Guess what time it is, InfoFans, that's right, it's challenge time!
And that means only one thing- time to get all up in your favorite lab rat's life and
try to ruin- err, we mean, challenge him to explore everyday mysteries for fun and profit!
Today we're wondering what it's like to live without your sight, so we're challenging him
to live for three days with a blindfold.
Yes, we know, three days is a cinch, but as most of you know the world right now is a
bit upside down, so we had to go easy.
Now grab yourself a drink, sit down, and hang tight for another awesome challenge!
Day 1: Three days with a blindfold, even I gotta admit that this challenge has me curious.
I've always wondered how people adjust to suddenly losing their sight, and what it's
like to experience the world through your other senses.
Yesterday I spent the day thinking about just how much we use our sight- we literally use
it for everything.
I suppose I could make a living without it, since I know how to type, but it would've
probably been pretty difficult to learn how to type with no vision.
Also, can you even imagine the spelling errors?
You can forget about driving too, although with Uber I guess that's not such a big deal
either.
But what about entertainment?
It feels like the overwhelming majority of our entertainment is made specifically with
vision in mind, from movies to video games to comic books, etc.
I feel like this is going to be a pretty enlightening challenge, though it does feel a bit daunting.
Alright, I'm off to challenge-land now, I'll report in on the end of my three days and
let you know what life wearing a blindfold for three days was like.
End of Day 3: To say that the last three days were a challenge would be a huge understatement.
I mean, yes, they were a challenge because that's pretty much what I do for a living
but I meant that... you know what, you get what I meant.
Alright, day one.
I started the challenge in the morning with the aid of a black blindfold.
A few folds of the fabric and it was definitely pretty opaque, I couldn't see a thing the
moment it went on.
Now before the challenge started I tried my best to mentally map out our apartment, because
I knew I'd be in serious trouble wandering around with a blindfold on all day.
Turns out I sort of did a pretty crap job.
The girlfriend's home for this challenge, which I'm kind of glad about to be honest
because after what I've been through I'm pretty sure I would've killed myself if she hadn't
been here.
Starting on like, minute two of the challenge I tried to walk out the bedroom to the living
room and misjudged where the door actually was by like three feet, running straight into
the wall.
This would very aptly set the tone for my three day weekend.
It pretty quickly dawned on me that my biggest issue would be boredom.
I busied myself responding to emails and work stuff, which meant that the girlfriend had
to read everything out loud for me and then spell correct the word stew I typed out.
Hey, in real life I'm a great speller, but on a keyboard my hands move faster than my
brain.
After that we had breakfast, and I insisted on making my own cereal after she helped guide
me to the kitchen.
That turned out to be a mistake, because I poured my milk about a half foot away from
the bowl and ended up drenching our poor dog instead.
That meant that the dog had to be bathed, which I insisted on helping with because I
need to get a feel for what real life is like when you can't see.
That also would be a mistake.
At one point the girlfriend left the bathroom to answer a phone call and I reached for what
I thought was our dog's shampoo.
When the girlfriend came back into the bathroom she practically screamed in panic when she
realized I was using her extremely expensive body wash on the dog.
And when I say “using” I mean like, a ton of the stuff.
I don't know what the crap that stuff is made of, I just know that it makes her skin flawless
and super soft- and it costs like $40 a bottle.
Well, now our dog is pretty much the fluffiest, softest pup in town because I seriously squirt
like a quarter of the bottle on him.
The girlfriend pretty much became my babysitter at that point and watched me like a hawk.
I insisted on learning the floor plan of the apartment and that led to several stubbed
toes and more than one bruise from running into stuff.
Eventually though by following one of our walls, I could make it from the living room
to the bedroom and then back out to the kitchen.
Which was handy, because lunch time soon came around.
The girlfriend popped out to walk the dog real quick, because that's probably something
I definitely shouldn't be doing while blindfolded.
No telling where we would end up, because he's about the worst guide dog you could ever
have and I swear he has attention deficit disorder and is always wanting to go meet
random people.
Anyways, while she was gone I figured it would be easy enough to make myself some mini corn
dogs, so I groped my way to the fridge, managed to find a baking sheet, and dumped a few mini
dogs on it.
I figured I knew the oven pretty well, so I stuck the sheet in and cranked the oven
to what I was sure had to be somewhere around 300 degrees.
I mean, there's only so far the dial goes, so if you stick it somewhere in between it
should be a decent temperature for defrosting corn dogs right?
Wrong.
Turns out I had set the oven to Broil, and we only found out when the apartment started
smelling like burning bread.
The girlfriend pretty much banned me from the kitchen from that point on.
The rest of my day was pretty uneventful, and even though I thought it would be pretty
boring not being able to see, I was still able to enjoy tv.
It was almost funner to just hear the voices and imagine the characters and situations
the way I wanted to, although I do feel like I missed a lot by not being able to see what
was going on.
Turns out the easiest thing to enjoy while not being able to see though are sitcoms.
They typically don't rely on visual gags, so they're super easy to track through just
hearing.
The worst thing to enjoy?
