Flying, though terrifying during that first ever takeoff, has always just felt like a bus ride, with clouds out the window.
Those screenshots remind me of playing "Fantasy" from ZZT's Revenge. A game whose very first board probably took me a dozen tries because I am bad with slider puzzles. The best part of that game is that at the end you get 10,000 points for reading the author's story about how he found Jesus.
Also I don't want to rush you or anything but let me know when you're ready to try commentating over Town!
I'm free every evening this week :) I'd be glad to give it a try at any time.
That's pretty much how I started convincing myself to fly at 16, when I first got over my fear of it - I suppose now that I say that, the height is indeed the issue, as I don't have any sort of problem with modes of transport that stay on the ground. Though I was always afraid of being trapped in the subway, when I used that.
And what a reward for completing a ZZT game...! Though I had to ask myself whether or not that's any madder than the rest of the stuff that went on in the community, and the answer is "I'm not sure".
Is he that Donnie Darko-looking fellow on television? If it is, then if anything I think I have a Criss Angel-induced Criss Angel-ophobia.
And the rabbit really is beautiful :) Whitney got him for me a few years ago - I'm pretty sure that that was before I had even chosen how to depict myself online, but the resemblance is quite uncanny.
I can't remember if we've talked about this, but... I've always felt that the powerlessness is the MOST relaxing thing about flying! When you're in a car, you have to worry about everyone else on the road, about your own driving - even if you're the passenger, you could still theoretically save your own life by yelling "look out!" in time, or even by saying "pull over, I'm walking home" or something... But when you're in a plane - I mean, beyond the overall safety that you already touched on, even IF something were to go wrong... what on EARTH do you think your thinking about it could do to influence the odds of it happening? It's like being on a train, you just... sit and wait... even if things WERE to go wrong, knowing that there isn't a thing you can do about it has got to be one of the more peaceful ways to go :P
My mother tried similar reassurance on me a couple of months ago, saying pretty much what you are now - that if anything goes wrong, it's already too late, so why worry about it? This doesn't help.
I never even implied that my thinking about it could affect anything, but this doesn't stop me worrying. If anything, the only decision I have in the matter is choosing not to fly, which already seems preferable when you consider it doesn't involve being shut in a box and breathing other people's exhalations for seven hours - I keep on feeling that I could just not do this and be rather happier for it. Also, peaceful about it or not, I'd still be dead, which is a suboptimal outcome.
It's as if we're speaking two completely different languages, when talking about our thoughts and reactions. This happened last year, as well, when you just couldn't comprehend why I would worry about my upcoming flight or why being made to wait for it made it so much worse.
Actually, an interesting point about breathing other people's air - you aren't! The air in airplanes actually gets replaced more often than the air in office buildings. I mean - if it wasn't, wouldn't everyone asphyxiate?
I guess it's because you keep changing the subject about what's bothering you - if you don't like confined spaces, that's one thing, but you were saying that the guy was reassuring you about the noises the plane was making, as though you thought they were a sign of danger?
Perhaps I'm not sure what I'm afraid of either, when trying to name it - I'm in a state where anything at all feels like it's a dangerous sign, any movement or noise outside of the background, even when it isn't. It's undeniable that I don't like being in confined spaces, or anywhere I know I can't just walk away - though when that space is up in the air, the feeling is amplified.
"Airplane Plague", what a fantastically reassuring title ;) But that's a very informative article, and it does make complete sense that you're not literally breathing the same air as everyone else for hours. I could certainly believe that just being in proximity to a lot of people for a fair amount of time could cause a bit of contamination.
I love that rabbit; it's adorable. Does it have a name? :)
Also, I wish I understood any of what was going on in those ZZT screenshots. :P The second one in particular looks like utter chaos to me; at first glance it looks like a Repton-style game, where you move around the environment collecting... diamonds, I guess... but then I see entries for "torches" and "ammo" at the side, and my brain just bugs out. :P I don't see anything that looks even remotely threatening on the map, apart possibly for that cluster of nine Greek-omega-type symbols in the room on the right-hand side, near the top. :P I guess it's something you need to get into before you can start to interpret it without a lexicon?
Even not knowing the symbols, your instinct is serving you surprisingly well - red omegas are lions in ZZT, which you don't want to touch! As I seem to have said multiple times over the last few entries, I keep on forgetting that not everyone just automatically interprets these ASCII characters as what ZZT has conditioned me to believe they are. This particular puzzle is based around keys (female rings - yes) and doors (inverted... circle characters), and the way that the game disallows you from picking up more than one of the same colour of key at once. And I still don't know how to solve it, not helped by the way that I can't really see the tiny little blobs of colour within the doors - the aim here is to get to the passage (which I again just said without thinking it needed explanation - the three white lines with the coloured background) on the top right
( ... )
Oh, and the rabbit still doesn't have a name, even after a few years... he could just be David, but we've already got a David. Maybe they're all called David.
Comments 16
Those screenshots remind me of playing "Fantasy" from ZZT's Revenge. A game whose very first board probably took me a dozen tries because I am bad with slider puzzles. The best part of that game is that at the end you get 10,000 points for reading the author's story about how he found Jesus.
Also I don't want to rush you or anything but let me know when you're ready to try commentating over Town!
Reply
That's pretty much how I started convincing myself to fly at 16, when I first got over my fear of it - I suppose now that I say that, the height is indeed the issue, as I don't have any sort of problem with modes of transport that stay on the ground. Though I was always afraid of being trapped in the subway, when I used that.
And what a reward for completing a ZZT game...! Though I had to ask myself whether or not that's any madder than the rest of the stuff that went on in the community, and the answer is "I'm not sure".
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(Guess this means I've gotten over that Criss Angel-induced lagophobia.)
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And the rabbit really is beautiful :) Whitney got him for me a few years ago - I'm pretty sure that that was before I had even chosen how to depict myself online, but the resemblance is quite uncanny.
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I never even implied that my thinking about it could affect anything, but this doesn't stop me worrying. If anything, the only decision I have in the matter is choosing not to fly, which already seems preferable when you consider it doesn't involve being shut in a box and breathing other people's exhalations for seven hours - I keep on feeling that I could just not do this and be rather happier for it. Also, peaceful about it or not, I'd still be dead, which is a suboptimal outcome.
It's as if we're speaking two completely different languages, when talking about our thoughts and reactions. This happened last year, as well, when you just couldn't comprehend why I would worry about my upcoming flight or why being made to wait for it made it so much worse.
Reply
I guess it's because you keep changing the subject about what's bothering you - if you don't like confined spaces, that's one thing, but you were saying that the guy was reassuring you about the noises the plane was making, as though you thought they were a sign of danger?
Reply
"Airplane Plague", what a fantastically reassuring title ;) But that's a very informative article, and it does make complete sense that you're not literally breathing the same air as everyone else for hours. I could certainly believe that just being in proximity to a lot of people for a fair amount of time could cause a bit of contamination.
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Also, I wish I understood any of what was going on in those ZZT screenshots. :P The second one in particular looks like utter chaos to me; at first glance it looks like a Repton-style game, where you move around the environment collecting... diamonds, I guess... but then I see entries for "torches" and "ammo" at the side, and my brain just bugs out. :P I don't see anything that looks even remotely threatening on the map, apart possibly for that cluster of nine Greek-omega-type symbols in the room on the right-hand side, near the top. :P I guess it's something you need to get into before you can start to interpret it without a lexicon?
D.F.
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