Snerk
Smeghead
I once had an After Eight at 19:30. I couldn't finish it though.
Crazy things that you did in your life?
- Thread starter H4run
- Start date
aelf
Ashen One
I went to experience a student protest with an American friend. This was back during the tuition fees protests in London. Outside the protest area, the crowd started hurling bottles and bricks at the police cordon and broke through with a makeshift battering ram. We ran with the crowd into the protest area. Mistake - we were then stuck inside because the police were kettling the protesters. Inside the area, a few things were burning. There were police and emergency vehicles, some with personnel inside, but they were not doing anything. I was videoing with a new-ish Blackberry when some guy snatched it from my hand. Since the device was new, I wasn't ready to part with it, so I immediately grabbed the guy's jacket to prevent him from escaping. My friend was kind of panicking and she was yelping for help beside us. Police nearby did nothing, but soon enough a small crowd gathered around us and just shouted for the guy to give me back the phone. He relented and I let him go. That was the end of it and I kept my phone safe from then on. Thinking back later, that guy could have had a knife, so it could've been dangerous.
On a short grad trip to the Cyclades, I was staying for a night or two at Mykonos. It was a pretty decent place, though not luxurious, and it had its own little section of beach. It was a pretty short section and was surrounded by large rocks and cliff faces. A friend from Hong Kong asked me if I wanted to see what's on the other side of a rocky promontory. He would swim around it, while I, not being so confident about swimming in the open sea, decided to coasteer on foot around it. I realised halfway, after jumping down a rock face too high and smooth for me to climb back up, that this might not have been the best idea for an adventure, since I was wearing flip-flops and didn't have the best grip or stability. Looking down, the water was about 4 meters below with waves and there were rocks in it, so a fall was potentially fatal. Eventually, I made it past the promotory and reached a tall, scrabbly slope that I had to climb to reach the road above. This was actually the scariest part, since the rocks were loose and there was not much stability. I had to go as fast as I could without being reckless. I made it up and walked the long way back on the road. It did feel like an accomplishment, though. The other guy survived, of course, and made it back not knowing where I was, and the group was panicking for a while.
On a short grad trip to the Cyclades, I was staying for a night or two at Mykonos. It was a pretty decent place, though not luxurious, and it had its own little section of beach. It was a pretty short section and was surrounded by large rocks and cliff faces. A friend from Hong Kong asked me if I wanted to see what's on the other side of a rocky promontory. He would swim around it, while I, not being so confident about swimming in the open sea, decided to coasteer on foot around it. I realised halfway, after jumping down a rock face too high and smooth for me to climb back up, that this might not have been the best idea for an adventure, since I was wearing flip-flops and didn't have the best grip or stability. Looking down, the water was about 4 meters below with waves and there were rocks in it, so a fall was potentially fatal. Eventually, I made it past the promotory and reached a tall, scrabbly slope that I had to climb to reach the road above. This was actually the scariest part, since the rocks were loose and there was not much stability. I had to go as fast as I could without being reckless. I made it up and walked the long way back on the road. It did feel like an accomplishment, though. The other guy survived, of course, and made it back not knowing where I was, and the group was panicking for a while.
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Deadly Dog
Prince
Well, what I was doing in Kinshasa was a far cry from journalism. I had been backpacking in some east African countries and had become convinced that a trip to the DRC (known then as Zaire) was a good idea. The rioting was indeed scary and involved me seeing the wrong end of the gun more than once before I got to my embassy. But it was nowhere near as dangerous as it felt - while I was liberated of just about anything of value that I had I was not harmed, and like the other two experiences was a big learning experience in a positive way, in the end.
I don't do much crazy anymore, that's for sure. Now for me crazy is watching 2 movies in a row.
H4run
Deity
If I can rewind time, perhaps I can learn photography and work as (journalist) photographer. Going around the world taking pictures of stuff, and sell it and earn money, how cool is that.
