The Logbook of Notable Events
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Imagine
We’re getting out of the booth of the one late-night Cafe in the area, after enjoying—like the most basic of bitches—our first pumpkin spice lattes of the autumn. My friend Bella goes to put her phone in the back pocket of her pants but as she’s distracted in conversation, she doesn’t quite do the phone/tight-jeans math correctly and accidentally just slides it along her butt and lets it go where it drops to the hardwood floor with an apprehension-inducing clatter.
“Shit,” she says.
She bends to pick it up and slowly turns the screen to herself—mentally preparing herself for a cracked screen.
“Is it okay?” I ask.
She turns to me and holds it up and smiles, the bounce back in her attitude. “It’s good!” she says.
“Oh good,” I say. “Wait, wait, wait. What time is it?”
She glances at her phone. “9:50”
I shake my head. “Of course. Wait. Sit back down. I want to tell you something. You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
We settle back into the booth. We’ve been friends long enough and she’s seen enough magic from me that my previous statement has her anticipating something fun.
“So…when I was a kid—starting when I was 9, I kept a journal. And I would make a note of the date and time whenever something interesting (to my young brain) would happen. It could be something big, like the moment I found out someone died. But mostly it was small stuff. Like when my dad broke a glass. Or when I stubbed my toe.
“Then, like eight years ago, I found this journal of ‘notable moments’ and I was reading through it and I noticed some weird patterns. Like, I kept track of whenever we saw a deer in the middle of the road while driving. And I noticed that all the times I made a note of seeing a deer, it happened one minute after the hour. Like not always the same hour of the day, but always a minute after the hour. 9:01, 12:01, 5:01 or whatever.
“And I thought… well at first I didn’t know what to think…I thought it was a coincidence, I guess. Or maybe there was an outside chance that there was some kind of natural phenomenon that caused it. Maybe somehow one minute after the hour was a time that…I don’t know…messed with deer in some way? Like messed with their equilibrium and caused them to run around more carelessly? So they ended up in the road more at that time? It doesn’t really make sense, I guess I was just trying to justify it somehow.”
I sit back in the booth and pause, looking up to the ceiling as if I’m debating if I should continue.
“Okay… I hesitate to go on, because here’s where it gets weird. There are things that happen in our life…. For the time being, forget about scheduled things. So, there are some things that happen all the time. You get a text. Or you get an itch. Or you burp. Or whatever. And then there are events that happen once or twice in your lifetime. Maybe you get in a serious car accident. Or you win a decent amount of money in a lottery or raffle.
“But then there are some things that fall in-between. The type of events where… if they happened three times in a week, you’d think something strange was going on. But if they happened three times in a year, it wouldn’t strike you as that unusual. And if it didn’t happen at all for three years, you’d probably not even notice that it didn’t happen. They’re notable events, but not wildly unusual.
“They’re the sort of thing I was tracking in my journal. And when I read through my old journal and noticed that deer coincidence, I had an idea. I went and added information from that old journal into a spreadsheet. And I started keeping track of other notable moments as they happened as well. And as the years have passed since I started doing this tracking… weird patterns began to emerge. Coincidences that really couldn’t be explained in any natural way.
“There’s a pattern to when these sorts of things occur. Patterns that you would never in a million years start to notice unless you were specifically tracking them—which no one would ever really bother to do. Some things just always seem to happen at a certain number of minutes after the hour.
“And I don’t know what it means. I don’t know if this is sort of the ‘signature’ of a god or a software engineer. I don’t know if this is a wink at us from the Almighty. Or just an example of code re-use by a lazy programmer of the simulation.”
I pull out my phone. “You dropped your phone at…9:50, yes?”
I go to my notes app and have Bella open it and go to a note called, The Minute These Things Happen.
“Scroll down to 50. What happens at 50 minutes after the hour?”
She scrolls down and reads:
50. People drop their phones.
Later that night, I’m leaving Bella’s apartment. We’re saying goodbye and I swing on my jacket. My phone flies from my pocket to her floor. Our heads turn to the clock.
Method
DFB, as you know.
This trick comes from an idea that was originally sent to me by Chris Rawlins. His idea is much more “doable” in the sense that you can do it any time you want. You’re not waiting for some random incident to occur. I took his idea in a more… Jerxian [shudder] way and came up with the story and presentation you see above. I will include Chris’ original idea in Friday’s post. Thanks to Chris for sending me the idea and allowing me to pass it along to you.
There is something very powerful about a trick that you clearly could never have planned on performing. This is the ultimate in “organic” magic. The spectator initiates the moment. Even when they didn’t intend to.
This is a presentation where you can predict anything. But to maintain the power of the trick, don’t pick something that happens too often. Ask yourself, “What’s something that happens around me a few times a year?” and use that. If people don’t drop their phone around you, then don’t go with that option.
If you didn’t grow up in an area with deer, don’t use that as the backstory.
Whatever your backstory example is, you’ll say that happens at one minute after the hour. That way it will always show up at the correct position on the list and not get bumped by whatever event you’re using for the trick itself.
Other things I’ve considered predicting: the minute someone experiences déjà vu, the minute someone forgets a name. You can see those ideas and more in the full list I use in the DFB app here. This should inspire some ideas, even if you’re not feeling any of these exact things.
I wouldn’t actually use it to predict the time of anything too negative (although you will find such things on the list). Those are just there to add some color to the concept when your friend reads through the list.
The Minute These Things Happen
You see a deer in the road
A parent yells at a child in public
A sock is found on the sidewalk
The first thunder strike of a storm is heard
Forgotten money is found in a jacket or pants pocket
Liquid is spilled
A deadly-looking accident is passed in a car
The power goes out
Someone loudly drops silverware on the ground
An emergency message is made on tv/radio
A glass or dish gets broken
Someone drops their phone
You hear news someone you went to school with died
Someone vomits
People forget names
A fast-food drive-thru gets your order wrong.
An unknown child rings your doorbell or knocks on your door
Your prom theme plays on the radio
You get the hiccups
A basketball game goes into triple overtime or a baseball game goes to the 12th inning
You see a celebrity in person
You find mold on your food
You lose your wallet
You see a dog with three legs
You pass (or are passed by) a neon green car
Your phone shuts off despite having power left
A car backfires
You pass a house or building on fire
Someone twists an ankle
You're contacted by someone you haven't heard from in over 5 years
Someone falls down
You find a hair in your food
You meet someone with your birthday
You get scratched by a cat or bitten by a dog
You see an unexplained light in the sky
You see a rainbow
You get a phone call from someone who doesn't say anything.
You forget why you walked in a room
You drop something down the drain
You notice a credit card or similar has expired
You notice a huge coincidence
You get caught in a traffic jam
A light bulb dies
You feel a sharp pain in your side
Someone drops food on the ground
You laugh so hard you cry or pee
A cashier gives you extra change
You find something you lost ages ago
You see a friend in an unexpected place
The batteries die on a remote
You get caught in the rain without an umbrella
A car with one headlight passes in the other direction
You experience deja vu
You walk into a cobweb
You hear that someone you know is pregnant
A child swears
A bird flies into a window
A cat vomits
You wake up from a nightmare