I hope I never get addicted to skiing but it's a slippery slope

I don't know why they call pessimism bad.  After all, if anything can go wrong, it will is both Murphy's Law is prevalent and quoted all over the place. 

However, this does sort of fit when you are doing something you don't completely have control over.


A man of Pessimism

A young man was soon to be drafted for the military. He knew that there was no getting out of the draft, so he chose instead to enlist so that he could at least choose his branch of service.

His girlfriend wanted him to be seen as a hero and she told him that she always found paratroopers to be the epitome of heroism. The young man protested, but eventually relented and he was accepted as a paratrooper.

After much intensive training, he and his class readied inside the plane for their first jump. The instructor spoke to them saying, "troops, as you jump from the plane, you will wait five seconds, reach with your right hand over your left hip and pull the rip cord. If the shoot fails to deploy, you will reach with your left hand over your right hip and deploy the backup parachute. When you make it to the ground, there will be trucks waiting to take you back to base."

At this point the young man is very nervous, but against his better judgment he follows the rest of the troops and jumps from the plane. Not waiting at all, he reaches over his left hip and pulls the ripcord. Nothing happens. He immediately reaches over and pulls the other ripcord. Once again, nothing happens.

As the young man speeds by the other troops on the way to the ground they heard him saying, "uh-huh, and I bet those trucks won't be down there either."