You can probably tell from today’s blog post title that my tax return is still on my mind! Progress has slowed a little due to the arrival of a very heavy cold – and that cold had a wee bit of an impact on today’s adventure.
Curious?
I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂
JT
Ray Mears is an expert in wilderness bushcraft and survival. Today, I am going to make Ray proud by trying my hand at learning a useful survival skill : using my watch as a compass.
You can see that it’s rather a grim day here in Northern Ireland today. Fortunately, I could just about see the sun!
You can see how I get on in the video (and I’ve put some explanatory notes below the video just in case you want to try it for yourself 🙂 )
How I’m doing it works in the Northern Hemisphere. Use 1pm for bisection in Daylight Saving Time. When you bisect the angle to establish the N-S line, North is the direction heading away from the sun. For full instructions (including for the Southern Hemisphere), look here.
I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂
JT
Today’s adventure involved learning Braille. What a whopper of an adventure it was too 🙂 .
Setting myself the challenge of learning the numbers 0-4 in Braille seemed quite do-able. I made myself some Braille cards to practise with (image below the second video) : I made them nice and large to make it easier for me. That was mistake number one because when I got to test out my Braille skills, I discovered that Braille is TINY (the little bumps are very close together too) and you need a very well-developed sense of touch (a bit of a concern for me with finger-tips hardened by 30 years of strumming a guitar!)
I decided to give my new skills a real-life run for their money by taking myself to a lift in a department store to see if I could get myself from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor.
How long do you think it took me to find the correct button to press? Watch the first video to find out! (I’ve put all the timing details below the video).
What really surprised me about this whole adventure was how quickly the human brain can adapt. Watch the second video to see if my skills improve on my second attempt! (Again, you’ll find all the timings below the video).
Braille Lift Test 1
I set the clock ticking at 20 seconds when I was fully inside the lift. I had a bit of a panic when I realised that the Braille numbers weren’t on their own but preceded by a different character (that character turned out to be “#”). So my first task was to separate the preceding character from the number.
It took me 24 seconds to find the button for the 3rd floor. It took me 2 minutes and 35 seconds to correctly establish the location of the button for the 1st floor. It took me a whole 2 minutes and 45 seconds to find the second floor button! I realised that there were some buttons I didn’t know (Lower Ground and Ground). On returning to these buttons I incorrectly identified them as 4 and O (so I learned that my brain distorted the information to make it fit with what it knew!)
I felt quite pressured during the experience – I even broke into a sweat. At one point I thought “I’m not going to get out of here”. Soon after this point , whilst fumbling with the 4th and O floor buttons, the thought arrived “what would happen if I ever lost my sight?”
Braille Lift Test 2
Unperturbed by the stress of my first Braille experience, I decided to have another go in a different lift. I was curious how I would fare.
The second lift had less “noise” – there were less buttons; I was ready for small bumps with tiny spaces between them; and I knew to expect unexpected characters. I was also ready to run a “distortion check” on the sensory information.
This time it only took me 13 seconds to locate the 2nd floor button! I found the 1st floor button in 26 seconds and the O button in 35 seconds. Within 45 seconds of entering the lift I was 100% confident of having located the button for the 2nd floor.
Human brains are BRILLIANT 🙂 🙂 🙂 I was astonished at how much easier it was the second time around and at how much I’d learned from the initial experience. Being able to apply the learning felt really good.
Here’s my practice set of home-made Braille cards.
I am just going outside and may be some time.
JT
Today I decided to have an adventure in my coffee break 🙂 To be more precise, I decided to make the experience of drinking coffee my adventure.
I did a little bit of research about how coffee connoisseurs do the whole tasting thing and then gave it a whirl. The experience made me realise that I really hadn’t been tasting my coffee at all before!
(Top tasting tip : if you’re going to try this, make sure that you taste the coffee black and unsweetened. Additions such as milk, sugar and syrups cloud the palate!)
I am just going outside and may be some time.
JT
Today I set myself the challenge of learning all the cuts of beef in under 2 minutes. Can I do it?
If you’re interested , there is a link to an image containing all the UK terms for the cuts below the video.
The link to the image for UK terms for cuts of beef is here. If you check it, you’ll see I managed it!
I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂
JT
I have to admit that I got into a bit of a panic today due to a fair degree of misplaced confidence regarding my chances of long-term survival (see previous brassica-related adventures 🙂 ) . The awful realisation dawned on me that my communication arsenal was lacking the one tool that could save me in the toughest of conditions : morse code!
Thanks to Wikepedia, I have learned that, compared to voice-based communication, morse code is less sensitive to poor signal conditions. In other words, I’ll be able to get my message across loud and clear. I feel so upbeat about my increased chances of survival that I’m already humming that Gloria Gaynor classic 🙂
As part of my research, I learned that morse code was last used as an international standard for maritime distress in 1999. The French Navy stopped using morse code on the 31st January 1997. I found their final message very powerful : “Calling all. This is our last cry before eternal silence.”
If I ever get defeated by the sinister sprout, I’ll have the French Navy’s message transmitted in morse code at my post-life celebration.
Here goes …. (Just to let you know, I’m speaking in the dark for the first 20 seconds. The transmission starts at around the 20 second mark. Unfortunately, the light doesn’t appear to be that bright on the video but I think you’ll get the message 🙂 )
Should you also be interested in longevity , you can learn how to communicate in morse code here!
I am just going outside and may be some time.
JT
Today, I bought my very first copy of the Angler’s Mail (they don’t call me Intrepid Jane for nothing). I was curious to find out if I could learn three fascinating things about angling by reading this magazine.
Here’s what I discovered (hold on to your hats, by the way. This is pretty mind-blowing stuff. No. Really. It is.) ~
I am just going outside and may be some time 🙂
JT
Humans Resourced 