Fade to [condition] white. How to avoid it??

[r_w]

MB's posts from the road got me to remembering my days of travelling. 

After the second or third flight, I found myself fading to white and just disconnecting.  Almost cost me a few times when landing in a foreign country and having to deal with crooked cabbies. 

So how DO you keep alert after 24 hours in airplanes and ports? 

[alfsauve]

I traveled a lot in the USAF.  I learned quickly to fall asleep as soon as I got on the plane and not wake up until wheels down.  I actually wake up about 10 seconds before the wheels touch, consistently.    Of course the fact that the time period from touchdown until wheels up (4 to 48 hours) would involve NO sleep help develop this "talent". 

So, while I enjoy flying and enjoy watching out the window, more than likely I sleep the entire flight.   Hit the ground running.   I use to be able to go 5 or 6 days before I would wind down.  Age is catching up to me though.

[m25operator]

RW you have to forget what white is like, it should no longer be part of your persona, Sucks, but true, or only reserved for those situations where you and everyone around you can be Fat, Dumb, and Happy. I have not been in that place for a long time.

What did it for me, was Uncle Jeff Cooper, wake up everyday and decide if you have to kill someone, you will, and if it happens you made that decision before breakfast.

Watching my cat screaming to be let out, and when I do, she gets out the door and then pauses and checks her 6, 12, 3 and 9, not a bad attitude.

Go ahead Haz, bask.

[Jackel]

a old army trick is to eat.

eating stimulates the brain with taste and excitement. it also helps boredom





 

[Rob Pincus]

"awareness" is largely an illusion guys. The color code is used by some as a mystical security blanket to let them believe that they cannot be ambushed. I believe that the more enlightened approach is to understand that you can be caught of guard. In fact, you can be ambushed all the easier if your attention is focused on a distraction because of your "high level of awareness"... this tactic is regularly used by teams of street criminals and stage illusionists to get people to focus their attention on the wrong thing while the important thing is being performed. Sometimes that is a coin being pulled from behind your ear, sometimes it is a actual threat walking up behind you while someone else asks for the time.
Understanding that you CAN be ambushed and training from that perspective as often as possible is much more likely to increase your survivability than trying to find ways to avoid distraction, fatigue and surprise.

-RJP

[Sponsor]

[Pathfinder]

My problem is that I live in a very low crime area, although car break-ins are increasing. I think we had 2 in town last month. Come on - we have 2 County Sheriff deputies patrolling 1600 square miles. Coming from Chicago originally, I have lost my spidey-sense that I used everytime I walked the streets or rode the El/subway.

As a result, the sheer boredom of moving around has lulled me into complacency, and it seems no matter what I do, I cannot always remember to be in condition yellow at the least unless I go into a box store parking lot. Even then, I have to work hard to force myself to pay attention, and usually fail.

So I tend to fade to white all of the time - the threat really isn't there most of the time unless something triggers it, like a professional panhandler on the corner. But then, my car automatically locks when I put it in gear, so again, no need to think.

Ideas?

[Ping]

In flight, while in the Air Force, I was fine till the first bump. I always knew there would be a second or more continuous bumps ahead. The worst was flying home from Italy. We hit a pocket and dropped a couple of thousand feet. Everyone's ears were popping and babies were screaming. Turbulance is a mofo.
If you have a xanax bar you will be fine. I prefer my Spidey Sense as Pathfinder mentioned or a nice couple of shots of Crown Royal.

[shooter32]

Understanding that you CAN be ambushed and training from that perspective as often as possible is much more likely to increase your survivability than trying to find ways to avoid distraction, fatigue and surprise.

-RJP

So I tend to fade to white all of the time - the threat really isn't there most of the time unless something triggers it, like a professional panhandler on the corner. But then, my car automatically locks when I put it in gear, so again, no need to think.

Ideas?

Path, I bet your "awearness" is better than you think.

[tombogan03884]

 Want to stay "AWARE" ? Think of what you may miss seeing, like the $20 bill the guy behind you picked up after YOU stepped on it. 

[ratcatcher55]

MB's posts from the road got me to remembering my days of travelling. 

After the second or third flight, I found myself fading to white and just disconnecting.  Almost cost me a few times when landing in a foreign country and having to deal with crooked cabbies. 

So how DO you keep alert after 24 hours in airplanes and ports? 

When I go to Eastern Europe or the Middle East I try and sleep as much as possible on the flights. No sleeping pills, maybe a drink with dinner.
I do stay away from coffee or tea untill we are about ready to land.

Connections suck but sometimes you have to deal with them. I walk around the terminal and stretch but don't eat. Who needs a good case of the trots in an airplane.

As far as cabs my little rule is if they aren't in the taxi line, I don't get in. When they are waving at me from the outer ring or trying to get me from inside the baggage claim I ignore them. 

Good driver and 3rd World can not be used in the same sentence.  The Enshalla driving school worries more than terrorists or muggers