People Who Have Been The Target Of An Assassination Attempt Explain How They Survived
Not all plotted murder attempts are political assassinations like I pictured. A lot of normal people out here are the ones on the hit list.
Moral of the story is, we can't really live a life without pissing off the deranged few that might come after us with a gun. We'd have to stay inside all day eating cold cuts and lacking Vitamin D.
Some Redditors unfortunately did find themselves in the cross hairs. But they made it out, usually because of pure luck.
u/Buttery_Avocado asked, "People who have been the target of murderers/assassins, how did you survive, and why did they target you?"
Murder by Traffic (still murder)
I'm not sure if it counts but a few years ago in high school, there was this guy that used to trouble everyone by taking naked photos of them when they were changing after PE class.
I happened to be one of his targets so I reported him to my teacher and eventually he got suspended for about a month and had to attend counselling sessions.
One day I was at the bus stop waiting for my bus when suddenly I felt a push on my back and I fell onto the road. Luckily for me, the bus driver stopped the bus in time and I survived. However, I fell directly on my arm and it was fractured.
Last I heard, he went to the juvenile centre and no one ever had to see this devil again.
Chosen One
They missed. That's about the only reason.
It was a random act of violence. A man ran up behind me, put a gun to my head and shot. He flinched or I did and he missed by an inch. Blew out my left eardrum and burned my hair behind my ear. He ran off immediately after.
Cops said it was probably a gang initiation thing. I have deafening tinnitus now and horrible anxiety in public.
Random Cars Are Your Friend
About a year ago, I was walking my dog at night when I saw this really beat up old Honda Civic pull up on the other side of the road. I noticed that two similar cars positioned themselves on the roads perpendicular to me both behind and in front of me. I was boxed in.
This kid no older than 19 gets out with 2 other people, and the kid reaches for a gun in his wasitband and makes a beeline towards me. A random car passes and they all scatter. Once the car is gone, they come back and try to do the same thing, but another random car passes again, and they take off. I made the quarter mile run home in about 2 minutes.
My guess is I was the victim of a gang initiation, and they ran away when witnesses saw.
Risky Blind Dates
I was almost murdered. If it wasnt for my manager I would have been.
My sister set me up on a date with her friend. I ended up having to work the weekend so I canceled. The date went out with someone else and afterwards invited him to her apartment. Right before they went inside someone killed them both with a gun. It turned out to be a jealous neighbor of the girl who she was also messing with.
That could have been me if i went on the date and she decided to let me in for tea.
When Everybody Knows the Same Hit Man...
My ex boyfriend hired some guy from Chicago to murder me after I broke up with him for selling drugs to my younger sister. Fortunately, my ex & I both had a mutual friend who found out & had more pull with the attempted assassin (both were polish immigrants). Ex calls me up later and demands $2000 from me because he "didn't get what he paid for", as the hired gun wouldn't give a refund.
Shoulda Rode with Clinton
While it seemed strange at the time, I actually didn't find out about the circumstances until 20 years later. I worked at the White House during the Clinton Administration in an IT capacity, and was traveling on a trip to the Philippines and the APEC conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
We had flown into Manila late, and hopped on the bus to the hotel with the staff motorcade. Everyone was pretty awake, and we were all BSing on the ride to the hotel. About 45 minutes into the ride, I look out the window of the bus and we are on a narrow road lined by corrugated tin shacks. It really seemed strange at the time since why would the road from the airport to the nice hotels in Manila have to go through this neighborhood? We eventually arrived at the hotel, and it was quickly forgotten.
20 years later, I am watching a series on the History Channel about the United States Secret Service. This one episode was about how the Secret Service coordinates with Intelligence agencies, and talked about on a Clinton trip to Manila where they overheard Al Quaeda was talking about a "Wedding Cake" under the bridge. "Wedding Cake" was a known code word for bomb. Clinton was diverted to the alternate route (and undoubtedly got to the hotel a lot quicker than we did.) It turns out there was indeed a bomb under the bridge on the route to the hotel.
I was obviously not the target, but it was crazy, and many of us could have been collateral damage.
Too Familiar
Does a school shooting count?
I was not in the same part of the school, I evacuated with my class and got home safely a few hours later. Had I been in the wrong place at the wrong time I just as easily could have been one of the victims.
He was and is a deluded, violent, angry, lonely demon who couldn't stand a world where the rest of us weren't dragged into his demented hellpit. No way in hell. Life has recovered more or less to what it was, and twenty two months on, Stoneman Douglas is 0% his world and 100% the world I know our 17 fallen want it to be.
