Poker issue that I was working on for weeks: I lose a lot of money playing suited connectors out of position! How do I stop this?!?!?!?
Epiphany: Don’t play suited connectors out of position. 
:smack:
Tough situation? Feeling anxious? So anxious your sick? So anxious and sick you haven’t eaten a bite of food in FOUR DAYS!?!?!? Yeah, you should probably go talk to someone.
I had one last week, and I’m surprised it took me so long to have it. We had some changes at work, and as usual I jumped right to what I saw as an obvious problem with the new way of doing things. But I kept my mouth shut, because I have a slight reputation around the region as a nay-sayer…I really have to watch myself at regional meeting when they introduce things like this, because the powers-that-be just want you to be bright and enthusiastic and not say “but how will this effect…?” Since I really need to keep this job, I try very hard to curb my perceived negative tendencies.
But as I stood around that day thinking about the need to curb that, I realized that despite what people may think, I’m not asking the questions just to be Negative Nelly, but because of my dad. Dad was an aircraft mechanic, and maintenance instructor, for United Airlines. He was the kind of guy who could work on anything…machinery, gardens, what ever. He was also a Scout leader, and took that “Be Prepared” Motto to heart. Part of his job for UAL was to troubleshoot, and he did it well. He would have loved those “Worst Case Scenario” books, and he adored puzzles and mysteries. And I am very much my father’s daughter. I’m not trying to be negative…I’m trying to solve problems before they arise. I’m hard-wired to look at a problem from different angles and see what could possibly go wrong, and to find a solution for that eventuality before something does go wrong, so that I am prepared, and can handle the problems more easily. I do this with personal things as well…I will work out whole scenarios in my head, and deal with the emotions that arise from that daydream. It’s not a perfect system…I still get blindsided and flabbergasted, but many times I’m prepared.
So I have this epihany about myself at work, and I try to share it with my boss, so that she understands me a little better, and doesn’t assume I’m just being a pain for the sake of being a pain. She doesn’t wholly understand me, but as we go through the new work edict, and we find some problems with it together, she seems to understand what I’m trying to convey. And lo and behold, two days later, the home office sends out a memo asking for us to troubleshoot the new procedure, because it’s not the final draft, (they always do this stuff bass-ackwards) and we are ready with our suggestions, and my boss grudgingly admits that in this case, my troubleshooting was helpful. But when she had thought the procedure was a done deal…I was just contrary.
And the Arby’s thing? Yeah, I had that one a few years back, and have been too embarassed to admit it! Especially since I was around when Arby’s first opened! Long epihany curve on that one!
Originally Posted by Jodi
Oh.My.God.
Does it count as an epiphany if someone else brings it to your attention? Or does it have to be internally generated?
…well, I kinda wish I had my epiphany of “dude, I totally need to get my act together one way or another” before my wishy-washy work attitude got me terminated. 
Minor epiphanies, of course. (like the Arby’s thing) That’s normal. Major ones, no, and I don’t trust people that have them. I don’t trust people who suddenly have life-altering revelations that cause them to be drastically different (not talking about folks who experience actual life-altering events, like losing a loved one or getting cancer or something). If something is so profound and life-altering, then why hasn’t it ever occurred to you? Sounds like you’ve got a major blind spot or other mental problems, like those people who are always toggling between being ultra-religious and being crackheads, or something.
Really? Well, I guess that anyone who has ever left the family basement or has ever had any kind of interaction with a member of the opposite sex might well disagree. shrug
The math posts reminded me: I had an epiphany in Calculus class that I still remember, very clearly. You know the epsilon-delta theorem? I had been working around it for over a year and still didn’t get it. I had memorized it and the steps to proving it like one would memorize a painting in order to recreate it. On tests, I just spit back the proof or the equations as best as I could remember. This worked for some time, but I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
And then, right before a big test, I was at a review session. I could probably draw the room I was sitting in, it’s that memorable. Suddenly, there was a clarity to life that I couldn’t explain… I GOT EPSILON-DELTA! I raised my hand to say so, and the professor was somewhat baffled, because he was talking about something only tangentially related. It didn’t serve me well, because I only had a few weeks of calculus left, but if I ever need it, I can go back and use it properly.
Oh, and there was this one time that I was looking at the FedEx logo…
What I was trying to get at is, for example, stuff like sudden religious conversion and sudden falling out of love with someone has to have at least occurred to a person prior to the “epiphany”, or else there’s something at least a little bit :dubious: about it. There’s plenty of life experiences that are revelatory, but I was thinking more of the self-generated variety.
Here’s a small one that I feel somewhat embarassed that I didn’t get before: All furniture is a variation of a box.
Explain.
