Earlier this week I was in East Hollywood with our youth group. Our students spent some of their spring break serving at a church that meets the needs of the homeless and less fortunate. It was awesome to see 20 students serving and modeling Jesus’ character and actions.
On service trips like the one we just had I spend most of my time organizing the students and making sure they have something to do. Every once in a while, though, I roll up my sleeves and get to work, especially when there’s a gross job that needs to be done. Our students need to know that I’m willing to do the worst jobs; if I expect them to serve then I need to model that behavior.
The gross job involved clearing out a freezer full of meat that hadn’t really been doing much freezing. The meat at the top of the freezer was fine but, as we got nearer the bottom, all the meat had thawed and started leaking. There were packages of thawed fish spilling their juices all over the freezer. Needless to say it smelled terrible and that smell worked its way into my hair and my clothes.
It was really gross. Here is some more nose-scrunching grossness from our favorite nerdclinations.
Tauntaun Guts
I loved watching the original trilogy when I was younger even though there were parts that always scared me.
The devil alien in the cantina scared me.
Bossk scared me on the bridge of the Executor.
Bib Fortuna gave me nightmares.
The tauntaun guts didn’t give me nightmares but they are some of the grossest things I can imagine. I always get a little queasy when Han slices open the tauntuan and its intestines spill out. Seeing the guts fall out everywhere is bad enough but then imagining getting stuck inside of them makes it so much worse. I’ll take fish juice over a sleeping bag made out of intestines any day.
Tony Stark’s Chest
I loved both Iron Man movies and can’t wait for Iron Man 3, which is only six weeks away. Robert Downey, Jr. is the best Tony Stark and really got non-nerds engaged with The Avengers. However, I could have done without the scene where Pepper sticks her hand inside Tony’s chest. The Arc Reactor is awesome because it’s a clean source of energy and gave the world Iron Man. But the fact that Tony needs to reach into his gooey chest to swap it out makes my skin crawl. I can’t even handle watching fake surgery on television so the idea of someone sticking his or her hand into a hole in someone’s chest cavity is too much for my weak constitution.
Ceti Alphi V Bugs
The Wrath of Khan is easily one of my favorite Star Trek movies. Khan is an amazing villain, the story is appropriately epic and Spock elevates his already iconic status. The bugs that Khan uses to control Chekov and Terrell, though, are totally gross. I’m a little wary of using Q-Tips so the idea of a bug burrowing its way into my brain makes me very uncomfortable and very scared of earwigs. Earwigs basically look like the Ceti Alpha V bugs and I have terrifying images of them crawling into my ear, eating my brain and making me Ricardo Montalban’s slave. Though being Ricardo Montalban’s slave doesn’t seem too bad; it worked out for Tattoo.
I don’t really like gross things even in my favorite nerdclinations. Some of the grossest things I’ve done, though, have been for God and his kingdom. We may not like gross things but doing them for God makes them way more bearable and far more rewarding.
What are some gross moments from your favorite nerdclinations?
It’s funny how tame those Tauntaun guts seem to me as a grown-up but, yeah, at the time – ick. Ditto the Ceti eels.
The only gross thing I experienced as a young nerd that I haven’t gone back to watch (that I can remember) is an episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone revival entitled “Gramma,” where the kid’s grammy, bedridden upstairs, was some blobby kind of monster. Literally. Scared me and I still have no interest in watching it ever again. Not only because the effects were gross, but I was really troubled by making this kid’s grandmother a monster. Thematically, it was disgusting, if you get what I mean.
I didn’t watch the 1980s Twilight Zone but I loved/hated the original; it totally freaked me out. The classic episode with Shatner and the gremlin on the wing freaked me out. When the gremlin’s face was pressed against the window my face turned white and I got very, very scared.
I just watched the opening of “Scream” and the ending to “The Ring” and didnt bat an eye. All you have to do is realize it’s just a movie. But it is always fun to pretend and geek out over horror movies. Have fun.