Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day!!

Here in New Zealand we don't celebrate Halloween, it never caught on. However, my friends and myself have found an ingenious substitute. I was amazed that this hasn't been talked about on BTS/ATS before so I feel privileged to introduce to you...

Daddada!!

Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day!!

Saturday, December 8th has been declared "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day." The whole idea is to pretend for the day that you are a traveler from a different time - except that, of course, you can't actually *tell* people you're a time traveler, because they'll think you're crazy. There are, of course, options as to how a traveler from a certain other time might act:



1) Utopian/cliché Future:

"If the Future did a documentary of the last fifty years, this is how badly the reenactors would dress." Think Star Trek: TNG or the Time Travelers from Hob. Ever see how the society in Futurama sees the 20th century? Run with it. Your job is to dress with moderately anachronistic clothing and speak in slang from varying decades. Here are some good starters:

- Greet people by referring to things that don't yet exist or haven't existed for a long time. Example: "Have you penetrated the atmosphere lately?" "What spectrum will today's broadcast be in?" and "Your king must be a kindly soul!"

- Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones.



2) Dystopian Future:

This one offers a little more flexibility. It can be any kind of future from Terminator to Freejack. The important thing to remember is dress like a crazy person with armor. Black spray painted football pads, high tech visors, torn up trenchcoats and maybe even some dirt here or there. Remember, dystopian future travelers are very startled that they've gone back in time. Some starters:

- If you go the "prisoner who's escaped the future" try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you've never seen it before.

- Walk up to random people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS?" and when they tell you, get quiet and then say "Then there's still time!" and run off.

- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO"

- Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.

- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say "In thirty years dial this number. You'll know what to do after that." Then slip away.



3) The Past:

This one is more for beginners. Basically dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture's set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of. Some pointers:

- Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.

- Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.

- Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.

blog.wired.com...

My friends and I are going to do a group gag. We are going to be scientists who have been roughed-up en transit after an experiment went wrong.

CANT WAIT!!

[edit on 11/7/2008 by Good Wolf]

This can appropreately be dubbed John Titor Day

Edit: Can't spell Titor it only has two Ts in it.



[edit on 11/8/2008 by whatukno]

OK people, to get this thread rolling again (and because I can't edit the OP anymore).

Post your ideas or plans for PTBTT

Day!!

I wanna hears some creative ideas for fun on the 8th.



Me and friends are going to do a team thing. Going up to people and have one of the group ask some REALLY obscure yet disparate questions, while the other guys have a whispering argument behind me every time we get given an answer.

We are planning to get it on tape, too.

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Good Wolf]

reply to post by whatukno



Saftey is not guaranted, but you gotta push it to the limit

johntitor.ytmnd.com...

wow only a month to grow a might mullet ...

we should start a petition to get it renamed ... god bless you John Titor when ever you are


[edit on 8/11/08 by noobfun]

reply to post by noobfun


That pic prompted me to read the wikipedia page on John Titor. I previously knew very little about the story.

Considering my signature quote, I think it's an elaborate laugh.

o_0 safety guy is a legend

ill have to hunt out the civil war photo its really quite scarry

*edit*

civilwarsafety.ytmnd.com...

found it ^_^ good ole ytmnd





[edit on 8/11/08 by noobfun]

reply to post by noobfun


I thought this was pretty funny
omgsecretnaziamerica.ytmnd.com...
I've never seen this website before. It's brilliant.

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Good Wolf]

never seen YTMND before?

wow seriously Nz is a backwater

the secret nazi fad spawned litterally thousands of meme's buildings, video games, films, tree's you name it, it all got secret nazied


secret nazi mother in law secretnazimotherinlaw.ytmnd.com...

secret nazi forest(an actual secret nazi forest)naziforest.ytmnd.com...

secret nazi calculator secretnazicalculatortrick.ytmnd.com...

if your a fan of final fantasy 7/8 id also recomend you search for 'jesus LOL rpg' biblical stories retold in the final fantasy style, the best religeon ive ever come across besides recreational chritianity

[edit on 8/11/08 by noobfun]

[edit on 8/11/08 by noobfun]

Repeat:
OK people, to get this thread rolling again (and because I can't edit the OP anymore).

Post your ideas or plans for PTBTT

Day!!

I wanna hears some creative ideas for fun on the 8th.



Me and friends are going to do a team thing. Going up to people and have one of the group ask some REALLY obscure yet disparate questions, while the other guys have a whispering argument behind me every time we get given an answer.

We are planning to get it on tape, too.


noobfun: I've never played FF. I grew up with the N64 instead of the PS.

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Good Wolf]

I managed to find the comic strip in particular that spawned the concept of Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day.

You can view it here

The four strangely dressed people in the first panel are the time travellers.

The first scenario I can see is this:

Pester people as if you are outfitting for a particular excursion into the past.

-Go into a coin shop. Ask if for currency, but it absolutely MUST be printed before August 3, 1928. Ask if they have any old shares of stock, but they must be dated the same. Ask if they have any antique guns or knives from that time period. Ask if they have any old pictures from that time period.....Will they take a check???

-Show up at a big army/navy surplus store and ask for all the equipment they have from, say, the first gulf war. Ask the clerk if he knows what food was served then, what the soldiers carried in their pockets, etc. Ask if they have any survey maps of Iraq from the first gulf war. Oh yeah, did GPS work back then? Tell them to hurry! *gulp* you have less that THREE HOURS!

a Utopian future idea, time travel is a recreational activity and pretend you and your friend were going on a trip and messed up. sit the arguing over random maps magazines brochures etc. and pester passer-by with questions and no matter what the answer launch into an argument with your friend.

Send a telegram to be delivered 10 years into the future, at a specific place, at a specific time....

TEMPORAL ANOMALY HAS CAUSED OFFSET OF 3 YEARS, 2 HOURS, 46 MINUTES, 21 SECONDS FROM PRESET CARTESIAN DESTINATION. ADJUST TACHYON PULSE FREQUENCY TO OFFSET THIS DISTURBANCE AND PREVENT REPEATING TEMPORAL EVENT CAUSED BY THE EXPERIMENT. - URGENT

The look on the telegram clerk's face should be priceless...

reply to post by Gazrok


lol OMG

I'm going on leave in April and I'm so going to do that. I'll see if there is some way to get this on vid/pic - That message is funny as hell.

I'll let you know what happens.

I have looked on the postings and have not seen a result of your "fun" day.

I know it has been awhile, but would like to hear about what you and your friends actually did.

Or did you do anything?