I didn't make this up, but it's a brilliant idea and I encourage anyone (especially those of you near Richmond VA) to go along with. The Date is December 8, and it'll be much funner than talk like a pirate day. Here's the idea, taken from someone else: "You must spend the entire day in costume and character. The only rule is that you cannot actually tell anyone that you are a time traveler. Other than that, anything's game. There are three possible options: 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. And that's it. Remember, the only real rule is staying in character and try to fit in. Never directly admit you're a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile. Naturally, the dystopian future has a little more leeway. And for the record, I've already tried out all of these in real life, in costume. It is so much fun you want to pee yourself." Spread the word fellow time travelers
I am somewhat tempted. I only have a few problems. I'm in China, they'll just put everything down to me being a foreign devil and walk away quickly. Considering the wide range of fashions (sometimes two or three different styles on the same person) most clothing won't make a difference. If I wear armour or act nuts, the police will likely take me away. And Chinese jails, hospitals and mental institutions are something I want to avoid. if I was in North America, this would be a different matter though. Good luck.
Well I am from Australia and this kind of behaviour for me is kind of normal to be honest. I get bored and go do insane stuff just for something to do. I have literally done all of these things you have stated. I was a few years younger at the time though. Me and my mates would do anything back then for a good laugh. But yes good luck with it lol if I was there I'd join in just for some laughs
Walk like a zombie day is fun. But I gotta say I prefer eat like a zombie day instead. Then you really get to work with the crowd, and it's great exercise.
I'm thinking of dressing in a trenchcoat, vest, goggles and khakis. I'll have fake future money and when they don't want to take it I'll be like "Oh, wait, it's 2007, right?" and then give them regular money, but tell them they'll need the other money later and that they should keep it. I'll also ask "It's not 2012 is it? I don't want to have to go through that again. You only wanna see the end of the world once." 2012 being the Mayan end of the world. anyone else have ideas of fun stuff to do with this?
-Walk up to a person, ask what the date is. Then ask where you are exactly. When they answer, look scared and run away. Quickly. -Start talking to a person. As casually as possible get their name. Stop talking the moment you hear it, and look sad. Say "I'm very sorry for you" and walk away shaking your head. -If your in the US or anywhere else where an election is happening soon ask about the government. If at anytime a person says they want 'so and so' to win, just start laughing outrageously. Then apologize, and say something like "oh yeah, you still have that domocarcy thing. God that was a mistake." -Ask if it's possible to see Queen Victoria, Empress of the World. -If you see an unusual animal, or a weird looking dog or something, point to it in shock. Look petrified. If anyone asks you whats going on, say that they aren't suppose to invade for another 20 years. - Go up to a totally random person, and ask for their autograph. When they ask why, tell them they'll know in one year. - Enter a top quality computer store. Find the newest computer and investigate it. Finally start laughing. If people ask why your laughing, say you can't tell them why, but their pitiful excuse for a computer is hilarious. Or investigate the computer and start crying. When they ask you why, just tell them that when half the population is murdered, that (pointing at the computer) is to blame. (Even if your from utopia, achieving it doesn't have to be nice.) How do you like those?
hahaa, these ideas sound offit. i will not be taking part as i do not have a death wish, but i would love to hear your stories about it. i might try when i am older, a lot older. Good luck with it Heather
I like this, I think I'll do it... other suggestions people have given are: set off a smoke bomb in an alley and walk up to the first person, ask for the year, and then say the experiment was a success. print yourself up a "Book of colloquial Phrases 2000-2010" and keep reading things out of it. Fill in the last few years with made up stuff Dress like Doc Brown from Back To The Future if anyone asks why you're acting strangely tell them you can't tell them because it might cause a temporal disturbance. talk like you've just stepped out from auditioning for Star Trek or Doctor Who or something. it would probably work best in the UK, but go up to anything remotely like a police box and ask people if it's a TARDIS have wallets marked for different years, and when paying for things pull them all out and ask what year it is. pretend to be taking notes on the past. Ask people what it's like to live in the past, and then correct yourself and say "I mean, the year 2007" say wierd or messed up words and when people look at you strangely tap or hit your head and mutter "stupid translator" go into a library and say (For 3) I remember when this was a best seller (Holding up Pride and Prejudice or something, in British accent) or (for 1) something like "Wow, I've never seen this outside a holodeck" or conflate famous series or authors. Pretend the science fiction books should be moved to the nonfiction section Dress like a Quaker, smirk at the Protestan Church and say "Why I never" when you see a Catholic Church point and stare, shocked, and then run away.(I don't really understand this one...)
they could just think you were foreign. because back in England the Protstants and the Catholics ahted each other and there was a constant fight for which church was in controll. it chopped and changed in accordance to the leader at the time. like Olivier Cromwell i think was a Protestant, but i thnks Charles the first was Catholic (i think)
True heather, except since that whole civil war palaver, England has been completely protestant (to the extent where it is against the law for the monarch to be catholic). And I'm game Not that anyone will be surprised by my behaviour
Cromwell was a Puritan. An extreme version of a Protestantism. Queen Mary (sister of Elizabeth the First) was the openly Roman Catholic which was one reason Elizabeth was locked in the tower, and nearly caused a revolution in England. During that particular time period a lot of people were executed, burned, locked up and forced to flee. Fun times.
Actually, the Stuarts were Catholic (well, nominally) which is what caused the civil war (well, partially).
Yup. It's actually written into the constitution that no one of the Catholic faith can be a part of the line of succession.
When I was in college in Boston, I might have done something like this. Being employed. and needing to stay that way and outside the mental ward, I'll have to pass on the fun.
well it is a Saturday, won't you be off? Some people have suggested some way to identify anyone who is also doing Time Travel day and said we should all carry around Towels. Looked around, it seems everyone who saw the original thread has started a thread about it... original thread is here by the way. you should all have someone follow you with a camera, out of the way a bit. This will make for a fun bit of YouTubing.
LMAO! Wow as fun as these all sound... I couldn't pull it off and i don't want to go back to the mental ward just yet.
The end when my troops march into the capital cities of the world and claim them in my name, beginning the new era of my rein, and my Terran Empire, which will last for a million years? Or maybe just December the 8th
