Boredom Thread: What SCARES you?

[Speedbird]

I used to get really bad vertigo. The weird part was that I could look down ok, it was looking UP I didn't like. I think it was because I feared I might lose my balance and fall to a messy end if I didn't have my eyes glued permanently downwards to watch where I was going. Doesn't really bother me much nowadays.

*I have had much the same feeling, but I was walking along the very thin edge of a wooden plank (a bufferstop in Yoker railway depot if you really must know - and YES I did have permission) whilst looking straight down into the focussing screen on the wlf of my camera.
Because I was not effectively looking forwards, it became very dissorientating. Even when just standing there, looking down whilsts looking at an image that was forwards and trying to balance at the same time.
So very disorientating, you feel as though you are about to fall off sideways of backwards at any moment.
I eventually got used to it though and learned to trust the camera and use it as part of my eye as it were - something I have never lost.

Not though, before I nearly fell and brained myself against the edge of a rail.

A tutor at college used to tell us stories of when he photographed in the shipyards.
One day, he did exactly the same as I have mentioned, but only on a thin beam of metal very high up.
Everyone was concerned except for him, because he was so used to it and so concerned with what he was looking at, he hardly even noticed! *


The thing I now fear most is being condemned to a lonely life of permanent bachelorhood.

Oh, I'm sure someone will come along.

[Speedbird]

Despite being interested in all kinds of insects, I must admit that I have never quite been sure of the humble Crane Fly (Daddy Longlegs) either.

It is because of the legs.
The way they fly, the way they walk and the way that tiny thin body is - it is just wrong!
To me they are the most ungainly looking craters ever, and I have seen a *lot* of insects in my time.
Although being but a harmless fly, they could almost be flying spiders.

I can live with them, but I agree that I have to get it out of my room before I will go to bed.
Ever since I heard that Darwin awardish story of the Egyptian who breathed in a mosquito whilst sleeping, I have never, if I can help it, let any flying insect, except for tiny tiny miniscule fly's be in the same room when I am sleeping.

Please though, DO NOT swat it.
Let it out of a window or something.
Its not its problem that it has scared you (it is probably just as terrified at the sight of you), so it is not as though it has done anything to you deliberately.
Flying along quite the thing itself, minding its own business when suddenly you murder it for no real reason.
I doubt very much that the different species are rare, but I do hate people that swat anything (another addition to the punch thread).

*A very small one has just flown across the screen*.

Daddy longlegs aside, the only other thing that gives me the heebie geebies are jellyfish, especially when they are washed up on the beach.
I seem to have this totally irrational fear that one will suddenly land on my head, sprawling all it tentacles on my face and right down me <shivers at the very thought>.
A very stupid fear, I know, and very, very unlikely.

Like just about everything else to do with me, the more something scares me, the more it fascinates me.

Jellyfish have always interested me, but they terrify me at the same time.

[Speedbird]

Amusingly, just as I pressed post on that last message, the small daddy longlegs returned, but I was just about to pick up my drink of water.
As I was not looking properly at the screen where the fly was, I thought for a moment that the cursor was moving by itself, dancing across the screen.
This gave me a fright until I realised that it was just the daddy longlegs!
I jumped, I really did.

[evilmiss]

Trolls and dolls, especially those porcelain dolls.


My brother brought home a troll from Denmark when I was about 12. I thought 'ooh, I hope it's one with pink hair and flashing eyes', unfortunately not...jeesus, IT is terrifying. It's made of dark oily wood and I think the hair is lambs wool...it its just frightening. It used to sit on a chair under my bedroom window...dammit, I swear that it watched me...

The same goes for those dolls. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something so sinister and un-natural about them.

[Sharon]

evilmiss please feel free to use my hammer once I am through with it. Porcelain and china "ornaments" must DIE!!!!

Bwahahahahaa!

[lonewooolf]

I have a Porcelain doll that I use as a trigger object in my Ghost Hunt investigations. Bwoo-Hoo-Ha-Ha!
Looks nice n creepy under the IR light :>

[duncan]

big dogs, i.e. any dog that probably weighs more than me. especially large alsatians, dobermanns, pitbulls etc. been bitten on i think 4 occasions, including being attacked by a gypsy's alsatian.

[evilmiss]

mummy...

If I had a duvet right now...I'd be hiding under it...

As for the hammer, thanks Sharon...I hope that its a reaaly big one...

[duncan]

another thing that scares me is mobs. e.g. the sort of crowds who attack publicly named paedophiles (or innocent paediatricians http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1709708.stm ).
or hang around outside the courthouse during high-publicity cases, so they can shout at the accused when they get driven in/out.
or get dangerously squashed in small spaces (hillsborough, the queue to get into this year's King Tut's tent for Snow Patrol at T in the Park, etc)

[Speedbird]

I know what you mean. I always assume the person is innocent until proven guilty

I say that, but as you will see in a certain other thread, on other subjects, I contradict myself (only when they are trully trully deserving though).

[PlasticDel]

Mobs are one thing...

But that thing about getting squashed!!! OMG!!!

I was watching the wagon reverse at work tonight, when I had a terror thought of the wagon reversing to the loading bay and crushing me (not that I would ever stand there but). I had to walk away and distract myself with another job to make the horror go away! Then I thought of this thread, and I had to post..

Being crushed to death by a huge wagon and a loading bay, screaming for help as my chest collapses and the last thing I hear is BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!

I also heard a horrible story about a guy who got crushed by a periscope (DON'T LAUGH!!!).

[paladin]

It can be a bitscary being first to post at the dawning of a new day........where is everyone gone?....have they been taken during the.......

[duncan]

I had a terror thought of the wagon reversing to the loading bay and crushing me

industrial accidents are scary things. sometimes think about these when exploring certain locations. e.g. at the boatyard, would be very easy to accidentally lose your arm in the big winching gear.

[turbozutek]

I dropped a Datex wide carrige printer (64Kg of sharp steel) onto my hand once and sliced open from the tip of my thumb to the start of my hand.

It was a giggle.

Not.

Chris...

[Sharon]

I had a terror that i might suddenly be overcome with terror at being up high, then i'd have to lie down so i didnt fall / jump off, then i'd be stuck there for ever!!!

Or until rescue by a hunky fireman....hmmmm