holidays, of several sorts.

spring break commences. i'll be working and traveling .. perhaps even both at once, so i mightn't be updating for a few days.

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so before i forget, let me repeat my mild distaste for pi day.

i simply cannot explain it rationally. admittedly, if i had to choose between e and π, then i'd choose the latter.

then again, this happens to be a day when all the math groupies gather together and geek out ..

.. and i've never been good in crowds;
they make me uneasy. [1]

some holidays are remembrances of important historic events, that characterise our identity.

i would not object to celebrating hιlbert's birthday, for example. the undergraduate math club actually celebrated cantοr's birthday [2] recently; props to them!

most of them, however, are just excuses to have a party. besides, i have always been a contrarian and a strange one;

i'll gladly throw a toga party on 15 march;

when i was in charge of the geο calendar, i would always try and sneak in festivus under the list of holidays and observances .. to no avail.

someone always took it out. \-:

so this year, let me announce it again: why not celebrate $\sqrt{10}$ day -- march 16th, instead? (-:

[1] this might well explain my erratic behavior at conferences: i don't talk to as many people as i should. i've been trying to improve on that.

[2] oddly enough, this coincides with golden ratio day, which is "january 62nd" (or march 3, in funny arithmetic).