Did You Know March 30 Is International Give Away an ARC of Fuzzy Nation on Whatever Day?

It totally is! I have a proclamation from the United Nations and everything! Actually, it’s not from the UN, it’s from my cat. And he didn’t so much proclaim it so much as stare at me unblinkingly with his implacable predator eyes. But that’s not important now. What is important is that I’m giving away an ARC of Fuzzy Nation here on Whatever. Today. March 30. 2011. I will even sign and personalize it for you, you lucky, lucky dog, you.

How can you win it? Easy:

1. I have thought of a number between 1 and 1,000 and told it to my wife WHO DOES NOT LIE for third party verification of that number.

2. In the comment thread, guess which number I thought of.

3. If you guessed right, you win!

4. You can only guess one number, and you can only guess once.

5. If two people post the same correct number, the first person who posted it wins (if two people post the same wrong number, then, well. You’re both wrong).

6. If no one picks the number, the closest number to the number I picked will win. In the event that there are two people picking numbers equidistant from the winning number (i.e., one higher, one lower), the winner will be the lower number. Because I said so, that’s why.

7. Contest open until 11:59:59pm Eastern, March 30, 2011.

8. I’ll announce the winner sometime tomorrow.

So: Pick a number.

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1358 Comments on “Did You Know March 30 Is International Give Away an ARC of Fuzzy Nation on Whatever Day?”

  12. My guess? 418 (not that you’d stoop to using your wife’s birthday as a way of ingratiating yourself yet again…)

  111. I’ll stick with my number, but I wanted to say $1 because I love it when people win the price is right’s contestants row with that.

  122. I’ll stick with 472, but I wanted to say $1 because I love it when people win the price is right’s contestants row with that.

  155. I know regular expressions!

    ^([0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9][0-9])$

    Legitimate guess, Benford’s Law-compliant: 123.

  163. There is only one number equidistant between 1 and 1,000, that is 500.

    Please send me my book now, I am almost finished with my other one and need something to read.

  221. I was going to say 867, but I see that is already taken. I will go with 7 instead

    Again, my number is 7.

    Also, I just got around to reading Zoe’s Tale yesterday. I am glad I added it to my library!

  242. 741

    It’ll be interesting doing a stat plot of the guesses vice the actual number.

  269. Here’s my guess for the key to the Fuzzy Nation review copy:
    64
    (03+30+20+11).
    thanks for giving us suckers a chance.

  290. I somehow feel quite sure it’s 327, but since that’s already taken (damn!), I’ll go with 857.

  341. 641

    I love you! (kiss kiss). I love your wife! I love your daughter! I even love your cat and his predatory stare!

    (and I mean this is in a totally non-creepy way!)

  409. 222 even though you’re not old enough to remember it, but I love the symmetry of the number.

  413. My guess is 80
    I requested #80 for ST press’ special edition of Zoe’s tale. If I win there is something cosmic going on!

  458. 997
    Although I probably should choose a number that Daisy can bark out, just as an extra confirmation of your beautiful wife’s veracity. But the existence of such a back-up plan was not mentioned in the text, so 997.

  463. I’ve just realize that number 3 was already taken :( (fist guess post #329 )
    my new guess is the number 111

  473. 105

    (My son’s birthday is 5/10/2000 … but as that # has already been picked (! Left Coast penalty !) I’ll go w/ another version of it & hope for the best.

    Good luck all!

  493. 82.

    I can’t believe I had to try 6 different numbers until I found one not already taken.

  502. My guess – 922.

    In the unlikely event of winning, I’m quite happy to chip in for international shipping!

  512. i didn’t hear anything about whole numbers…

    3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
    58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
    82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
    48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
    44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
    45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
    72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
    78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
    33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
    07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
    98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798

  528. 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959 * 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959

  538. 556

    // Instant win? I do this to avoid flooding the messages here and help you do it quickly,
    for( int i = 0 ; i < 1000 ; i++ )
    PostNumberMessage( "whatever.scalzi.com", i );

  540. 527

    All the other numbers have been picking on my number and making it feel bad.

    There, there, 527, don’t cry.

    You’ll show them.

  543. 982.

    Also, I have a friend who works at the UN and he assures me that they call your cat for help with those proclamation things.

  577. Although, The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is…42. It has already been given.

    I choose 123. (No, it is no the combination to my luggage).

  623. 893 … primarily because it hasn’t been chosen yet according to Firefox’s find functionality ;-)

  627. John, given that the # of posts is going to (easily) be over 1000, can we have a consolation prize? How about the person whose post-index-number(you know what I mean) matches your number gets an autographed cat photo?

  630. 985

    also, will you post a graph of picks? it would be interesting to see if there is a skew towards a specific point (s) ..

  636. 371. If you didn’t pick that number, you know you meant to, so go ahead and change your mind – I won’t tell.

  675. Awesome! I was post 666, which was my first choice until I saw someone else had already taken it.

  697. 483

    I was going to guess 691 since that was the next comment number, but it was taken.

  704. 41; hey, it was Ben-Hur’s number in the galley. “Row well and you will live.”

  718. Gotta be kidding me! Dude picked 2 right before I did. What are the odds of that?

    Do we get a prize just for being cosmically in tune on your website?

  757. 259 (First string of numbers that my find function didn’t show as already having been chosen. I would also like to win a bonus prize for MOST AWKWARD SENTENCE.)

  768. I’m going to go with 237.

    This is because when I began this comment 732 people had responded.

  784. John,

    Outside of taking a road trip to Bradford and knocking on your door, how can we verify that the number you wife knows, and would not lie about, is accurately reported on this blog by you?

  785. Lucky numbers will already be chosen, as will unlucky numbers (if you are the superstitious type). Of course Douglas Adams has been invoked a few times…

    So since I can’t use any of the numbers I would normally have used, lets just go with 667.

  786. By now, it’s too late to read all these hundreds of comments to check for duplicates, so I will guess the ultimate 3-digit number. It just has to be 666.

  790. 894…Love your work. Plowing through Old Man’s War and can’t wait to read them all!!!!

  791. 972. Can’t wait for the new book and hope to meet you in Columbus during your “world tour.”

  794. 108

    All of my usual guesses were taken… Dastardly number-stealing psychics, snatching my favorite numbers right out of my mind like that!

  802. 253. I think that’s not been picked, but that guy who decided to enter that long string of decimals made it a little more difficult to tell. Boo!

  803. NOW I find my number. So much for that. Y’know John, maybe 1 to 1000 wasn’t a large enough spread.

    Oh well, you know I’ll be here for the next giveaway!

  811. 331.
    Because my birthday is 3/31, and then you could announce me the winner ON my birthday, WITH my birthday.

  822. @bcarrigan

    If you mean “i” as the imaginary number, then remember that complex numbers cannot be ordered, so a complex number between 1 and 1000 will not work.

  842. There are already 803 comments (not, I think, completely nonredundant), and I’m not going to go through them searching for vacancies. Iconoclasm is therefore my recourse; I choose not to assume the number is an integer (Scalzi doesn’t appear to have said it is, after all). I would choose pi, but a few people have gone there before me – a couple spammed large numbers of digits, and one even spelled it “pie”. I’ll therefore go for 33 1/3. Just for the record.

  889. 84

    I love the comments from people about not wanting to read all of the comments to see if their number is taken. A simple search is all that it took!

  939. 221 Fireball. Great cartridge, the Remington XP-100 is a fine handgun. Hard to conceal, though!

  943. was going to pick 330 in honor of this contest and my wife’s birthday, but will have to settle for 621, our anniversary. :) Cheap and easy, it’s how I roll.