My own crazy things have mostly been in the theatre or at science fiction conventions.
As an example, how do you conquer your fear of heights? Join the properties crew and get assigned to be the person to fly a bird at the end of the first act of Kiss Me, Kate (a musical about a group of actors putting on a production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew). The bird had to come flying down out of nowhere, the characters were supposed to be puzzled and annoyed, until one of them (a gangster who is keeping the leading lady in the show at gunpoint) shoots it. It had to look like the bird was shot to smithereens, so how we did that was by me climbing a long ladder up to the rafters in the theatre, crawling along a narrow walkway (crawling because I didn't trust my balance to walk up there), getting settled in the lighting booth over the stage, and arranging the bird paraphernalia. This meant an intact bird on a length of fishing line, plus a bag containing a rubber chicken and feathers. It took split-second timing between myself and the actor playing the gangster, in time to the musical cues (the flute player in the orchestra)... and when the gun went off, I had to simultaneously yank the bird up and drop the chicken and feathers. I could hear the audience gasp when the gun went off, and laugh when the chicken and feathers came down. People told me it was funny, but of course I never got to see it myself.
The one thing I couldn't control about that was where the chicken landed; the timing was more important than actually aiming the thing, so I never knew where it would end up. One time the feathers ended up in the piano, and another night I just about clobbered the drummer on the head with the chicken. He didn't even hesitate - he just picked it up and threw it at the lead actress, who of course screamed, as she wasn't expecting this. The audience roared, as they thought it was all supposed to happen that way. And at intermission I had to come down from the lighting booth and collect the chicken and feathers from the stage and orchestra pit.
Ladders haven't bothered me since then, and that's an achievement as I used to have a really bad fear of heights.
I haven't seen that movie.^You know, Valka, Scream 2 is on right now and I keep imagining you in the stormy theatre set.
I need to think on what the insanest things I've done in life are.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is on tonight. I watched about half an hour and turned it off. I remember begging my grandmother to let me go to that when it was first out in the theatres (Leonard Nimoy, I was a new Trek fan...). I ran across my copy of the tie-in novel a few days ago.
I have no idea now what I was thinking then. It's a stupid movie.
But I will say this: After spending as many years in the theatre as I did, mostly on the props crews (occasionally costumes; I was a consultant for the theatre company's 2nd production of Jesus Christ Superstar, for both crews)... you never lose the ability to focus on such aspects of dramatic performances. Backstage is, in its way, as choreographed as what the audience sees onstage. There were musical cues I used to tell me when to get certain things ready, like the blood capsules in Jesus Christ Superstar. They had to be at exactly the right consistency for the actor playing Pilate to wash his hands in a transparent bowl of water and for it to look like the water turned to blood. If I prepared them too soon or too late, they wouldn't break apart properly, and this all had to happen according to music and lighting cues.
I had it pinned down to a specific time in the second act that would be best for this... but on my nights off, I found out that the other props person was ungodly squeamish about dealing with stage blood and handling blood capsules. I know they have a disagreeable chemical smell, but it's not too bad. Just pour the blood in, close them properly, get them into the bowl of water, and you're done. It takes less than 2 minutes.
She wouldn't do it. She asked me to, and I told her, "I'm sitting in the audience since I want to see the show in its finished form (and make sure we're not doing anything wrong that the director didn't give notes on), and I can't leave in the middle of a scene to do this for you."
We compromised that I'd go backstage during intermission and do it (it was an opportunity to let everyone know what a great job they were doing, which they appreciated hearing from someone who had spent the last 3-4 months at rehearsals and knew everything that was supposed to happen). I spent the next few scenes worrying that the things wouldn't work right, that they'd be too soggy and not break apart correctly.
It did work, and was effective. The blood capsules were invisible in the water from the audience's point of view, so when the clear water turned red, it was an unexpected shock for them.
The following night I went back to the normal schedule, and everything was fine.
