my 11:11 story for the artist formerly known as They

[ITSOZAZ]

(because some folks don't know and wonder...)

many years ago i started seeing 11:11 all the time. not only would i catch it twice a day on the clock, but it would show up on receipts, the subway, in dates (my wife's bday is nov 11 - 11/11), at work...everywhere i looked, i couldn't help but find two 11s waiting for me.

it bothered me a little bit, but nothing that i thought i needed a doctor for. i would point it out to my wife and she thought it was weird, but after a while i just chalked it up to an odd obsessive tick. i never doubted the source as being me (still don't) and went on with my life. nothing big was happening for me at the time. life was moving along as normal as my life has ever moved.

one day i decided to google it. i typed "11:11" into the search engine and my life would never be the same. i had gone looking for a name to assign my psychic twitch and found nothing at all from anything having to do with psychology. however, i did find mini cults, hippy rhetoric, people claiming to be chosen, theories of angel involvement...all based on the fact that many people were experiencing exactly the same thing i was.

i was blown away, to say the least.

it also made me angry. even with something as benign and ambiguous as a time/number obsession, people were trying to turn it into a religion. people were claiming to know more about it than others. that was impossible. it also seemed to be a tough sell and a great deal of people at these sites seemed disenfranchised, but had no other place to talk about it. most were like me- they had started 'seeing' it on their own, so how could anybody be more in the know?

i decided to do something about it. i started a group at msn and then a website. that was over 5 years ago. i am a big fan of free speech and saw the genius of tying that to 11:11. 11:11 is a great leveler and nobody is an expert. it doesn't set a tone. it is seen by the right and by the left. it is, boiled down...a time. it is available to anybody that wants it. i love that. i decided to open a free forum where anybody can say anything they want about 11:11, or anything else for that matter. i'd like to think it has been a success.

i look at it as art. many people think we are chosen or that somebody is sending us signals, but i think we look for it. i am not ashamed of that. it reflects who i am. i see beauty in the most mundane things. i think my pictures are a lot like that...i take pictures of things i don't think most people would. i think '11ers' brains are wired this way. time is my subject and i have freed it from the bondage it is for me...how odd is that?

i have been on the radio talking about it. i have co-authored a book (with a real publisher, though small). i tell everybody i know about the story. i have infected many people and i think it is a great thing because it gives people an excuse to be on equal footing to talk about something we all interpret differently. this is my crack at the god question. it is my friendly enigma. it is my living book...it is art.


michael :)

[But]

I also started seeing patterns on the clock a lot, like 11:11 or 22:55 on a digital clock, back when I was hitting the bong a bit too hard. The problem with weed is you start seeing patterns everywhere.

Just sayin'.

[ITSOZAZ]

naw...this hit me before i even smoked weed and more people don't do drugs on my site than do...not to say that there aren't a fair bit of druggies! i suppose if i am already predisposed to see patterns, weed might amp it up, but weed is a fairly new thing in my life...just the past few years. helps ya cope with watching people being chopped up with machetes over and over :)

anyhow...i can see why you would just say that, but the great thing about 11:11 is that it happens to a wide cross-section of people. it is available to the sternest tea-totaller to those who score 'keith richards' on their drug test :)


ETA:
and come to think of it, shame on me for reacting to that as if you were implying something was wrong with what you had to say. i'm not sure that's what you meant, but who cares if that is the reason? i don't agree with it, but my 11:11 journey has been a really positive experience for me, allowing me to meet many people from all walks of life across the globe as equals, for no 'real' reason at all...if the herb had even a little to do with that, i can't think of a better advertisement for why you should partake! :)

[Ensign Steve]

The first time I heard of 11:11 was probably about 10 years ago. I was working as a receptionist at a manufacturing company and I was cruising around on the internet trying to appear busy. I was just clicking around and following links and who knows how I ended up there, but I ended up at some website or usenet posting similar to the OP of this thread where some person was just talking about 11:11 and what it is and what it means to them. I thought it was curious, but then I got nervous because I knew it was almost lunch time and I was afraid to look at the time. With trepidation I peered over at the clock. It read 11:10. Phew! One minute later and I might have ended up in some insane cult.

True story.

[ITSOZAZ]

lol...i have your robe already set aside, ES. it is one of those white druid robes with red velvet 11s on it...you'll look great during the sacrifices!

[Ensign Steve]

You do know how to turn a girl on, I must say.

:girl:

[ITSOZAZ]

;)

:1111:

[Ensign Steve]

So your wife is the scorpio. Is Zeke the gemini?

[ITSOZAZ]

yeah...figures it would be the 11 sign :)

(and how fucked am i?? between a rock and a harder place)

[Ensign Steve]

That's a two, dumbass. :tease:

[ITSOZAZ]

so you say! take another hit from the bong...you'll see.

[Ensign Steve]

Ooooohhh, I see it now. :rush:

[freemonkey]

Every time 11:11 happens to me I think Michael is sending me a message.

[Naru]

Zeke's post is number 11 in the thread, and his post count ends in 11!!!!11 <= Oh god there it is again!

[Dingfod]

Is that one-one:one-one or eleven:eleven?

[ITSOZAZ]

Is that one-one:one-one or eleven:eleven?

whatever one floats your boat. :)

[ITSOZAZ]

Every time 11:11 happens to me I think Michael is sending me a message.

i am, but there is still no sign of the money.

[Caligulette]

My first boyfriend's birthday is 11/11/65. He really liked that- maybe a little too much. He was troubled, though, and did make a bit out of a number of things (so to speak).

