A crucible, and some liberals
Some people can be quite unintelligent. If intelligence is really arbitrary I'll be damned. Those who are the most unintelligent from my excessively subjective point of view also seem to be (from the same excessively subjective point of view) the most annoying. I wish that I could intimidate them but I am far too shy and passive. And now for an arbitrary yet necessary (paradox?!) change of subject.

I stood in the middle of the moderately crowded arcade, looking around at the whimsically intoxicated DDR players milling around as they waited for their turn on the machine, and vaguely considering becoming one of them if only for a while.

Suddenly, a man walked in the door. A strong surge of fear coursed through my body, my heart leaping two feet out of my chest with the horrifying thought, "It's him."

And then

I realised that it was not him. What a friggin' relief. However, why am I still afraid?

If that had been fiction, I might have died of poor writing skills. I'm sick of spiting corporate America, by the way, so I guess I'll never be punk rock. And Cris' away message reads "Hampshire!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and it kind of makes me want to stab him with all of those exclamation points. And some other things I might as well do.