This weekend, accompanying Father’s Day 2026 ™ was also my 52 birthday. The convergence of the Solstice and Father’s Day and my birthday happens with a certain level of regularity. There are astronomical (and astrological) charts that predict this on a schedule.. It’s how Calendars and astro-physics interact. Anyway… I am older now than I was last week. So let’s answer some LLM generated questions about the number 52 after drinking an inordinate amount of water and eating all the electricity.
Here we go.
1. Does turning 52 feel meaningfully different from turning 50, or does it simply feel like another page in the same chapter?
In some ways both. 50 was an amazing arbitrary milestone that we make men something because of the number of fingers on our hand, but 52, is far enough from that neat and today number that it is not really associated with it any more. I am now no longer newly 50, I am “in my 50’s” which has some cultural meaning to it.
2. If every year is made of 52 weeks, why do some years seem to fly while others feel impossibly long?
Time is affected by perception, and perception is most definitely not linear in its presentation. Moments can take forever but years seem to fly by.
3. Are you closer to the person you expected to become, or farther away?
Honestly, I don’t think I have ever had a concept of who I would be beyond 40, even after I had turned 40. I do not think about how I want to be at 55 or 60, even though those are the next milestones.
4. Which of your habits at 52 would completely surprise your 22-year-old self?
How much Mt Dew I consume. I really should switch to coffee as a caffeine delivery mechanism…. But my Gen X-ness keeps me coming back to the Dew
5. What has become easier at 52 that used to seem difficult? What has become harder at 52 that once seemed effortless?
Letting things go has become easier. Not jumping into “fights” that do not matter to me. Way easier at 52 than at 26. Stretching has become way harder, and I need to do it more now than ever.
6. What are you hoping the next set of 52 weeks brings into your life?
A bit more stability and a better economic foundation (good luck, buttercup)
7. Is age an objective measure or merely a story we collectively agree to tell?
Age is a social construct that is necessary to describe things. Just like our other units of measure, our “year” is an arbitrary measurement of time that we use to be able to quantify and compare things.
8. Why does a year have approximately 52 weeks? Why did humans settle on a year being approximately 52 weeks rather than organizing time differently?
The 7 days were chosen for the 7 celestial bodies that were observable by the ancients. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Then the days it took to go orbit the sun was divided by the number of celestials, and 52 with some change was left. Badabing, badaboom, Bob’s your uncle, 52!
9. Why does a deck of cards contain exactly 52 cards?
4 suits of 13 cards. 10 numbered cards and then 3 face cards (which I think initially referred to as Father. Mother, Child {but I am not positive on that at all}). There weren’t always only 4 suits. That number shook out over the years because 4 is an easier set to work with than 5 or 6.
10. Is a shuffled deck of 52 cards one of the best examples of chaos most people regularly encounter?
Aside from their daily interactions with everything, yes. It is probably one of the most easily demonstrable versions of randomness that is completely understandable. Seriously 52! (factoral of 52) ends up being 8.06 x 10^67 possibilities.
11. Does knowing that almost every shuffle has never existed before change the way you think about randomness?
It really drives home the smallness necessary for unpredictability.
12. Why have playing cards remained culturally relevant for centuries while so many other games disappeared?
They are small, and easy to understand. Dice have survived as well, for the same reasons.
13. Is there something inherently satisfying about numbers with many factors, like 52?
52 only has 2 factors… 13 and 2. Not sure what you mean by “many factors.”
14. What are you doing differently for 52 that you weren’t doing for 51?
I don’t know… drink more water. I would love to draw more, get some more tattoos, write more and post more, but I am not sure what I can do differently to make that happen.
15. The element with atomic number 52 is tellurium. Why do obscure scientific facts sometimes become oddly memorable?
Because obscure and new often encodes harder in the old brainbox. No one really runs into Tellurium in the day to day, so mentioning it with a fact, makes it memorable. I will add to that and mention that with current solar celkls tellurium is helpful in their production. 52 and solar cells… TELLURIUM!
16. If a movie were simply titled "52," what would you expect it to be about?
Cards or a year, but it would be amazing if it were about Ray Lewis and how he allegedly killed some peeps in 2000.
17. If you had to spend an entire year focused on one idea per week, what 52 ideas would you choose?
I wouldn’t do that. Why would I do that? Why would anyone do that? The answer is “No.”
18. Is a year really 52 separate experiences, or one continuous experience we've sliced into pieces?
Time is a continuum that we arbitrarily break into quantized digestible units. It is one continuous experience that we mark to beagle to refer to specific areas of it.
19. There are 52 states in Germany. Why do humans feel compelled to divide land into ever-smaller units?
Just like we arbitrarily divide time into quantized digestible units, area must be as well. It just so happened that Germany enumerated their country into… wait a minute. You are Hallucinating GPT. Germany is broken into 16 different districts (13 Flächenländer and 3 Stadtstaaten). Oh you almost got me, you water drinking scamp you.
20. 52… huh… really?
Yep, really. I think there were some people who lost money on that over under. Would love to know the Kalshi take on my having made it to 52. I could have made money off of merely surviving
To recap:
Need to draw more
Need to write more
Need some new tattoos
Need to cover an old tattoo
Need to take more deep breaths
Seriously, I think forcing some meditation in my life right now could be a bit of gamechanger
Using the rowing machine might be good as well
I am about 15lbs away from a 52 year old beach look
I am, however, toooo pale to go to a beach
I would blind someone
Send good thoughts to my current interview that is going on
She’s awesome, but in a rough patch right now.
We are on question 19… so close
World Cup has been super fun so far
Lots of enjoyment
Waiting on some paperwork to go through as well
Would love for that to happen
Tried shrimp fried rice from a new place tonight
Moose Wings and Wok… wtf?
Seriously, that menu is delulu (cray for my Millennial readers, straight buggin for the X-ers and who cares for the Boomers {seriously, it is wings, fried rice, lo mien, and korean hot dogs, Boomers don’t care about that shit})
Went to Charritos to celebrate my birthday
Mondays are “Buy one, Get one” al pastor tacos
Bogo Al Pastor? Yes, please and thank you
They have a deep fried shrimp taco… take a gander at this lovliness
Now I want more tacos
The wife also made a gluten free spice cake with cream cheese frosting
Again… yes, please and thank you
Soooooo good
