Today's fortune: January 14, 2011

Today's fortune: Your magnetic personality will draw people to you this month.

Today's lucky numbers: 4 15 16 23 31 42

I have to admit, the similarity of my lucky numbers to the 'LOST' numbers kind of freaked me out this morning.

If you didn't watch 'LOST' (and why didn't you? What the hell were you doing every Wednesday night for six years?), it's the story of a plane crash on a deserted-ish island. The show followed the survivors of the plane crash and their quest to leave, or not leave, the island. It was brilliant television, and I believe we'll be talking about it in 30 years the way my parents talk about 'M*A*S*H' now.

I'm not freaked out any more. After all, it was just a TV show. I can't get bad luck from these lucky numbers like Hurley did on the show, right? Right?...

Anyway, let's get to today's fortune. Apparently, people are going to be drawn to me all month because of my magnetic personality.

At work today, I was telling one of my superiors about this fortune, and he made an interesting point. When he's walking down the hallway, he pays attention to how people react to him. If his hands are jammed in his pockets and his head is down, people usually ignore him. If he's walking with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, they respond in kind. I think that's true; other people's attitudes are a reflection of your own.

I've been trying to do that at my new job. I say hello to everyone I pass in the halls, some of them I know, some of them I've never seen before. I try to make eye contact, too, because lots of people avoid it. (I used to be that way as well.) If I'm walking toward one of these people down a long corridor, I'll lock my eyes on their face until we pass just to see if they'll look up and engage. It's quite fun.

But I've been able to make a lot of friends at my job, and a lot of it is due to this blog: my co-workers have seen the news reports, and now they know me as the fortune cookie guy. That's okay, for now, but eventually I'm hoping they know me as the super awesome employee on the fast track to success!

In the fortune, I'm going to assume "this month" means from now until February 14 - Valentine's Day. I'm going to continue showing off my magnetic personality and see how many people are drawn to me.

"Magnetic." That's funny. It reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Seems like there was a TV show set on an island, and the island put off a huge electromagnetic field, and the only way to stop the electromagnetic field from destroying the earth was to enter into a computer system this series of numbers that included 4, 15, 16, 23, 42...

OH MY GOSH!