tales of synchronicity

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The Machine™ needs to run a virus scan.

I go to a client's office this morning and the office manager says "HEY YOU! WE NEED TO HAVE A CHAT." Uhh... uh oh. So I go to her office and she says "You REALLY need to tell your girlfriend to quit calling here looking for you." My jaw drops a little, and I quickly run through the little black book in my head. I can't think of a single person she could be talking about, and the WTF must be registering clearly on my face because the manager's scowl deepens. "I'm not joking," she says, "She called from this number THREE TIMES between 11:30 and noon yesterday," and hands me a slip of paper with a phone number and the name of the woman who keeps calling these poor confused office ladies.

I look up the number. It's from Cheyenne. I don't know anyone in Cheyenne. What the hell is going on? The number doesn't look familiar. It isn't in my phone's call log. I'm mystified. I look at the slip of paper, and the name hits me. HAILEY WILLIAMS, it says in angry ball-point caps. I actually know a girl named Hailey Williams.

I talk to her four or five times a week. And she lives about 1500 miles away from Cheyenne. And I've never even told her where I do work, specifically, much less anything about this client who keeps receiving phone calls from a person claiming to be her. Now, I'm really mystified. Quickly, I punch out a text message to Hailey. "Hey... you haven't been calling around anywhere asking for me, have you?" Her reply dings back a few moments later, "No, why, what's going on?" I wish I knew.

After a while, when I have a spare minute, I call the number on the slip of paper. A petite feminine voice picks up, "Hello?" Definitely not the voice belonging to the Hailey I know. "Hi," I start, "Can I speak with Hailey please?" She replies, "this is she." So I continue, "Hi, this is Vex - the ladies at Joe Schmoe's office tell me you were looking for me. Can I help you?" A pause, and then "I must have been looking for somebody else." *click*

Somebody reboot the server in charge of fucking with me, it's getting a little too obvious.

[Cain]

You should have said, once she confirmed identity, "the Nixon Machine is activated.  Green Fox awaits at the Black Box" and hung up on her first.

In fact, find a pay phone, disguise your voice and do that now.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Seek help.

Seriously.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Let's say I am nuts. Maybe I am! I wouldn't necessarily be able to detect it if I was.

What would a sane person conclude? I'm not really saying the universe is actually trying to fuck with me personally, I'm just saying it's weird. The situation seems to get less likely in this order:

- There is a stranger who has the same name as my friend. (~169% likely)

- This person is looking for another random person who happens to have the same name as I do (somewhat less likely but easily within the realm of possibility)

- This person calls a place in a different city where I go fairly often, which incidentally has never employed a person by my name (this is where it takes a turn for the decidedly improbable)

Keep in mind that I labeled this synchronicity, not conspiracy. I'm just curious, does my belief that this set of coincidental coincidences is unlikely enough to be worth noticing mean that I am crazy?

[Disco Pickle]

Let's say I am nuts. Maybe I am! I wouldn't necessarily be able to detect it if I was.

What would a sane person conclude? I'm not really saying the universe is actually trying to fuck with me personally, I'm just saying it's weird. The situation seems to get less likely in this order:

- There is a stranger who has the same name as my friend. (~169% likely)

- This person is looking for another random person who happens to have the same name as I do (somewhat less likely but easily within the realm of possibility)

- This person calls a place in a different city where I go fairly often, which incidentally has never employed a person by my name (this is where it takes a turn for the decidedly improbable)

Keep in mind that I labeled this synchronicity, not conspiracy. I'm just curious, does my belief that this set of coincidental coincidences is unlikely enough to be worth noticing mean that I am crazy?

sounds like someone hit the improbability drive button. 

synchronicity is a strange bitch sometimes. 

you're probably over thinking it.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

does my belief that this set of coincidental coincidences is unlikely enough to be worth noticing mean that I am crazy?

Nope. It means you're paying attention. If you took this info and concluded that it was the Bavarian Illuminati trying to keep tabs on you... then it would mean you were crazy.

[LMNO]

First, you need to come up with alternative theories that also fit the experience.

For example, what if this person had a job of cold calling hundreds of people a day?  I don't know how common your IRL name is, how deep in the google lists are you?  If someone with your name is worth tracking down, how easily could they find where you work?

