I have been following you for quite a while, and I have to let you know how much I love your writing and your unique way of showing vulnerability with such intellectual insight. You have a beautiful combination of logic and artistic sensitivity, and it really resonates with me. I also want to use this opportunity to ask Josh to teach us the analog things! Thanks for your content.
Hey Josh, I will chime in here that I agree with Holly. As a member of Generation Jones I have been astounded to see what things my kids failed to learn because of technology - and map reading is possibly one of those things. But it may be one of the more difficult things for which to write a generic guide.
It turns out that men and women mostly navigate very differently, which I only really understood when my wife tried to give me directions to something in a supermarket. She would tell me to look for particular landmarks... which I had never noticed. Telling to start in the fish section when I had literally never bought fish there was not particularly helpful, for example.
It appears that most men visualize spacial directions, while most women navigate by landmarks. One consequence is that women recognize when they are lost because they don't see the landmarks they expect. Men, by contrast, are much less likely to realize that we are lost because we tend to figure that we just have driven far enough yet. That's why we don't ask directions - we don't think we need them.
Now Holly, as a mathematician, you may be much stronger at spacial visualization than most women, and it would be a fascinating experiment to hear you learning map reading. It can be hard for most guys to teach it because for us, it is generally obvious. Roads connect at places that are clearly shown, and you mostly just have translate things like a transition from one road going to the right to another going up the page into a left turn by mentally rotating it.
I have a fuckton of head trauma from when I was a kid, and still occasional left/right confusion. I can do analytic geometry because I’m stubborn, basically. But that may make my learning map reading its own, separate kind of interesting.
I used to travel Birmingham Al. For work, many years ago. Bham is hilly, curvy roads and laid out crazy. On a mountaintop there is a statue of Vulcan, honoring the steel foundry of the town. If we could find Vulcan, we could navigate, oftentimes driving up to the statue and surveying the points of the compass from the perch. And you think you have a hard time with printed maps……..
Ooohhh. Memories 🥹. I have been in that statue and up on the observation deck. My dad grew up in Alabama, about 30 miles outside of Birmingham, and family vacation in the summer meant a station wagon, a packed cooler of sandwich stuff, crack of dawn leaving, and 12 hours of driving to visit with relatives. Good times.
Left/right confusion is an interesting malady. I’m left handed so I’ve convinced myself that’s why I pick the wrong left/ right scenario. My wife suffers from the same problem. Imagine us both trying to get somewhere without an argument…
1) Josh should teach those skills. 😊 2) We owned 84 acres and an historic house (1770) in Brookline…just past Newfane going north and make a right to crossover West River and then head north a bit. Population 411. Sold in 2019. 3) Reading about Brattleboro was nostalgic and hilarious because it’s been exactly that since I first went there in 1990. Wonder if they still have their Saturday Farmer’s Market?
Thank you for sharing about the mouse museum. I love places like that where there is still whimsy.
Good luck with the map reading. And in case you run into this, The last time I tried to buy a paper map, I had difficulty finding one. I ended up going to the local visitors center and they had one.
Better than Google Maps that rotates to whatever direction you are driving and often spins 360 if you are in an dense urban environment. For someone who grew up analog, reading paper maps and NSEW oriented in my mental directions to begin with, technology messes with my orientation.
I turned Google maps on my phone to always keep North up. It helps me be oriented. Downloading offline maps of my area (I live rural NH and in a low signal area) has also been helpful.
With Google Maps you can download the area ahead of time for "no signal" operations. This comes in handy even on home turf - you're not wasting data on the map, only on the location.
I did this, but it apparently requires internet to re-route and adjust the map because it has to recalibrate based on where you actually are. So it’s only useful if you can already….(duhnt duhnt duh!!!!!)…..read a map. LOL.
Get a small car compass (unless your car already has one). Knowing direction is the first step. To give an example, I live in New Jersey. If I get lost, then I start heading either east or west... east gets me to the ocean (or likely a major highway), West leads to the Delaware River. If the ground is flat and full of fields or pine trees then heading north will bring me to I-195...
Little known fact: there was a time you could write the oil companies ( shell, gulf, Texaco, etc.) and request a map with the best route to take from your house to a vacation spot. They would send you a map with the route highlighted. Yes, I’m as old as dirt.
