It is that time of the year again, the time where the month, day, and year all match up to be the same number. This time, it's 09-09-09. A quick Google search will come up with pages of this date, and most of these pages consist of user-generated content, a place where people can leave their comments and thoughts. Internet users can even share their questions about what hte date really means. According to MSN.com, 9-9-09 is significant in meaning luck or even forgiveness. But not only is the number 9 lucky, this date represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century. Amazing, huh? Well, I guess. Does anyone remember 9-9-99? I was young then, but remember it being a big deal. In fact, in our basement of our house, we were putting new concrete in, and my sister and I handprinted and dated the wet cement on 9-9-99. I also remember 6-6-06, or what some called the date of the apocolypse back then. I remember 7-7-07, a day largely appreciated by gamblers. However, not one of these dates proved significant to me. But one thing this date may be good for is marketing and business promotions. Hotels are giving discounts, The Beatles made their way to Rock Band, and Apple iPod event was announced.
If you're not interested in any of these, CNN gives a list of nine ways to celebrate this special date. The website even gives a few ideas of celebrating 9-9-09 by participating in social media. The Republicans are asking Twitter users to log on at 9 p.m. ET for what is being billed as the "largest Twitter tea party ever." One website is doing the opposite of taking advantage of this date (or so it seems). The humor Web site URLesque has declared a one-day ban on all cat-related videos and stories on 09/09/09. According to CNN, that could be because feline luck runs out after 9 lives. I know of a cat that got an extra chance at life today, though. After work last night I heard a meowing sound as I was getting in my car. There is usually a stray cat that wanders around the area, so I just assumed it was that cat. Then I got home. I heard a meowing sound again, so I look all over the interior of my car and even in the trunk and underneath, and I found nothing. I even had my boyfriend come and help me find this cat. It stopped meowing and neither of us could find it so we gave up, thinking it was just a coincidence. Then I got in my car today and lo and behold, I heard the meowng sound again. I met up with my friend and she helped me look for a cat and eventually we found one tucked away in the engine, scared out of its tail. Other than being frieghtened, it looked totally unharmed.
This sounds like a story I could share with 25-year-old student Matthias Kluckert in Germany who is leading an internet project soliciting stories from around the world on 9-9-09 -- to capture an ordinary day on Earth experienced by people across cultures.
The project, "A Day on the Planet," hopes to collect the best stories and eventually publish them in eight languages. Does anyone else have a particular story that happened today or on any of the other "significant dates?"
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My second daughter was born on 7-8-09. I was pretty excited about that. I was hoping she would be born at 12:34:56 on 07/08/09, but instead she was born at 12:24. Close enough.
ReplyDeleteI never used to pay attention to numbers or dates like that. I don't remember 6/6/06 or 9/9/99, but I did start paying attention to 7/7/07 because it was in the news that all kinds of people wanted to get married on that date thinking it was lucky.
I pay attention to weird number combinations on my odometer. Like when it hit 123456, I thought that was pretty cool. I'm always looking for the next palendrome--the digits are the same backwards and forwards.