Phobias

[Rhubarb N. Custard]

I used to have a strange fear about the test pattern on the telly: not very test card, but specifically one, the EBU (european Broadcasting Union) Colour Bars.

I must have been about four or five when I recall being over at house of some friends of my parents and being there particularly late, way past a suitable hour of night at such a tender age. I was watching the show and once it ended (probably just past midnight), I saw a slide featuring Perth at night, while the voiceover announced the close of the station for the night. Then comes this:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpNB...eature=related)

that piercing 1 kHz tone combined with the stark vertical stripes did indeed offend my nervy disposition, then triggering a mad scramble to turn the TV off, but not quite working out where the "off" switch was, instead changing channels and asking to turn it off. I would be scared of the television being left on late at night, lest I have to put up with that noise, which did occur a few times during my childhood and added to my anxiety, which only recently I treated. Mind you, I got over that particular phobia when I was about eleven, but still found the noise annoying.

No such trauma with this one, the PM 5544, as it was generally accompanied by music:


Nor the classic BBC-designed Test Card F, also shown with music before the cartoons came on, and having no fear of clowns either:


But I can indeed appreciate that there were some who were creeped out by both Carole and Bubbles the Clown. And when I saw Life On Mars, the scene where John Simm's Sam Tyler awakes to notice the test card has changed…(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS6UI3HG3zo)…now that would freak me out

[crook_]

I have a fear of dying by suffocation or drowning. Neither sounds like a good way to go.

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Rhubarb N. Custard

I used to have a strange fear about the test pattern on the telly
No such trauma with this one, the PM 5544, as it was generally accompanied by music:

I fear this even more

[brianwp]

Originally Posted by crook_

I have a fear of dying by suffocation or drowning. Neither sounds like a good way to go.

Yeah, well add about a thousand other ways to go to that list. I don't really know of any "good" ways to go. Maybe dying in your sleep, but I'm not too sure about that one, either.

[brianwp]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I am fed up to the back teeth of being told that air is the safest way to travel: whatever the statistics say the evidence of my own eyes is that being lord knows how many thousand feet up in the air just isn't all that safe. QED.
As we approached the Alps and started to descend, I discovered the joys of turbulence The sensation of falling down a liftshaft over and over again is less than reassuring.

Well, scoundrel, you wouldn't have liked my old job very well. I used to build small planes, Maules. I was over the control and control surfaces area, we hung the wings, rudder, ailerons, flaps, elevators, etc. and rigged them up. You can lose your avionics, even your power, and still land a plane, but if you lose your controls, you're done. So, as a reminder to this fact, or for adjustments, the test pilots would regularly take me up with them. You experienced turbulence? Hah! Try going up with an ex crop duster! Oh, there's that hot dog I had for lunch...again.

[blondifan]

When I was a child I used to often have, from memory, three reoccuring dreams. One in which I could fly, although somewhat uncontrollaby, with the aid of a 'magic' hammer, like the old comic book hero Thor.
Strange I don't have a real fear of heights.
Another was riding on the back seat of the Beverly Hillbillies truck, and being chased by Jed with outstretched arms, who instead of eyes had corks protuding from his eye sockets.
I have just the usual fear of hillbillies.
The other was walking into a local park woodland area and finding myself completely surrounded by snakes. Later as a landowner I found that the only time you will see them is when they are the last thing on your mind.
I've killed a few, in order to protect livestock. Even skun a couple (went through a period of tanning skins).
Once I put a dead one on the bed of my flat tray, and later on returning to my vehicle just about had a heart attack, having had my mind on other things. So I'd say snakes above all else.
I have a lot of respect for the large older ones - they are wily!

[brianwp]

Hah! Jed with corks in his eyes? Ha! And "the usual fear of hillbillies"? Oh, you're a pisser! You'd hate it down here, between the hillbillies, snakes, and maybe even Jed! Hah!

[crook_]

Originally Posted by brianwp

Yeah, well add about a thousand other ways to go to that list. I don't really know of any "good" ways to go. Maybe dying in your sleep, but I'm not too sure about that one, either.

Yeah, I meant that suffocating/drowning causes a person to suffer more than say, someone dying in their sleep or something quick. I guess it's the suffering part of it is what really scares me.

[crook_]

And here I was thinking that suffocating to death couldn't get any worse...

[Pinkpapercut]

Moths. Creepy flittering little bastards, dusty dirty wings, Satan's butterflies. Duck if one flies near me. Can't sleep in a room if I know there's one in there, have to kill it.

Utterly irrational, I know.