Josh should teach, I would love that! Also - in google maps, under the Me icon, there is a setting for “offline maps“ which allows you to download as many rectilinear areas as you want for offline use. Since the GPS signal is seperate from cell service, they still work even when you have nothing. I’ve been to every county in VT and this was a huge help, since most of the state is what seems like an unreasonable distance from the interstate, even though it’s small on paper. You’ve experienced the same on that journey. Good luck! And still learn to read paper maps, they don’t have batteries that die.
I did this, but it appears that it requires internet to recalibrate based on where you are. I kept getting the “sorry, no internet” error when I tried to use it.
Ah, I forgot that if you go off the path it can’t recalculate. Which you clearly stated was the issue. I’ve attempted to use other driving maps (maps.me) but those had the foible of telling me to take every on and offramp when driving on the highway because math indicated it was a foot or two shorter. Josh Reviews Map Apps would also be a good segment 🤣
I thought I'd take the opportunity to say that, as a beginner in the art of education, I've found your posts about it most interesting (at least those I can access, currently) and very much look forward to reading further!
So good. 1) I prefer your bluejay. 2) the mouse museum is priceless and I have access to Brattleboro. 3) cellular dead zones--welcome to the world of inertial navigation--like a 90s vintage 747 over the north Atlantic with a laser ring gyro hoping to make landfall. 4) in Vermont the only justification for private property is to claim ICE isn't welcome. 5) the attentive father probably also puts earmuffs on the kid and wanders through the molly cloud at a phish festival thinking the earmuffs signal responsibility
Regarding maps - Google Maps is a nuisance when there is no signal, even if you have downloaded the map are beforehand. Pending Josh teaching you, it may be worth looking at other map programmes that are designed to work with onboard maps (or find a reasonable satnav unit for the car).
Lastly - Josh, that series is urgently needed. Please make it happen!
Love your posts and your art, thank you! I also think your blue jay is better. Here’s one more tip that may be helpful re: maps in places with no cell service. T-Mobile has a service called T-Satellite for $10/month, which uses Starlink satellites for some applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps. So this should work where there’s no cell service, as long as you have a view of the sky (so not good for deep in a forest or indoors). We’ve used it a few times in the past month when we were in wilderness areas and it worked great. A couple caveats: your phone needs to be a dual-sim phone if you don’t already have T-Mobile service. Your phone also needs to support satellite, which means it would need to be a newer phone.
I live in CT and want to take a day trip to see the little mouse subway. I'm trying to figure out if I want to surreptitiously place a tiny sign that says "Trump's your Daddy" on the bookstore window, or on the wall of the Mouse Town? I'm already exhausted just thinking about the hipster vibes. But yes, you do see some clever things in towns like that. I grew up near Northampton MA, so it's not at all foreign to me. And by the way, your blue jay etching shows you are indeed very, very good. Is there a way to contact you to ask about a dog sketch?
1) I like your blue jay better than the other. 2) This essay should be required reading for having a driver's license. Map-reading is an essential life (and potentially life-saving) skill.
Your blue jay looks like the ones who come to my feeder in the winter. I could hear the "squawk" just looking at the drawing.
Maps are one of my favorite readings. If you can find a REI or well stocked outdoors store (Cabela's?), there's 2 books of maps i recommend. The DeLorme Atlas for your State (its a book of topographic plates, every detail is there) and/or a Jimapco Atlas for your State (plates are larger so detail is more obvious, they have city maps and its spiral bound so it lay's flat).
Then acquire an old-fashioned compass. The kind with a magnetic needle. They always work as long as you don't leave them next to a strong magnet or electrical field. Once you know which direction is North, the rest falls in to place quite logically. When road navigating. Overland navigation requires a lot of math and algebra knowledge.
I have been following you for quite a while, and I have to let you know how much I love your writing and your unique way of showing vulnerability with such intellectual insight. You have a beautiful combination of logic and artistic sensitivity, and it really resonates with me. I also want to use this opportunity to ask Josh to teach us the analog things! Thanks for your content.
❤️❤️❤️
I came to say something similar. Couldn't have done it anywhere close to this!
Me too, other than also wanting to give a friendly hug.
“A map. The folded paper kind, the kind you are required by law to refold incorrectly the first six times. “
If anyone ever opens a Generation X University, Josh would make an excellent Archchancellor.
