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#41 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 49,513
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This is not crazy at all. It's totally normal for mentions of a popular new thing to go up after it first comes out, until you start seeing it everywhere.
You really need to get over the idea that coincidences are crazy. Or else you need to come up with a good explanation for what's really going on here. |
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#42 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 13,531
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Rolfe, lionking and I are in on this one, too. (Only two of us are fans, though. Rolfe not at all.) I would have found your story unusual if Michael and Rachel were wearing Cornell sweatshirts! ![]() Recommended reading: Synchronicity (The Skeptic's Dictionary) Apophenia (The Skeptic's Dictionary) Resources on coincidences/synchronicity/numerology (Skeptic.com) Why We Should Not Be Impressed by Eerie Coincidences (PsychologyToday, Oct. 27, 2018) |
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#43 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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Another crazy thing, it's kinda making me wonder. Last year around Christmas my grandfather and great grandmother died, both unrelated. That isn't strange they were both doing poorly but today we got the news that My Great Uncle died. We usually see him around Thanksgiving but the last couple years he hasn't been around, he moved into a retirement home, but he was doing pretty well as of last week. So today I was thinking about Thanksgiving and wondered if he was still alive, just because I'm only 14 and it's been so long since ive seen him it crossed my mind for a second. Just seems so crazy he'd die the day I said that, maybe 2 hours later
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#44 |
The Clarity Is Devastating
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Betwixt
Posts: 17,447
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DebunkThis, what it sounds like to me is that you're experiencing more coincidences because for some reason you're paying more attention to what's happening around you. Most people can watch TV all day and never notice that many different episodes of many different shows involve people leaving or quitting or threatening to do so or refusing to do so, because it's a common plot element and viewers aren't paying attention much anyhow. Many people spend most of their lives in a mental state barely more than an inattentive stupor. But if you start actually paying attention for some reason, things like that can suddenly stand out.
The experience of noticing more coincidences can happen when you take up activities and practices that encourage you to pay attention. Such as, possibly, the Randonauticing you're discussing on a different thread. Or certain kinds of meditation. Or even, participating in an online discussion thread about coincidences. Does this ring any bells? Is there anything new or changed in your life recently that might have helped kick off being more alert to the world? |
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A zømbie once bit my sister... |
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#45 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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That probably is it. But some of tbe stuff seems like something I would notice even if i wasn't in this state of mind. Like my Great Uncle dying today when I talked to one of my friends about him, without knowing he had any risk of dying today. Or how I watched a show today that had an episode where the main character quit because she wasn't getting a raise, they hired a temp, and the end of the episode had a wedding. I had just watched the Office episode where they get married, the one where they couldn't give out raises, a quitting one, and one about a Temp. I also saw an add for a grill the exact second my mom mentioned grilling out, then 2 minutes later a game I was playing featured a grill. And then finally the craziest, is that I saw a post about someone whos nickname was Rodney RoseBrook. Then the show mentioned above had a fake celebrity named Ricky Roundtree. Also crazy that Ricky makes more sense with RoseBrook, and Rodney sounds like Roundtree. Oh yeah I was also playing NBA 2k20 yesterday and decided to try and say Markelle Fultzs career. Then today I read an article about draft busts who still had shots to be great, featured by Fultz. It's not strange to get articles about draft busts, but I've never seen one about those who can save their careers, and it's crazy to happen when it did
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#46 |
Observer of Phenomena
Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ngunnawal Country
Posts: 70,247
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One good way of thinking about coincidences is to think about the range of different things that you might recognise as a coincidence.
Today you watched a show that mentioned your favourite author's name several times. You might have watched a show that mentioned a different author, whom you also admire but might not call your favourite. Your favourite author's name might have been mentioned in a blog post. The TV show may have mentioned your favourite film director's name. The TV show might have mentioned the name of a famous public figure that you had recently been thinking about. All of these hypothetical circumstances would have made you say "hey, that's a weird coincidence". The range of different circumstances that you might consider to be a weird coincidence is vastly larger than most people realise. |
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Please scream inside your heart. |
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#47 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: N.Cal/S.Or
Posts: 8,002
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---------------------- Anything goes in the Goblin hut... anything. "Suggesting spurious explanations isn't relevant to my work." -- WTC Dust. "Both cannot be simultaneously true, and so one may conclude neither is true, and if neither is true, then Apollo is fraudulent." -- Patrick1000. |
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#48 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: N.Cal/S.Or
Posts: 8,002
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---------------------- Anything goes in the Goblin hut... anything. "Suggesting spurious explanations isn't relevant to my work." -- WTC Dust. "Both cannot be simultaneously true, and so one may conclude neither is true, and if neither is true, then Apollo is fraudulent." -- Patrick1000. |
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#49 |
Observer of Phenomena
Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ngunnawal Country
Posts: 70,247
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One thing that I wish more people knew - Google actively tailors your search results according to about 40 separate factors - more (many more) if you're actually logged on. It takes into account what browser you're using, which websites you've visited, what you've previously searched for, your physical location, the time at which you perform your search, which advertisements you've clicked on recently. Many other things. It's all "proprietary information" so Google declines to tell us exactly how their search tailoring algorithm works, but the upshot is that if two people search for the same thing in Google, they would get different results.
