Magic numbers

I feel stuck in a bad horror movie, where I'm beginning to see that certain numbers with magical and transient properties have undue relevance on my daily life.

For example, I was knitting on the Precious Socks last night (Incidentally, I am considering renaming these socks E's Bribery Socks, as the yarn was acquired while the Amazing E was trying to influence me to move to DC. Although I admit that yarn, especially Koigu yarn, is a powerful motivating factor, it is not the bribe which will produce the desired result.) when I discovered that the number of stitches on my needles kept changing. There were supposed to be a constant 64 stitches with an 8 stitch repeat that shifted one stitch to the left every other round. Somehow I could not keep the total number of stitches constant on my needles. The number kept shifting, and I could not seem to get it through my brain that I also had to shift everything left on my own, but instead was relying on magic in the yarn to do it for me.

Another magical number gets me in an out of the building where I work to earn money for yarn. I have a crappy contractor's badge that allows me entry and egress from the corporate headquarters of the gigantic corporate entity. There is a bar code on it that must be scanned by a great eye that emits a read light. I have to wave the badge over the great eye a number of times, and then it will let me come to work or leave work. I do not see a constant method to the waving, nor a number of times it has to be done to produced the desired results. It must be magic.

Wow. Goofy, goofy thinking. I must be tired. I would like to go home and knit something easy.