» Phobias

Gather round for story time, boys and girls
So one night I decide to head out to the local club for a little dance and a bit of booze. Seeing as it was a chilly Saturday in November, I decide to try out a new hat I'd gotten recently. It was cozy, covering most of my head, although it chafed the sides pretty badly, very tight fit.

When I got to the club, they had a terrible selection of drinks; regardless, I picked my preference and got a bottle of Carlsberg. Went to mingle on the dance floor when one of the fellow dancing blokes knocked the bottle clean out of my hand, sent it sloshing all over the floor. He apologised to me and offered to get me a replacement drink. I accepted and instead got a pint of Carling.

Barely had I taken a couple of sips from my fresh glass when some other pisshead bumped into me, causing me to wear about eight fluid ounces of lager down my front. Rush to the loo, plenty of paper towels to soak it up; by now, my hat was really bothering me so I took it off and splashed some water on the irritation, then went back out. Again, the perpetrator is guilt-ridden and doles out some cash to get me another beverage. I decide to play it safe and got a can, rather than an easily spilt/broken glass or bottle. This time I chose Heineken, my options slowly dwindling.

I got about halfway through this time, starting to feel a little satisfied with my accomplishment. Complacently, I placed it down on the table and went to have a little dance and spread the new boozy scent of my clothes amongst the other patrons. On my way back, I see one of the bar staff collect my drink, pour the contents into the sink and toss the empty cylinder of aluminium into the bin. I mention that I hadn't finished refreshing myself with it, and once more, I get plenty of sorries and he provides me with a half of Stella, their last option.

This time, I managed to keep hold of it until the glass was empty.
So once my drink was gone, I decided I should go home and get out of my damp gear. I checked the tenderness caused by my headgear, applied some moisturising cream on it, and went to bed.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how I got my ear-rash-an'-all four-beers
(Sun 13th Apr 2008, 0:24, More)

» Procrastination

Major procrastinator here
Anything I find slightly undesirable, boring or plain effortful, I always try to put off as much as possible. It's really an annoying character flaw.

Examples:
- Work. I generally piddle around with simple stuff, leaving the major bits until they really need to be done.
- Money. I try not to go the the bank until my wallet's empty and people are tearing down my door (not quite literally, yet) to get what I owe them.
- Cleaning. Stacks of plates and piles of dust can adorn my living quarters for weeks on end.

On all these things, I actively pursue any other means of distracting myself, usually in the form of games or other computer related activities.
I sometimes wish I could kick myself up the arse and get motivated to really achieve something, but then I remember I haven't explored somewhere in Oblivion yet...

As a last note, I still haven't started any real work on my final project for my college Bachelor degree. I took my last class in spring of 2006. Sigh.
(Fri 14th Nov 2008, 11:02, More)

» Tales of the Unexplained

Not so much unexplained...
Now I know this doesn't fit the requirements of the question entirely, but at the time it was happening, I was convinced it was some kind of supernatural or otherworldly occurance, so it's partially relevant.

~~~Wavy flashback with harp sound~~~

Back when I was about 9-10 years old, I had just moved to Cyprus with my parents and sister a year previously. My dad worked in Saudi Arabia for BAE so it was convenient for him to come visiting, my mum loved the sun and way of life here, and she didn't want us getting drugged up or knifed in the UK schools, so it worked out for us too.

Anyway, one time when my dad came visiting, we decided to hire a car and have a drive over to the west side of the island (we lived in Ayia Napa at the time), and check out Limassol, the roman ruins, Paphos, the castle, etc. etc. Fun day out.

Anyway, time passes, the day's over, we head back. This would be a summertime evening, about 7ish as we drive home. That's when we saw it.

On the final stretch of motorway, heading directly East, we notice this huge deep orange ball on the dusky horizon. I mean MASSIVE. Easily at least 4-5 times as large as the sun appears in the sky. And the sky around it was this kind of forboding bloody red.
At this point, my juvenile mind is racing with possibilities of alien invaders and UFOs landing on little beach towns on tiny islands. I was expecting to see laser blasts going through the sky as we got closer. What made it even worse was the fact that there seemed to be a very disproportionate number of cars moving in the opposite direction, AWAY from the large dome of doom we were headed towards.

For a few strangely elongated minutes (isn't it odd how time seems to extend when you really don't want it to?), I was excreting masonry and hoping our new overlords would be nice to me, until eventually we arrived home without passing by any visible signs of death or destruction.

It got dark and the Moon rose higher into the sky, its colour faded a little. I still think it looked larger that night than it ever has done before or since though.

Turns out that it's an optical illusion caused by the Moon's closeness to more relatable sized objects on or around the horizon which just makes it seem larger. I guess that combined with the sunset sky just magnified the effect that little bit more to make it super-scary to childrens.

Not so scary as an adult I guess though. Or particularly unexplained what with that last paragraph. Oh well, I did warn you!
(Mon 7th Jul 2008, 10:24, More)