In Amanda Ripley's Appendix "How to Boost your Survival Odds," where do you think YOU could use the most improvement?
In William Forstchen's "One Second After," he makes a trip back into town. Unlike most people, he is pretty certain that this is a major disaster, not a simple power outage that will be solved in a few days or a week. In the short time he has, what tasks does he prioritize? Why do you think this was his strategy? Would you have replaced one of his errands with another errand?
Your responses to these questions do not need to be long, but should be thoughtful, and you should explain your reasoning.
After reading and researching the ever important question of "What would you do in an emergency situation," It has made me question my own abilities and values as well as if I would be capable and ready at a moment's notice to evacuate. All three authors purposed valuable lessons and theories on preparedness, some of the lessons in the readings even overlapped.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Ripley's book, When Life Becomes Molten like Motel Metal is filled with so many fascinating stories and scenarios that I went on google books to read more chapters. The phrase " Luck is Unreliable," is a very compelling and important quote that contributes to the entire book. Whatever event or catastrophe happens in this lifetime, you never know if you will be one of the lucky ones, a person who stayed, who assessed their situation, stayed calm or called on one of their neighbors. In a life or death situation: people chose life. Ripley's book marvels at why people don't prepare more or talk about the worst case scenario. Yes, there are people who live with the mentality that life is short, whatever happens is meant to happen. But what if each of us could take a little time to prepare,talk to survivors, gather personal items, stock up one extra food or learn how to build a fire. In a disaster, the outcome is out of our hands, "Call on god, but row away from the Rocks." Think about what we should know now.
In the section, Boost Your Survival Odds. I benefit most from lowering my anxiety level and training my brain. Naturally, I become worried easily, I have realized that in a situation like this, it is crucial to control your mind, body and spirit. Additionally, I do need to brush up on some basic life skills, right now I am not prepared to handle a disaster,or even a mini crisis like a power-outage. As Ripley states," the best way to improve performance is to practice," any skill or behavior that I have mastered is through practice and repetition. In order to be prepared, it is in my best interest to rehearse/practice in advance.
William Forstchen's book shows how a major crisis can occur in an instant. Forstchen's priority was his family. He made sure he took his family back to the house, he also thought about what he would need if he did not have access to water, food, etc. His first priority was to make sure his daughter had her medication. While his other daughter can bear showering without hot water, it is absolutely imperative that jennifer the youngest has her meds, she simply cannot survive without them. If i was to alter one of his errands, I don't really understand why he stopped to get cigarettes. Are cigarettes really crucial to survival? NO, It is an item that he can live without, it is not an item that determine Life.
In Amanda Ripley’s introduction “Life Becomes Like Molten Metal,” she looks at why people have specific responses to really stressful situations and how everyone is so different when dealing with adversity. She focuses in on the idea that “Luck is Unreliable,” and what she is getting at with this quote is that there is much more than luck that has to do with what people overcome the challenge and those that do not. While this is only an introduction, it seems that she will explore why it is so important to be prepared, even in a basic sense, since there is not much time to deal with problems that could occur. To me this seems like an essential idea, because there are so many small things that people can do that take almost no time at all, but will make the extremely stressful situation more manageable if thought is given to it before it happens. In my experience people are often fearful of what they do not understand, so if you can increase this knowledge worry is replaced by confidence in yourself.
ReplyDeleteFrom Amanda Ripley’s Appendix “How to Boost your Survival Odds,” I think the area that I could most improve on is getting to know neighbors better. This is the case because I am more of an independent person and would probably go out of way not to ask someone else for help if it could be avoided. In some cases I guess this could be a plus, but in others it could be a serious flaw since knowing them or asking for help could save hours of labor, money or even a life. I do feel however if you are generally a more prepared person, and knew everyone, they may take advantage of your preplanning.
In William Forstchen’s “One Second After,” the main character makes a run into town and buys cigarettes, helps to inform the local government about what is going on, helps the woman he had left the night before and picks up medicine for his daughter. The tasks were performed in that order, and to me it is fascinating why he didn’t perform these tasks in the opposite order, giving preference to the medicine for his diabetic daughter. I still don’t understand the exchange between John and the storekeeper, and why it was okay for him to buy cartons of cigarettes but that he recommended that from now on only packs could be purchased. If it was me I probably would not have made that stop a priority. The one interesting thing about John though, is that he is willing to help people but only after he has taken care of himself.
I belive that Amanda Ripley uses the term "luck is unreliable" to make the reader think about luck during an emergency situation. She believes that we have become very detached from our own survival instincts that many of us wouldnt know what to do during a disaster. She believes that this detachment from doing things for ourselves is in a way, us depending soley on luck for survival. If we were to have an emergency situation when the things that have led us to become so detached are no longer there then our luck would run out. This is a good phrase to use because i dont often think about the services that i use every day not being there or what i would do if they were gone.
ReplyDeleteIn the section "boost your survival odds" i would say that there are a lot of areas that i could use improvement. Surviving a widespread disaster is not something that i think about often. The area that i probrably could use the most improvement is knowing my neighbors. I live within a pretty close proximity to a lot of people most of whom i dont know at all. If there was a situation where our different skills and tools could be pooled together it would probrably be useful to know more of the neighbors.
