20 quadrillion quadrillion electron masses

I don’t remember exactly what I weighed around the holidays — I know it was 223-point-something — so I’ve decided to declare that, since my weight is now 183-point-something, I have officially lost 40 pounds.

The logician in me thinks it’s not really that big a milestone for a couple of reasons. First of all, 40 isn’t that special of a number. Sure, it ends in a zero, but only because we use a decimal system. If people had had, say, twelve fingers (fun fact — hexadactyly is autosomal dominant!), we’d probably be using a duodecimal system, in which case a number like base-10 40 wouldn’t be that interesting. And what exactly is a pound, anyway? It’s pretty arbitrary.

The logician in me can be a real Captain Bringdown.

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