I fall asleep really easily. This comes in handy at night. My wife will occasionally mention that it took her an hour or two to fall asleep at night. This always surprises me, since I'm regularly out soon after I hit the pillow. I just don't have much problem putting my nightly affairs in order and drifting off. I like this about me.
I fall asleep really easily at other times too. I fall asleep just about every week in church - sometimes in all three meetings! I also fall asleep at the temple, while reading, and any time my mother is teaching. It's really embarrassing at work, where I've fallen asleep in meetings, reading reports and watching tests. It's not so bad if you can point to a particular reason (new baby, late test the previous day, hard partying in Vegas over the weekend, etc), but it tends to happen to me more often than I can conveniently brush off. I just fall asleep really easily. I hate this about me.
You will be happy to hear, then, that I have come up with a staying awake aid. I count!
"But don't people count sheep when they want to fall asleep?" you ask.
Yep. That's why I count fingers - in binary.
In base ten, what we're used to, each digit can have one of ten values (0-9) and corresponds to a multiple of a power of ten. The powers of ten start at zero at the far right of the number and move up as we go to the left. Or, in the elementary school language in which it was taught to us: The far right is the "ones" place (10^0), with the "tens" place (10^1) next to that, followed by the "hundreds" place (10^2), the "thousands" place (10^3) and so on. Thus, 2465 is 2000 (2*10^3) plus 400 (4*10^2) plus 60 (6*10^1) plus 5 (5*10^0).
Binary works just the same in base two. Each digit can have one of two values (0,1) and corresponds to a multiple of a power of two. Instead of "ones," "tens," "hundreds," and "thousands," though, we get the powers of two "ones" (2^0), "twos" (2^1), "fours" (2^2), and "eights" (2^3). So, 10 in binary is (1*2^1) 2 plus (0*2^0) 0, or 2, leading us to a favorite pun of nerds: "There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't."
If it sounds complicated, don't worry. Only computers and nerds use binary and they only ever talk to each other, so it will probably never come up. The key, and the point of this whole story is that the two allowable digits in binary, 0 and 1, are easily represented by retracted and extended fingers. Let's count to 10 in binary and see how that would be represented by the fingers.
0 = 00000 - a fist
1 = 00001 - thumb extended
2 = 00010 - index finger extended
3 = 00011 - index finger and thumb extended
4 = 00100 - yup, the bird
5 = 00101 - middle finger and thumb extended
6 = 00110 - middle and index fingers extended
7 = 00111 - middle and index fingers and thumb extended
8 = 01000 - ring finger extended
9 = 01001 - ring finger and thumb extended
10=01010 - ring and index fingers extended
The point is that you have to think about it, making it much harder to fall asleep. And with 10 fingers, you can't count all the way to 2047! During a particularly drowsy patch, I even tried counting in base three on my fingers (I had to improvise a third state with my finger extended perpendicularly to my hand). I got to 243 before my fingers got too tired to go on.
Anyway, feel free to give it a shot at the next meeting you have to sit through. Just keep those fingers under the table, because nobody wants to explain to his boss that he wasn't flipping him off, he was just counting in binary to stay awake through his snooze-fest of a budget review.
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8 comments:
I've gotten so used to counting in binary that I almost do it without thinking. I tried doing the base 3 version once too. That actually got me concentrating.
Wow guys, you are nerds. I totally have the binary finger counting down, I loved to use the excuse that I was just making a binary 4. But seriously, base 3 counting? You need hobbies.
I hereby move to receive all of Katie's computer privileges and Christmas presents on the grounds of inappropriate use of the binary 4
Of course, I am shocked at Katie's binary 4 obsession. I might award her computer privileges to Joseph--but that would just last until she has her cute little baby and then I will give her back all her privileges because grandbabies are the best thing in the world.
Neil, you totally have no self control when it comes to sleeping. I'm glad you've come up with a way to keep yourself awake during meetings so you don't get yo-self fired! I think you're a little too excited about the binary 4 thing...but kudos for trying.
I have to say I'm excited about all these new blogs you've posted. Keep up the good work.
Actually, you can only count to 1023 with 10 fingers (2^10-1).
If you really want to stay awake, put a binary clock in your room (see my article http://www.exploringbinary.com/how-to-read-a-binary-clock/).
And if you really need sleep, start browsing through the rest of my site :) .
Thanks, Rick. Apparently I thought I had 6 fingers on one of my hands.
Nice clock, by the way. I've seen the BCD version before, but never a 7-segment display alarm clock.
And seriously well played on the 100 cheerios. My hat's off to you.
Make sure to read the fine print on the 7-segment clock (I 'photoshopped' it - it doesn't exist).
Neil, you have passed up your father in geekiness. When I was in high school, I counted with fingers in binary along with my other geek friends, but we never did base 3. You have assended to the next level of nerd. Congratulations!!!
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