In Over My Head

 

For as long as I can remember, one of my biggest fears is drowning.  An understandable fear, which I'm sure is shared by most, if not all, but not something that is observed on a daily basis.  No one sets out to drown...  Well.  Maybe some, but that's a different set of circumstances and thought processes.  What initially sparked this fear, for me, was watching a movie many many (many) years ago, that cemented this fear for me.

The movie was "White Squall" from 1996, which is a story based on the true events which occurred in 1960 to a group of prep schoolers who set out to sea aboard an old-fashioned sailing vessel.  The trip is to teach the young men fortitude and discipline, but what they actually receive is a crash course in survival after the ship they're on, capsizes from being hit by a white squall, which occurred just three weeks short of their final destination.  Starring an all-star cast, including Jeff Bridges, Ryan Phillippe, Jeremy Sisto, Scott Wolf, among many others.  One scene that clinched this unbridled fear was when the ship is sinking and there's a shot of some classmates locked behind a door.  After many failed attempts, survivors are forced to abandon their classmates.  The fear on their eyes was relentless, striking a fear in me that has lasted all these years, later.  Just the idea of not dying immediately, but to watch the water levels slowly rise to the point where all oxygen is lost and you're forced to take that final breath and suck in all that water.  It's purely horrifying.

]That's not what this blog is about and I apologize for leading you astray.  It was a decent movie, if I remember correctly, so if you have an opportunity to give it a looksy, take a chance with it, it's only two hours, after all.]

Driving home, tonight, I saw a young fellow walking along the road that runs parallel to the river.  The weather being as frigid and cold as it is, the decision to walk that route, especially when the next set of houses isn't for, at least, a quarter mile or so.  My imagination, as it often does, began to race at all the infinite possibilities of what may be going on.  Perhaps he's unfamiliar with the city and doesn't know that walking along this route is futile.  Or maybe, and my mind went to a dark place, he's not feeling very well, mentally, and he was hoping to gain access to the river to... You know.  End his misery. 

It was at that moment that my brain abandoned the young fellow and immediately began analyzing my own fears concerning drowning.  The thoughts raced through my head like ponies at the Kentucky Derby.  I vocalized, out loud, how it horrified me.  Then I paused...

What if I was tossed into a lake of gravy?  I love gravy and as much as it would suck to drown, would it be so bad if it was in gravy?  Then I abandoned that idea.  A lake of gravy?  Really?  "What's wrong with me?" I thought to myself. 🤨  A vat of gravy would make so much more sense.  That's when my thoughts and concerns for the young man had completely vanished.  Now my thoughts went straight to trying to figure out just how large a vat actually is.  While I've used the word 'vat' many times as a safety word in Words With Friends, I barely know anything beyond that and what they're used for.

According to Google, and I'm paraphrasing this to simplify an otherwise complicated response to a relatively easy query, but that's Google for ya.  a vat is generally around 26 U.S. gallons.  How that relates to actual size in inches or feet, I don't know.  I Googled pictures and it ranged from a large cooking pot to something you'd store beer in.

 

I'm mostly curious about the size of a vat, because I believe, if it was beef gravy, like illustrated above, that I might be capable of drinking myself to safety, al la Bob McKenzie from the movie "Strange Brew" (1983).  The container on the left would be challenging but if I hunkered down and dedicated myself, like Adam Moran of Beard Meats Food fame.  (If you don't already, look him up on YouTube.  His videos are as fun and enjoyable as they are challenging to watch - sometimes.😄)

Of course this is all ridiculous.  It's in my nature.  It's how I entertain myself.  I hope this entertained you, as well.  No use in being serious all the time.  What's the use in that?  No fun.

 
Strange Brew / Bob McKenzie (left) Adam Moran "Beard Meats Food" (right)

Fan Fest

Fan sites.  What the hell?  I can understand people gathering to discuss the latest gossip for their favourite television show.  Music groups, I understand, except maybe for that Justin Bieber kid, unless it's a full on discussion of how he ought to have his ass kicked.  Even video games, I get, to a certain point.  Halo fans and gamers of all sorts of other games, meeting online to discuss strategies and maybe even linking up for some online competition later on down the road.  One fan site I've recently crossed paths with, doesn't make sense in the slightest.

I admit to having a problem.., an addiction, if you'd prefer, with Facebook.  In fact, once I complete this blog, I'll be sharing it on Facebook.  Not only that, but I'm going to specifically post it on the very Facebook Fan Page that I hope to address here.

One of my biggest weaknesses on Facebook is the Words With Friends game.  A re-invented Scrabble game, that up to this point, I've lost more games than I've won.  Despite these horrific losses, I do enjoy the game.  That is until recently, when my game has stopped loading.  I've let it go, on a separate window, attempting to load for well over an hour, on a recent visit to the internet.  The f*cker simply will not load.  This is when I discovered a Words With Friends Fansite within Facebook.  I thought that, most certainly, there might be others who have experienced the same or similar problems, so I posted a comment requesting suggestions on how this problem might be fixed.

No sooner had I posted my request than the slanderous replies start pouring in.  Comments which included calling me a "f*cking tw*t" (the latter word was spelled with an A, not an I...) and telling me to stop whining about trivial bullshit.  That they're not affiliated with Zynga Games, the designing company responsible for the game's creation.  Zynga Games was also responsible for FarmVille and a whole host of other games before going bankrupt in 2012.

For a community that strives for inclusion of fellow fans of the game, they sure have an odd way of welcoming in new fans of the very same game.  Isn't the whole premise of a community to help and assist one another towards a common goal?  I looked up the word "community" on www.dictionary.reference.com, and in so many words it defines the word as: A social, religious, occupational or any other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceives itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.  So instead of offering up advice to fellow fans of the very game they are fans of, they instead rally together to offend newcomers seeking their expertise and advice.

The Words With Friends Fan Site is one thing for sure.  A coalition of assholes.  Not a single person of the six that I received feedback from, offered any sort of valid advice.  One fellow, the most civil of the bunch, suggested that the game was refusing to work for me because of my lack of giving to those less fortunate.  Going so far as to suggest that my game's recent dysfunction was due to my lack of charitable work.  Apparently hippies now play word games.  He went on to suggest I delete my account and start over.  This seems a little extreme, considering this shit is supposed to work 24/7, but whatever the hell.  Perhaps this IS fate's way of stepping in and telling me to get my priorities together.  

I do have some stormy weather on the horizon.  This I'm most certain of.  Getting upset over a Scrabble rip-off, should be the least of my problems.