itsallovernow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
itsallovernow) wrote2008-03-03 11:21 am
itsallovernow) wrote2008-03-03 11:21 am
Project Whore
So, it's no secret that my brain is like a magpie on crack, always looking for shiny things to distract it, obsessing about them and then leaving them behind in the nest.
I never abandon my projects, I just put them on hiatus when other stuff (read: distractions) appears.
So, last week, someone sent me this article: Eek, Run for your lives! The snakes are coming.
Despite my healthy fear of snakes, this just killed me!! Visions of hippy pythons trying to hitch-hike to San Fransisco filled my weekend with glee. (It also guarantees I'm never going to Florida.)
But it also lead to an idea I had for a list project (I want to write a story in list form, sets of lists as communication, the way we meme to show ourselves, the way a good list, like those "My character X" lists are so evocative). And I wanted to start with an "irrational" or "unusual" fears list.
When I mentioned this to Sh., she suggested I turn it into performance art, collect the lists of fears and have people interpret them at will- through poetry, dance, visual arts, type, textile, whatever. I love that idea, love it very much, and so, at the very least, I want to start collecting lists of things that people are afraid of (or that give them a visceral shudder) that are maybe out of the ordinary, or things that are unlikely to happen, but still provoke a sense of dread. So help me out folks, tell me what you're afraid of. It can be anything - big, small, silly, terrifying, absurd, impossible, etc.
I'll even start.
I am afraid of:
1. Snakes falling out of the trees onto me (and while this is irrational, it's also not impossible. Snakes live in trees sometimes, just not in Southern California. This is also why I'm never going to the rain forest. Or the Philippines).
2. My teeth breaking against concrete. (Yes it's specific. No, I don't know why concrete. The teeth thing is all encompassing but only concrete makes me sweat in a bad way.)
3. Sharks swimming in through the pool drain.
4. Earwigs eating my brain. (I blame Star Trek)
5. Tapeworms. Or any sort of parasitical worm that one could see through one's skin.
Sh. is afraid of falling into a volcano and of Big Bird. One of the women in my writer's group is afraid of moths.
*
In further news, I'm currently indulging my historical Americana trivia kink and reading a book on baseball, a book on New York oysters, and the Nixon/Kissinger book.
I never abandon my projects, I just put them on hiatus when other stuff (read: distractions) appears.
So, last week, someone sent me this article: Eek, Run for your lives! The snakes are coming.
Despite my healthy fear of snakes, this just killed me!! Visions of hippy pythons trying to hitch-hike to San Fransisco filled my weekend with glee. (It also guarantees I'm never going to Florida.)
But it also lead to an idea I had for a list project (I want to write a story in list form, sets of lists as communication, the way we meme to show ourselves, the way a good list, like those "My character X" lists are so evocative). And I wanted to start with an "irrational" or "unusual" fears list.
When I mentioned this to Sh., she suggested I turn it into performance art, collect the lists of fears and have people interpret them at will- through poetry, dance, visual arts, type, textile, whatever. I love that idea, love it very much, and so, at the very least, I want to start collecting lists of things that people are afraid of (or that give them a visceral shudder) that are maybe out of the ordinary, or things that are unlikely to happen, but still provoke a sense of dread. So help me out folks, tell me what you're afraid of. It can be anything - big, small, silly, terrifying, absurd, impossible, etc.
I'll even start.
I am afraid of:
1. Snakes falling out of the trees onto me (and while this is irrational, it's also not impossible. Snakes live in trees sometimes, just not in Southern California. This is also why I'm never going to the rain forest. Or the Philippines).
2. My teeth breaking against concrete. (Yes it's specific. No, I don't know why concrete. The teeth thing is all encompassing but only concrete makes me sweat in a bad way.)
3. Sharks swimming in through the pool drain.
4. Earwigs eating my brain. (I blame Star Trek)
5. Tapeworms. Or any sort of parasitical worm that one could see through one's skin.
Sh. is afraid of falling into a volcano and of Big Bird. One of the women in my writer's group is afraid of moths.
*
In further news, I'm currently indulging my historical Americana trivia kink and reading a book on baseball, a book on New York oysters, and the Nixon/Kissinger book.
no subject
Most of my fears probably fall under the more 'rational' category, although I'm sure if I think about it for awhile, I'll be able to think of a few weirder ones.
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2. Stepping on a manhole cover and having it give way so that I fall straight down into the sewers.
3. Static electricity shocks. Maybe this is more of an OCD thing but I go to crazy lengths to avoid them (like pressing water fountain buttons with my clothed wrist instead).
4. Scraping my nails against things like blackboards or the ceramic of a sink or anything slightly rough and rock-like. I'm getting horrible chills just thinking about it.