Hey Josh, I will chime in here that I agree with Holly. As a member of Generation Jones I have been astounded to see what things my kids failed to learn because of technology - and map reading is possibly one of those things. But it may be one of the more difficult things for which to write a generic guide.
It turns out that men and women mostly navigate very differently, which I only really understood when my wife tried to give me directions to something in a supermarket. She would tell me to look for particular landmarks... which I had never noticed. Telling to start in the fish section when I had literally never bought fish there was not particularly helpful, for example.
It appears that most men visualize spacial directions, while most women navigate by landmarks. One consequence is that women recognize when they are lost because they don't see the landmarks they expect. Men, by contrast, are much less likely to realize that we are lost because we tend to figure that we just have driven far enough yet. That's why we don't ask directions - we don't think we need them.
Now Holly, as a mathematician, you may be much stronger at spacial visualization than most women, and it would be a fascinating experiment to hear you learning map reading. It can be hard for most guys to teach it because for us, it is generally obvious. Roads connect at places that are clearly shown, and you mostly just have translate things like a transition from one road going to the right to another going up the page into a left turn by mentally rotating it.
I have a fuckton of head trauma from when I was a kid, and still occasional left/right confusion. I can do analytic geometry because I’m stubborn, basically. But that may make my learning map reading its own, separate kind of interesting.
I used to travel Birmingham Al. For work, many years ago. Bham is hilly, curvy roads and laid out crazy. On a mountaintop there is a statue of Vulcan, honoring the steel foundry of the town. If we could find Vulcan, we could navigate, oftentimes driving up to the statue and surveying the points of the compass from the perch. And you think you have a hard time with printed maps……..
Ooohhh. Memories 🥹. I have been in that statue and up on the observation deck. My dad grew up in Alabama, about 30 miles outside of Birmingham, and family vacation in the summer meant a station wagon, a packed cooler of sandwich stuff, crack of dawn leaving, and 12 hours of driving to visit with relatives. Good times.
Wow. Cool. Ole Vulcan
Left/right confusion is an interesting malady. I’m left handed so I’ve convinced myself that’s why I pick the wrong left/ right scenario. My wife suffers from the same problem. Imagine us both trying to get somewhere without an argument…
1) Josh should teach those skills. 😊 2) We owned 84 acres and an historic house (1770) in Brookline…just past Newfane going north and make a right to crossover West River and then head north a bit. Population 411. Sold in 2019. 3) Reading about Brattleboro was nostalgic and hilarious because it’s been exactly that since I first went there in 1990. Wonder if they still have their Saturday Farmer’s Market?
Thank you for sharing about the mouse museum. I love places like that where there is still whimsy.
Good luck with the map reading. And in case you run into this, The last time I tried to buy a paper map, I had difficulty finding one. I ended up going to the local visitors center and they had one.
Josh gave me a Vermont map already. I just have to learn to read it now.
Hint: most maps are oriented north to the top,with east, west and south, you get it.
Better than Google Maps that rotates to whatever direction you are driving and often spins 360 if you are in an dense urban environment. For someone who grew up analog, reading paper maps and NSEW oriented in my mental directions to begin with, technology messes with my orientation.
I turned Google maps on my phone to always keep North up. It helps me be oriented. Downloading offline maps of my area (I live rural NH and in a low signal area) has also been helpful.
Thanks! I will have to check this - it’s on our car display. But i can check my account.
With Google Maps you can download the area ahead of time for "no signal" operations. This comes in handy even on home turf - you're not wasting data on the map, only on the location.
I did this, but it apparently requires internet to re-route and adjust the map because it has to recalibrate based on where you actually are. So it’s only useful if you can already….(duhnt duhnt duh!!!!!)…..read a map. LOL.
Get a small car compass (unless your car already has one). Knowing direction is the first step. To give an example, I live in New Jersey. If I get lost, then I start heading either east or west... east gets me to the ocean (or likely a major highway), West leads to the Delaware River. If the ground is flat and full of fields or pine trees then heading north will bring me to I-195...
Little known fact: there was a time you could write the oil companies ( shell, gulf, Texaco, etc.) and request a map with the best route to take from your house to a vacation spot. They would send you a map with the route highlighted. Yes, I’m as old as dirt.
