[Jordan~]

You remind me of my friend who thinks every sound in his garden is a serial killer.

[ursulabear]

[Becca]

Oh god. My boss (at my other job) sent me one of those chain emails that was supposedly written by a cop and it had all these safety tips and it completely creeped me out! It was like "if you hear a crying baby on your doorstep, DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY" and it was talking about how some serial killers preyed on women by using recordings of crying babies played outside their windows and doors to lure them out of the house!!!! IS THAT NOT THE MOST AWFUL CREEPY THING YOU HAVE EVER HEARD?!?! I don't know if that's true...but there seems to be no limit to human awfulness. I AM NOT CRAZY TO BE PARANOID AND UNTRUSTING. Hmm, spellcheck underlined "untrusting" so I guess it's not a word. But I like it better in this context than "distrustful," so spellcheck can kiss my ass.
Anyway, I wonder if I still have that email...I know it was supposed to be helpful, but it was fuel for paranoia if I ever saw it. I think I got it right before the Joanna shows I was seeing came up and I freaked myself out because I was going to one of them by myself. Even though I was meeting up with people, I didn't know the parking situation or anything about the venue, so I started imagining that I would have to walk through dark deserted alleyways to get back to my car. I even planned how maybe I would take a wad of cash out of my wallet separately so if someone attacked me, I could fling that as far as it'd go and then run (because that's what the email said to do). Luckily I ended up parking in a lot across from the back of the venue, within view of Joanna's bus and everyone waiting for her.

[Ceb]

You're as much of a basket case as I am!

Makes me wish I had Violet's super power from "The Incredibles" sometimes.

[Jordan~]

I try to always trust people and never suspect ulterior motives (except with my family, who I barely trust at all). There's far too much paranoia and exaggeration of the negative in the world - there's a lot of confirmation bias involved, because it's very profitable for the media to make everyone terrified of their fellow man ("Swine flu! Shootings - mall and school! Crime rates! Detroit! Horrible people! TERRORISM!") and they'd hate for us to realise that really, we're not that bad. It's also diversionary - so long as people are afraid of stupid, nonexistent threats they're not worrying about the real problems. It's one of the ways the existing power structure is maintained - keep everyone docile and harmless by making them feel isolated, afraid and too distrustful to take collective action against social injustice. After all, it'd just lead to atrocities, wouldn't it? The new order would be just as bad as the old one, wouldn't it...? And who's going to protect us from people with different skin colours and religions?
Not ranting at any of you, by the way. Just venting frustration about the sorry state of society.

[Ceb]

I'm actually more worried a piece of shrapnel will lodge itself in my head as I'm walking down the sidewalk.



Oh and wasps.

[Becca]

I'm not so concerned with the sensationalism of the media in this regard (though I have noticed that certainly). I'm more concerned with the fact that I have known several people to get mugged recently, one at gunpoint, as well as a couple who were attacked and beaten. I have spent most of my life in blissful ignorance, not imagining something like that could happen to me, but my point is, it could, and there's nothing wrong with thinking ahead. I may have exaggerated my paranoia in my last post. I don't REALLY go around thinking I'm going to be killed all the time. But it definitely crosses my mind from time to time, particularly if I am somewhere alone at night. I don't think of it as being paranoid though; I think it is only smart.

[Jordan~]

I think women generally get it a lot more than men do, which is sad, really - kind of a remnant of patriarchy. I know a lot of girls who just won't walk around alone at night - a lot of guys, too, but more girls by quite a bit. I'm quite comfortable walking around at three in the morning. I like the night, more than day; it kind of makes me feel invinceible, which is probably not a very safe way to feel, but I look kind homeless when it's dark anyway and leave my expensive stuff at home. There've been enough occasions where people have tried to give me money because I was sitting in a doorway and I was like, "No, please, I'm middle class!" It happens to quite a lot of students, really - I guess we look kinda like we're on the streets, sometimes. That said, I wouldn't say no to a free cigarette. I guess I kinda get off on endangering myself, as that last sentence goes to show. I'm the kinda person who would join a fight club if I could bring myself to inflict violence on anyone.

[ursulabear]

I have a really irrational fear of that gross skin that develops on pudding.

[polliwog]

Eat the pudding while it's fresh. Cooked pudding should be eaten while still hot, even if it burns the inside of your mouth. Yum!

[Ann]

I am terrified of EVERYTHING. I'm definitely terrified of people and I wonder if that's really due to the media. I know it's irrational anyway, but I wonder if I'm just an irrational person or have been heavily influenced?

Anyway, like Ceb said, I'm more scared of random blameless disasters. I'm scared of the big ones, like earthquake, fire (I'm super paranoid about fire because of my house burning down -- also leads to sleepless nights because I was the only one awake to discover the fire and imagine if I'd been asleep, people would've been hurt) and VOLCANO (MT. RAINIER AHHHH, it hovers over my town so threateningly) but also really random things like something falling and crushing me or choking when I'm by myself or like, sleepwalking myself into danger. I dunno. I wish I could just chill out.

Oh -- I'm always envisioning dead bodies wherever I'm going. Like when I enter a room, right before I walk in, I worry I'll find a family member dead. I'm so horrible to myself.

[polliwog]

I'm afraid of tightly enclosed spaces, like closed MRI machines. Well, not exactly afraid, but my body flips out (anxiety attack) when I sense that my arms won't be able to move, even if nothing is actually restricting them yet. I guess it stems from being bound and gagged at the age of 6 by my older brother, thrown behind my bed, and then having the bed pushed up against me. It was the same brother who pushed a darning needle completely through my left bicep somewhere around that same age. That's funny though...I'm not terrified of needles.

[Cosmia]

The only reason I won't walk around at night is because I live in central Bristol and it genuinely isn't safe to do so. No crippling fears, aside from spiders. I like small spaces, I don't worry about terrorists.

[Jordan~]

[ell ess two]

[Weirdelves]

it's been so so so long. i really want to start feeling even the tiniest bit better

[Ann]

I loooove you, Tom, and I want you to feel better too.

[Gerritsón]

Lately I notice that a lot of people here in Sweden write their most personal things in their status, like:

I feel so lonely
or
When I smile I'm faking it
or
I felt absolutely terrible today, it's all your fault! It's been two weeks ago, how could you?! (and not writing any names, so nobody has any idea who this person is talking about)

I think it's weird that the Swedish people are so shy in person, but trowing around their deepest feelings on facebook, addressing to no one in particular.
Are things like this also going in in like, America? or England?

[ursulabear]

all of the swedes i know are just like that. they're really shy, reserved, but occasionally they'll say something totally personal. sometimes my friends here do that. it's weird.

[Jordan~]

Most of us here in the UK just don't talk about that stuff at all, except with our closest friends, in my experience. Not on Facebook, at least; not where anyone you know in person can see it.