The Number 23

Just watched this numerological obsession movie. Better than I expected, definitely. But if you cut it down to its core, the plot doesn't really need all that obsession about 23. It could easily be just a thriller about this normal guy who... eh... better not make this post a spoiler.

I definitely recommend watching this movie. Even if you don't like the plot, the execution is very well done. I love the intro, with all the typewriter typo, eerie editing and interesting facts of the number. And the direction of the movie is really good.

But I'm not here to review this movie. After watching the movie, I can't help but to be a little obsessed with the number as well, so I wanna talk about that.

According to Wikipedia, "23 is sometimes considered the cosmic number of coincidence". Well, I don't know about you, but this is definitely the first time I'm hearing it. I've always known that 13 is the universal unlucky number and 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. But nothing about 23.

Numerological obsession is really quite the numerological nonsense, in my opinion. In the movie, it's mentioned that when you search for something, you will find it. If you're obsessed with the number 23, you will definitely find the number 23 somewhere in your name, your address, etc.

Even so, immediately after watching the movie, several coincidences came into effect:

• Without prior planning, I decided to watch the movie with my cousins yesterday. An impromptu decision, coz I was in Timesquare. Date of yesterday: 23rd April.
  
• Right after I walked out of the cinema, I looked at my phone. Honest to God, it was 11:12 pm. 11 + 12 = 23. Also, past 11 pm is considered the 23rd hour of the day.
• I went to Timesquare in one car, Daim and Dzaid went in another. Daim parked in B2. I parked in B3.
• Ok, this is a big one: as I was driving away from TimeSquare, I drove past an electronic billboard near Muzium Negara. The current temperature shown at that time was 23 degrees Celcius!

Man, talk about freaky. But as I said, if you look for it, you will get it. So I looked for it further ;)

• If A is 1, B is 2 and Z is 26, all the numbers in WAN HAZMER WAN ABDUL HALIM would sum up to 230.
• Also, if you take my name word by word (let's take WAN, for example), add them together (WAN = 23 + 1 + 14 = 38), add the digits until it becomes a single digit (38, 3 + 8 = 11, 1 + 1 = 2), the total of all the words would result in 23 (2 + 8 + 2 + 4 + 7).
  
• The last 4 digits in my IC number is 5765. 5 + 7 + 6 + 5 = 23.
• Grouping up my Maybank credit card number into 4 digits, the sum of all the digits in each group would be 15, 9, 17 and 18. Add the digits together, we end up with 6, 9, 8 and 9 respectively. 6 + 9 + 8 + 9 = 32, reverse of 23 (lame, I know, but they used this tactic in the movie!)
• If you looked behind your driving license card, you could see a "No. Siri". My number is 411548. 4 + 1 + 1 + 5 + 4 + 8 = 23.
• My mobile number starts and ends with a zero. So omitting that, and grouping them up in pairs, we have 38, 12, 49 and 39 (jumbled up to protect my privacy, heh heh). Add them up would yield 138, if divided by 6 (2x3), it will become 23.
  

Yup, this is what numerological obsession is all about. If it doesn't add up, don't point it out. That's all. As you can see, I conveniently left out the BIN in my name coz it won't add up to 23 in any way. And check out how long-winded my mobile number came up to 23.

It all boils down to creativity. Who needs Sudoku when you have numerological obsession to exercise your brain!

Anyway, here are a few more interesting facts of 23 from Wikipedia:

• Mathematically, 23 is the smallest prime number that's not part of a twin prime (a twin prime are two prime numbers that have a difference of 2 or less.)
• The sum of the first 6 (2x3) digits of PI (3.14159) is 23.
• Human cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
• The earth's axis is tilted at 23 degrees angle.
• 2 divided by 3 is 0.666... We all know what 666 is.

Ah, boring scientific and mathematical crap. Let's move on to more interesting facts:

• 23 is Adolf Hitler's favourite number. He would base many of his decisions involving numbers around 23.
• December 23 2012 is the last day of the Mayan calendar, said to be the end of the world.
• Micheal Jordan's jersey number is 23. So is David Beckham squad number in Real Madrid.
• This is interesting: The smallest group of people in which there is more than a 50% chance that 2 people will share the same birthday is 23 (day and month, not year).
• One of the Lost numbers, apart from 4, 8, 15, 16 and 42. The Producers of Lost said 23 is the most important number, as reflected in one of the second season's episode title: The 23rd Psalm.
• Princess Leia was in detention block AA-23 in "Star Wars: A New Hope".
• Hurricane Katrina was formed on August 23rd 2005.
• It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the body.
• The human biorhythm is generally 23 days.
• There were 19 hijackers on 4 planes during 9-11. 19 + 4 = 23.
• The world trade center was hit by a plane on 9-11-2001. 9 + 11 + 2 + 1 = 23.
• The total number of letters in TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES is 25. 2 characters, Shredder and Krang didn't appear in the latest TMNT movie, so 25 - 2 = 23.

Ok, the last one is a joke.