At the top of “Are You Normal?” is a counter of everyone who has installed the app and done a survey. It is very satisfying for our team to watch it count up like the old McDonald’s signs.

Before I went to bed it was at 49,223: tantalizing close to the nice, round 50,000. I thought it would be nice to get a screenshot of it for the team.

Unfortunately, it was not climbing so quickly that I could justify staying up to watch it. I have to admit that I had been thinking about ways that I could cheat a bit to get a shot of the magic number in the morning. I wouldn’t cheat to push the number forward for a screenshot but pushing it backwards is in that ethically gray area that also includes income tax creativity and lying to telemarketers. I went to bed reluctantly.

Sometime between midnight and 1:30 AM I actually had a dream that I had seen the number and gotten a realtime, honest-to-goodness-screen shot of it. Yes, my dreams are that boring.

Around 1:30, my 2 year old daughter woke me up. I guess she was not dreaming about “Are You Normal?” because her dream was bad. After rocking her back to sleep, I really wanted to check my computer. I couldn’t believe my eyes: 49,998. A few refreshes later it was 50,000. (well, strictly speaking I had to turn off the performance optimization that makes the counter jump once an hour instead of incrementing in real-time)

The 50,000th survey user seems to be (according to his public profile) a gentleman from Wales. God bless the Welsh.

There are a few ironies here.

First, I went to bed “early” (midnight) rather than spend all night waiting for 50,000 to arrive. Instead, I stayed up for hours writing blog posts, Kinzin stories and emails about our milestone.

Second, Noella’s nightmare lead to the realization of my dream.

Third, I have no proof that I didn’t cheat to get the shot or doctor it somehow. A person demented enough to dream about it might not be above hacking it up in photoshop.

Finally, by the time this goes through the editorial and notification process, “Are You Normal?” will already be on to a brand new milestone. As you read this, maybe we are at 55,000, 60,000, or 100,000. If you’re a Facebook user you can find out easily.