Murphy's Law happens in the theatre, though. When the stage hand dropped the goblet for the Last Supper, less than 3 minutes before the curtain was supposed to go up...
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
We didn't have a spare. The other props person jumped in her truck to go home to get something, but of course there wasn't enough time. That was the fastest duct-tape job I have ever done (taped on the inside), and all through the song I just paced up and down the hallway, muttering, "Please don't leak. Please don't leak. Please don't leak..."Lesson learned. Always have a spare of anything breakable or fragile, and the means to fix what does get broken.
H4run
Deity
^You know, Valka, Scream 2 is on right now and I keep imagining you in the stormy theatre set.
I need to think on what the insanest things I've done in life are.
That will be interesting, so what is the one on the top[est of your mind? Just curious!
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
One thing I hate is remakes or sequels that use the exact same movie title as a previous movie. Such as this Scream movie (and correct me if I'm wrong and that's just a marketing ploy)
Also, adding or removing a "The" from a previous movie title and rolling with that is lazy.
Also, adding or removing a "The" from a previous movie title and rolling with that is lazy.
H4run
Deity
I remember when I was around 17-18, while still using my high school uniform me and my friends went to a mall and were eating at the food court. On the table in front of me, there was this woman, I think she's around 25+ years old, and she's unbelievably gorgeous. She's wearing a blazer and in front of her was a man that she was talking to which I believe was her coworker.
The thing was, she's staring at me, and I divert my gaze somewhere else, and after a while, I look back at her again, and she's there still staring at me this time smiling, while her friend just keeps talking to her as he was backing me he seems didn't realize what happened.
That's an insane feeling like I get injected with lots of dopamine, flown to a galaxy far far away, but my reaction at that time was to fastly quit staring at her and just focus on talking to my friend, trying to be cool while the truth is I was really nervous and didn't know what to do, and I found no courage to face the too good to be true opportunity, perhaps if Sir Lancelot went on a quest to search my balls at that time he will come back empty-handed. The opportunity just passed like that, the day passed, and everything back to normal but from that short encounter, I never forget the event.
But thinking about it again, it's kind of strange how she can give her undeniable signal to a high-school student like I was, knowing that she seems like a woman who has it all and why me, perhaps that was for the best, if I had more courage and ate the bait that she hovered to me, I think she would break my teenager's heart to pieces, she's definitely a lot more experience than me, and I'm too serious for just fooling around even at that time, even I was pretty much borderless I always consider something like this deadly serious, I'm a helplessly romantic person, and I was too young for her to take me seriously at that time.
So this is an almost crazy experience.
The thing was, she's staring at me, and I divert my gaze somewhere else, and after a while, I look back at her again, and she's there still staring at me this time smiling, while her friend just keeps talking to her as he was backing me he seems didn't realize what happened.
That's an insane feeling like I get injected with lots of dopamine, flown to a galaxy far far away, but my reaction at that time was to fastly quit staring at her and just focus on talking to my friend, trying to be cool while the truth is I was really nervous and didn't know what to do, and I found no courage to face the too good to be true opportunity, perhaps if Sir Lancelot went on a quest to search my balls at that time he will come back empty-handed. The opportunity just passed like that, the day passed, and everything back to normal but from that short encounter, I never forget the event.
But thinking about it again, it's kind of strange how she can give her undeniable signal to a high-school student like I was, knowing that she seems like a woman who has it all and why me, perhaps that was for the best, if I had more courage and ate the bait that she hovered to me, I think she would break my teenager's heart to pieces, she's definitely a lot more experience than me, and I'm too serious for just fooling around even at that time, even I was pretty much borderless I always consider something like this deadly serious, I'm a helplessly romantic person, and I was too young for her to take me seriously at that time.
So this is an almost crazy experience.
The things worth writing about, I am not allowed to write about, due to the nature of this forum.
Snerk
Smeghead
What a night that was
Exactly!
