Blogpost 9 : Thalassophobia

Have you ever think of being stranded in the ocean and you can't do anything? Its pretty scary right .. even I can't take a dip in the sea without thinking what could I possibly touching under my feet because I dont even know if I'm going to step into something dangerous. Another thing that bothers me when I'm swimming is those monster movies of creatures in the water because the ocean has a wide space and we just can't know if something is lurking on the dark shallow parts of the water.

Thalassophobia is the term for fear of the sea and for most people who have this type of phobia is afraid of what is lurking beneath them and what lies under them. Not all fishes are beautiful because there are a lot more creepy looking ones other than those plain simple fishes because the ocean isn't fully explored yet and just by thinking of those dark parts of the ocean that are unexplored bothers my mind because you may never know what lies there.

Now searching for some articles.. I ask myself, why are people afraid of the ocean in some instances so I looked for an article that can answer my question and amazingly I saw an article by The Gimcracker on the site TheGimcrackMiscellany and the article was entitled Why We are All Afraid of Deep Water.

In this article the author explains why we are afraid of the deep bodies of water and the first thing he  explained was the fear of the dark. The fear of the dark occurs when you are at the bottom of the body of water we can't see anything because its pitch black and something just might pop out all of a sudden .Next is the fear of suffocating because it is literally scary .. you can die from suffocation and almost everyone is afraid to die. After than is the fear of the unknown where you don't know what to see because there are  a lot of creepy looking creatures that are not yet seen and there are a million species in the ocean and whats worst as the author said is that your mind imagines things that you could see down there in the dark deep parts of the ocean.Next is the fear of flying insects because when you are swimming you are somewhat flying or the feeling is the same so all the other species in the ocean feels like flying too. Last is the fear of being caught  because at the ocean you feel that everything could catch up to you in mere seconds like sharks, octopuses or even mermaids so that is why a lot of people are afraid of the ocean.

As I was reading through that article The Gimcracker stated that "The true fear presented here is actually going down beneath the surface into the depths, either in an ocean or a lake (lakes are almost scarier), and the jet skiing example is what happens as a result of that fear. Though filled with horror, I was able to be on top of the deep water and could probably do it again. It would be absolutely out of the question for me to actually dive into the depths and be “down there” by myself. But why is this so? As you will see, it is not due to any one fear, but a combination of all of our most common fears."

The fear of the ocean is most likely one of the most feared things by people because as what the author said is it is a combination of our common fears that is put together and become one and that result is the fear of the ocean, where things are dark ,mysterious and creepy.

In search of another article I was starting to get curious in what the unknown looks like so I start to search for an article that could somehow show us what kind of creatures are in the deep dark shallow parts of the ocean so I saw this article entitled "Monsters of the deep: Tiny sea creatures that never see sunlight look like they're from another planet" by Tom Gardner on the site Dailymail.

Tom said here in this article is that these kind of creatures doesn't look like they are from our planet but yeah... they are. Scale worms are the subject here because they live in the deepest part of the ocean where the sun never shines.They also have mouth that can turn inside out to eat their prey.Scale worms lives somewhere that realease superheated water or mixed chemicals to provide a home for them. Lastly they crawl in the seafloor preparing for any small organisms to pass by and eat them when their guard is down so if you are down on the seafloor... BE CAREFUL OF SCALE WORMS

As reading through the article of Tom Gardner he said that "They look like monsters from another planet. But far from inhabiting some alien world light-years from ours, these frightening looking creatures exist at the bottom of Earth's deepest oceans. 

I agree with Tom because I saw a lot of deep sea creatures that looks more terrifying than the scale worms and there are a lot of unexplained and undiscovered creatures in the deep shallows of water and we don't know where will it come out of its hiding place and give us a visit.

Even if you are afraid of something you could also still conquer your fear. Take it from me that sometimes you could still be afraid at something and be inspired at what you fear at the same time and if you somehow get used to it you will feel that you are not afraid of it anymore.