[ITSOZAZ]

He was troubled, though, and did make a bit out of a number of things (so to speak).


well...lots of troubled people are involved in it. as i said- it is not prejudice in who it affects...that's what makes it great! the crazies that have come and gone on my site would shame the craziest person here. it's awesome :D

it's in a bit of a lull lately, as happens from time to time. however, yesterday, my wife's dad called to ask if we were watching hockey (we weren't). seems they were interviewing a member of canada's junior team and he mentioned 11:11 and how it was lucky and how he made a wish at that time :)

[Dingfod]

OMG! Veterans Day is 11/11 in the U.S.

OMFG! I once ate 11/11ths of a pizza.

[ITSOZAZ]

you're in.

[But]

Here, the carnival season starts on 11th of November at 11:11.

[Deadlokd]

So you know that it may be a bit of a reach sometimes, but it also crops up without you searching for it. Okay. It has also let you set up a forum that has put you in touch with many different types of people. Okay.

Has there been documentation of 12:12 or 13:13 etc? Is it only 11:11?

Anyway thanks for the explanation. Do you have any idea what it ultimately means?

[ChuckF]

accidental post.

ETA: Why waste it. 11111111111111.

[But]

!!!!1111

[ITSOZAZ]

Anyway thanks for the explanation. Do you have any idea what it ultimately means?

whatever i want it to. for me, it means bringing difference together to try to tolerate what we don't like, using an ambiguous symbol to do it.

[Farren]

I keep seeing the number 0001894462984222011.

Its in a text file full of important numbers that I don't want to forget, and I forgotten what its for.

Its freaking me out

:nutty:

[ITSOZAZ]

that's just crazy. :)

[Count]

Meh, you lot are a pack of weirdy beardies. That being said, my 8yo daughter was born at 11.11pm on the 22/07/99. Wooooo, spooky! Or not :P Gawn, add up 2+2+7+9+9...it equals 29, or 2+9. Which equals...? See, I can be a weirdy beardy too! :D

[ITSOZAZ]

See, I can be a weirdy beardy too! :D

i can tell by the size of your grin ;)

[freemonkey]

for me, it means bringing difference together to try to tolerate what we don't like, using an ambiguous symbol to do it.

but wouldn't "difference" be something like 10:10? Or 10:11? Or 1:3:11? Or anything else that isn't the same four digits in a row?

Or am I not getting it? :dunce:

[Dragar]

I wonder why it's 11:11 people keep latching on to. Part of it could be that it was just luck - it was the first that became 'popular' and so it's the one we hear about, but I've expected contenders.

Have other times been latched onto as 11:11 appears to have been?

[Naru]

I wonder why it's 11:11 people keep latching on to. Part of it could be that it was just luck - it was the first that became 'popular' and so it's the one we hear about, but I've expected contenders.

Have other times been latched onto as 11:11 appears to have been?

9/11 has

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Rudy_Giuliani.jpg/467px-Rudy_Giuliani.jpg

[ITSOZAZ]

for me, it means bringing difference together to try to tolerate what we don't like, using an ambiguous symbol to do it.

but wouldn't "difference" be something like 10:10? Or 10:11? Or 1:3:11? Or anything else that isn't the same four digits in a row?

Or am I not getting it? :dunce:


lol...this is going to sound crazy, but all those numbers are welcome. 11:11 always gets tied to other number combinations. people will fixate on lots of patterns, like 4:44 or 12:34 and be able to access that little kid in all of us and allow it to make us giddy :)

11:11 just seems to have the bigger draw and it's the one i seemed fixed on. still...no number discrimination! :P

[Dingfod]

Last night, I woke up needing to urinate (that's what I get for taking my diuretic pills in the evening). When I went back to bed, I clicked on my alarm clock to see what time it was. It was 23:11.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

11:13 is better, since it shows some progress.

[Sock Puppet]

Dammit, Naruto! Put that thing behind spoiler tags before you blind someone!


* Sock Puppet wanders off shivering and muttering, "Those teeth ... those teeth ..."

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Dammit, Naruto! Put that thing behind spoiler tags before you blind someone!


* Sock Puppet wanders off shivering and muttering, "Those teeth ... those teeth ..."

Oh good grief, if you want them so badly, you, too, can go shopping at Walgreens.

[Sorrel]

Not weird! I remember as a kid on Remembrance day (11th November) puting the time up on the TV to wait for 11:11:11 on 11/11.

[Farren]

Dammit, Naruto! Put that thing behind spoiler tags before you blind someone!


* Sock Puppet wanders off shivering and muttering, "Those teeth ... those teeth ..."

They do appear to be making a break for it.

[erimir]

Watch out Michael, you might end up like Jim Carrey in The Number 23.

You know, starring in a shitty horror movie.

[ITSOZAZ]

lol...well, i have attempted in the past to get a documentary made about it. i have a treatment written up and even had some interest from a little production company. i learned to not team up on outside projects with coworkers unless you know they really really well. anyhow, the idea is still there and one day i will get it done cuz i think it makes for a great story, whether you think it's aliens or just a bunch of nut cases. hopefully, it will be at least a little bit better than 23 :)

[Deadlokd]

Well as tinfoilers go you're still several orders of magnitude below DrewJ, which makes you mostly normal.

[cappuccino]

This morning at work I just happened to glance at my computer clock and it was 11:11! :faint:

[Dingfod]

Watch out Michael, you might end up like Jim Carrey in The Number 23.

You know, starring in a shitty horror movie.I saw the cover of that movie at the video rental store they other day and thought the exact same thing. In fact, I was contemplating photoshopping 11:11 all over a photo of Michael.


That said, I noticed it was exactly 11:11 this morning when my HAZWOPR refresher class ended. Coincidence? I think not.

[ITSOZAZ]

you're all mine now...MINE!! muahahahaha :plotting:

[Ensign Steve]

:muahaha:

[Uthgar the Brazen]

I think not.

Indeed. :P

[ITSOZAZ]

:muahaha:

yeah- that's it!