But But it's So Hard to Get Rid of a Tattoo
Not sure if this counts as I wasn't the intended target, but my dad ran a chapter of a fairly notorious biker gang (notorious enough to get their own episode of "Gangland"). Once my dad left, a guy who never really liked him all that much took his place and insisted that since he was no longer in the gang, he needed to get rid of his tattoo. My dad told him to go pound sand. Surprisingly, that didn't go over particularly well, and he ordered his SUV bombed. We lived in an apartment complex at the time and they blew up the wrong SUV. Thankfully no one was inside either. As far as I know, that was the only attempt on his life, at least as long as I was I've been alive.
How Not to Deal With Unwanted Neighbors
I lived below an insane person, in a shared house. For the record I lived there first. Insane Person wanted the entire house to rent, tried to force me out many ways, making noise, having people creep around and knock on my windows, call the cops on me for no reason etc.
So one day he lit a smouldering fire in the non-functional fireplace (we were told never to use it) and closed his off, forcing the smoke to fill my apartment. We luckily got out, but the hospital said one more hour in there and we would be dead. Me and my husband spent several hours in the hospital on oxygen.
My dad had replaced our smoke detector literally 2 weeks prior to this incident as we discovered it was broken. Since the laundry was in my part of the house, Insane Person could totally have come in and tampered with it but I have no evidence of this.
The funniest part of the whole thing was when I called 911 and the fire trucks showed up at 3 am, Insane Person cussed me out for calling them.
The second funniest part was work tried to get me to come in that day since nobody could cover my shift.
All that effort to rent out a teardown house in a sketchy neighbourhood.
That's Why Ya Pick Up Your Litter, Kids
Not sure If this one counts but... I was born in Iraq at the very start of the war. My parents tried shielding us from the war and death outside but sometimes things just happened the likes of which they had no control over.
I was about 5 years old (I can't remember my exact age but all I can remember is that I was too young to attend elementary school) my mom was getting my siblings ready for school(brushing my sister's hair) and I was sitting on her tailoring bench with a curtain less window behind me. I remember playing around with some pins she had laying around.
My grandma (alive at the time) was watching over me so I do not fall, thus when a pin dropped from my hand to the floor she was quick to tell me to pick it up so no one would step on it. I bend down to pick up the pin an I hear a pop (simmer to the popping sound of a balloon)
I glance back and the window was gone, and all i hear next is my sister scream and start crying.
My mom quickly yelled for all of us to get against the wall and to get away from the window. As We all look around the room to see what happened we see a bullet (as long as a index finger) in the middle of the room (one of my brothers goes over to pick it up but it was too hot to touch).
The next day we go over to the police and all they can do is tell us that it was a sniper bullet and they can't do anything about it.
I assume that a sniper saw me just sitting there in front of a window and took the shot, but it missed me when I bent down to pick up the pin so it went over my head, grazing my sister's arm before stopping on the floor.
James Bond Ain't Got Nothin
I was a photojournalist in an unnamed Central American country doing humanitarian coverage for a college. Suddenly there were riots against the government and officials started shooting people with cameras. My group was chased so I had to change my appearance (I.E. clothes, hat, satchel) and ditch my camera to an in country contact and acted like a normal student to smuggle my SD cards in little slots I cut in my shoes until I got to the US where I took them out and just had them in my pocket so to not arouse suspicion by TSA. 10/10 would do again
An Antidote to Ghosting?
No way to prove it, but had all the lugnuts on my trucks front passenger rim loosened which caused death-wobble so bad I almost crashed in the fast lane of the freeway. Luckily the rim stayed on. I had ghosted this one guy and part of me suspects he came and loosened my lugnuts in retaliation. My boss discovered it being the nice guy he was.
A Horrifying Boyfriend
One night, he seemed bored and started trying to stick his feet in my face. I pushed them away, disgusted, and he... exploded. It was a whole lot of action. He started by trying to choke me. I freed myself by grabbing a cat brush, the kind with the sharp metal points, and pushing it into his chest. He let me go but pushed me to the ground and lifted his air soft rifle and drove it to my head like he was trying to cave in my skull. At the last moment he hesitated. I ran out of the apartment and called the cops. It didn't occur to me until later when I was with a public defender documenting my injuries that he had really wanted to kill me. I had bruising so deep they were black in color, in places I don't even remember him hitting me. He really would have, if something in him hadn't hesitated.
Singers Can Be Ego-Heavy
Was in a band with a singer who wanted a coke empire. He said if me or the drummer mentioned this to anyone, he would just have to do a little "wet work". I didn't know about his threat until after I distanced myself and very easily could have had my head blown off in my sleep by a paranoid coke head
This Guy's Uncle Must Be a Loose Cannon
Not sure if attempted murder, well probably, guy ran me over while I was on a bike because I was texting with his girlfriend, I didn't even know they had a relationship. Dumb me didn't call the cops and let my uncle handle it, wish I just pressed charges.