Blogpost # 8 : Misfortune Madness

When I was little I called myself the harbinger of bad luck because  I've been always unlucky in life, love, games.. well mostly anything and the weird thing is that the things that is bad luck to other people is good luck on my side, example is that I like black kittens and when a Friday the 13th approaches I become lucky and a lot of good things happen to me. But all of that is just a placebo I think because there are times that I always wait for the bad things to come  and that's why it makes an impact to me but the real deal is the good and bad things are just balanced but it gets pretty tough because we somehow put more weight in those bad stuff that's happening and not on the good stuff so that's why we feel unlucky at times.

To know more about bad luck we must find its real meaning. As I browse the dictonary  I found the meaning of bad luck and its meaning is that It's an unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from an unfortunate event. Well I think bad luck can easily be determined by a chain of unfortunate events and not just one because if it is just one unfortunate event well it might as well be just a coincidence and not purely bad luck itself.

Moving on.. I was searching for an article when I remembered that I saw two black cats crossed my path on my way home and suddenly I remembered a saying that It's unlucky when a black cat does that to you so I somehow got scared but due to my thinking that I'm a harbinger if bad luck  I became awfully lucky that night so my article now is Why are Black Cats Considered Bad Luck from the site MentalFloss and it is written by Kate Erbland.

To summarize it all up Kate stated here some information on why the black cat was so called bad luck. black cats were said to be associated with the black plague in which caused the death of a lot of black cats cause they were killed which pretty much made the plague worst because the black plague was spread by rodents.

One thing to consider also is that in Europe black cats were said to be the familiars of witches so that's why they have this bad reputation of being unlucky. Well not all black cats are bad luck because in Great Britain black cats are given as gifts because they believe they have strong powers and in Japan and Russia Cats are considered and had been a symbol of good luck. Lastly the cats in ancient Egypt are considered gods and it is a capital crime to kill one so don't think all things are unlucky because of their bad reputation because maybe for you they can be lucky too.

While I finished reading the article Kate quoted that "Black cats pop up frighteningly frequently in all sorts of culturally based bits of folklore, and though much of their mythos is actually of the positive variety, Western tradition has so maligned the critters that black cats as bad luck have become something of a given in various circles "

So this really sums it all up that black cats aren't unlucky but people say they are unlucky because some people doesn't even know the positive reputations of black cats and according to what I've said earlier that bad things somewhat retains in our minds and bad things most likely spread instead of good things so thats why the black cats bad reputation just spreads easily unlike its good reputation that others only know about.

Then now in search of another article I picked the one related to the unluckiest day for most people.. Friday the 13th and the article that I picked was Why are we so scared of Friday the 13th? from the site Express by Leo Ruickbie.

On this article Leo talked about the reputation of Friday the 13th and some coincidences on why Friday the 13th was considered unlucky. Well first Leo explained that in the Last Supper there were 13 guests the 13th being Judas and Jesus was crucified on a Friday so thats why Friday the 13th was formed. Next was the Hanging day or the execution of the criminals and there were 13 steps up the scaffold, 13 turns in a hangman's noose and 13 pence paid to the hangman and oops i forgot to tell you every hanging day was Friday. It was also said here in the article that more murderers kill on Friday the 13th. Well if Friday the 13th is unlucky well it might be lucky for some like me and the Friday the 13th horror franchise which have grossed more than 465 million dollars at the box office for the film itself.

At the last sentence of the article Ruickbie quoted that "Friday the 13th really is unlucky for some. After looking at the evidence, researchers for the Mid Downs Health Authority, West Sussex, concluded that “it might be safer to stay at home”.".

Well if you really believe in all that Friday the 13th yes you are advised to stay at home but Friday the 13th is not a valid excuse at being absent anywhere (trust me it's not) and even if they say Friday the 13th is a day with bad luck well it doesn't hurt to don't follow these superstitions but for my own opinion its better that you don't believe in luck because when it happens you cant undo it anymore unless you have a time machine.

Bad luck or good luck its all in our heads because if we feel we are having a bad luck well.. we will somehow focus on the bad things that happens in your life but as tempting as defying the supperstitions it is still better to be safe than sorry so next time a black cat crossed your path or you broke a mirror better prepare for the worst and wish for the best