Not so long after I wrote about my problems with naming characters, Mary passed on to me a page full of character naming resources she'd subseqently come across on a mailing list. (I like the Hungarian Personal Names of the 16th Century. I never thought of writing anything set in 16th century Hungrary, but if the names are available...)

The day after I described the liberties I'd taken with a curry recipe I got from a former co-worker many years ago I got a totally unrelated email (about legal writing) from that very person.

The day after I mentioned a music column featuring an article about Kinks guitarist Dave Davies and a review of a new CD of the Dead Boys live at CBGB, I discovered that David Whylde (the most prolific author of Adrift games and winner of last year's Adrift game of the year award) had played and reviewed my second work of interactive fiction -- The HeBGB Horror! set at a punk rock club modelled on CBGB. In which Dave Davies' guitar plays an important role. (He found it "...above average but could've been better." Which is about right)

All these "coincidences" are likely the result of a familiar effect -- once something's on your mind you take more notice of related things you happen to see. There's so much in the world, we filter most of it out, and only see those things that are most meaningful to us. To an extent, we each select the world we live in.

If the above examples are any good indication of my selection, that's a frightening thought.