EgonSpengler
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2014
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Ministry in 1989; Poison Idea in 1989; and Fugazi in 1990 were probably the best/craziest punk shows I went to.
August 1991: Worked the Midnight-to-8am shift at a convenience store, went to Lollapalooza - Jane's Addiction; Nine Inch Nails; Butthole Surfers; The Rollins Band; Siouxsie & The Banshees were supposed to play, but Siouxsie got sick and they had to cancel - then worked another Midnight-to-8am shift after taking a lot of... um... coffee.
One late night in high school, some friends and I were bored and someone said, "let's go to New York for breakfast." Nobody else had any better ideas. About 200 miles/320km. Problem was, none of us had a car. Well, not a registered car. One of us had a car with no plates sitting in his parent's driveway, and he still had the keys. I happened to have my sketchpad and colored pencils (I was an art-nerd in high school), so I just drew a fake plate by hand. We rolled the car out of the driveway, so as not to wake his parents, taped the fake, hand-drawn plate to the bumper, and drove to New York for breakfast.
August 1991: Worked the Midnight-to-8am shift at a convenience store, went to Lollapalooza - Jane's Addiction; Nine Inch Nails; Butthole Surfers; The Rollins Band; Siouxsie & The Banshees were supposed to play, but Siouxsie got sick and they had to cancel - then worked another Midnight-to-8am shift after taking a lot of... um... coffee.
One late night in high school, some friends and I were bored and someone said, "let's go to New York for breakfast." Nobody else had any better ideas. About 200 miles/320km. Problem was, none of us had a car. Well, not a registered car. One of us had a car with no plates sitting in his parent's driveway, and he still had the keys. I happened to have my sketchpad and colored pencils (I was an art-nerd in high school), so I just drew a fake plate by hand. We rolled the car out of the driveway, so as not to wake his parents, taped the fake, hand-drawn plate to the bumper, and drove to New York for breakfast.
Lexicus
Deity
Spoiler classic meme :
Let's see...crazy **** I've done...I've tripped acid over a dozen times, tripped mescaline once, ridden my bike drunk as hell more times than I can count (one time I was so drunk that it took me thirty minutes to find where I had parked my bike, and then I rode it home without a helmet), had some unwise sexual encounters, smoked weed out of a lightbulb (and many other jerry-rigged devices that almost certainly gave me loads of carcinogens and toxins).
Probably the craziest thing I've done is registered for college classes and then not gone to a single one.
present!
sophie
Break My Heart
I did a lot of extremely stupid **** when I was a dysphoric alcoholic twink. Frankly it's a miracle that I didn't wind up dead in a ditch or chained up in somebody's basement.
This isn’t the craziest thing I’ve done but one thing that’s stood out to me as just bizarre is: I was pretty drunk and fell down and hit my nose on the floor, causing a huge nosebleed, like a very large puddle.
It got all over my shirt and afterwards I just got up and went out to get another bottle of vodka without changing. No one said a thing about it. I was wearing dark blue so it wasn’t quite as noticeable as you would think. I realize this was not good behavior and I’m not saying, oh that was a swell time or anything like that.
Back in 2015 I went to Kirkuk which had come under the control of the Kurds the previous year. My visa was only good for Iraqi Kurdistan, not federal Iraq, and Kirkuk’s status was and still is in dispute.
More importantly, it’s known as a pretty dodgy, tense place. Probably more so back then. I got a shared taxi there from the garage in Erbil and had no problem at the checkpoint and I went to the citadel and walked around. The security guard looked at my passport and it was fine.
I walked around and into some of these old abandoned Ottoman era houses that dated from when Saddam forced residents to move out of the citadel and took photos and kept thinking I might get in trouble but nothing happened.
Later I walked around the bazaar, a couple Turkmen ladies asked me for directions in Turkish, I didn’t totally understand and babbled something, and a vendor asked if I was from Zakho.