An Nasty Divorce
A guy I know was going through a nasty divorce. It was not going well for him. He was set to lose custody and the house. Well I guess his wife wanted it all, because she hired (or asked I'm not sure) her brother to kill him. The brother attacked him with an axe in the lobby of his building. The axe actually connected, but he lived.
A Lethal Swirly
This was in Elementary school, surprisingly. A new student had moved into town, and had attended my elementary school. Let's call him Patrick.
I later asked the teacher is could use the bathroom. There was a policy where two people at a time may use the bathroom, and of course, Patrick decided he would be that second person. I later went into a stall to do my business, while he used a urinal. After cleaning up, I'm opening the urinal doors when he begins to force into the stall doors so he can bust them open. Then with full force, he just props open the door and rushes me with full force, smashing the small toilet to pieces. He begins to proceed to drown me in the toilet water, and cut my face with the leftover shards of the toilet. I manage to wrangle through his grasp and run immediately into my classroom and to inform what Patrick had done. He was later suspended, and was counseled. He wasn't allowed to walk in the hallways alone without an adult.
Be it to a foreign country on the other side of the world, or merely a town a few miles north or south of you, there is always a slightly uneasy feeling of being in a new place.
Sometimes, however, you don't only suffer from homesickness upon arriving, but find yourself genuinely scared.
Perhaps you don't find yourself particularly welcome by the residents, or there are no people to be seen for miles around.
Either way, there are places all over the world where not long after arriving, the only thing on the minds of visitors was to get out of there as fast as they could.
Redditor 8-tentacles was curious to learn the places fellow Reddit users would never set foot in again under any circumstances, leading them to ask:
"What’s the scariest town/city you’ve been to, and why?"
Gabbs, Nevada.
"I ended up driving through this tiny town in the middle of Nevada that I assume used to be a mining town."
"It looked like a steady paycheck hadn't been seen in this town for 20 years, the houses were all dilapidated, and the locals looked just as worn out."
"Bullet holes and burn marks could be seen on pretty much every building."
"The only reason I drove through the town instead of just sticking to the main road was to top up on gas, but I couldn't find anything, not even a small convenience store."
"It must've been hell for those folks considering the closest town with an actual store and gas was around 70 miles away."
"I took a look via Google Earth, at some of the towns people mentioned and I found it!"
"Gabbs, NV."
'Definitely not a place I'd want to go back to."
Harvey, Illinois
"Everyone talks about Gary, IN, but there is a town over the border in Illinois called Harvey, IL."
"I can't put my finger on exactly what makes it worse, but being there felt like I was on the moon."- theredditforwork
El Alto, Bolivia
"El Alto Bolivia."
"This was 15 years ago at least."
"It's above the habitable zone, and locals were openly fighting in the streets."
"Good times."- ooo-ooo-oooyea
Somewhere in New Mexico...
"I stopped at some gas station out in the middle of where-the-f*ck, New Mexico, only to pee."
"Parking lot not even completely paved.'
"My SO stayed behind in the car, and our son, so I have no corroborating witnesses, but this was the weirdest f*cking place of business I ever stepped into."
"Some David Lynch level sh*t."
"First of all, this place was huge for no obvious reason."
"As far as I know, there wasn't a town nearby."
"I mean, it was isolated out in the desert."
"When I entered, there was a store in there, like a convenience store."
"I passed through that, and entered a hallway."
"There was a restaurant in there, completely empty."
"I follow the signs to the restroom, and go down this hall."
"It already feels a little creepy to me, and horrifyingly enough, I am navigating to the bathroom by the sound of someone who seems to be puking violently far off down the corridor."
"I could hear this sound echoing down this crazy hallway."
"The hallway has a bend in it, and I'm starting to wonder how f*cking big is this place?"
"I turn the corner, and there is one of those claw grabby machines where you try to pick up stuffed animals and other cheap sh*t, standing in the hall."
"A group of young boys are there, crowded around the machine."
"When I come around the corner, they all look up at me wordlessly, with no trace of joy or excitement or pleasure."
"They just play the game with inscrutable faces, silently, like cats surrounding a mouse."
"The hall continues, and so do I."
"Another corner."
"Where the g*ddamned f*ck is the toilet.'
"This hallway is disturbingly long and I've been driving for two and a half days."
"I like my bathrooms simple and direct."
"This does not seem to be either of those things."
"I finally locate the can way the hell down there around another unnecessary corner, and upon entering, I can no longer hear whoever was retching and choking."
"It is now silent, but for the stench so bad it was nearly foggy in there."
"Somebody's feet under the sh*tter door."
"I pee."
"I get out quick."
"Walk past those seemingly soulless and bored boys."
" Why the hell is this hallway even here?"
