Post 117: Don't Try This At Home

'Don't try this at home' is something that I remember appearing on the bottom of my TV screen a lot when I was younger, for commercials and TV shows alike. I don't see it as often now. Perhaps it is what I'm watching now. The assumption might now be that the audience is old enough not to blindly attempt the stunts being shown. However, that doesn't seem overly likely. I mean, knives come with instructions and logs for the fire come with warnings that they are flammable.

So, where are the warnings now? Probably buried in the credits or tiny print that shows up for commercials at times which has the warnings and restrictions,  essentially the fine print of whatever it is. 

Why am I writing about this?

Because I ignored the warnings and tried something I saw in a movie. I successfully completed the stunt. By successfully, I mean I didn't kill myself and caught the knife with only a small amount of blood shed.

So, I got a pocket knife recently. Not that I have any desire to use it or really any need to use it, but I'm hoping to take it with me back to CAN. My idea of Canada as a safe place is not as strong as it used to be. This year alone there were approx. 44 murders in the lower mainland area alone in BC. Including a teenage girl who was found murdered not far from my school campus. 

This new knowledge as well as the the recent statistics coming out about rape (98% of rapists won't spend a day in jail, approximately 70% of rapes aren't reported, 1 out of every 6 women in the U.S. has been the victim of either sexual assault or rape, 17.7 million American women alone have been the victims of sexual assault or rape, etc.) makes commuting home especially after late night classes a little unnerving.

I mean, I want to say that it's not likely something will happen, but statistics suggest that it is more likely than people would like to think.

So, I think I would feel more comfortable just knowing I had something that I could use if the worst were to happen. 

Anyway, with this new pocket knife, I was kind of playing around. I mean, I have never had one other than the little Swiss Army ones so I wanted to make sure I knew how to open and close it. Which was actually a little more difficult than I had imagined. And I happened to remember something I had seen someone do with a pocket knife in a movie. It was like a flick and spin thing. 

I tried. I got the spin except it spun down instead of up. I got the flick except it flicked a little more than I had expected. Long story short I have two band-aids on the back of my leg and one on my finger, because that is the extent in which this went wrong. And yet, I still caught it and I didn't lose any fingers or nick any major or minor arteries. 

So, for the most part, I would list this as a successful attempt that I will not repeat again.

Anyway, I didn't have that much to say with this other than what I've written above. So, Happy Holiday Season all!