Let’s talk fear – rational… or not. I personally know a lot of people who are “afraid” of zombies. I look at this is one of the most ludicrous ideas since, well, zombies aren’t real. Also, they’re slow and stupid. (Ok, according to Jay, the new version are fast and smart). But I always looked at them as a non-threatening sort of foe. I’d be more inclined to worry about psycho killers with chainsaws or mutated backwoods freaks who like the taste of human flesh. Because in some twisted way, that could actually happen.

But I guess I want to give in and say that I too have an irrational fear of something that a.) does not exist and b.) cannot really hurt me. Dinosaurs. Ok, I was one of those nerdy kids (think: Ross, Friends) who loved dinosaurs as a kid. I had bedsheets, posters, books, toys, models and even clothes with t-rexes and brontosauri all over them. My favorite dino word to say was “Diplodocus”. I was fascinated by their sheer size and nature, how they may have died and dreamed of maybe finding stray dino bones in my own backyard.

And then, in 1993, Jurassic Park came out in theaters and scared the ever living hell out of me. I was 14 and, at the time, staying in a remote cottage in the woods of central Canada. I couldn’t sleep for days – images of boney, scaley fingers wrapping themselves dexterously around the handle of my door, pushing it open to spy upon my tasty flesh. Another 14 years later I still sometimes wake in the night with the memory of an all too vivid dinosaur dream. I think about this irrational fear sometimes when I do those lame myspace quizzes and the question is, ‘name one thing you’re afraid of’. Most people write in roaches or dentists. I want to type velociraptor but I feel just a little silly and childish. Maybe we just never outgrow those sort of things if it affected us early on. You know?