Field Report: Home of the Whopper

"I swear it wasn't a trick. I know you thought of the song and it was playing on the radio when we turned it on, but I had nothing to do with it. These things have been happening for a couple of weeks now. I feel like something is fucking with me. It's like I'm finding all these different 'easter eggs' in the universe based on what I'm thinking about or concentrating on."

It's 3am and I'm walking through a park near my apartment on my way to Burger King with my friend, Kate. 

"I'll think of a type of food I want that I haven't eaten in a while and, like magic, there's a new restaurant that opened, selling that exact food two blocks away. I think of an activity I want to do and I'll get an email with a Groupon for that activity a half hour later. It's like if I think of anything: songs, movies, food, people -- anything I concentrate on -- the universe ends up painting that into my my surroundings."

"I've been testing it too. I think of obscure things -- a dog with three legs -- and 8 hours later I see one walking down the street. I feel like my life is a video game and they've substituted in a dumb, uncreative programmer who is just populating my world with whatever I happen to think of, instead of coming up with his own ideas."

"I'm not buying any of this," she says.

"I'll prove it to you. Uhm...name a type of vehicle. No, wait. That's too easy. Let's make up a completely abstract image. Here... name any simple geometric figure, like a square."

"A circle," she says.

"Okay, now circles are everywhere, of course. So let's make it a little more unique. Imagine another simple shape inside the circle. What are you thinking of?"

"A triangle."

"Got it. A circle with a triangle inside. Now, that's pretty random. If I asked you where you'd seen a circle with a triangle inside, would you have any answers? No? Maybe a street sign or something like that. Perhaps some company logo? Whatever, it's certainly not a common thing by any stretch of the imagination, right?"

She agrees.

"But here's the thing," I say. "You just created that image in your mind based off of nothing but your own imagination, yes? I guarantee you by the end of the night we'll see it incorporated into the world around us. What was it again? A circle with a triangle inside?"

We walk into Burger King, order some fries and milkshakes and walk away from the counter.

"Grab a seat and I'll get some ketchup," I say.

Seconds later she growls at me, "Andrewwwwwww..."

"What?" I say, innocently, as I join her at the booth.

Method: The Circle/Triangle force and a tackily decorated Burger King.