5. Celled things. Honeycomb isn't too bad, probably because it's regular, but actual cells and cauliflower-like growths and this one succulent of my mom's that's a white celled mass when it first sprouts horrify me. My sister's the same way, so I'm not totally crazy.
This is way, way too easy for my neurotic little self, so I'll stop here. But I sort of feel you on the teeth/concrete thing.
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Snakes and bugs don't bother me and, although I used to be arachnophobic, I trained myself not to be because spiders are generally beneficial and are highly respected in some Native American cultures. I never had a reason to train myself out of my acrophobia, though.
I have a plethora of 'rational fears', though, so let me know when you get to those. ;)
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Some have begun appearing in areas outside the park, alarming biologists and also people who don't care for snakes.
There are few free-roaming African lions and tigers between Florida and San Francisco, the geological survey said.
The writer sure was having fun with the bit of news, wasn't he?
I have an irrational fear of being in a plane crash *and* surviving, only to have my glasses smashed on the landing. With only one spare supply of disposable contacts, I'd be pretty much blind and useless on the desert island. I blame Lost. Seriously, the only reason I ever thought about getting LASIK surgery was because of this fear.
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2. Really, mostly, snakes.
3. And possibly snakes.
4. Garter snakes. Bull [aka Gopher]snakes. Harmless snakes that are good for the ecosystem. Gopher snakes actually EAT baby rattlers. But they still give me a massive heart failure and the ability to teleport when I see them.
5. Rattle Snakes.
6. All those constrictors which are supposed to be lovely pets just make me quake.
7. Sea Snakes. A friend was actually CHASED by a deadly sea snake when she was wading in the ocean in tahiti last month. **SHUDDER*
8. Did I mention snakes?
9. And also, heights. I don't like heights. I hate driving to Calgary because of the Kicking HOrse Pass. And now, to go to Calgary, you have to cross the VERY HIGH Park Bridge Which is actually kind of shaped like a snake, if you look at it....
10. Also, did I mention snakes? Pictures of snakes, snakes on TV, snakes on the riding trail, snakes in the house. I know I am anxious when the snake nightmares (Raiders ruined me FOREVER) start happening.....
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You may have trouble turning that one into performance art. :)
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And I think that's a totally legitimate fear! I used to be terrified of being in a car with power windows for fear that it would crash into a body of water, short out the locks and trap me inside! My current car is the first one I've own with power ANYTHING and I do not drive by water in it!
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Agreed. The Dexter credits are ALWAYS fast-forwarded!
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A friend of mine is afraid of balloons because they pop. It seems like a similar fear for some reason.
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Drowning in a shallow pool. I don't even know how this could happen.
Falling from a great height and not dying on the way down; actually feeling what it's like to impact with the pavement.
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OMG ME TOO! I had to give up swimming laps because I would start to panic at the deep end of the pool. I was sure that the sharks were just out of my line of vision and coming for me. Trips to the aquarium can also be slightly problematic, although I still like aquariums.
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I once found one in my bathroom of all places, and the only reason I managed to sneak up on it with a plastic spider trap at arms length, trap it and get it out of the house, was because my Dad was away that weekend and couldn't do it for me. I couldn't spend all weekend being looked out of my own bathroom so I had to be BIG and BRAVE. VERY, VERY BRAVE. SERIOUSLY.
This next isn't so much a fear as squirming discomfort. I hate listening to unscripted interviews on the TV and radio. Chat shows especially, but also reality programs and game shows have me wriggling in embarresment on behalf of whoever is speaking. I guess I really, really don't like people to potentially make fools of themselves in public, and in things like that, it could always happen.
Conventions and the like, where the person has to speak at random about anything, are a mixture of squirming and relief when it's done. Pleasure and the like come afterwards when we are all cheering them at the end. (Huh. I wonder if this is "fear of public speaking by proxy" or something??).
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When I was a kid, I was terrified of the drain in the basement floor. I imagined it led to a whole network of subterranean metal-walled cells and the whole concept still stinks of despair in my mind.
Also, when I'd head to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I'd step quick and only look ahead in case someone was waiting in the dark to grab me. I also wouldn't look in the bathroom mirror, lest I see something in the dark. Actually, now that I think of it, I haven't had either of those thoughts since I got knocked up--I think pregnancy upgraded my anxiety firmware in that I *need* to know what's in the dark, because I need to kill it dead.
Now I just have intrusive thoughts of kidlet disaster. This week's tummy bug spurred a few gems like, "what if she's so dehydrated her kidney's are shutting down?" and "hey, is that a snore on the monitor or is she choking?"
Oy.
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Cockroaches. Outside, I just gleefully stomp on them. Inside my house, I freak out.
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Also, when I was a little girl I saw the beginning of a movie where a woman was swimming in the 12' end of a pool, and someone swam near her and handcuffed her foot to the drain and she drowned. Talk about lifelong scarring.