"There are no doors, no other businesses, these kids are creeping me out in the sinister way they stare blankly at me as I pass."
"I am at a loss to even explain why those kids are here, this place is isolated AF, the hall has too many dark corners and bends in it with no apparent logic."
"It feels like an anxiety dream, it feels like reality itself is being manipulated like the little crane arm claw the one boy is guiding."
"It feels like I want to get out of here, get back outside, get in the car and put this whole place in my rearview mirror."
"So I do."
"I get in the car."
"'Do you feel better now?'"
"'No. Actually I don't'."
"'You shoulda seen this place'."- Alternative-Amoeba20
Johannesburg
"Johannesburg, I grew up in a pretty rough city and would say it doesn’t compare to there, you can feel how tense the air is and you really need to pay attention to everything at all times."- Much_Committee_9355
Gary, Indiana
"Gary, Indiana."
"No, it's not a story of how dangerous it is, or how cops tell you to run red lights ."
"That happens, but it's mostly myths that get perpetuated by people who never visited."
"Gary is just desolate."
"It's almost post apocalyptic."
"Nature has overtaken many areas, and many of the 'vacant' houses you see are actually lived in by homeless people."
"What makes it scary isn't that it has dangerous people, it's that it can be incredibly quiet for a populous city."
"The few times I've had to go through Gary or IN Gary for something, I've always seen something that has frightened me."
"Like people staring at me through half boarded windows, people crawling out of bushes to ask for money, or people just straight up walking in front of your car trying to get you to slow down or stop."
"It's one of the few places in America that actually feels heavy to be in."
"I swear TV shows and movies are missing out on some of the easiest post apocalyptic scenery that they have ever had."- NewAccount971
Decatur, Illinois
"Decatur Illinois."
"My mom and most of her family is from there and the town is just so damn sketchy."
"People being shot the next street over seems like a daily thing."
"My crazy Great Grandma lived in a 4 story house by herself , house had been in the family for a while, and she never locked the doors, just slept with a 9mm next to her bed."- SidtheGoat87
It's sad to hear about these places, and the hard times they've fallen under.
One hopes they might find a way to bounce back one day, and make people excited to visit, rather than avoid them at all costs.
Listen ... we're just gonna be totally honest with you.
The answer is "not much" IF loved ones can come too.
Reddit user benharper09 asked
"Americans of Reddit: What would it take for you to consider moving to Europe to live and work there?"
We don't know if this Reddit user is, like, gathering market data or just really wants to know why Americans don't leave - but here's what Reddit had to say.
Whole Squad Comes With
"My wife and I have discussed moving out of the States, but family keeps us rooted. Maybe when the parents have passed."
- JroyBbop
"I used to live in Louisiana and it’s a damn nightmare there but when me and my wife found out we were pregnant in 2020 I decided that by 2022 I wouldn’t be in Louisiana anymore raising my child and we let all our family know. There’s still FaceTime and social media and mailing gifts and all that."
"If they want to see him or us in person then they can travel here but I wasn’t staying in hell so he can be near his family. It’ll be better for him to be somewhere that’s not as damn horrible. I literally had fear for my life from about age 10-33 when I moved. Nothing was gonna make me stay and raise my kid with that same fear."
- PaulblankPF
"This is a big one. Our entire support system is either here in town or within 2 hours away."
- WizardofAud
A Job
"Um, job opportunities? Europe doesn't let you just up and live there if you want to."
- zugabdu
"Here in Austria we are currently looking for a large number of people willing to work. Austria has around 150.000 job openings that cannot be filled because there aren't enough people."
- benharper09
"I doubt Americans will fill many, particularly with professional jobs requiring a college degree, as salaries tend to be far high over here."
"There are obviously a few exceptions, but as a general rule I don’t see it happening."
- monkey3man
"There are pretty significant differences in cost of living too though, as many European countries have healthcare, childcare, you can actually live in many European cities without owning a car which as I understand it is realistically impossible in the US. Looking at salary v. salary is too simplistic to really compare the buying power you're left with after taxes."
- Randyboob
Are We Even Wanted?
"Do they even want us?"
- Infinite-Hearing-738
"Not if you are old without money. Or young without skills."
- RedditRage
"Yeah. We do. I would welcome Americans with open arms. Though I understand it's hard for most Americans to move to Europe."
- Mrbananacompany
"I mean maybe you personally be okay with Americans moving to your country but your immigration laws are not so amenable."
"It's not that Americans don't consider or want to move to Europe as this question implies, we want to but it's not easy to do legally."
- Infinite-Hearing-738
"We are strongly considering making the move. My biggest concern is the language barrier. I know some people may speak English as a second language but I wouldn’t want to presume."
