Out of Pod Experience

o/

I don't really know how else to put it, the more i'm out and about, I'm seeing people acting like psychos at a record pace, I can't remember a time in my life when so many people have been acting so crazy, what in the **** is wrong with these people? People screaming at me from their cars, screaming at my girlfriend yesterday for the terrible infraction of taking a parking spot she thought she was entitled to. and it was weird the girl doubled back to scream some more, so I jumped out and started screaming back, all the oldies but goodies, she and her boyfriend drove off, i'm sure you got a decent visual.

I only mention that because i'm not the sort to act really anyway, I like to keep quiet, move along, and get back to my house as fast as possible, I don't want trouble, I really don't want any conflict, and the last thing I want is a criminal record. But I feel like I have no choice anymore, just this morning i'm driving along and some psycho in front of me slams on his breaks, I swerve into the left lane and look over to see this idiotic neanderthal looking buffoon saying something stupid and indecipherable, he proceeds to jump in the lane behind me and fly up on me, so I hit the breaks, slowed down to about 15 MPH in a 45, and forced this loser in behind me while I decided what to do. Obviously i'm like anyone, I hate to get punched, and I hate the idea of getting arrested, but for a split second, I had decided to see if I couldn't kick this mans ass, I was about to give it the old college try when a smarter head prevailed, I said "no Zack, your car is way too awesome to let this apes face dent it", and I sped off towards home, and considering my ass isn't kicked, my car is pristine, and i'm not in jail, it was a good decision.

I just hope I continue to make good decisions during this "insane period", I guess is all I can call it. Its not just anger either, its like "hyper-emotion", normal emotions turned up to 11, all the time. recently I watched a woman, with a man she just met and who wasn't famous (i believe...) and she was basically trying to have sex with him in publc, I wish my g/f would say some of the dirty **** this girl was saying, I was shocked, and had a huge boner.

I have a few more just.. weird things i've seen that people have done all in the last 10-14 days, I am also feeling a bit more "**** you" lately, and its not me, I know I play eve and all, but i've always been a joke-ster, i prefer lolz to RAGE

tl;dr people are getting progressively crazy, i think i may be as well, but at a slower pace, or it started happening to them first, or... idk

thoughts? please leave me out of them, i'm looking for anecdotal evidence (or lack of) to support a theory

So. Some guy hits his brakes (it is brakes by the way, not breaks... honestly) for an unknown reason and you have to swerve to avoid hitting him. You then slam your brakes on in front of this guy for no reason other than "he started it"and that you can see his lips moving in your mirror but cant work out what he's saying.

Have you tried driving far enough behind the car in front that you are able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear? This is pretty much what the highway code in the UK advises, and although I suspect you may well not be from the UK, it would seem to be sound advice wherever you are driving.

It is remotely possible (how do you know if you didn't discuss the matter with the gentleman in question) that your fellow motorist had good reason to apply the brakes (seriously, it isn't breaks - that's for noses and legs) somewhat rapidly. If you'd been driving at an appropriate distance behind you'd have had time to slow down and stop before reaching him and wouldn't have had to change lanes to avoid him.

Ignoring this, you assume that it's something personal and rather than ignore him, you break (it's break this time not brake) the law by driving at a woefully inappropriate speed to annoy the guy, thus causing danger to yourself, him and other road users who might happen upon the pair of you at a speed differential of 30mph from behind.

And if you are watching your mirror enough to work out that you can't work out what he's saying, you're not watching the road.

It appears that by far the angriest, craziest, psycho-ist person you actually know is you yourself and I put it to you Sir that you are merely judging the rest of the world by your own strange standards.

My first thought (you asked for it) is that you might want to slow down (although at an appropriate time and place obviously) and smell the tax-free coffee before something goes twang.

My second thought is that your assessment that you may be getting progressively crazier is probably bang on the money.

My third thought is that you need to park the car up, drop the keys down a drain and never ever drive again. You're a menace.

....also, your gf may well indeed say the things this young lady did in public.... just not to you.

Meh....

I'm not then one risking seriously hurting or murdering someone (or being seriously hurt or manslaughtered if the guy isn't quite the wimp the OP might had hoped for) for an unsubstantiated personal slight with a motor vehicle.

I'm not even the one sitting in a bar with a rock hard **** and a woman who doesn't love me enough to be a **** in public. Blue balls can really hurt I'm told.

Sadly the quote feature no longer unmasks the naughtiness of your insult. Have another go, but use something that won't get filtered this time.

Pedant is quite good.... doesn't quite have the same ring to it as ******* though.

Edit:- also, in this instance I'd have gone with me leaving an apostrophe off a word in the first para you didn't read beyond. Notinhg annoys a grammar storm trooper like competition.

Ahem! *cough* *cough* *rustle* *cough*

Taken from the Oxford Dictionary.... "a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning".

