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Alternate Uses for FAK Items

Really irritating rash on forearms and swelling around my eyes (especially under the right one, and above my left) for the last few days. Some relief from antihistamine tabs and topical ointments, but still irritating, so. . . applied some Oragel (‘cos it was the only topical benzocaine I had _open_ and on hand–a topical pain reliever in one of my FAKs; had some Solarcaine but was an unopened pack). Relief. I’ve still not used either tube of that Oragel 2-pack for its intended purpose. . . *heh*

Another: Despite QuickClot, et al, bandages/gauzes, for some puncture wounds, after last night’s Stop the Bleed class, I still feel comfortable using a combo of WoundSeal on regular gauze, and a tampon if needed, after a tourniquet and before a pressure bandage (like the Israeli Bandage here). Sure, if the wound is bad enough, packing it with QuickClot gauze first might be just the ticket, but WoundSeal + tampon for some is a handy (and relatively inexpensive) backup, and might avert tearing up and packing a wound with a dirty t-shirt or bandana if QC there’s not enough gauze and/or sponges for multiple wounds.

OTOH, my FAKs are outgrowing some of my smaller kit bags. *shrugs* I’d rather carry a better-equipped FAK than more food (and I can always locate and clean water, given the locales I frequent). Don’t really need to be all that concerned about weight/size issues on home kit and car kits, though, so as our home and car FAKs seem to be transitioning to trauma kits, not really a big deal. Will still keep the small kits for minor things, I suppose, but a slightly larger FAK for even just day hikes is in the making, as well.

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Updating First Aid Knowledge Base and Practices

My last formal first aid instruction, before last night, was… 45 years ago for a Water Safety Instructor certification. while it certainly came in handy 25 years later when I needed to perform CPR on my Wonder Woman (a success story for CPR there!), it would have been good to have had today’s updated “hands only” CPR training, since she had aspirated some food beyond my reach (and knowledge) for extraction prior to the breathing part of CPR in my prior training. *shrugs* The ER doc caught it and lavaged her lungs, and–almost miraculously–averted pneumonia, but it might have been better w/o the breathing part. Maybe. *shrugs*

Still, udating. . . Attended a “Stop the Bleed” class taught by an ER/Trauma center nurse last evening to check and update my first aid knowledge base/practice. Attendance was by reservation of one of the 50 slots. When I signed up in March, I was the 37th person (my Wonder Woman was the 38th). Good review and update. But the thing is, of the 38 who were signed up as of March 18 (and who knows how many of the remaining 50 seats after that), only 12, counting the two of us, were there.

I assume the rest bled out before they got there.

*sigh*

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Let the Passing Scene. . . Pass

The (social) democritization of publishing has resulted in some good things, while at the same time resulting in an ever lower lowest common denominator. For example, it’s kinda cute (where values of “cute” include “pathetic”) the way some 20-something subliterate wannabe writers try to emulate “adult” speech by using words of which they wot not the meanings. *heh* Cute but sad.

(Examples abound. Just check out a few “freebie” self-pubs on Amazon. 80% or more of them are written by “participation/attendance award subliterates” who really should not be self-pubbing. The other 15%-20% often come close to or surpass material published by trad-pub houses, which means that maybe a third of them are worth reading. *heh*)

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Sometimes. . .

Sometimes, I like to just groan, loudly. It feels good. My Wonder Woman does not usually appreciate this, but when I groaned a bit ago, she joined in–VERY LOUDLY.

“Thank you for validating me, sweetheart.”

That comment was not validated.

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“Preppers” Ain’t Crazy, Well, at Least Not Most of ‘Em

I see a common misconception pretty often (Well, it’s common, so I would. *heh*) It goes something like this:

“Preppers are individuals who believe that, in the near future, life as they know it will be challenged or changed due to a major event.”

No, cupcake. “Preppers” are people who think that being prepared to deal with a wide range of emergencies should they occur is just the intelligent thing to do. Heck, preparing in advance to be able to deal effectively with a wide range of possible natural or man-made disasters IF any of them should occur, is certainly better than playing grasshopper and then mooching off others should, say, an extended power outage from a winter storm or a major flood occur.

While I’m sure there are a few tinfoil hat wearers who meet the pejorative criteria stated in the misconception, but I believe them to be the exception, not the rule. Yeh, I know a few whose tinfoil hats seemed to cause brainwave malfunctions leading them to not just go “off-grid” but move to third world countries to escape “the coming collapse of civilization,” but I can count those few on one hand and have fingers left over. 😉

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Addicted to Books

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a [library] for?” (with semi-sincere apology to Robert browning)

I have been “buying” anywhere between seven and 30-something books a week for years (larger numbers once ebooks became necessary when I ran out of space no matter how diligently I purged my personal library). I only read about seven books a week (down from the 20-something I used to read when I was a lad), but I do find I discard more ebooks after partial reading than I have ever discarded hardcopy. Writing and editing standards have slipped terribly.

Still, having all my hardcopy classic collection backed up in multiple formats, media, and locations (and adding to it) is a Good Thing, IMO. Sadly, my non-fiction Kindle is out of storage space, now.

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Made Me Laugh. Stop It.

“‘I’ll Clean Trump’s Clock’ – Author Brad Thor Announces He Will Challenge Trump in 2020”

Urm, not if he politics as poorly as he writes. (His writing’s about on a par with Dan #gagamaggot Brown, IMO. OK, maybe a little better. Currently, there is no worse “bestselling” writer than Dan Brown. I found Thor’s stuff merely pedestrian and boringly predictable. Tastes vary, though.)

Thor’s stuff is good enough for made-for-Lifetime “C” movies, though. That’s better than Dan Brown’s stuff which is just stupid.

On second thought. . . There were plenty of stupid people around to vote for both The Trumpery and The Queenie Cacklepants Cylon in 2016, and it takes a certain kind of stupidity to find Thor’s books at all readable, so. . .

*sigh*

Someone, please save us from the ambitions of mediocre writers and conmen and corrupt pols. #gagamaggot

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Yeh, Sorta, but Not

The Myth of ‘Learning Styles’

Are “learning styles” theories all they are cracked up to be? No. But are they myths? Absolutely not. Despite the fact that folks almost certainly do not have ONE “style” of learning that is hardwired into them, folks do seem to have preferred modes of learning, often different for different endeavors. The most basic classes of “learning styles” (actually, in this case, “modalities”) most often pout forth are kinesthetic, auditory, and visual, with many different variations and combinations and terminologies offered as theoretical possibilities using the basic “modalities”.

A preference or preferences, however, don’t mandate that a person cannot effectively learn in different ways. This is where the writer of the article and I part ways. Labeling learning styles a “myth” isjust silly. She even hints at the fact of the non-mythical nature of learning styles with the elliptical “admission against interest,”

“. . .a lot of evidence suggests that people aren’t really one certain kind of learner or another. . . ”

(implying, of course, that there are different ways of learning, just that, as anyone who’s ever taught OR LEARNED anything knows, different tasks may call for different ways of learning something).

Some things I learn best and most quickly by simply reading (and actually studying) text. Others, I learn best by simply observing elements closely and then getting hands on. Others seem to almost require visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities together to master (yeh, I can hear a piece of music and reproduce it, either in manuscript or via an instrument of my choice, but seeing a piece of sheet music, hearing it “in my head” in preview, then performing it–thus rehearsing–what I previously heard “in my head”), cementing them for me. *shrugs* Other things don’t seem to require all that much involvement for me.

But actual learning that lasts always takes one thing: doing what I have “learned,” putting it into practice, using it, reifying it, if you will.

I think that may be universal.