Action movies, especially superhero movies.
I guess that makes sense.
Alright, for day two I refused to stay stuck inside the house all day.
I wanted to experience the world, so I insisted on joining the girlfriend for grocery shopping.
In order to not look like a total idiot in public, I had beforehand taken a pair of large
black sunglasses and spray-painted the inside of the lenses with black paint.
Presto, bingo, worked like a charm.
I couldn't see anything except for a little bit in the periphery.
If you think that's cheating, let me tell you- you're dead wrong.
I ran into at least two of those off-the-shelf displays they hang on the aisles in grocery
stores, scattering condiments and random crap all over the floor as well as earning myself
a decent bruise on my forehead.
A store employee came rushing over and apologized profusely, and it was then that I realized
we probably shouldn't come back to this store for a long time just in case people thought
I was blind.
I also realized my girlfriend is a terrible guide, though to be honest I tend to be impulsive
and not easy to keep a leash on- which by the way is something she seriously considered.
What can I say, I like to wander around.
When we got home we went outside to lay by the pool and relax for a bit.
I know what you're thinking, and no I didn't fall into the pool like some hilarious but
completely predictable comedy film.
What I did do though is manage to stick my foot through the small slats on the deck chair
I was laying on when I went to get up and trip, throwing my hands out to catch myself
and grabbing on to a small table, which came crashing down with me.
On top of that small table?
The girlfriend's cell phone, which landed on the floor completely unharmed.
Except for upon hitting the floor it managed to slide eight feet and straight into the
deep end of the pool.
Goodbye $800 Iphone.
After that the girlfriend practically begged me to just sit on the couch and in her own
words, “Stay.
Still.”
She even offered to bring me literally everything I needed if I would just stop flailing around
the house, running into things, and destroying expensive items.
I swear that this challenge has given her gray hairs.
Ok, on day three we had to go back out in public, because the girlfriend absolutely
cannot be without a phone due to her job.
The apple people said that if she had dropped it in normal water, and not water with high
chlorine content like a pool, it would've had a pretty good chance of still working.
That's when she very loudly pointed out that she hadn't dropped it, but that it had been
my fault.
Ofcourse when she said this I was still wearing my blind-person glasses, and very much looked
like a blind person to pretty much everyone.
This in turn ended up making her kind of look like a giant dick to everyone in the store,
and let me tell you, you don't need to see people's faces to know when they're thinking
someone's a dick.
It's all in the tone.
I pointed this out to her on the drive home and she punched me in the arm.
Hard.
On my last day I got tired of sitting in front of the tv, which kind of was the only thing
I was really able to do over the last few days.
I know blind people can learn to read with braille, and to be honest I really wish I'd
been able to do that.
I said that to the girlfriend on the last day and she just kind of went quiet for a
second before saying, “You know there's audio books right?”.
I didn't need to see her face to know that she was looking at me like I was a complete
idiot.
And yes, I completely and totally forgot that audiobooks existed.
Anyways, because I got bored of the TV I just made my way outside and sat next to our front
door.
I really love our new little apartment, sure the rent is insane, but the small community
is really nice, there's flowers literally everywhere, and it's like a block away from
the beach.
I just sat there in my chair and took in all the sounds of the local neighborhood with
the sound of the surf in the distance.
I also took in the smell of the salt air and the flowers, and it kind of struck me how
I normally don't pay attention to these things at all.
I can't remember the last time I just sat there and fully enjoyed the warmth of the
sun, the smell of the ocean and flowers around me, and the sounds of waves in the background
and our quiet little neighborhood.
I know they say that when you lose one sense your others overcompensate, and maybe this
is what was going on.
I can't tell for sure, but I do know that I completely enjoyed just sitting there alone
for a good hour.
Finally it came time to take my blindfold off, and see the world again for the first
time in three days.
Yes, I had even slept with the blindfold on- except I unfolded it so it was much bigger
and I didn't accidentally roll it off my face in my sleep.
When I finally got to see again my eyes were super sensitive, and I immediately realized
why this challenge was only three days long.
I honestly think that going any longer than that may have had serious consequences for
my eye health.
Guess the infographics show knows at least somewhat what it's doing.
I gotta tell you, I was happy to finally see my girlfriend's face again after three days.
It's weird seeing someone's face after so long, you notice little tiny things that you
missed in your memory.
Sure, we've spent time apart, but we always face time and there's pictures of us on all
our social media plus all around the house.
But spending three days with only a mental picture of her face was just so strange, and
when I took the blindfold off I just noticed so many tiny things I guess I forgot.
Like the way her smiles kind of tucks to one side slightly, for instance.
Or how her eyes squint when she's happy-laughing.
I know she was right there beside me the whole time, but the first thing I said when I could
see her with my own eyes again was, “I missed you.”
And then she started crying and hugging me.
Man, you girls are weird.
Alright challenge fans, got another great idea for a challenge?
Why not drop us a note in the comments or our website?
For now though, why not check out that one time we gave your favorite lab rat lice?!
Or maybe you'd rather check this other great video out?
Either way, click one now and keep the watch party going!