Etc.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

does my belief that this set of coincidental coincidences is unlikely enough to be worth noticing mean that I am crazy?

Nope. It means you're paying attention. If you took this info and concluded that it was the Bavarian Illuminati trying to keep tabs on you... then it would mean you were crazy.

Ha! Well, that would be an unreasonable conclusion. I mean... the forces running the planet are far more sophisticated and competent than that, right?

[Gray Jester]

does my belief that this set of coincidental coincidences is unlikely enough to be worth noticing mean that I am crazy?

Nope. It means you're paying attention. If you took this info and concluded that it was the Bavarian Illuminati trying to keep tabs on you... then it would mean you were crazy.

Ha! Well, that would be an unreasonable conclusion. I mean... the forces running the planet are far more sophisticated and competent than that, right?

We are.  Our agents have taken care of the... hiccup, and you can continue about your normal life as though nothing happened.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

First, you need to come up with alternative theories that also fit the experience.

For example, what if this person had a job of cold calling hundreds of people a day?  I don't know how common your IRL name is, how deep in the google lists are you?  If someone with your name is worth tracking down, how easily could they find where you work?

Etc.

1. The person didn't simply cold call once or twice. She made upwards of 15 separate calls across the span of a week, including three individual calls between 11:30 and Noon on Tuesday. If this is a cold-caller, somebody should fire her immediately.

2. I don't show up in the first 10 pages of a Google search for my name, with or without quotes. Mainly because apparently there are a few higher-profile people with my name including a guy who makes high quality (and very ugly) handbags.

3. If someone wanted to know where I work and they know where to find me online, it wouldn't be that difficult to deduce although none of my online accounts list my place of employment outright. But they didn't call where I work, they called a client of the company I work for - making that leap would be even more unlikely given that my company does not publish a list of our clients in any form.

4. See? It is the Illuminati!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If you want synchronicity, today a friend and I were having an online discussion about the difference between pork appreciation and gluttony. In the midst of this discussion I went to reply to his last post (having to do with meatloaf) and then realized that it was post #1111 in the sub. On 11/11. A short while later, I looked at the post again and noticed that it was posted at 11:11.

So, guys, I think the signs are clear: Meatloaf in 2011.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

If you want synchronicity, today a friend and I were having an online discussion about the difference between pork appreciation and gluttony. In the midst of this discussion I went to reply to his last post (having to do with meatloaf) and then realized that it was post #1111 in the sub. On 11/11. A short while later, I looked at the post again and noticed that it was posted at 11:11.

So, guys, I think the signs are clear: Meatloaf in 2011.

Hrmmm, but 1111 only equals 4... or perhaps 22... which would also equal 4.

AH! Pork must have a hidden variable equal to 1 thus rounding these out to 5.

11:11 = 1 1 1 1 = 4+Pork = 5

[Disco Pickle]

If you want synchronicity, today a friend and I were having an online discussion about the difference between pork appreciation and gluttony. In the midst of this discussion I went to reply to his last post (having to do with meatloaf) and then realized that it was post #1111 in the sub. On 11/11. A short while later, I looked at the post again and noticed that it was posted at 11:11.

So, guys, I think the signs are clear: Meatloaf in 2011.

Id vote for him.  Im sure he'd run his campaign like a bat out of hell.

wait.  2011 isn't a voting year.

now I'm just hungry.

[Don Coyote]

If you want synchronicity, today a friend and I were having an online discussion about the difference between pork appreciation and gluttony. In the midst of this discussion I went to reply to his last post (having to do with meatloaf) and then realized that it was post #1111 in the sub. On 11/11. A short while later, I looked at the post again and noticed that it was posted at 11:11.

So, guys, I think the signs are clear: Meatloaf in 2011.

Id vote for him.  Im sure he'd run his campaign like a bat out of hell.

wait.  2011 isn't a voting year.

now I'm just hungry.

And I have to play that song.

[Jenne]

If you want synchronicity, today a friend and I were having an online discussion about the difference between pork appreciation and gluttony. In the midst of this discussion I went to reply to his last post (having to do with meatloaf) and then realized that it was post #1111 in the sub. On 11/11. A short while later, I looked at the post again and noticed that it was posted at 11:11.

So, guys, I think the signs are clear: Meatloaf in 2011.