bread but the taste was there. I prefer to keep crisps separate.  To help spread the yay I also bought a multi pack of crisps from the co-op for colleagues to share amongst themselves, all apart from one lady who specifically requested walkers prawn cocktail. I purchased said crisps and noted the special offer, 50p a pack or 2 for £1. What a bargain! The co-op obviously knew it was potato chip day so were also spreading the yay.

Science Education Day was a bit sad today. I picked out How To Teach Quantum Mechanics To Your Dog by Chad Orzel to read on the train but I found out just before leaving that the great Stephen Hawking passed away today. I took A Brief History Of Time instead. It's actually an easier read than it sounds. He may have spent his life in a chair with a comedy computer voice but he was inspirational in his attitude. He was definitely a when-life-gives-you-lemons-make-lemonade kind of guy. I expect that was due to being given 2 years to live and making them last for 54. I think that we have his film saved on the hard drive so I'll celebrate a little more by watching it.

For No Smoking Day I didn't smoke.  I didn't smoke the day before nor will I smoke tomorrow. It's not for me. It always reminds me of a friend from college who hailed from Hull. Her accent made it sound as if she was saying smirking rather than smoking and once during a house party shouted "nur smirking in mar rhume!" It always conjures up visions of people going into her room just to smirk. Sorry for boring you with that but I felt that I had to share.

Today has been Crowdfunder Day so if you've ever thought about giving to a project you like the sound of or trying to get funding yourself then today is a good day to do it. My Morris team used it to raise funds to bring Zulu Tradition, an African dance troop, to Shrewsbury, to perform in the square and do workshops with local schools. It does work. Maybe it would be a way to raise money to pay for son 1's singing lessons? Hmm...

There were a few other days which I'd liked to have celebrated today, such as Write Your Own Story Day (as in autobiography). That sounds fun but I only have an hour before bedtime. Finally then today I can tell you about another of the St Valentine's Day spin offs. I mentioned in February that there were a few rival or alternative days to the famous one, such as Single Person's Day. Today was all about giving something special to your loved one. Whereas 14 Feb is about love and romance, 14 March concentrates on the gift.  Some of you may have guessed it, I'm talking about White Day. No? Never heard of it? It's predominantly Japanese from what I read. In Japan 14 Feb is a day for women to give a gift to men and 14 March is a day for men to give a gift to women. I don't know how it works if you're in a same sex relationship,  I didn't read that far. All I know is that I need to present my wife with a white gift, usually three times the value of whatever she gave me a month ago. As such, I went with white chocolate. She probably can't eat it until lent is over but she won't have long, Easter is just around the corner!

That'll do for now, to end I've decided to turn Ask A Question Day around. Rather than me ask a question,  if there's anything you'd like to know about this project then please ask in the comments below an I'll try to answer it.