I've had two vivid experiences with this.
1 - Sleeping in my bed at my parents' house, I was maybe in high school or it was early during college. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to see a tall dark figure looming over me. It was a man in a fedora and a long coat. I saw no details, only the blackest shape (blacker than the dark room). I looked up into its eyes (not that I could see them, but I looked where the eyes would have been) and I knew it could see me looking back up at it. The sheer terror I felt at that moment cannot be described. This accompanied by the fact that I could not move or scream or anything made this one of the worst experiences I've ever had. As I stared up at it, it eventually dissolved into the dark of the room, and I could start to move. It took me a long time to get to sleep after that one.
2 - Same room, this time my sister was asleep in the bed on the other side of the room. It was also several years after that first one. I awoke to see a tiny man - midget-sized, but proportioned normally. He was wearing a robber's mask, a wool hat and a striped wool sweater (like the one that Freddy wore in those "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies). He was crouched in the upper left corner of my room (kinda half on the wall and half on the ceiling) looking around. I got the feeling he was up to no good, but didn't feel particularly threatened, just disturbed. In fact, I was more scared that he'd do something to my sister sleeping below him. But I couldn't move or yell or do anything to warn her. Once again, this one dissipated into nothing.
My eyes are very sensitive to the sun, and I find that I need both sunglasses and a hat to keep me from getting a terrible headache. Sometimes that's not even enough to keep me from ending up in pain, but it does minimize it quite a bit.
Prescription sunglasses might help you quite a bit, if you don't want to go the goofy-cheap-wrap-around route. Keep in mind that eye strain is an added bonus to the light sensitivity, so you've got the double-whammy.
Curse you, Sun!
I also have the steps thing. Every single time that I walk down the stairs, I imagine a new horrible way of slipping/tripping/falling and ending up incredibly injured/dead. Sometimes I will even physically wince at the thought of how terrible it was.
The heights thing I might have a touch of as well. And it's usually only when there aren't barriers to prevent me from doing something. Like at the cathedral at Chartres. It was by far my favorite cathedral, but perhaps it was because it was unmarred by gates and fences and railings, and because it terrified/fascinated me. Like I said though, it's just a touch of fear on this one. Not even remotely approaching the insanity of the stairs thing.
I was never a very active or outspoken member, but I still lurk occasionally.
Now that I don't have a hellish desk job anymore, it's hard to commit the amount of time and attention that this lovely site deserves. You monkeys were life savers when I was getting beaten down by the man on a daily basis.
Yay for monkeys!
*switches back to lurk mode*
My personal favorite:
"whatever: 1st Feb 2006 - 15:37 GMT
I didn't read all the comments, but i am damn sure that if someone threw my garbage back into my car I'd be pissed off enough to throw coffee at them and assault their bike. we live in a free country, but it is not the place of a courier to enforce the law by flinging garbage back at people. Maybe the burger was dripping all over the place, maybe it was half raw and the man was disgusted by who prepared it. In weak moments we all litter. And what of the folks with babies who use huge quantities of disposable diapers--are they better just because the diapers end up in a landfill?
All these "green folks" who go around riding bikes and drinking herbal tea are some of the most annoying and self-righteous people I have met. Just because you ride a bike and don't litter you are supposed to be better? They smoke pot, but your an asshole because you eat red meat? Do you also have a composting toilet at home--because if not, why are you littering with your shit? The toilet only goes as far as the nearest poor restaurant--didn't you know that.
This guy was minding his own business, and I applaud him for taking out his anger on the bike instead of the woman--what most people don't see in the pics is that he is probably restraining himself by going after the bike--you would be too if someone flung garbage at you. That said, the guy needs to lay off on the caffiene (sp?) and quicksand arms flailing practice routine in the middle of a busy street--I mean guys like these cause traffic jams and cause all the man lovers to come out onto the streets."
For those of you that don't want to wade through all the comments, here are some winners:
"sarah: 27th Jan 2006 - 00:34 GMT
What the fuck!!! It is also a misogynist taking it out on a woman, fuck that shit, I'd cut that man-bitch in a heartbeat..."
"Marvin Holivard: 28th Jan 2006 - 18:02 GMT
Come on... a female bicyclist picking a fight? This lesbian has too much testosterone flooding her veins. She should be pitied, and placed on an estrogen drip, stat."
"pureevilmatt: 29th Jan 2006 - 12:55 GMT
don't they pay people to pick up litter? if everyone stopped littering, all those people would be out of jobs..."
"Kevin G: 31st Jan 2006 - 19:43 GMT
guy looks like a russian/eastern euroepan assclown, they like to beat women & kill ppl. at random , e.g. see yugoslavia, serbs.."
