New Beginnings

Endings seem to be on my mind a lot lately. This time of year gets me thinking I guess. Everything in my life seems to end, or renew itself at this time of year..with the coming of spring perhaps.

It was six years ago last week, that I really found out what loss is. A good friend of ours died, the first bereavment I’d really suffered since my grandmother died when I was small. Too small to understand. Gwynne was like a grandfather to me, moreso than my own. He just dropped dead. And so I learnt what it was to lose a loved one. To feel regret for the things I could have, should have said. Other things have happened this time of year.. things I try not to think about. Events that certainly marked an ending..or rather, a new beginning (because I just hate ‘end’), the start of a new chapter in my life. I guess it’s only natural that tonight my mind would stray back to these things. Tonight I started writing endings, deaths for my characters. Every one of my well played characters is a part of me. Xira has my protectiveness of my loved ones. Makala my love of fun..and again with the loved ones. She’s devoted and fiercly protective of Gortek. Eleora..her utter devotion to Kelsar is as mine to Matt. Her insecurities are mine, amplified a little for roleplay’s sake..but still there. In many ways though, Eleora is what I wish I could be. I don’t mean, to quote a friend, a ‘zogging nutter’. Or the fear of fire and talking to animals..although I admit, I do that. But I notice, I seem to subconciously try to redeem many of my RL failings in her. Eleora, I think, is my most played character, and my most loved, even with all her quirks. I can understand thinking of deaths for my other characters, I get slightly bored with them sometimes, I go through phases where I’ll play them a lot, but not at all. Ele is a constant though. I can’t fathom why on earth I’d start thinking of ways to kill her off.

Stupid Injuries

One of our regulars sent us this e-mail Monday:

3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.
142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.
58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.
31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate.
British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after Xmas cracker-pulling accidents.
18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years after trying to open bottles of beer with their teeth.
5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out-of-control Scalextric cars.

And finally…
In 2000 8 Brits were admitted to hospital with fractured skulls incurred whilst throwing up into the toilet.

Yeah, sure.. I’m proud to be called British. Not. Reading things like this makes me ashamed to be even called human. What is it about humanity that we can make mistakes of such monumental stupidity? You just have to look at the Darwin Awards to see some much better examples. We had a candidate here for the Darwin Awards just this last fortnight.

One eyewitness has told how James Gibbs, 15, was leaning out from the platform and was spitting on the track when he was struck by a train.

He died in hospital after surgery for head injuries after the incident on Thursday afternoon.

Natural selection in action.

Now I’m very sorry he got killed and all..but what kind of idiot sticks his head in the path of an oncoming train? They don’t exactly sneak up on you.

Sometime last year there was a report on household injuries. Something like several hundred people are injured each year because they try to iron their clothes while wearing them. How thick do you have to be? Iron = hot.

I decided to look up household injuries in the UK, and was amazed at some of the silly ones.

• Nearly 800 people a year are injured in accidents involving sponges and loofahs What? Beaten to death with a sponge? Tried to eat it?
• And 10,773 are hurt each year in accidents involving socks and tights - Okay, a little more understandable..but still
• 1,810 people walking into tree trunks or cutting their hands on them - How hard is it to not see a tree? Very, apparantly
• Incidents involving bird baths accounted for 311 trips to casualty
• 3,421 people are injured annually in accidents involving clothes baskets
• It is hard to see trousers as lethal weapons, but they caused an astonishing 5,137 injuries, 2,168 of which apparently incurred while pursuing “leisure” activities.
• Even underwear accounted for more than 400 and sunglasses for 450.
• Flowerpots may look harmless but, somehow, 3,984 of them managed to injure people badly enough to cause a visit to the accident and emergency department in 1998. And this figure does not include the 3,000 or so injured by plant tubs and troughs.
• An estimated 4,900 accidents in 1998, for instance, involved bread and sandwiches, and 508 had something to do with ice-cream – although, sadly, the figures do not reveal exactly what.
• Strangest of all, about 20 or so accidents were caused by tea cosies and a further 20 were thought to have had something to do with table napkins.

Sources: The Telegraph, BBC

I wish I could find a recording of the the BBC News 24 report.. there were many, much funnier than this. The reporter couldn’t keep a straight face. I wonder how many of these are just..from having very little luck. And how many are through sheer stupidity. I fear there’s more of the last. They need to start putting chlorine in the gene pool.