- GeoffAO2
Pros Over Cons
"Consider yes. Actually moving to one of the many countries with their pros, cons, and immigration policies is a whole other matter. This kind of thing works best for people who are very young, very rich, or have an employer involved."
"Not Europe, but I looked into Canada for a while and the pros and cons ended up convincing me it wasn't worth it for my family."
- Bobanderrs
"For the last few years this has been an annual discussion my wife and I have. The pros just don’t outweigh the cons yet. Burning a huge amount of money to move away from family and friends to be an outsider in a place where seasonal depression would crush me and cold weather issues would be detrimental to my wife’s health issue along with a lower paying job with fewer prospects for advancement in a place where the cost of living is so much more expensive…it always seems like a good idea until we list out all these things."
"That and Canada seems to be experiencing the same issues the US is - albeit on a much quieter level (which to some degree is often more concerning. Trucker convey tried to happen here and it got egged out of existence with them all fleeing. In Canada everyone stood around and just let it exist. For days. And days.) - which make me realize I might be better off staying put. It also seems wrong for me to be the one to up and move when I am white, straight, and in a decent financial position. My vote, my voice, my donations all make a difference for marginal groups that are fighting. We have a lot of friends in the LGBTQ community and being the ones that got to leave would just kind of haunt me."
- zerobeat
Language Barrier
"Aside from everything everyone has said is language. I took Spanish for 6 years and maybe understand 10%. I took German for a year and can say hello. I did duelingo polish everyday for six months and got nowhere."
"I've accepted its damn near impossible for me to learn a language. I could sell my house to have the money. I could leave my family. But job stability and language...those are my 2 big problems."
- Scarlett-Amber9517
"This is the big one for me. You could go to Germany, Denmark, Norway as a tourist and just speak English. But working a day-to-day job, going to the supermarket and all that, you really need to speak the language to be productive, no matter how patient your co-workers are. (I’m a software engineer)"
- AaronDNewman
"I will say, being in the country helps immensely. I can't imagine trying to learn a language while sitting in the US."
- AKdriving
Once You Understand, It Makes It Hard
"My family are immigrants to the US so know how hard it is to start somewhere new. Also a lot of my family is in the US and I don’t want to miss my nieces and nephews growing up"
- Positpostit
"I am a UK person living in America (have been here ages) - I know my wife and children dont like the way america is shifting, and through citizenship of me and my children I could easily get everyone legally into the UK."
"But... would my (college age) kids want to go there? Would we be able to make friends as near-retirees? Would the (inferior) material standard of living be too much of an adjustment and we would be shivering through the winter wondering what we did?"
"The favorable exchange rate makes it tempting too... but the reality is I think there would be some big personal drawbacks for my family"
- GoodAndBluts
Guarantee Safety
"Being able to guarantee my safety as a practicing Jew."
"I love Europe, have loved my time in Europe, but the track record on that score .....is not great."
- firerosearien
"I feel the same way as a black woman. I'm used to and can often reconize/avoid most of the racism in the US. But it's an entirely different beast in other countries. At my age, I don't think I have it in me to navigate those complexities."
- OG_PunchyPunch
"I can understand this. The problem about saying “moving to Europe” is that Europe has so many different cultures and attitudes depending on where you go."
"Here in the UK, racism certainly still exists but as a mixed race person, I’ve only experienced racism towards myself a handful of times and I personally believe the UK has some really good attitudes to race, especially in London probably the most diverse place in the world"
- HoodedArcher64
Money
"Uhh money."
- [Reddit]
"And help with the paperwork and whatnot. It’s not easy to immigrate to Europe, they’re not really interested in you just arriving."
- TheBimpo
"It can be expensive, long and frustrating but I just did this with a big family and pets about a year ago."
"Particularly thankful today to be "somewhere else" with my teens and twenties daughters."
"All the help you need is on Reddit. Lots of helpful people and resources."
- 50MillionChickens
"You start at the beginning, and learn learn learn. Just like any other thing you want to know. People figure it all out every day, and I am confident you could, too!"
- redditshy
Marketable Skill Or Marriage
"I have no marketable skills that eu countries want. And most don’t accept a lot of what I can do for a work visa. So my best bet to immigrate is marriage."
- Herodotus_9
"Same. No one in Europe wants me, so the answer to OP's question is, "it would take any counry in the EU wanting me."
- wakattawakaranai
"Came here to say this. From the research I've done, the desirable skills for most countries are stem/healthcare/etc. and while it makes sense why that is, not everyone can just up and make a career change to one of those fields."
"That can be expensive or daunting even if you're just doing it to change jobs and stay in the US."
- ingb96
"This. If it was easy/possible for most Americans to move to Europe a lot more of us would be leaving. Even if you ignore the legal hurdles, more than half of Americans can’t afford a $1000 emergency (the most relevant statistic I could find), and probably couldn’t afford to move states let alone continents."