"Fat ass: 1st Feb 2006 - 01:44 GMT
... I'm not a motorist, but that cunt of a cyclist was out-of-line... She's one of those 'bikecunts' the ones with the stupid ass outfits that think they're cars and run over pedestrians like they're in a game."
"CipherGeek: 2nd Feb 2006 - 00:20 GMT
This fuckwad needed a good ass-kicking, or maybe a bullet in his head. Dumb fucks that have no respect for anything or anyone don't deserve to live. I've driven several fucks off the road who threw their lit cigarette butts out their car window. Go ahead and do it, but suffer the consequences and quite your bitchin."
"billy : 2nd Feb 2006 - 03:14 GMT
You women love to talk the talk. But you cant walk the walk. Need to change the laws from protecting all of you."
"Yo mama: 2nd Feb 2006 - 19:56 GMT
a Bull Dyke equipped with an assault helmet messin wit my ride is gonna get a smack down. Liberal vegan, easily mistaken for a man, hence hates men needed her ugly faced kicked in. Poor guy pays mucho bucks in gas taxes for his vehicle, which covers street sweeping. get over it you fucking moonbat tinfoil bitch. any low-rent psuedo taliban delivering important docs for "the man" shouldnt be allowed to have a key to anything. shouldnt even vote or drive or open her mustached ugly mug. put on a birkha and walk behind the man and dont let me hear a peep out of ya"
"Dear Stephanie: 3rd Feb 2006 - 00:12 GMT
I know all of you easterners have your heads up your liberal tree-hugging asses.. but I didnt know you had complete disregard for self-preservation... Thats the problem with you ass-hats.. you think you wont get slapped the fuck out if you try and play the hero. Sure he shouldnt have littered, but I think that stupid hooker learned more of a lesson not to be a hero than he did to not litter."
I remember absolutely LOVING this show growing up. I wanted to have funky eyebrows and be able to turn into different animals and stuff. So last year I got the DVDs from Netflix to relive those fond memories.
What a crapfest.
So disappointed.
It's the 20th Annual [MsVader's Family] Christmas Party this year (conveniently falling on New Year's Eve), so we'll be eating, drinking, singing, dancing, and making merry with about 30 to 40 of our closest friends.
Some of my favorite memories were of staring out the window on Christmas Eve, hoping to see Rudolph's nose. We lived not too far from Newark Airport, so there were plenty of Rudolph sightings. Also, getting the plate of cookies together for Santa. We always saved the prettiest cookies for him. It was always so hard to fall asleep on Christmas Eve - the anticipation, and the blinking lights on the house next door, the sugar high from munching on cookies all night - but we'd be up bright and early to sneak a peek at what Santa had left for us.
These days, my favorite traditions are
- the cookie bake-a-thon (that's this coming weekend), where we get some of the family and hopefully a few friends together to bake and decorate about a hundred dozen cookies (no joke!). My brother and his friends always make "special" cookies, like battleship shaped cookies, or South Park characters, or Giants Stadium, or favorite athletes or movie characters. They're always inedible because of the excessive amount of sprinkles/colored sugar used to decorate them.
- drinking eggnog and doing shots on Christmas Eve, psyching ourselves up for a long night of all the wrapping we've left until the last minute.
- eating cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning.
- the annual poker game that breaks out late on Christmas night.
- the huge bash that we throw every year at my parents' house the weekend after Christmas for all of our friends. This will be the 20th year we're doing it. There's nothing quite like a house full of people talking and laughing and dancing and eating and drinking and singing. I'm looking forward to that more than Christmas Day.
For what it's worth - last year I got three copies of the same exact book for Christmas (what made it stranger was that I had probably 20-30 books on my wishlist) - and two of them were bought directly through amazon. So apparently you can't count on the amazon wishlist to work even when the items are bought from them.
I remember reading something about a group of artists in France that would paint plates of food around the poop they found on the streets of Paris.
And I thought THAT was making a great statement.
"The use of sucralose helps keep the calories relatively in check at 170 per can (and 21g of sugars), which makes it manageable unlike most competing dairy-based beverages."
Um, is that really necessary?
I've had two vivid experiences with this. 1 - Sleeping in my bed at my parents' house, I was maybe in high school or it was early during college. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to see a tall dark figure looming over me. It was a man in a fedora and a long coat. I saw no details, only the blackest shape (blacker than the dark room). I looked up into its eyes (not that I could see them, but I looked where the eyes would have been) and I knew it could see me looking back up at it. The sheer terror I felt at that moment cannot be described. This accompanied by the fact that I could not move or scream or anything made this one of the worst experiences I've ever had. As I stared up at it, it eventually dissolved into the dark of the room, and I could start to move. It took me a long time to get to sleep after that one. 2 - Same room, this time my sister was asleep in the bed on the other side of the room. It was also several years after that first one. I awoke to see a tiny man - midget-sized, but proportioned normally. He was wearing a robber's mask, a wool hat and a striped wool sweater (like the one that Freddy wore in those "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies). He was crouched in the upper left corner of my room (kinda half on the wall and half on the ceiling) looking around. I got the feeling he was up to no good, but didn't feel particularly threatened, just disturbed. In fact, I was more scared that he'd do something to my sister sleeping below him. But I couldn't move or yell or do anything to warn her. Once again, this one dissipated into nothing.
