Writer's Block: Nothing to fear but fear itself

[shadowkat]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I'm an arachnophobe. (ie. fear of spiders). And no, haven't tried to get past it. Well sort of. But again, no.

I got to the point, finally, that I don't actually believe the spider is actually going to jump up and eat my face. Or come back to life after I kill it and eat my face. Or burrow into a cut on my face or body and lay little spider baby eggs. (But there are days that I'm not entirely certain.)

Cause: devilish kids who thought it was funny to throw spiders at me as a child and tell gruesome horror tales about them - well jumping up and eating your face. Also probably did not help seeing what a brown recluse spider bite does to you up close and personal. Nasty. The poison eats the skin. (Initial cause? At age of 6, someone dumped a jar of daddy long legs on my head. Then when we were playing and about to go into a cool fort, we didn't because a huge wolf spider blocked our path - which caused the gal behind me to let a blood curdling scream when she discovered she was about to place her hand on top of it.) Moral of tale - practical jokes regarding spiders can have disasterous side-effects.

In other news? bored at work, obviously. I have 0 tolerance for boredom.
Crazy busy, I can deal with. Slow lulls make me crazy. And wish people would not hang out near my cubicle or show up behind me. Makes sneaking online and writing posts to fend off boredom risky. Or riskier than usual.

TV viewing? Dollhouse isn't on tonight. But it is getting all 13 episodes shown, so no worries. Yay Fox - who apparently has learned its lesson regarding cancelling tv series and not showing the episodes (eg. Firefly).
Not clear yet if it will make it to a third season, but I'll be surprised.
Can't see it getting the viewership that Fox requires for this to happen.
Far too cultish and nitch for that - ie. it appeals to left of center culture nerds like yours truly. And we don't tend to watch commericials and buy expensive cars.

Will most likely watch Supernatural (SPN) or wait until Sat to do it. Don't tend to watch SPN at night - too spooky, well it used to be too spooky, now not so much.

Comments

Presumably you don't want to hear about...

[wenchsenior.livejournal.com]

...what happened when I went 'fishing' for tarantulas today. (I was taking a breather on a bird-survey hike). Don't worry, I kid. I won't tell you.

I love spiders, but I have tons of friends with arachnaphobia. I think my only phobias are claustrophobia and occasional squeamishness about centipedes (cool critters, but they do have an jump-backwards-and-yelp factor.)

And I agree, boredom at work is THE WORST. Hence, my harassment of poor innocent tarantulas.

Re: Presumably you don't want to hear about...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I was perfectly fine until I got the daddy long-legs dumped on my head. (I apparently ate them before that time honored event. Ick, I know. Although saw on a tv show that eating spiders and bugs can be nutritious.
(still ick.) )

Sigh, work boredom. I get myself into more trouble when I bored. I eavesdrop. I envy the girl giggling two cubicles away. I go pester people. It's horrid.
Sneaking online is actually the least disruptive thing I can do.

Fishing for tarantulas eh...reminds me of a story where a friend was babysitting a kid who had pet tarantulas. She'd go and count them every a couple of hours.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Totally get that. Have had similar problems.
Remember running from a guy chasing me with a tarantula that was as big as my foot. He said he'd never seen anyone so scared in his life and was thrilled. The jerk.

Have to say one of the lovely things about living in the city is no spiders, or there are spiders, but they are rare and tend to be small normally.

Did find one in the bathroom once - when I was moving in. My friend and I (both of us arachnaphobes) raced out and begged the mover to get rid of it. Hee. I remember one night, at midnight, calling my Granny (who normally stayed up til one) in a blind panic, because there was a huge one in the bathroom where I was living in Kansas City. I drowned it then mopped it into a bucket and poured the thing outside. The bathroom was a mess. (The downside of garden apartments are the spiders. Upside of 3rd floor apartments are no spiders. YAY!)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Petzi Sis is terrified of spiders, she can't even look at a photo of one or see one on television.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way. Can't watch movies or see photos of them.
I closed my eyes during the spider sequence in Lord of the Rings - Return of the King, until my mother told me it was over. And it took a long time before I could watch the spider sequence in the Buffy episode Selfless. Finally realized it didn't really look like a spider.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I like spiders because they're carnivores and eat pests. Squishy things, though, give me the horrors. I blame it on an experience when I was a kid when I swatted a fly and a bunch of maggots crawled out of it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh I appreciate what spiders do. But they scare me. For reasons described above...I think I'd have been fine if it weren't for the other kids. My brother was actually sweet regarding the phobia - he used to warn me off certain horror flicks. I switching off an X-Files episode that he told me not to watch - because it had monster spiders in it.

Get the trauma on the flies. I remember two horrific film sequences regarding flies. The first was in Poltergeist.
The second was in The Fly - which I avoided. Flies are truly disgusting.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I don't like spiders much but it isn't a phobia of mine. I'm scared of cockroaches though. I can't stand the sight of a cockroach, no matter how small it is. Even the thought gives me the shivers. They are monsters!

Have you seen the latest Dollhouse eppy, "La Belle Chose"?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a college pal who is afraid of roachs - she hails from Texas and has seen the flying monster variety or what we like to call "waterbugs". Abut as big your fist with wings.
Totally get that. I'm not afraid of them, but they do gross me out. Ick. And like spiders, hard to kill. And I admittedly avoided the horror flick Mimic. Although oddly had no problem with Kafka's Metamphorsis.


I saw Belle Chose. Have mixed feelings about the episode. I love the actor who plays Victor - he is unbelievably good in that role. Actually everyone was good in that episode, except for Eliza Dusku. Interesting episode, but I am getting tired of the serial killer cliche. Wish they'd go a different route.

[shapinglight]

I'm with you on the spider thing. Can't stand them which is a contributing reason, though not the only one, to why I couldn't stand that Spider character in the Angel comic.

I'm glad about Dollhouse too. I'm hoping that Joss will wrap things up as best he can in the 13 eps as, like you, I'm not expecting any more.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Had similar issues with the Spider character in the Lynch comics. The idea of her spider appendages being released when she and Spike had sex...ewww. (shudders). Although, I knew why he did it - female spiders are a classic trope in horror noir fiction.
Annoyingly so. (ie. Black Widow). And Lynch likes to play and poke fun at the noir horror tropes. I think that may be why he prefered the show Angel to Buffy, he prefers the noir universe.

But still, eww.

Agreed on Dollhouse as well. Yep, I think we're lucky to get the full 13. This is not a show that is going to appeal to anyone but a very small nitch audience.

[shapinglight]

Although, I knew why he did it - female spiders are a classic trope in horror noir fiction.

True, and it would have worked better if the character had been actually evil. Or had any point to her at all. As it was, she served no purpose except for Spike to have a bimbo in a bikini draped on his arm. Even in S:AtF she didn't do much.

Sorry. Really, really disliked that character.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No apologies necessary. Not all that fond of the character myself. And yes, she felt like a bimbo to me too.

I struggle with Lynch's depictions of women - it's very noirish, true, but it is also at times, very juvenile/male comic book geekoid. And after twenty years dealing with the type, it does get old. ;-)

[shapinglight]

Yep. I feel the same, though I think his other female OCs are at least interesting characters.