- H_Mc
"I'm married to an eu citizen. My kids are eu citizens. But I still can't get residency until I'm at least conversationally fluent in the language."
-okayyeahsurewhy
AS Long As There Is No Dragons
"The castles look nice, but the threat if dragons keep me away."
- NeverLickATazer
"That's not much of a problem in Europe, my hometown only got destroyed 5 times by a dragon in 30 years."
- ohara1250
"Did the smith and the cobbler survive the dragon strike? Or did the plague do them in?"
- jojowhitesox
"So you have 'dragon season' like we have Hurricane season and Tornado season. Got it."
- Gr8NonSequitur
"We have sorted that problem in Wales and advertise the fact on our flag."
- mileswilliams
"The dragons you see coming. It's the rats that get you"
- benharper09
You've seen what Reddit has to say, so now it's your turn at the mic.
Americans, what would it take for YOU to head across the pond to live in Europe?
Men have this reputation for being simple, straightforward creatures.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Humans in general are not simple, straightforward creatures, but men are just ... baffling.
At least as far as the women of Reddit are concerned.
Reddit user Theunknowndud asked:
"Women, what do you find the most confusing about men?"
These fine femmes saw an opportunity to vent and ask questions and they absolutely ran with it.
Here's what they most wanted to know about.
Not Going To The Doctor
"Why some men don’t go to the doctor or dentist, unless someone else makes the appointment for them."
- macaronsforeveryone
"Because if someone else makes appointment for me I feel obligated to go. But I don't care about myself enough to make the appointment myself and I just learn to live with whatever the problem is."
- cow042
"It's like reading my own mind."
- thehandinyourpants
"I go because I'm told it is medically necessary by my wife. Otherwise I've been conditioned to determine whether it is financially necessary. In other words, if I'm not missing work because of it, it isn't necessary."
"I can't speak for everyone, but that is what I grew up with and I can't just "break" it, so I really do rely on my wife to force the issue, otherwise the cost factor pretty much overrules everything."
- Hickersonia
"I hate making appointments unless absolutely necessary. I don’t feel like going to a doctor is a necessity unless I’m not feeling well (I know I’m an idiot). As far as the dentist goes my wife made the appointment once and ever since then the receptionist makes my next appointment."
- rickfrompg
Mess? Where?
"You can be completely oblivious to any mess in the house but can spot a wall has been brush painted in the wrong direction from 20ft away."
- babygem84
"Wall is permanent mess is temporary"
- stealth941
"I am a man. I don't know anything about painting so don't spot stuff like that but every time I visit someone I spot how they set up their router/WiFi and see why they might have problems with their WiFi connection as they just hide their stuff away instead of putting the box in a way the waves flow unobstructed. I work in IT."
"English is not my first language and I'm kinda tired but hope what I wrote makes sense."
- TheGreatPinkUnicorn
"I learned some guys are like this because they were never raised to clean up after themselves. Their moms or caretakers always did the tidying for them, so they never learned to “see” mess and do anything about it."
"Compare this to something like wall painting which can be something that they spend a lot of time perfecting."
- estate_agent
Breath, I Forgot To Breathe
"I'm a man. But something that confused my wife is when I suddenly take a deep breath for no reason. She's like 'are you ok? You sure? Anything you need to talk about? What's going on?' And I just say 'nah I'm fine, think I just forgot to breathe and catching up'."
"To be honest, I feel really blessed that I have someone who cares enough to ask if I'm OK. But yeh, seriously just forgot to breathe 😀"
- Zenith2012
"Dude it's so fukin true that i was taking a deep breath as i was reading ur comment."
- mohaamedwaleedd
"Are you ok? Anything you need to talk about?"
- 1j2o3r4g5e
Can't Remember.
"My wife's biggest gripe is that I will spend time hiking / drinking / driving / whatever with friends I haven't seen in months, and when I get home I will have absolutely nothing to report back despite having talked solidly with them for six hours."
"My wife on the other hand will casually pass a friend in the street and within ten minutes knows what theyve done every day since they last spoke, the health and financial status of them and all other friends and relatives, and a forward facing calendar for the next three months."
- gazhole
"It’s funny though. All the bullsh*t we talk about as guys slowly leaks a bunch of personal information over time. You can tell that one guy isn’t happy with his relationship, one guy is broke, one guy hates his job, one guy has a medical issue. You know all of this without really talking about it just because you spend quality time with them. Yet even we can’t recount it directly, we just know it in the moment when we are with the boys."
- Old-Figure922
"Damn you really hit the nail on the head there."
