whats the coolest thing you,ve done, with no one around to see it happen?

[A-S warrior]

today i spat out a peanut, and it landed in a steel can bin, and made a very satisfing pinging sound. i always seem to pull of a really cool stunt and no one is there to see it.

what cool things have you done that no one saw?

 

(do pepole still say cool, or is that a 90,s thing?)

[LancsLad]

I think this depends on what you define cool by, I have one experience which might fit my own description of 'cool'.

 

When I was younger I was into a range of adventure sports rock climbing, winter mountaineering, kayaking at reasonable levels etc... this eventually led into caving and pot holing. I have also been a bit of a loner and self reliant type and my idea of heaven would be winning the lottery and buying a yacht and going on solo adventures as is my personality. As I gained experience I started to cave solo and found the experience of solitude underground to be really refreshing, understand the majority might not relate to this easily.

 

On one such trip I had abseiled a couple of piches down a waterfall type fissure in the ground and into a system and had followed the watercourse into the system, about half a mile or so. Because there was a lot of water around I had gone in with an electric lighting system, the type of things used by miners. In some cave systems which are dryer I would use a carbide gas generated flame for light but they tend to get extinguished a lot in water and spray. I had left the main watercourse which then went into a submerged section and was working my way through a dry bypass section flat out on my stomach pushing a rope bag/kit bag in front of me squeezing through some of the letter box sections when I banged my helmet hard on the roof above me and the light went out, kind of knew I had blown the bulb. The result if you have never been this far away from sunlight is total darkness you can see absoloutly nothing.

 

I had been through this crawl section before about half a dozen times so knew it reasonably well and so carried on forwards for a few metres untill I could get out of it and I broke out into an open section of cave where I could get to my feet again bang the head torch a couple of times to see if it was a loose connection, but got nothing. I then knew I would have to find the spare bulb in my kit bag amongst the firt aid kit and dismantle the head torch. I got on my hands and knees and realised I was on loose rubble type stuff an old river bed and so started the serach by touch for a large flat boulder which was not sloping away too much. I then set about first getting out from the bottom of my rope bag and then finding the bulb in the first aid box put it in my mouth. I then tipped the contents of the first aid box into the now empty rope bag. I then started the task of dismantling the light unit and as it came apart laying it out in a straight line across the flat boulder untill it was apart. I then very slowly went through the process of reasembling the unit bit by bit and plugged it in. I can honestly say it was one of the brightest lights I have ever experienced, and felt so much brighter than it had done around 40 minutes earlier. I held the old bulb up to the light and saw that familar sight of the filament wire hanging off its support as you do.

 

I can say after the initial oh ######! response which lasted for a few seconds I knew what I would have to do and just went about it in a very systematic way. I think in life we ask ourselves what if questions thinking through how we might react in certain situations, sometimes these are about could I be 'cool' under pressure. I sat on the boulder and realised I would then have the task of having to tip the first aid stuff out of the rope bag and pack it tightly in the tupaware box which was its home. On emptying the first aid stuff on the boulder out came a Mars bar which was a couple of years old in there for emergencys and thought theres one way I can make re-packing this lot a bit easier and so sat down and gave myself a treat. I can rememebr thinking at the time wow that was a pretty cool experience and that it laid a benchmark down in my life of knowing how I might react in pressure scenarios. There was no feeling of lets get out of here rather it was a case of savour the moment and try to understand it.

 

As a follow up I wrote to the designers of the light unit and explained what had happened and that the nature of the design meant it had to be totally reasembled before you could get a full contact was there anything they could do about the design in future. I got a letter back which explained they had tried to dismantle and rebuild the unit a few times with a scarf over their eyes in an office environment and had not been able to do so untill about the 10th attempt so understood the problems and were surprised I had managed the task first time. Just shows what a bit of focus in a real life situation can do.

 

Sorry its a bit long buts that's the best example I have A-S Warrior of being cool.