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Please scream inside your heart. |
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#50 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: N.Cal/S.Or
Posts: 8,002
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---------------------- Anything goes in the Goblin hut... anything. "Suggesting spurious explanations isn't relevant to my work." -- WTC Dust. "Both cannot be simultaneously true, and so one may conclude neither is true, and if neither is true, then Apollo is fraudulent." -- Patrick1000. |
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#51 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 49,513
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#52 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 13,531
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/dann "Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx |
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#53 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 49,513
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Call me morbid and cynical, but I figure that once you graduate from "Uncle" to "Great-Uncle", you're pretty much on the "could pop off at any time" list. I've got a few family members on that list myself. They cross my mind periodically, probably at least weekly. One of these days, one of them is going to go just after I thought about them.
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#54 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,466
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The one I recall best was deciding to call my old instructor who'd left the area but still came back for seminars occasionally. I rang him but the phone didn't ring, instead I heard him mutter "What's wrong with this phone?"
I said "<name>?" "Bloody hell I just picked up the phone to call you" We chatted a bit about the odds. As I recall we worked out a few things about ( x time, maybe a month to the day or something) since his last visit, a couple of other things that probably jogged our memories. But the exact timing of him picking up the phone to call me before it could ring was still quite the coincidence. |
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#55 |
Observer of Phenomena
Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ngunnawal Country
Posts: 70,247
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Please scream inside your heart. |
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#56 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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Ok so get this. Today, Diego Mardana died. I just watched the Office episode maybe 2 days ago where they mentioned both him and Pele. I get an alert saying Mardana died and then later see Pele spoke about him. But what's really crazy is that The Cowboys Strength and conditioning Coach died today too. He died around 5 EST at just now, 5 and a half hours later i see a tweet from someone who paid their respects. Right as I see that my dad walks in telling me he had died. The tweet was from 5 hours earlier and i know for a fact it's someone my dad doesnt follow. Now of course he heard about the death but it's so crazy to me he said it right as i opened the tab
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#57 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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My parents also discovered today that the phone bill was already paid when they went to pay it. It was automatic pay, which they don't use. They think they set it up by mistake last month, but I've read about it, it seems hard to accidently set up, would love theories
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#58 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,996
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#59 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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Ive told you it's clearly set up, my question is how they might've accidently set it up
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#60 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: East Coast USA
Posts: 13,433
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They must have a reason to think they accidentally set up auto pay. As in, they knew they were setting up something and maybe the word 'autopay' kept popping up in there. Otherwise, they would have no reason to assume they accidentally set anything up.
Unless they were role-playing and the phone was an explosive device that one had to disable by hacking the code. That usually means hasty random keystrokes. Man, you should see the **** I ordered from Amazon that way. Prob some more information about why your parents thought that and what they actually did would help |
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We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't -Frank A. Clark Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect -Mark Twain |
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#61 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 8,526
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"A closed mouth gathers no feet" "Ignorance is a renewable resource" P.J.O'Rourke "It's all god's handiwork, there's little quality control applied", Fox26 reporter on Texas granite You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it. Art Buchwald |
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#62 |
Schrödinger's cat
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Malmesbury, UK
Posts: 12,980
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There is absolutely nothing crazy about coincidences, they are inevitable. If coincidences didn't happen, that would require explanation, and make me think there might be something paranormal going on. Perfectly normal coincidences, happening about as often as the laws of probability predict, not so much.
It's certainly true, though, that you can suddenly notice a particularly startling coincidence and, thus primed, start to notice many more than you usually do. But that's just your unconscious mind obediently bringing them to the attention of your conscious awareness as signal after years of (correctly) filtering them out as noise. |
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"If you trust in yourself ... and believe in your dreams ... and follow your star ... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things" - Terry Pratchett |
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#63 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Gundungurra
Posts: 8,738
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...our governments are just trying to protect us from terror. In the same way that someone banging a hornets’ nest with a stick is trying to protect us from hornets. Frankie Boyle, Guardian, July 2015 |
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#64 |
Muse
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 917
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British Office, best Office.
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#65 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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My parents are in their 40s and both have exceptional memories. I don't think so
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#66 |
Observer of Phenomena
Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ngunnawal Country
Posts: 70,247
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Please scream inside your heart. |
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#67 |
Observer of Phenomena
Pronouns: he/him Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Ngunnawal Country
Posts: 70,247
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I was just then reading through an old thread about the worst accents in movies, and when I finished I returned to my Control Panel to see that the English - American/British/Australian thread had a new post in it.
Coincidence? Well, yeah. |
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Please scream inside your heart. |
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#68 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,466
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#69 |
Muse
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Northumberland, UK
Posts: 704
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This is becoming like a version of that thread about ghosts, in which the OP kept going on about ghosts for little reason and ignoring everything which might explain things...
