THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

DigForVictory

Huge sympathies, GQ! In this valley we have assorted schools (and therefore schoolchildren), and sheep.

I have noticed that escaped-from-the-fields sheep use the traffic islands to cross at, whereas the uniformed brats? Do not...

Keep up with the yelling & screaming - let any witnesses be very clear that you had tried to engage their attention before the idiots decided to shamble into your path. I presume there's something in the road traffic act that say garden forks cannot be tied to the handlebars in a likely-to-cause-injuries manner? A parasol with a good solid handle gaffered to the crossbar seems improbable but 'joust' at these idiots & they may learn?
(In the event of terminal contact, leave the phone on the road, drape the body over the panniers & deposit in the compost. Add brindle worms & then retrieve the bones for further burning to release the beneficial chemicals - let these idiots have some virtue to the allotment?!)

What me? Have considered this a bit? No - just a happy historian wondering how several generations back would have dealt with the matter & thinking that time travel to the future would be completely baffling.

monnagran

Back in the dark ages when I was teaching mixed infants, we used to have a mantra that I had my littlies chanting every day.

"The road for the lorry, the car and the bus.
The pavement, the pavement, the pavement for US."

Sorry GQ, no mention of bicycles, and in those days very few homes even had phones standing on the widowsill in a chilly passageway, only to be used in dire emergencies.

cuddlymarm

Also something lost seems to be walking facing the traffic on roads with no pavements. The amount of people ( not all young ) we see with earphones on walking with their back to traffic. I at least need to see who going to run me over.

Doveling

I am qualified in Road Safety.

I was a fully paid up member of the Tufty Club :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Can't just put my hand on my badge at the moment.:o

(And can't remember seeing it for about blahblah years!)

dreaming

GreyQueen wrote: »

I think walking and playing with a phone ought to be a whipping offence, frankly.:rotfl:

I often say that just because the phone is "mobile" YOU don't have to be.

I think mobile phones are great tools and they enable me to go off for the day in the car with not too many worries about getting lost or breaking down, but as with so many things it is often the tools that get the blame for the ill-thought out behaviour of the users.

pineapple

Mobiles are indeed great tools but I think that for many, they are a source of addiction and personally I think their usefulness is outweighed by their impact on society/family life. My friend's teen daughter is invariably sat on the sofa engrossed with her mobile. WW3 could be breaking out around her and she would still have her nose stuck in it. There are many like her and I don't think it is good.

DigForVictory

Just strolled back in from a fire practice. Noone needed my first aid box (always a good start) and the young enthusiasts who had barrelled out from meetings in just their shirts were gently shepherded to the head of the queue at the tea point. "Just need to rinse this, chuck" & other fine old whoppers are three ladies decide the young chap looks puny & chilled & in need of a nice hot drink.

Just as well we don't have the wool fire blankets anymore, or the lad would have been hauled away & benevolently smothered.

I remembered my glasses & phone & Left My Keys Behind. Shame on me. Had I been in a meeting, the situation would have been worse - no fleece or coat (having both I was in a position to lend a garment to anyone obviously shivering).

Frankly I think I should take my daybag into meetings. Still no coat but keys, chocolate, enviro-mug for coffees (currently includes a giftcard for a coffee or two), workphone with work collegaues' contact numbers in it (just tested as flat), pen, notebook, spork, dental floss & (very modest) cash stash & so forth - all of which might have enlivened the wait...

GreyQueen

pineapple wrote: »

Mobiles are indeed great tools but I think that for many, they are a source of addiction and personally I think their usefulness is outweighed by their impact on society/family life. My friend's teen daughter is invariably sat on the sofa engrossed with her mobile. WW3 could be breaking out around her and she would still have her nose stuck in it. There are many like her and I don't think it is good.

Hearty agreement with you there. As I perambulate around the city, it isn't at all uncommon to see into restaurants and cafes and see two people at a small table, apparently a couple, each engrossed in their smartphone. Or two pretty young lasses sat opposite a handsome young chap, each engrossed in their tablet/ smart phone and ignoring the others.


Is this really a decent way to run a society? If you went out for a meal with someone and hoiked out a paperback and propped it open to read whilst ignoring your companion, you'd be regarded as extremely rude. Why, therefore, is it acceptable to gawk at a phone screen and send messages to people not present while ignoring those who are.


Several times in the past weeks I've heard twenty-something phone groupies declare that a smartphone means you have the world in your pocket.


Nope, you dope, at best you have a window into the world in your pocket. And you are spectating on life instead of actually living it.


In fifty years time, as people of the first generation of smartphone dumbos come into the autumn of their years, they will speculate on how they wasted their youth and I wish I'd spent less time on InstaFaceTimeFarceBookPinterWotsit will be high up on the regret list.:rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

Having watched a tv programme yesterday re criminals with their illicit "windows to the world" there in jail yesterday (ie they've got smartphones these days - despite being in jail) then it was quite clear they were openly stating that "Never mind being in jail - we are still Leading Our Lives despite our bodies being physically constrained by being in jail".

They are too....:(:mad:

They're still communicating with The World, they're still making deals, etc, etc, etc.

I think this is part of the attraction of the World of Technology. To quite an extent - it doesn't actually matter any more whereabouts in the country or, to some extent, in The World one is = forget where your body is located and you can "live a life" to some extent in the world as a whole.

So there is actually a plus side to "You" live in the World as a whole (or at least the country as a whole) to some extent - regardless of where your body actually is iyswim.

I think that's what the attraction is imo.

Though I do agree that it's rude to absent yourself mentally from someone you are with physically and phones should be put away on those occasions.

Karmacat

I do think there's a case to be made for intelligent useage of a smartphone ... with trips away this year, my sister and I had decided what we wanted to see, mostly in medieval-era cities. That is, tiny "streets" which are actually paved-over medieval footpaths. We could get so far with streetsigns, but what enabled us to actually get where we needed to go was me going onto google maps, and enlarging, enlarging and enlarging, until we could see the tiny little alley where we were, and the other tiny little alley where we [STRIKE]needed[/STRIKE] wanted to be.


Plus, my brother needed to send us the survey report on the house he's buying after we sell my mother's house, and because I had an email account enabled on my phone, he could send it and we saw it immediately. Had to get it printed out by Reception, to be honest, the phone couldn't do that. It was well worth it to help cope with my brother's sky high stress levels, to be honest.


But as for the culture surrounding being buried in mobile phones ... appalling, I agree and it's a really good comparison between a phone and a book!