The character William Forstchen's book prioritizes the insulin for his daughter. He believes that a weapon has knocked out the power grid and that normal services could be gone for months or even years. If i was in his situation i think one erand that i would have searched more for was information. I think that i would have tried to figure out what was going on for sure so that i could prioritize what needed to be done and determine if we were truly in an emergency situation.
In Amanda Ripley’s introduction “Life Becomes Like Molten Metal, she talks about getting to know our oldest personality, the one that takes over in crisis. I think it is important to be prepared for a disaster with supplies and such and even a plan would help. But you also need to be mentally prepared. If you have the supplies and a plan but never actually think about what the crisis would be like and mentally put yourself in it, you may not react as planned. Even doing so and mentally preparing, you still may react in an unexpected way. This is important to try and get intouch with your inner self and try to think about how you would react in a crisis type of situation. If you have been in a crazy or out of control situation before, examine how you reacted. Even just asses how you react to people or any situation and question why you reacted that way. What makes you mad, sad, upset, scared and why. If you are good at controlling your emotions and reacting out of thought and not off of emotions you probably would be good in a crisis situation. Luck is unreliable. Not everyone gets lucky or will be lucky. The best way to have higher chances at survival is preparation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best thing I could do to improve my survival odds would be to have more things in stock. I don't have a personal flashlight. There is one in my house somewhere...not sure where. I think I need to be more organized and mentally prepare for specific disasters. What would I need to take with me and what is important. I would need to mentally organize my priorities and stock up on a few items that I feel would be necessary.
I found William Forstchen's priorities a little off, but it shows that in crisis sometimes people think about themselves and put themselves first. The order of what he did-Buy cigarettes, inform the government, help the woman, then get his daughter medicine reminded me a bit of on an airplane how you are instructed to put on your oxygen mask first then assist others such as children. He did what he "needed" or felt he needed to do first in order to help others, then he helped the woman and then his daughter. I'm not sure if this is how he would have reacted if the crisis was lowered as in, maybe he panicked and he felt that he needed his cigarettes. Maybe he would look back on it and wonder why he didn't help his daughter first. Maybe he should question his priorities like everyone should. I feel like he thought if he had a chance in surviving that he needed to go back into town and that nothing bad was going to happen that minute and the more he waited the more he would regret not going back into town. I"m not sure if I would react the same way. I feel like me or anyone could say they would react one way and in the actual situation and chaos of it all, could react completely differently.
In Amanda Ripley’s introduction “Life Becomes Like Molten Metal, she talks about getting to know our oldest personality, the one that takes over in crisis. I think it is important to be prepared for a disaster with supplies and such and even a plan would help. But you also need to be mentally prepared. If you have the supplies and a plan but never actually think about what the crisis would be like and mentally put yourself in it, you may not react as planned. Even doing so and mentally preparing, you still may react in an unexpected way. This is important to try and get intouch with your inner self and try to think about how you would react in a crisis type of situation. If you have been in a crazy or out of control situation before, examine how you reacted. Even just asses how you react to people or any situation and question why you reacted that way. What makes you mad, sad, upset, scared and why. If you are good at controlling your emotions and reacting out of thought and not off of emotions you probably would be good in a crisis situation. Luck is unreliable. Not everyone gets lucky or will be lucky. The best way to have higher chances at survival is preparation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best thing I could do to improve my survival odds would be to have more things in stock. I don't have a personal flashlight. There is one in my house somewhere...not sure where. I think I need to be more organized and mentally prepare for specific disasters. What would I need to take with me and what is important. I would need to mentally organize my priorities and stock up on a few items that I feel would be necessary.
I found William Forstchen's priorities a little off, but it shows that in crisis sometimes people think about themselves and put themselves first. The order of what he did-Buy cigarettes, inform the government, help the woman, then get his daughter medicine reminded me a bit of on an airplane how you are instructed to put on your oxygen mask first then assist others such as children. He did what he "needed" or felt he needed to do first in order to help others, then he helped the woman and then his daughter. I'm not sure if this is how he would have reacted if the crisis was lowered as in, maybe he panicked and he felt that he needed his cigarettes. Maybe he would look back on it and wonder why he didn't help his daughter first. Maybe he should question his priorities like everyone should. I feel like he thought if he had a chance in surviving that he needed to go back into town and that nothing bad was going to happen that minute and the more he waited the more he would regret not going back into town. I"m not sure if I would react the same way. I feel like me or anyone could say they would react one way and in the actual situation and chaos of it all, could react completely differently.
When considering the Amanda Ripley article I would say that the area I am most deficient in is the train your brain section. Personally though I don't feel as if I need to improve it very much. I think I am a well adjusted person and and I would not plan on implementing this in any further area of my life. I understand having fire drills for example in the workplace, but the chances of me staging a fire drill in my house right now are very slim.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Forstchen's fictional account of a disaster situation is interesting for the strange prioritizing the main character shows. He understandably attempts to gather the most useful information from the town officials, who would know the true magnitude of the situation if anyone would. And he somewhat selfishly gets cigarettes from store before he gets his daughters medicine. Yet there could be a practical reason behind this. Someone who is addicted to nicotene may bring down the chances to survive of everyone around them if they are so distracted by a craving. In addition the medicine may need to be refrigerated so getting it last would ensure that it stays as cold as possible.