posted by MsVader 14 years ago
In "Curious George:"
I check in a few times a week. Count me in as a lurker. But I'm not lurking in a creepy, oogling way. I'm lurking in a wistful, cheery way. :)
posted by MsVader 14 years ago
In "Poached eyeballs"
My eyes are very sensitive to the sun, and I find that I need both sunglasses and a hat to keep me from getting a terrible headache. Sometimes that's not even enough to keep me from ending up in pain, but it does minimize it quite a bit. Prescription sunglasses might help you quite a bit, if you don't want to go the goofy-cheap-wrap-around route. Keep in mind that eye strain is an added bonus to the light sensitivity, so you've got the double-whammy. Curse you, Sun!
posted by MsVader 15 years ago
In "Curious George: Irrational Fears."
I also have the steps thing. Every single time that I walk down the stairs, I imagine a new horrible way of slipping/tripping/falling and ending up incredibly injured/dead. Sometimes I will even physically wince at the thought of how terrible it was. The heights thing I might have a touch of as well. And it's usually only when there aren't barriers to prevent me from doing something. Like at the cathedral at Chartres. It was by far my favorite cathedral, but perhaps it was because it was unmarred by gates and fences and railings, and because it terrified/fascinated me. Like I said though, it's just a touch of fear on this one. Not even remotely approaching the insanity of the stairs thing.
posted by MsVader 16 years ago
In "8"
I was never a very active or outspoken member, but I still lurk occasionally. Now that I don't have a hellish desk job anymore, it's hard to commit the amount of time and attention that this lovely site deserves. You monkeys were life savers when I was getting beaten down by the man on a daily basis. Yay for monkeys! *switches back to lurk mode*
posted by MsVader 16 years ago
In "When Litter Bugs Attack:"
My personal favorite: "whatever: 1st Feb 2006 - 15:37 GMT I didn't read all the comments, but i am damn sure that if someone threw my garbage back into my car I'd be pissed off enough to throw coffee at them and assault their bike. we live in a free country, but it is not the place of a courier to enforce the law by flinging garbage back at people. Maybe the burger was dripping all over the place, maybe it was half raw and the man was disgusted by who prepared it. In weak moments we all litter. And what of the folks with babies who use huge quantities of disposable diapers--are they better just because the diapers end up in a landfill? All these "green folks" who go around riding bikes and drinking herbal tea are some of the most annoying and self-righteous people I have met. Just because you ride a bike and don't litter you are supposed to be better? They smoke pot, but your an asshole because you eat red meat? Do you also have a composting toilet at home--because if not, why are you littering with your shit? The toilet only goes as far as the nearest poor restaurant--didn't you know that. This guy was minding his own business, and I applaud him for taking out his anger on the bike instead of the woman--what most people don't see in the pics is that he is probably restraining himself by going after the bike--you would be too if someone flung garbage at you. That said, the guy needs to lay off on the caffiene (sp?) and quicksand arms flailing practice routine in the middle of a busy street--I mean guys like these cause traffic jams and cause all the man lovers to come out onto the streets."