Josh should teach, I would love that! Also - in google maps, under the Me icon, there is a setting for “offline maps“ which allows you to download as many rectilinear areas as you want for offline use. Since the GPS signal is seperate from cell service, they still work even when you have nothing. I’ve been to every county in VT and this was a huge help, since most of the state is what seems like an unreasonable distance from the interstate, even though it’s small on paper. You’ve experienced the same on that journey. Good luck! And still learn to read paper maps, they don’t have batteries that die.
I did this, but it appears that it requires internet to recalibrate based on where you are. I kept getting the “sorry, no internet” error when I tried to use it.
Ah, I forgot that if you go off the path it can’t recalculate. Which you clearly stated was the issue. I’ve attempted to use other driving maps (maps.me) but those had the foible of telling me to take every on and offramp when driving on the highway because math indicated it was a foot or two shorter. Josh Reviews Map Apps would also be a good segment 🤣
I thought I'd take the opportunity to say that, as a beginner in the art of education, I've found your posts about it most interesting (at least those I can access, currently) and very much look forward to reading further!
So good. 1) I prefer your bluejay. 2) the mouse museum is priceless and I have access to Brattleboro. 3) cellular dead zones--welcome to the world of inertial navigation--like a 90s vintage 747 over the north Atlantic with a laser ring gyro hoping to make landfall. 4) in Vermont the only justification for private property is to claim ICE isn't welcome. 5) the attentive father probably also puts earmuffs on the kid and wanders through the molly cloud at a phish festival thinking the earmuffs signal responsibility
OMG you are sooooooo right. I’d bet you anything their book club knits child-sized earmuffs. LMAO
I prefer Holly's blue jay also!
I love the mouse-town! What a splendid find.
Regarding maps - Google Maps is a nuisance when there is no signal, even if you have downloaded the map are beforehand. Pending Josh teaching you, it may be worth looking at other map programmes that are designed to work with onboard maps (or find a reasonable satnav unit for the car).
Lastly - Josh, that series is urgently needed. Please make it happen!
Your blue jay drawing is far better than the painting. Yours looks alive: the other looks like the portrait of taxidermy.
🤩🙏🥰
I second that. Yours is way better.
Aaaawwww 🥰
Holly, I like your blue Jay better.
"Google maps ... malevolent passive aggression" made me laugh. Nice touch!
And thank you for sharing the Brattleboro Museum of Things Tiny and Found. That was way cool!
Love your posts and your art, thank you! I also think your blue jay is better. Here’s one more tip that may be helpful re: maps in places with no cell service. T-Mobile has a service called T-Satellite for $10/month, which uses Starlink satellites for some applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps. So this should work where there’s no cell service, as long as you have a view of the sky (so not good for deep in a forest or indoors). We’ve used it a few times in the past month when we were in wilderness areas and it worked great. A couple caveats: your phone needs to be a dual-sim phone if you don’t already have T-Mobile service. Your phone also needs to support satellite, which means it would need to be a newer phone.
I live in CT and want to take a day trip to see the little mouse subway. I'm trying to figure out if I want to surreptitiously place a tiny sign that says "Trump's your Daddy" on the bookstore window, or on the wall of the Mouse Town? I'm already exhausted just thinking about the hipster vibes. But yes, you do see some clever things in towns like that. I grew up near Northampton MA, so it's not at all foreign to me. And by the way, your blue jay etching shows you are indeed very, very good. Is there a way to contact you to ask about a dog sketch?
Sure! vtwriterartist at gmail! Thanks!
Thank you!
1) I like your blue jay better than the other. 2) This essay should be required reading for having a driver's license. Map-reading is an essential life (and potentially life-saving) skill.
Your blue jay looks like the ones who come to my feeder in the winter. I could hear the "squawk" just looking at the drawing.
Maps are one of my favorite readings. If you can find a REI or well stocked outdoors store (Cabela's?), there's 2 books of maps i recommend. The DeLorme Atlas for your State (its a book of topographic plates, every detail is there) and/or a Jimapco Atlas for your State (plates are larger so detail is more obvious, they have city maps and its spiral bound so it lay's flat).
Then acquire an old-fashioned compass. The kind with a magnetic needle. They always work as long as you don't leave them next to a strong magnet or electrical field. Once you know which direction is North, the rest falls in to place quite logically. When road navigating. Overland navigation requires a lot of math and algebra knowledge.