It's not like there isn't an extensive literature about probability, randomness, selective memories, problems with eye witness accounts and all the rest, which one can track down quite eassily these days, compared with when I was nobbut a nobbut... |
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#70 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,033
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Yeah, also op is pretty young so it might simply be the first time he’s really sat down and concentrated on noticing coincidences. If you never thought much about it, and especially if you’re feeling a little stressed out and paranoid, it could be easy to assume that a lot of coincidences is the ‘wrong’ amount.
Other posters here understand that ‘a lot of coincidence’ is well within normal parameters. Someone mentioning the death of a slightly famous person to you a little while after it happened and just as you were finding out from another source, for example, is an absolutely bog-standard coincidence. Even if the exact timing seems amazing from where you are standing. Things happen, a lot. Coincidences, ********* of coincidences, are normal and expected. Try not to let them make you feel generally suspicious or whatever weird feeling they are giving you. It’s cool, I promise. |
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#71 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Sorth Dakonsin
Posts: 24,842
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Things like items in the news don't count as coincidences. Like, I've recently seen a lot of articles about a famous football (soccer) player, a person I'd never heard of before. Well, I probably did in his heyday, but the name never registered since I don't follow the sport. Coincidence? No, he died.
Similar with any mention of Covid-19. Why, a year ago you never heard anything about it! (eta) I swear the previous post was not up yet when I started typing mine. COINCIDENCE!!! |
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Science is self-correcting. Woo is self-contradicting. |
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#72 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 13,466
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Also, we are pattern seeking animals. It's how our ancestors learned that when we saw lion tracks by the waterhole it might be related to people not coming back when they went for a drink. It's how many optical illusions we work: our brains seek patterns.
And we tend not to notice things if they're not significant to us. You probably won't notice how many car charging points there are around until you think of buying an electric car.I will never notice what colour this season's handbags are. |
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#73 |
Muse
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Northumberland, UK
Posts: 704
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Slightly more sympathetically (FFS, I'm a retired nurse - we don't do sympathy) than my previous post, given the OP's age, they should still be at school: they might like to talk to their science teacher about the supposed phenomenon and also how to frame a question such that it is capable of a meaningful answer. At the moment there is a load of floundering around in circles without much clarity as to what is being asked.
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#74 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 12,227
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I'm 61 and have a kind of reverse dementia: I panic about something then realize I've already taken care of it.
I've had times in my life when a series of coincidences seemed to be pushing me in a certain direction. I later realized that in retrospect, everything looks like destiny. One day in Panama with a student news team I took a long out-of-the way walk with some women and when it came time to hook up for dinner with the other co-instructor we talked by phone about where to meet up, then we rounded a corner and ran smack into each other. We had started our walks going in completely opposite directions. But we both ended up in a pedestrian-friendly area where people naturally promenade, especially at that hour. It wasn't that weird. I don't believe in anything paranormal but certainly many coincidences have turned my head. I might ruminate on why something in my consciousness seems to set up an echo in which I'm primed to see a certain message reflected back at me. I think it's OK to notice this stuff, even instructive, but think it through and ask yourself, what is most likely - that I'm primed to notice certain things, then notice more things? Or that news networks, tweets are real life are sending me curated messages in order to get my attention? It seemed like the whole country of Panama was herding me in a certain direction. That trip was full of other coincidences. It was very weird, and funny, but if it's freaking you out talk to somebody trustworthy about it IRL. ETA: You know what, Debunk? The fact that you are even on this forum is evidence that you are a curious person looking for explanations of eerie phenomena, which puts you ahead of people (cognitively) who never think to question it and grow up thinking they're clairvoyant. I think maybe you do see things other people don't, because you are unusually observant. |
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#75 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 7,821
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"I know my brain cannot tell me what to think." - Scorpion "Nebulous means Nebulous" - Adam Hills |
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#76 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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#77 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,996
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#78 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 49,513
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That's so weird. I've been hearing about him too. Then I went on a subreddit about funny videos, and coincidentally one of the videos had some comments on it from Argentinians. And then they started talking about this soccer player, because Argentina. And then I came here to a thread that had nothing to do with Argentina, and here you are talking about this same Argentinian soccer player! How crazy is that?
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#79 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 161
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Ok I get your point, obviously not crazy at all since he's one of the most famous soccer players ever and his death is so recent its been talked about on lots of sources.
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#80 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 12,227
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I was sort of joking, riffing on other comments. But at the risk of offering up another pointless anecdote: A few weeks ago I picked up a prescription, and lost it; I had refills, so the pharmacy filled it again - AND I LOST IT. I *still* had refills, but then the doc said maybe I shouldn't be on this medication - he was worried about my absentmindedness; he didn't want to miss anything if I was having bad side effects. Well, a couple of days later one of the bottles turned up, but the date made no sense and five pills were gone which should have been impossible.
To cut the anecdote short it was a complete mystery. The fill date does not match my memory of either of the lost refills, and the pill count is off. If I were one to assign cosmic meaning I might wonder if the "universe" wanted me to get off this drug. But if so, why did it throw the bottle back at me ![]() I'm not automatically hostile to the idea that the universe is sending me messages, and I know people who talk this way all the time. But ultimately I don't have the kind of brain that can really believe it, either. When I talk like that, I'm speaking ironically. ![]() |
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