Did this task with July 4th, because he is awesome. I was blind first. we induced blindness with a blindfold, and had a broom handle for assistance. The 4th drove us to downtown SJ and we Experienced So Many Things! including but not limited to:

Saturday's blindness

My brain made pictures of what was around me. like for instance i had never been in the 4th's car, but my brain decided what it looks like and what color everything was and where the sun visor and ohshit handle were (i was wrong.) As i walked around my brain kept making pictures of where i was. It was always daytime in my head. getting around was easier for me, because i knew the area pretty well. Sometimes they still surprised me though, like that terrible wall!

Sounds were very lovely, especially natural sounds like water or echoes. cars were not lovely. shapes and textures were fascinating. walking was hard, because everything was SO FAR APART. also i walked very slowly because i was afraid of running into things. this made crossing streets hard. the 4th helped by making sounds so i could orient myself, by directing me to interesting textures and spaces (the terrible wall, some nice fluffy grass), by warning me of danger and by keeping track of where the heck we were. 'cause i had no idea. even though i knew the area well, everything was so far apart that i consistently thought we were about 3 blocks from where we were. tricky walking, like on stairs or narrow ledges, was fine. the long straights- those were perilous.

once we passed a guy singing "you've really got me" to a radio that was definitely not playing that song. that guy was great.

in SJ, if you don't know a person, you don't look at them. you give them privacy by pretending they don't exist. while i'm blind, people take that one step further; if they're not making sounds, they effectively don't exist. One family snuck up on me on purpose. other people were rumored to be there, at least the 4th kept making them up, but i have no evidence for their existence other than his word.

also, when talking to the 4th, i pointed my face at where i thought he was, even though we were not making eye contact or communicating through facial expression (he wasn't reading my face because most of the important bits were covered with a blindfold, and i wasn't reading his face because i was blind.)

when it was the 4th's turn to be blind, it was pretty hard not to play tricks. man, he was a trooper! he started right out eating with chopsticks, and then when we came to a big plaza he *ran blind.* for realsies. there was nothing in his way and i watched out for danger, but i'm pretty sure if i tried to run blind i would fall on my eyeballs. he made it look pretty fun though. then he sought me like a blind animal while i slipped shadow-like around him, like very unfair tag, and man he was good at that too! he went after me like inexorable time, even got me one time. i told him times of day to keep him on the straight and narrow, and we played in a fountain. he was enraged by short poles, and had a good idea for a public beautification project. also he decided that things felt like colors. like he'd feel a thing and say "this feels brown." not, i think, like synaesthesia exactly, but he associated that texture with things colored brown. he was right... occasionally. See pics for more adventures!

July 4th's blindness

Saturday's Blind: It was SOOO tempting to play tricks. I kept laughing when I watched her process the blind universe. I always freaked out when guiding her up/down stairs/ledges. She also has level 10 proprioception, which is of great use when blind (I blame her shaolin training and dancing). She was also rather adept at predicting things upon the path as a result of previous travel. Oh, and a few paces became a few leagues outside of the library.

My Blind: IT IS NEVER NIGHT TIME WHEN YOU'RE BLIND! Also, I really dig sound a lot more than touch. Banging on trash cans is amazing. Blind kung fu dancing/blind man's bluff is the best game ever. Running while blind is a terrifying prospect, but once you get going it feels like you lift off into the sky. Trees are sneaky S.O.Beezies. Some touch sensations have color associations (most painted things feel green). Teleporting is easier when you are blind (BAMF!). Also! None of the poles in San Jose reach for the sky, they all get too lazy and quit halfway. And that about wraps it up. Here's Jake with the weather. THE BLIND WEATHER!!!