I don’t really know if this was a really embarassing moment, but I always thought that meshes were actually solid, until I found the numpad 5 key 
Only recently discovered that I can actually type in values while moving, rotating or scaling.
Pretty sad actually. Could have saved me some time if I’d know earlier (for instance scaling
something to an exact amount can often be almost impossible).
Embarrassing? Maybe…
//Mathias
I don’t know if there are any truly embarrassing moments in blender, only exciting eureka moments. 
Hmmmm… I’d say that accidentally finding the loopcut tool was very helpful…
Sure beats selecting all of those edges by hand… until I found the select edge rings…
Oh, now I’m embarrassed too… How do you input those values?
Since he’s offline, I’ll answer for him. Just start typing the number while you’re rotating/scaling/moving.
JeremyRay- Well, something made my spec map work :spin:
Just before i read your post, i was still doing that :o
Hah! Masta for the win! I was surprised that it wasn’t rixtr66 like everyone thought.
Oh, yes, my embarrassing Blender truth: the time it took me to finally make a great render. It took me…um…er…dammit, I haven’t made one yet.
I’ve been left waiting for this feature:
(credits to @ndy for the image)
I think this thread may be interesting because of the fact that most of these ‘moments’ are probably the things that take the longest to figure out – so it would be helpful to people.
I’ll think about my moment.
i have one problem that isnt really with blender its just that i use it so many hours a day (4-5) that on EVERY program i have started to try using blender hotkeys! UGH!
Then again this could become another ‘You know you blend too much when’ thread.
Background Image… - This command will toggle the Background Image floating panel, which allows you to load and pick an image to display in the background of the orthographic 3D view, as well as adjust its size and position. This is useful if you have a picture (for example, a face) that you want to model from. Each pane (3D window view) has its own background image settings. Each pane can or cannot use background image independently. So, you can set top view to have one image, but unless you set the others to use an image, no other views will use it. Side view can have another, and front another. They can all be the same image if the image is one big composite of all views you want to reference; just use the offset values in each pane to position the image where you want it. Background images can be stills, movies (avi or sequences) or even a render from another scene.
Just for added clarification, this only worked for me when I had multiple orthographic windows open. However, if you maximise the view and change views with the hotkeys, the background image doesn’t change! Plus, the images don’t show in a 3d window (ortho or perspective). This is why I’m still going to use planes textured with the reference images. You can see them in any view, put them on a layer etc. But that’s just how I roll.
Also, I was once showing my Blender skills to a room of supermodels and my pants EXPLODED! And it was COLD!! Shrinkage, seriously, no… wait, it’s shrinkaaage!!!
:eek:
My embarrassing moment lasted several months.
I had the bright idea that Lightwave was superior to Blender. Renderwise, yeah… but the modeler was a nightmare. Seeing this ahead of time, I bought Silo when I could have just used Wings, but I wanted to get away from opensource… because somehow I thought it was unprofessional.
Anyway, 2 projects later, I found myself totally incorrect in every aspect of my ‘strategy’. I continued using Silo and later Mudbox until recently, when Blender’s re topology and multires rendered it useless. I got a refund on Mudbox too, and the money I got back I still haven’t spent yet. It might come in handy in a month, when I have to find a new job.
Had I used the time that I wasted learning inferior software, I could have completed several projects.
I was carefully modeling figures with enough vertices to stilt my wee laptop. What took me the most time wasn’t the modeling itself, but the fact that I was trying to model a symmetrical character by making alterations to the right hand side, selectively delete all the left side vertices, duplicate and flip the remaining right to replace the left… I would then zoom in real close to align the two matching halves exactly on the vertex midpoint before joining and reconfiguring normals. Next I would zoom out again, think “not bad” and continue the same process for every minor adjustment.
One day I got the “Elephants Dream” DVD and I just happened to notice them using the Mirror modifier on one of the mechanical chickens. :eek:
haha
Well I embarrass myself every single day in blender - so there are too many to name
Actually If you like to work with panes maximized, I found another shortcut besides control-up on the keyboard. try shift-spacebar while your mouse is over the pane you want maximized. then when you want to switch panes, just press shift-spacebar again, move your mouse over the other pane and press shift-spacebar again. it sounds, long but it is actually very fast in practice;). That way your reference picture will change when you switch panes. Plus shift and spacebar are much easier to find on the keyboard
When I first started, the most annoying waste of time was not knowing there was a border select. (To be fair, very limited internet access, no menus and no help files) I was doing the castle tutorial, trying to move a cylinder with 200 vertices.
GO GO RSI!
I have been using Blender for like, forever, and yesterday I learned that you can type in an algebraic expression, like 30*2.55 in any number button field, instead of a manual number. And for years, when editing video, I was forever multiplying the frame rate and number of seconds in my head or on a calculator.
My most embarrassing moments in Blender generally occur sometime between the last file save and the ‘Error - No more steps to undo’ message.:o
Actually, the worst thing was re-doing about a dozen shape keys after tweaking an unrelated part of a mesh before noticing the ‘Propagate to all shapes’ option on the ‘W’ specials menu.
That’s good to know! I tried it out and it works for number buttons, but unfortunately not for numeric input with the move, rotate or scale commands. Also, it doesn’t seem to do division, so fractional inches are still a pain.
mine happens quite frequently …
I hit control-q rather than control-w to save my work…
I cant wait until we can reprogram the hot keys…
the quit will be control-alt-shift-windows key-Q on my system…
it is so funny when using the hot keys to save, you are only 1/2 inch away from disaster.
(then later you learn that blender hides a quit file every time it successfully terminates )
Using Blender since version 2.23 and basicly knew every simple function in that time. But now with version 2.44 I know like less then 5% of Blender to use. The developement goes way too fast for me compared with the spare time I have to learn Blender
And even more Embarrassing I’m gonna use Maya. 
The reason for this is that I have chosen the specialisation 3D Graphics at school to have more time doing 3D and use blender besides using Maya. I will use Blender to skill up my volumetric point of view when it comes to modeling since modeling in Blender goes way faster then in Maya. And learn Maya to be capable to do the same in Maya as I learned in Blender and get into the commercial world of 3D Graphics. I must admit I have a huge learning curve in front of me but afther thinking about this for a few months or even years I finally made the decission to do 3D Graphics. Whoooohooo it’s never too late to learn new things.