Of all the things I've ever done, few are as silly as setting the world record for the memorization of e.

In January of this year, the discovery of the Pi World Ranking List rekindled an old hobby of mine from the beginning of highschool -- the memorization of the decimal places of pi. I soon found that there was also an e world ranking list, and that the record was much more accessible! (777 places is a lot easier than 100,000.)

I soon started working on both pi and e. I never got as far with pi as I had in highschool (fell a few hundred short), but once I started focusing exclusively on e, progress was swift. I was memorizing as many as nearly three hundred digits per day at my peak, with a clear goal of 2718 places ("e" thousand) on 2/7 ("e" day).

Then, the real world intervened.

I quickly found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, my mental energy was being sapped by this worthless endeavour. I couldn't concentrate on my research enough to get anywhere. So, I forgot my goal, got a few friends from church together, and just recited what I had so I could make the list. I ended up reciting 1590 of them, and it was good enough for the record!

Of course, I knew it wouldn't last more than a few months. Sure enough, I just got an email from the keeper of the List, letting me know that my record had been broken. The new record is currently 1810 digits, and when it gets broken it won't be by me. It is enough for me that I was the best that anyone had ever been at something very silly, even if only for a short while.

That said, I am a sucker for Pi day, and I crammed as many digits as I could in the 40 minutes prior to the recitation contest. I ended up being able to recall 1000 even, which gives me one more dubious distinction -- I'm officially the first member of the 1000/1000 club, having officially recited 1000+ digits of both pi and e.

While it was a fun challenge, I can't help but long for a more useful hobby. To that end, I've finally started pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming competent with electronics. Right now I'm doing basic circuit theory, but eventually I want to become an expert in both semiconductor devices and wireless communication. At least then I'll have something to show for my time!