Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Quick, what time is it???

If you use two digits to identify a year - as in "11" for 2011 - Tuesday's date is 1/11/11. Given this format, only about 13 days this century can be written with all the same digits. Four of them occur this year: 1/1/11 (New Year's Day), 1/11/11, 11/1/11 and 11/11/11 (Veteran's Day.)  Some people hope this number combination brings good luck, while others hope it will draw attention to something. Lottery players routinely use special dates to pick numbers - such as 0-3-1-7 around St. Patrick's Day or, a couple of years ago, 8-8-0-8, 1-1-1-1. And 1-1-1 are the No. 1 year-round choices for Pick 3 and Pick 4 midday and evening drawings, and routinely sell out. 
Courts saw an uptick in couples planning to get married on Saturday, Jan. 1 (1/1/11). Some local events, however, were planned with these digits in mind.  Although staffs at the local Hospitals cannot confirm that some mothers-to-be scheduled to induce labor on this date, rooms in the labor and delivery department for today were completely booked Monday afternoon (so says our local TV news).
Apple's popular iPhone could finally be coming to Verizon.  I received an email from Verizon, who sent out an invitation to a media event on Jan. 11, 2011 at 11AM. The big announcement becomes “official" at 11:11am today.  The invitation came from COO Loweell McAdams.  It didn't say what the announcement would be about, but all signs point to the iPhone.  What a great day to announce it ---1/11/11, or i/i/ii for the i-Phone.
Verizon doesn't have a lot of fancy events. And it's a little odd to be holding an invitation-only press conference a few days after the wireless carrier could have made almost any announcement it wanted - to a huge audience at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  But, Verizon saw making the announcement on 1/11/11 to be “strategic”.  Or was it just being cool, like Apple?
OK, I am up for the challenge. I am going to do something super cool at 11:11am today, and again at 1:11pm and then again at 11:11pm.  I am going to do something memorable, important and meaningful today, I guarantee it. I am going to set my alarm to remind me to do it, so that I don’t forget. I have three opportunities today (and today only) to do something remarkable, something to really make 1/11/11 a day to remember! Yes, that is exactly that I a going to do!
Sounds exciting, right?
Talk about setting oneself up for failure. I’ll bet that Verizon does just fine with selling the Apple iPhone, even if they had made the announcement during the big CES show in Las Vegas, or yesterday, or even tomorrow.  I’ll also bet that I will also be just fine if I try to do something remarkable tomorrow, and the next day and the next. And, so will you.
It is now 8:43am EST on 1/11/11. Oh, the pressure. Maybe I should just take the day off today.  Now THAT would truly be something remarkable.

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