- User Deleted
Going Into Screensaver Mode
"I’ve learned a lot being married to my husband, but there’s one thing I fail to understand in general. Why do you guys like to stare out the window so often? It’s usually just going up to a window or looking out the front door, and you fall into a trance. What’s up with that?"
- Foops69
"I actually do this a lot."
"Also when I’m in the shower I will just stand and think."
"I’m usually thinking how to solve a problem that will probably never occur."
- [Reddit]
"Lol. I love it. It’s particularly amusing to me when I’ll realize the room has fallen silent and I look up and he’s just there. Staring. My dad did it too."
- Foops69
"It's a way to trick your brain to go idle long enough to enter screensaver."
- anaximander19
"Brain defragmentation"
- undefinite_resonance
Power Saving mode
"My gf is still baffled at the fact that I can just turn off my brain and not think of anything"
- ButtDealer
"There's a science museum where I live and there's a game you can play that uses brain waves. Basically it has a ball in the middle of the table that moves based on who has the least amount of brain activity at the time. And you want the ball to move away from you."
"You put on a head piece and when both players are ready, they touch the two pads on the table with you hands. I'm currently undefeated at a record of 14-0. Idk if I'm dumb or if I just shut everything off but life support lol"
- Vaporwing
"I found my husband on the couch in a dead silent house whistling tunelessly and playing bongos on his own tummy. When I asked what he's thinking about as he's doing that he says 'You know...nothin'. Like listening to the wind in your mind and sh*t. Everyone does it'."
"No Cowboy, we don't all do that. Y'all have some magic happening. Sounds nice."
- CinnamonBurp
One Of The Worlds Mysteries
"D*cks, the way they work is confusing. Like I’ve been told they only react when seeing or feeling something they like but I’ve also been told it will just decide to pop up randomly though the day with nothing."
- Annaclaire_x
"True, d*cks are doing what they want. Sometimes out of nowhere it just decides to stands up. Also, it can stand up when you're aroused (obviously) or when you're excited to see someone you haven't seen in a long time."
- Artass937
"Can confirm, i got a got a penis and im still confused how it works at times."
- Clayman8
"Fun fact: The penis has pressure sensors, just touching it a bit or squeezing a bit can be enough to trigger an erection."
- MigasEnsopado
"Boners are strange. Morning wood is the result of overstimulation from a dream. We get nervous boners. We get sad boners. We get angry boners."
- Burrito_Loyalist
Forgive And Forget
"I find it confusing how men are so forgiving. It’s one of the things I adore the most about men and find the most baffling. I’m learning now that men will get over things like 40 minutes after they happen and genuinely get frustrated and sad when their girls hold grudges. I’ve found that the people I’ve had falling outs with and was able to rekindle my friendships with were mostly all men."
"I also find it weird how men will fight each other and then be best friends the next day."
- Full_Nebula_4443
"You get angry in the moment but then after you're removed from the situation you gotta let yourself cool off. Once you're thinking clearly you'll realize it wasn't that big a deal and get over it. Usually the start of a fight isn't that big it's the stuff that comes after that escalates it so you just recognize that both of you just human and do and say dumb things when your blood is up. Also I think women tend to plan more and then act and men will just act and plan on the fly so that leads to women believing slights or f**k ups are more intentional whereas men will just think of them as mistakes and forgive them."
- MadForge52
"Coincidentally, just yesterday I was reminiscing on a friend and me getting into a fight. I hit him over the head with a glass bottle and he gave me a really clean two-piece in response."
"I laughed for a few minutes at how inconsequential that fight was after the fact, but how extreme it was looking back on it. We’re still thick as thieves to this day, lol"
- solitarium
"As a guy I feel we are a bit more black and white about forgiveness. I can easily forgive and forget most low-level things given time but I still have some grudges from over 10 years ago. I will likely never forgive them."
"Basically men work like traffic tickets. Small things are forgiven quickly. Bigger things take time. Some things are permanent."
"Some women feel more like an actual criminal record that never gets expunged."
- narderp
"If someone is kind/self-aware/brave enough to apologize after they screw up, then it becomes easy to accept an apology from someone who understands they did something wrong and wishes that they hadn’t. Everyone makes mistakes, especially men, so forgiving and moving on is much more sensible than holding a grudge"
- uriah12g
I Am Okay
"When guys are seriously injured but act like its just a scratch… that they can somehow walk it off. All the guys I know are like this."
- CherryBlossomSunset
"A serious answer is because we don't want to panic and cause an issue"
- Traditional_Bat5572
"This is it right here. As soon as a calm guy starts panicking, everyone is panicking."
- spectra__
"Reminds me of when I accidentally cut a chunk of my finger so deeply that it hung off and you could see white underneath. I was internally freaking out and didn't even want to look at it, but did so I could assess the damage. I calmly asked my partner to bring me some bandages and alcohol and when I turned to look at her, she was pale and her lips were turning blue. She said 'Okay, but I need to sit down for a sec...'."
