Today I received an email from a reader asking how I could consider my blog a place “Where Geeks can be Geeks” if I didn’t have a post about Pi Day.
For those who don’t know, Pi Day was March 14 (3/14) and refers to the Pi, the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter and it is celebrated on March 14 by math enthusiasts around the world. I consider myself a self-proclaimed geek, not a math enthusiast.
According to WikiPedia, a geek is “a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, etc.” This is how I not only perceive myself, but how others perceive me. I am known as the person to go to if you have a technology or electronics related problem – whether it’s installing a satellite dish, adjusting the time on a VCR or plugging in that new DVD player – none of which involves me being obscessed with Pi (or any other element of math).
Don’t get me wrong, I was good at math in high school and university, but that didn’t lead me to have some twisted fetish with a number.
While I did not celebrate Pi Day, I did know that March 14 was Pi Day. My son had made reference to this one evening after coming home from university. He thought it was a bit hilarious and I just rolled my eyes thinking that this would develop into another commercialized holiday such as Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Sure enough, when checking out the official Pi Day site, there it was – Pi Shirts, Pi Buttons, Pi Clocks and Pi Mugs – more Pi stuff than I had even imagined existed. Strangely, nothing cost $3.14.
What probably started off as something to have a laugh over is obviously gaining momentum and has developed into a full fledge online business. Sometimes people just have luck and something catches hold in the market for whatever reason and this appears to be one of them. I applaud the entrepreneurial efforts of the site owners and the fact they have taken advantage of a grass roots movement that has now developed into a full media spectacle.
While I did not celebrate Pi Day or blog about Pi Day, I find myself here now having to defend my GeekDom. I guess I deserve some of the Pi(e) in the face that I have received on this one. I did think about writing about Pi Day initially, but laughed as I thought that no one would notice. Lesson learned I guess.
For all those geeks out there – I will now wish you a belated “Happy Pi Day”.