I'd say that pretty much fits. Breaks/brakes is both a minor detail (compared to the OP's harrowing and horrifying yet strangely captivating tale of potential almost happened fight and sexual unfullfillment) and an application of the rules of common grammar.

To be honest I wouldn't really have viewed it as an insult (twunts like me see that sort of thing as a badge of honour (that's also honour and not honor))..... *pause for breath*..... but it's not like I can take "******" to heart now is it?

Incidentally, I do try and put things in nice little paras so frothy folk with short attention spans might be able to get past the third sentence and read the whole post. I do apologise for not making things easy enough for you.

Get well soon.

I didn't have any thoughts that didn't involve you so I posted them anyway.

You can't put such a nail-biting dramatic piece of prose (good story, could use more dragons though) up featuring yourself as the principle character and ask folk to comment, but leave you out of it; that wouldn't be right.

Seriously, keys -> drain. You know it makes sense.

Yes, people are ****** in the head these days, much more than i've ever seen them before. Seems to be getting progressively worse. I dunno if it's something in the food, or medicine, but people are losing it all over the place.

Probably sounds like hippy talk, but maybe try meditation. It's a good way to learn to control your thoughts and keep cool in the face of just about anything.

doing it right

I do need some medicine, dudes all out, wednesday

I had the opposite reaction last Friday actually. I rear ended a jeep. We both got out, looked over the damage (he didn't really have any, my bumper shattered), exchanged info, had a chat, I apologized, we shook hands, and went on with life.

But then again I remember your cover letter that you placed on the forums for ccp.....

I can't really participate seriously in this thread without getting it locked for both of the most frequent reasons threads get locked.

I'm going to have to say that I think desperate and unhappy people do desperate and unhappy things and the more of them you have, the more ****** the world is going to look.

Anecdotally, I'd say that from personal experience there have always been knobheads with no self control, but that I am feeling myself that there may well be more of late, particularly in the UK for reasons I cannot go into for fear of thread lock.

However, this is merely my opinion and is of no consequence at all in the greater scheme of things... whatever the **** that means.

On a more serious note about the OP's road rage, I used to drive for a living (cars, trucks, bikes... everything with wheels basically) and if you let the knobheads get to you it puts you at risk more than them.

The average Corsa driving 12 yr old (OK I know, but they look that young to me) won't lose any sleep about cutting you up at the round about. You rage about it and your concentration goes and your mind isn't where it's at for safe driving.

Just occasionally, cultivating a serene calm whilst in charge of a 42 ton truck can pay dividends. Bear with me... there's no dragons though.

Like the time I was in King's Lynn waiting to turn right into a farm yard in a 14' tall bright yellow Iveco and some idiot in a Ford Orion (it's a while back) turns towards me on the road ahead and accelerates. "He'll see me", I thought, as he shagged it through the first two gears and I waited stationary to see what transpired. "He's got to see me soon", I thought as he shifted into higher gear and I could hear his tiny engine scream as he pushed the ageing rust-box to it's limits.

By now he's upwards of 50mph on what isn't really anything more than a paved over single track by my reckoning and heading towards me with enough space on the road and verge to my right to pass me... if he's going slowly enough.

"Ah, he's seen me.... oh dear", I think, as he gets to within a couple of hundred metres of the truck. I knew he'd seen me because every wheel on the car has smoke pouring off it like it's been borrowed by the ghost rider and he seems to be having some trouble deciding which way to go. There's a ditch either side of the road and not enough room for him to safely pass either side at that speed. I'm sitting 6' above road level, but I pull my legs up onto the seat just in case... I needn't have worried.

Muppet plumps for target fixation and "I'll take the face full of Iveco please Jago", and comes in slightly off centre, his progress under the front of the truck being halted by the front drivers side wheel. handy really, if he'd gone in between the wheels he'd have ended up with a face full of engine.

90 degree crease in his bonnet. He went in so hard he popped the front two tyres as he hit (I heard them explode). Engine smashed off the mountings and sitting on the floor. Windscreen smashed, most of the other windows smashed. I've seen worse crashes, but not often.

I calmly hop down out of the cab, fearing the worst, and he's sitting in the driver's seat staring into the middle distance and wobbling slightly. Not a mark on him... well, apart from a trouser-load full of whatever he'd eaten for supper the previous night. I always thought it was a myth that folk shat themselves in such circumstances.... nope. There must at least a couple of pounds of proof in his kecks.

After ascertaining that he's in once piece, I phone for the rozzers and, just cos I'm the kind of guy that's nice like that, I go back into the cab (damage to truck = slightly bent steps on driver's side and broken front wrap around bumper... nothing to speak of) and fetch him my own personal roll of toilet paper so he can dump his fouled skivvies and clean himself up a bit before plod arrives.

Here's where it actually gets relevant... yes I know Surfin bailed after para one but I can't help that.

PTO

Bolt on Hitch is awesome. I have yet to see a wreck where one of those didn't **** the offender and leave a thank you note.