It's just like having a concussion
For my High School buddies - remember Ms Leal? Psychology class, Blue House, I think that was Senior Year. She told us about this dude George Stratton who popped into my head the other day.
The lens of the eye actually projects an upside down image of the world onto your retina. The brain turns it right side up. This was understood to a degree in the 1890s when George Stratton performed his experiments.
GS created a monogoggle, which he wore on one eye (duh), that inverted the image, projecting a right side up image of the world onto his retina. I think it looked a lot like this:
In short term experiments, he found that his brain would sometimes make sense of this upside down world, though he couldn't really function. In a long term experiment, 8 days long or so, he found that after several days he could actually walk around the house but if he looked at something closely, it would invert again. He had difficulty explaining the sensation he felt, but it just didn't feel quite right, especially in his hands.
This is exactly what it feels like driving on the wrong side of the road. It's like wearing upside down glasses. I get asked how it is all the time and I can never give a good explaination.
It's fairly easy to drive on the street once I get on it. It's been 2 months and I still find myself pulling on to the right side of the road about once every 3 weeks. Parking lots are real tough. That'll never feel right, it's just like looking at something closely with upside down glasses on. The whole pulling in to the parking lot, looking for people coming out from my left first, PARKING!! Parking is like trying to throw a football left handed. The coordination is completely different from the wrong side of the vehicle. I work with two Americans who've been here for YEARS and they can't shake it either.
I hate to scare the parents out there, but I heard a hilarious story from one of the blokes here, my mate if you will. An Australian went over to the States on vacation, rents a car and ends up getting into a head on collision. The guy he hit turned out to be very sympathetic because he had done the exact thing on a trip to Europe! Dave Attell touched on a similar story of serindipity last year in his HBO special Captain Miserable:
My friend Scott got a concussion last year in a car accident. He goes in to see the doctor who gives him a series of brain teasers. When he came out of it he explains that they say he had a concussion but the test was just really hard. Word finds with random letter sequences are tough because you've never seen that sequence before. When he went back 3 months later he absolutely crushed the test. Turned out the things they were asking him to do were perfectly simple, and the directions were crystal clear. These simple things were very difficult for him because he was concussed.
Next time somebody asks me how driving on the wrong side of the road is, I have an answer: It's just like having a concussion. Even Troy Aikman could understand that explaination and does the NFL for Fox.
The lens of the eye actually projects an upside down image of the world onto your retina. The brain turns it right side up. This was understood to a degree in the 1890s when George Stratton performed his experiments.
GS created a monogoggle, which he wore on one eye (duh), that inverted the image, projecting a right side up image of the world onto his retina. I think it looked a lot like this:
In short term experiments, he found that his brain would sometimes make sense of this upside down world, though he couldn't really function. In a long term experiment, 8 days long or so, he found that after several days he could actually walk around the house but if he looked at something closely, it would invert again. He had difficulty explaining the sensation he felt, but it just didn't feel quite right, especially in his hands.
This is exactly what it feels like driving on the wrong side of the road. It's like wearing upside down glasses. I get asked how it is all the time and I can never give a good explaination.
It's fairly easy to drive on the street once I get on it. It's been 2 months and I still find myself pulling on to the right side of the road about once every 3 weeks. Parking lots are real tough. That'll never feel right, it's just like looking at something closely with upside down glasses on. The whole pulling in to the parking lot, looking for people coming out from my left first, PARKING!! Parking is like trying to throw a football left handed. The coordination is completely different from the wrong side of the vehicle. I work with two Americans who've been here for YEARS and they can't shake it either.
I hate to scare the parents out there, but I heard a hilarious story from one of the blokes here, my mate if you will. An Australian went over to the States on vacation, rents a car and ends up getting into a head on collision. The guy he hit turned out to be very sympathetic because he had done the exact thing on a trip to Europe! Dave Attell touched on a similar story of serindipity last year in his HBO special Captain Miserable:
My friend Scott got a concussion last year in a car accident. He goes in to see the doctor who gives him a series of brain teasers. When he came out of it he explains that they say he had a concussion but the test was just really hard. Word finds with random letter sequences are tough because you've never seen that sequence before. When he went back 3 months later he absolutely crushed the test. Turned out the things they were asking him to do were perfectly simple, and the directions were crystal clear. These simple things were very difficult for him because he was concussed.
Next time somebody asks me how driving on the wrong side of the road is, I have an answer: It's just like having a concussion. Even Troy Aikman could understand that explaination and does the NFL for Fox.
Comments
Lloyd: I have been trying to find a way to blog that video for weeks. How's that for time on my mind?
Eric: I think you're concussed now. You've posted that same story twice.