"I ended up walking all the way to the first aid box on the bottom floor of our apartment building while holding a cup under my finger to catch all the blood. I wasn't gonna try and walk it off, but I absolutely knew I couldn't panic for her and my sake!"
"TLDR: Someone will have to fix it, and panicking makes problems harder to fix."
- Saymynaian
"Exactly. Panicking doesn't help the situation. A clear head and talking to people on how to help solves way more."
- Traditional_Bat5572
They Jiggle Jiggle...
"How their crotch doesn't hurt when they run or go up the stairs. Like, even with underwear, you just have stuff hanging down there. I don't even have a large chest and it hurts to run regardless if I'm wearing a bra or not"
- YourLocalCat-Girl
"I gotta tell you, the penis doesn't weigh much."
"A boob weighs more, and you ladies have two of them."
- ZenEvadoni
"One testicle also hangs lower than the other for the specific purpose of not getting crushed when walking."
- Swreefer1987
"I'm a guy and I didn't know this, lol. Neat."
- NewPokemonFound
"Our stuff is not as heavy as yours, so we don't feel the dangling effect much. Also, sometimes it hurts when we wear very tight/ short undies"
- SKORPIO07
"A couple things: Breasts are considerably larger and heavier than testicles, so they bounce a lot more. I jump up and down a few times when I get out of the shower, so my towel doesn’t have to soak up quite so much water, and I do support my balls while I’m jumping. That was a mistake I made exactly once. But if you’re wearing briefs, and the bouncing isn’t as much, it’s not really an issue."
"You’ve had your breasts since puberty. We’ve had our penis since birth. We had to learn to walk with it. You had a decade to get used to walking a certain way before your build changed dramatically. We’ve had essentially the same hardware our entire lives."
- JesusIsMyZoloft
... at this point I might be more confused than I was going into this article.
We've got mess-blind people, refusal to acknowledge injury as if denial is somehow a healing agent ... and a dude who forgets to breathe.
Help.
Australians Divulge The Most Surprising Things About Their Country That Would Shock Tourists
The land Down Under is one of the most highly anticipated travel destinations for tourists around the world. Australia has fascinating history, beautiful sights, great food, cool wildlife, and some pretty cool people.
But as with any travel destination, there's bound to be a certain degree of culture shock. Have a seat and listen up, because you're in for some surprises.
Australians shared some information with us after Redditor emchmu123 asked the online community,
"Australians of Reddit, what is something that the rest of the world would be surprised or shocked to hear about the country?"
"There are more wild camels..."
"There are more wild camels in Australia than the Middle East."
CoffeeHistorical2094
At some point, the British were just like, what other animals can we introduce to this place? And then they just did it.
"You can drive for 26 hours straight and still be in the same state. It's kinda unsettling, especially those really tiny mining towns that have like a gas station and just flat dryland for as far as you can see."
[deleted]
It's kind of crazy how desolate so much of the country is. You don't just go to the Outback, you prepare to go there.
"In some parts..."
"In some parts of the country you are closer to space than the nearest town."
glenmelonhorst
That's another way to hammer this point home.
"While I was working..."
"While I was working in Whistler people were often shocked to hear we have ski resorts in Australia."
[deleted]
Wow, you guys have everything.
Why do you get all the good stuff?! What about the rest of us?!
"I've never had..."
"I’ve never had shrimp on the barbie - ever!"
atypicalnose
Can you even call yourself Australian at this point? How can we possibly process this information as the ignorant tourists that we are?
"Every spring..."
"Every spring, Magpies take to swooping people who come near their nests. Not a secret really, but I don't know how widely known it is."
statisticus
I love magpies. They are the mascot of chaos and destruction.
"That there are..."
"That there are vast areas of rainforest as well as the better-known desert areas."
imrzzz
And it's beautiful! You forgot to mention that it's incredibly beautiful.
"The last confirmed death..."
"Almost no one here dies to spiders or snakes. The last confirmed death from a spider bite was in 1979."
TheThunderChild
This is exactly the kind of propaganda a deadly Australian spider would spread.
"It was a conservative government..."
"It was a conservative government that introduced gun control laws."
[deleted]
A nice fact to whip out at dinner parties the next time someone says that only liberals are for reform.
"You're supposed to eat Vegemite toast with butter. Not just a thick slather of Vegemite like Nutella."
[deleted]
"You're supposed to eat Vegemite toast..."
Hang on a second!
They've certainly not told us everything, but take heed, fellow traveler, and report back. Australia is a hell of a place and you'll have plenty of stories to tell when you come back!