Just had a fresh one – Chinese leaded toys represent godless Asia’s ATTACK ON CHRISTMAS!
I’d like to see a Godless attack on Christmas. In 3-D. With kung fu action. ( shown in August, to beat the holiday rush.) Cause you know it would be as fantabulous as Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
I had lotsa ephinanies which I’ve chalked up to The Voices In My Head Are Getting Louder. and the voices are always right.
Years ago, before cell phones remember those days? I was at the airport with my husband, sitting in a near catatonic state that airport lounges always seem to reduce the everyday brain too pure goo because we were waiting for Nintendo DS to be invented. and a voice in my head said,
" Pay attention to the check in counter."
I did. No one there. But I did a combo of lip reading and body reading of the staff to figure that the flight had been cancelled. I nudged my husband, told him to get on the payphone to the 800 number for the airlines and I would go to the counter. He didn’t question me, oddly enough.
I stood there like a little kid while the gate agents talked in a tight clot. When someone made eye contact with me I whispered, " I know the flight’s been cancelled…" The look I got from that coven of gate agents was priceless. I told them I wouldn’t say a word to the rest of the sheep, but I wanted first in line.
I gots it. And my husband already called to get alternate flights staked out and stuff. All the agent had to do when they were finished with their bitch session or whatever was print out new tickets* for us.
I’ve respected my inner voices since then.
*remember those things?
That Maths is amazing! I’ve never seen this before. Bootis, thank you.
Donald’s Therom…heh.
You know, I usually save my epiphany until after Christmas, but in this case I’ll laugh like hell.
I just had an epiphany last night. I was watching Seven Samurai and the symbolism of a certain scene finally hit me. The wanna-be samurai is drunk and the others are playing keep-away with his sword while he stumbles around in a rage trying to grab it. It is so perfect. The sword is the literal token of the samurai class and this guy is trying to get it from the men who are physically witholding it from him. Just like they are witholding granting him the samurai status he is seeking on a social level.
I had one about how to translate the points, axes and planes of symetry which for me were geometrical entities (i.e., points, lines and planes) into the algebraic matrices the Chrystalography teacher wanted to see.
1st trimester 60%, 2nd 40%, 3rd couldn’t take the exam because I would have needed a 100% to pass (pass being at 60%)… on the final exam, 100% 
And I still say that an axis is a LINE, damnit!
I have two.
The short one first.
I just figured out how to play sudoku a couple of days ago. I’ve picked up a few books at the check-out at the grocery store and flipped through wondering what the hell it was and then I ran across this website that had a sudoku game on it and I thought that a 4 should probably go in that square and then that made me think of a couple of other places to put certain numbers. Then I figured I should look up how to play so I would do it right and lo and be-hold I was figuring out the puzzle properly. Now I am addicted to the puzzle.
Now the long one.
About 5 years ago just a few months after my divorce I was in my tiny apartment getting drunk and video taping myself because I am a pretty funny drunk from what other people have told me and I wanted to see if I really was. So I set up the video camera after several beers and just start rambling on. At first it was about the idiots on the TV show I was watching. Then I started on some other stuff while still drinking beer. And after a little while I was talking about aliens. After a couple minutes of talking about aliens I made the statement that with the universe as big as it is there is most likely some alien on some planet out there getting drunk and videotaping it self rambling on about how there is probably some alien out there getting drunk and videotaping itself.
I didn’t remember saying that but the next day as I was watching the tape and I came to that part my brain grinded to a halt then started beeping and backing up.
Then a great weight of stress and anxiety was lifted off my shoulders. In the great grand scheme of things I really don’t matter. You see my parents had always pushed me and my brother to go and “do great things” which actually meant (but I didn’t realize until then) just do what everybody else does, grow up, get a job and live until you die. It hit me at that moment that in 500 years nobody is going to remember me and that they even would not care that they did not know that I had existed. That being the case it really didn’t matter what I did with my life. I didn’t have to be the next Einstein or President of the Galaxy. I could just be me doing whatever I end up doing. I have been much happier ever since then.
It’s still fun to think about my alien twin out there now and then. I wonder if it posts on message boards too?
That came out less clear than I intended but the idea is there.
I had epiphany a few years back and even though it’s something fairly obvious, it took a long time for me to fully understand it: Everyone has their sob stories and focusing on the aspects of my life that had been less than perfect only serve as tired excuses for my own failures.
I’ve had an Epiphany when I lived in Madison. Later I dated an Ashely.
Those videos are so utterly awesome I grew some utters out of respect.
I too had an epiphany about what to name the shape produced by the therom. I have named it, “Tahssa’s Awesomely Heroicly Shaped Shape of Awesomeness.” 