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
For those of you that don't want to wade through all the comments, here are some winners: "sarah: 27th Jan 2006 - 00:34 GMT What the fuck!!! It is also a misogynist taking it out on a woman, fuck that shit, I'd cut that man-bitch in a heartbeat..." "Marvin Holivard: 28th Jan 2006 - 18:02 GMT Come on... a female bicyclist picking a fight? This lesbian has too much testosterone flooding her veins. She should be pitied, and placed on an estrogen drip, stat." "pureevilmatt: 29th Jan 2006 - 12:55 GMT don't they pay people to pick up litter? if everyone stopped littering, all those people would be out of jobs..." "Kevin G: 31st Jan 2006 - 19:43 GMT guy looks like a russian/eastern euroepan assclown, they like to beat women & kill ppl. at random , e.g. see yugoslavia, serbs.." "Fat ass: 1st Feb 2006 - 01:44 GMT ... I'm not a motorist, but that cunt of a cyclist was out-of-line... She's one of those 'bikecunts' the ones with the stupid ass outfits that think they're cars and run over pedestrians like they're in a game." "CipherGeek: 2nd Feb 2006 - 00:20 GMT This fuckwad needed a good ass-kicking, or maybe a bullet in his head. Dumb fucks that have no respect for anything or anyone don't deserve to live. I've driven several fucks off the road who threw their lit cigarette butts out their car window. Go ahead and do it, but suffer the consequences and quite your bitchin." "billy : 2nd Feb 2006 - 03:14 GMT You women love to talk the talk. But you cant walk the walk. Need to change the laws from protecting all of you." "Yo mama: 2nd Feb 2006 - 19:56 GMT a Bull Dyke equipped with an assault helmet messin wit my ride is gonna get a smack down. Liberal vegan, easily mistaken for a man, hence hates men needed her ugly faced kicked in. Poor guy pays mucho bucks in gas taxes for his vehicle, which covers street sweeping. get over it you fucking moonbat tinfoil bitch. any low-rent psuedo taliban delivering important docs for "the man" shouldnt be allowed to have a key to anything. shouldnt even vote or drive or open her mustached ugly mug. put on a birkha and walk behind the man and dont let me hear a peep out of ya" "Dear Stephanie: 3rd Feb 2006 - 00:12 GMT I know all of you easterners have your heads up your liberal tree-hugging asses.. but I didnt know you had complete disregard for self-preservation... Thats the problem with you ass-hats.. you think you wont get slapped the fuck out if you try and play the hero. Sure he shouldnt have littered, but I think that stupid hooker learned more of a lesson not to be a hero than he did to not litter."
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Space 1999 comics"
I remember absolutely LOVING this show growing up. I wanted to have funky eyebrows and be able to turn into different animals and stuff. So last year I got the DVDs from Netflix to relive those fond memories. What a crapfest. So disappointed.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "The end of the period."
I wish there were a way to accomplish this that wasn't reliant upon chemicals and horomones. *sigh*
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Curious George: New Year's Eve"
It's the 20th Annual [MsVader's Family] Christmas Party this year (conveniently falling on New Year's Eve), so we'll be eating, drinking, singing, dancing, and making merry with about 30 to 40 of our closest friends.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Perform a long and disgusting virtual knee replacement operation "
If you guys liked that, maybe you should ask for this for Christmas.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Curious George: Favourite Christmas Memories"
Some of my favorite memories were of staring out the window on Christmas Eve, hoping to see Rudolph's nose. We lived not too far from Newark Airport, so there were plenty of Rudolph sightings. Also, getting the plate of cookies together for Santa. We always saved the prettiest cookies for him. It was always so hard to fall asleep on Christmas Eve - the anticipation, and the blinking lights on the house next door, the sugar high from munching on cookies all night - but we'd be up bright and early to sneak a peek at what Santa had left for us. These days, my favorite traditions are - the cookie bake-a-thon (that's this coming weekend), where we get some of the family and hopefully a few friends together to bake and decorate about a hundred dozen cookies (no joke!). My brother and his friends always make "special" cookies, like battleship shaped cookies, or South Park characters, or Giants Stadium, or favorite athletes or movie characters. They're always inedible because of the excessive amount of sprinkles/colored sugar used to decorate them. - drinking eggnog and doing shots on Christmas Eve, psyching ourselves up for a long night of all the wrapping we've left until the last minute. - eating cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning. - the annual poker game that breaks out late on Christmas night. - the huge bash that we throw every year at my parents' house the weekend after Christmas for all of our friends. This will be the 20th year we're doing it. There's nothing quite like a house full of people talking and laughing and dancing and eating and drinking and singing. I'm looking forward to that more than Christmas Day.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Curious George: Amazon wish lists."
For what it's worth - last year I got three copies of the same exact book for Christmas (what made it stranger was that I had probably 20-30 books on my wishlist) - and two of them were bought directly through amazon. So apparently you can't count on the amazon wishlist to work even when the items are bought from them.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Punk photos."
Punk and Duran Duran. :) Simon LeBon is teh hawtness.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Christmas Lights."
Sorry, grover - I didn't see your link. I'm a bad monkey. So, I was late to the party, but I brought a part two. That's got to count for something!
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "She asked for it?"
How often does rape happen to women walking around naked through a seedy part of town at 3:00 a.m.?
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Kid Blurs Line."
I'm trying to figure out what "scene" he was "re-enacting".
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Bush Poo Flags!"
I remember reading something about a group of artists in France that would paint plates of food around the poop they found on the streets of Paris. And I thought THAT was making a great statement.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "What age do you act?"
Professor Truth M. Silk is 34 but acts 32. Big whoop.
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
In "Liquid Cereal."
"The use of sucralose helps keep the calories relatively in check at 170 per can (and 21g of sugars), which makes it manageable unlike most competing dairy-based beverages." Um, is that really necessary?
posted by MsVader 18 years ago
(limited to the most recent 20 comments)