Kirkuk has a different vibe, like there’s flags with Imam Ali and words written out made to resemble blood like in a horror movie, they’re about the Shia martyrs like Ali and Hussein, not a lot of them but you don’t see this in Kurdistan really.
Later when I mentioned I’d gone there people’s reactions ranged from surprised to, I shouldn’t have done that, but I went a few months later with a Kurdish co-worker.
The most tense thing I’ve come across was actually a very bad protest in eastern Turkey, which I did not know what going to happen.
A scarier experience was being lost driving around Guatemala City for 3 hours when I was 18 and didn’t know how to drive well and the breaks were not working well either.
It got all over my shirt and afterwards I just got up and went out to get another bottle of vodka without changing. No one said a thing about it. I was wearing dark blue so it wasn’t quite as noticeable as you would think. I realize this was not good behavior and I’m not saying, oh that was a swell time or anything like that.
Back in 2015 I went to Kirkuk which had come under the control of the Kurds the previous year. My visa was only good for Iraqi Kurdistan, not federal Iraq, and Kirkuk’s status was and still is in dispute.
More importantly, it’s known as a pretty dodgy, tense place. Probably more so back then. I got a shared taxi there from the garage in Erbil and had no problem at the checkpoint and I went to the citadel and walked around. The security guard looked at my passport and it was fine.
I walked around and into some of these old abandoned Ottoman era houses that dated from when Saddam forced residents to move out of the citadel and took photos and kept thinking I might get in trouble but nothing happened.
Later I walked around the bazaar, a couple Turkmen ladies asked me for directions in Turkish, I didn’t totally understand and babbled something, and a vendor asked if I was from Zakho.
Kirkuk has a different vibe, like there’s flags with Imam Ali and words written out made to resemble blood like in a horror movie, they’re about the Shia martyrs like Ali and Hussein, not a lot of them but you don’t see this in Kurdistan really.
Later when I mentioned I’d gone there people’s reactions ranged from surprised to, I shouldn’t have done that, but I went a few months later with a Kurdish co-worker.
The most tense thing I’ve come across was actually a very bad protest in eastern Turkey, which I did not know what going to happen.
A scarier experience was being lost driving around Guatemala City for 3 hours when I was 18 and didn’t know how to drive well and the breaks were not working well either.
Narz
keeping it real
That's one I've yet to try. How was it?
I took way too many classes sophomore year & ended up so overwhelmed I eventually just stopped going.
For years after (and still occasionally to this day) I have nightmares I signed back up for college w high hopes & have the realization that once again I'm too far behind to catch up & haven't been to a class in weeks.
Probably if I'd actually graduated I would not have this dream.
Narz
keeping it real
Oh a really dumb thing I did was buy this used van from this sketchy Europeans. I was 20 or 21, living in New York City (where having a car is not really a thing for most people) and didn't know that if you don't have the title you don't have the vehicle. I dunno if it was stolen or what but I still drove it around for three months, I went near Union Square to sell books.
Once I was driving in midtown Manhattan in traffic & the car in front of me stopped very suddenly & I tapped his car. The driver was very upset. He got out and started yelling & demanded my insurance. He had a fancy car but it looked fine to me. I decided I didn't really want to deal w that **** so I decided to leave. The driver was very surprised that I had the audacity to leave, I'm sure he wrote down my license plate but it would've have been much help to him.
I still drove the van a month more, after which I moved to California. When I moved I had my friend drop me at the airport & he ended up abandoning the vehicle there.
Once I was driving in midtown Manhattan in traffic & the car in front of me stopped very suddenly & I tapped his car. The driver was very upset. He got out and started yelling & demanded my insurance. He had a fancy car but it looked fine to me. I decided I didn't really want to deal w that **** so I decided to leave. The driver was very surprised that I had the audacity to leave, I'm sure he wrote down my license plate but it would've have been much help to him.
I still drove the van a month more, after which I moved to California. When I moved I had my friend drop me at the airport & he ended up abandoning the vehicle there.