[Tanya52]

Well, someone in a call centre was disrespectful & rude with me. I filed my complain with a customers’ loyalty team and got £50 compensation. I can’ imagine myself achieving this 5-6 years ago. There’re two components which I think contribute into it: my better communication skills and the society is changing too.

[darkshine]

I still say cool - but yeah - it is a 90's thing and most people don't seem to say it any more - it doesn't stop me though

 

I tend to have witnesses to such fluke events like the ones you said - so I can't include any of those...

 

I don't know whether these count as cool or not: but recently I made a cuppa in the dark - pitch black dark - all the lights blew and I couldn't get to the circuit box.

 

I'm reteaching myself to play the keyboard with my eyes closed. I can play 2 songs with only a few minor mistakes now - and I can play 3 of my own compositions with my eyes closed.

[Tanya52]

Talking about keyboards, is any of you touch type?

I’ll appreciate a piece of advice about it.

[darkshine]

I meant musical keyboard

 

I cannot touch type - but I know someone who can - if you don't get any answers on here I can ask for you?

 

What is it you would like advice on?

[Tanya52]

I understand that there is a big difference between typing letters and making sounds. I’m interested when other people touch type, do they visualise keys or what? When I switch off my PC’s screen, I’m unable to visualise my keyboards and as a result the text I type is a total gibberish. So I gave up ‘blind” typing and have to see my keyboard. The other very confusing thing is having two alphabets on my keyboard. After I type in Cyrillic using my 2 fingers I strangle to switch on into English with my ten fingers. I wander, what’s happening in my brain then? Could it be the same kind of confusion as code switching between languages?

Edited April 30, 2012 by Tanya52

[darkshine]

When people touch type they look at the screen.

 

This is the only similarity of cause and effect. So on my musical keyboard I hit a key and I hear it. On a pc keyboard I hit a key and I see the letter appear on screen.

 

The people I know who can touch type - they are fast!!! They type nearly between 70 and 100 words per minute - and they never - ever - look at the keyboard while they are typing words.

 

One person said they learnt by having a cardboard thing over their hands - like creating a bridge over the keyboard in the shape of 2 straight sides and a "roof"

 

So the hands and keys are covered - but the screen is still visible,

 

There's slight bumps of the "F" & the "J" keys - look at your keyboard - these letters will have a notch, bump or something on them that you can then feel with your hands. Technically a blind person could learn to type on a pc keyboard due to these bumps as these are the things that tell the person the position of the hands.

 

So you put a set finger (I think the first finger) on the letter - left on "f" and right on "j" then each letter on the keyboard is meant for certain fingers, based on that position of the hands. Then its just practice and memory and position - which is similar for both music and pc keyboards - cuz even on my music keyboard you use certain fingers for certain keys so your fingers don't cross and there aren't unnecessary stretches and stuff.

 

As for mixed languages I think that's a typical example of brain freeze - the best thing to do would be to have a break between switching language.

 

Think about it - if one minute 1, 2, 3, 4 stand for 1, 2, 3, 4 and the next they stood for 5, 6, 7, 8 it would throw most people while their mind relearns the translation. It's something that takes practice.

 

A simple example is a game I like on an old console. It is 3D so the toggle on the controller works as moving the character in all directions. It's on compass points so there's 8 directions (up, down, left, right and 4 diagonals) There is one part of the game where a ghost hits you and the controls all go opposite (so left is now right - up becomes down etc) and it takes a minute of my brain going "aaaargh" to adjust.

 

Now place that example to cyrillic and english where there are far more than 8 options like my game - instead you got the alphabet and any numerical differences - its gonna take a while. You could practise the switches between them - but personally I would try having a break so that when you return to the keyboard you approach it knowing that now you are writing in English - or the other one. I think it would give you brain the time to acknowledge what it has to do.

 

Is this any use?

Edited April 30, 2012 by darkshine

[Tanya52]

Wow, I'll keep your msg in my Pandora Box. Hope you OK with it? X

[darkshine]

With you keeping it?