At your computer now, your transported to the year 1380

[Vesayen]

It is the holiday season and I always post this thread near Christmas.

You, where you are sitting reading this monitor, at this very moment, are transported back in time, to the year 1380, everything within a 50 foot sphere focused on you comes along. What comes with you and what do you do?

Stipulations:

1. Everything and everyone within 50 feet of you in every direction comes with you, if this would cause part of a wall/ceiling etc to collapse onto you, it does not.

2. You and the 50 foot sphere are moved to the exact same geographic location, in the year 1380(the first black death plague in Europe was in 1340). If this would put you in water, in a piece of rock, suspended in the air, underground etc you and the objects near you are put on the nearest safe land.

3. If you would appear in a settled area, city etc and you do not wish to, you appear a handful of miles(no more then 10) away from the settled area.

4. You have no time to prepare, whatever is in the 50 foot sphere with you, is what you get.

5. For convenience sake, you speak the predominant language of whatever area you are in.


I am sitting next to a window so I don't even get my whole damn 50 foot sphere, I get almost half the sphere though I get the window glass and a few screens which actually might not be bad, can use them to fish.

I would JUST outside of swamp land in Florida.

I have a fair amount of food, enough to last me roughly 2 weeks. Maybe 4 weeks if I REALLY stretch it. I would get a *TON* of books, a full bookshelf of my favorite novels and non fiction, but sadly, no technical manuals or anything practical.

A lot of clothes.

3 chairs, a bed, a toiler, a bathtub, 2 empty suitcases… some electronics I can’t power, dvds and cds with no value of any sort… a flashlight and to the best of my knowledge, only 8 or 9 double A batteries.

I get my medicine cabinet, but I have little in there, all I got in terms of medicine are a bunch of vitamins, advil, tylonol and lots of cortizone(for bug bites etc) and some stuff for an upset stomach. A few rolls of duct tape. A shredder I can’t power. A calendar which ends in.... less then a month, but it does give the time for sunset once a week on it. A very large container filled with laundry detergent. A very large box of large ziplock bags, about 300 bags. A toilet, a bathtub.... A menorah with about 50 extra candles and about 30 matches left over.

The 2 apartments near me are empty so I get no company.

I would get a small toolbox which is actually pretty well stocked, but none of them are power tools. A swiss army knife inside, a bunch of screw drivers and 2 good hammers.

Through the wall behind me(within 50 feet) 3 drying machines and 3 washing machines and I think a large air conditioning unit is nearby. Through the wonder of electromagnets spun backwards you can generate a current, but what the hell would I want to power anyway?

I have enough food to last me a few weeks if I am lucky but the only drinkable liquids are roughly 2 liters of water and 2 liters of soda. A bunch of silverware and plates, a few large and sharp knives.

No Europeans will be here for over a century or near enough anyway.

I have absolutely no idea what I would say to the Seminole Indians but having a very large amount of clothes would be a boon, would make a decent gift. I don’t think I could successfully pull off the “I am a god” thing, I would not even try that.

I would probably look pretty damn strange, I have a modestly bushy beard.

I suppose I would try to join Seminole society, if they would have me in it. The Seminoles are not known to exactly the most friendly native American group but I might be able to win them over with gifts. If they would have me, I think I do know enough practical information about science and engineering to improve their lot in life, but the materials at hand are fairly limited, though I think my medical knowledge would come in pretty handy.

[LordShiva]

*you're

[Impaler[WrG]]

Duuu, use the swiss-army knife and the flashlight to convince the Seminoles that your a god and have them supply you with everything you need, try not to sneeze on them though.

Seriously though the natives would be friendly having had no bad experiences with whites before and any item made of metal would be exceedingly valuable to them, given enough time you could adapt to their way of life and do the whole Connecticut Yankee / Dances with Wolves thing in grand style.

[Lancer]

On the Philippine Islands before Philip was born? Can anyone say the Lancer Islands?

I have enough trade goods within 50 ft to be a rich man here back then, but my wife isn't home so that would be a bummer. There's a housekeeper home and two little girls that would come along, they might be better off back then but the housekeeper would lose her husband.

Basicly a bummer. Also, I only have maybe 6 months meds with me, after that I'm dead.

[BlackCat]

You are burnt within some five minutes after arrival since you apparently will be concidered a witch

[SlowwHand]

I wouldn't get jack****. A bed and the cat that's on it. 2 cats now.

[ZEE]

AAHZ-summary please.

[Lancer]

I'd have enough books to glean a basic understanding of metalurgy, gunpowder, and teach it to the people, advancing them 2 scis.

[SlowwHand]

Darwin's?

[Lancer]

Nah BC, not these people. I'd also spread Christianity to the islands. Can anyone say Saint Lancer?

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by AAHZ
AAHZ-summary please.

If your'e carefull, you hae a carrer as a jester.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
Duuu, use the swiss-army knife and the flashlight to convince the Seminoles that your a god and have them supply you with everything you need, try not to sneeze on them though.

Seriously though the natives would be friendly having had no bad experiences with whites before and any item made of metal would be exceedingly valuable to them, given enough time you could adapt to their way of life and do the whole Connecticut Yankee / Dances with Wolves thing in grand style.

The seminoles were a group who violently opposed europeans and Americans longer then almost any other native group.

I think you may be right though, I certainly hope they would recieve me positivley. Thinking more on it, I do have a *LOT* of metal near me, there is a hell of a lot of scrap metal in those washing and drying machines. I do have some half decent tools , I could proboably win them over with gifts and become the local medicine man. I suppose I would claim to be a traveler from a distant land who was very lost, what else am I going to say? A first aid course and a decent education including biology and science makes me a more competant healer then anyone on the continent.

I’d convert the Seminoles to Judaism if possible. I know absolutely nothing about Seminole religion so I don’t know if that is possible. I think I might be able to pull it off.

Cortez's conquest of Mexico would have been impossible if not for the legend of quetzocoataxl(sp?) and but for the sacking of Tenochticlan(sp again), the more advanced cities in Mexico would not have collapsed. Nothing I could possibly do about Europeans colonizing the Caribbean though.

My ancestors are split between Jews in the ottoman empire who are probably doing allright and Jews who would be soon oppressed in Spain when the inquisition comes(1481). I have no particular desire to see Europeans colonize the western hemisphere, to be honest at the time, I would probably want to prevent it-would I want my children and their descendants to be wiped out in a century or two?

I think I’d like to stop the western destruction of the natives of the Americas if possible. I do not know how to do this though, I would not speak the languages of central America nor have any easy way to get there, though if I could warn them, European conquest of the Americas would be VERY seriously slowed down. How fast do you think the Americas would be conquered if there were no stories of cities filled with gold ripe for the sacking but instead, stories of savage natives who slaughtered those who came?

[Ecthy]

I land just outside of Potsdam in late medieval Brandenburg which has just fallen into possession of the house of Luxemburg. It's an agrarian society and nothing much is going on except during the tims when the Luxemburgian emperor Charles IV resides at Tangermünde, 200km up the Havel river.

I'm in a shared flat and our neighbouring flat, which my room is adjacent to, is shared too, so I could take use of some of the stuff in adjacent rooms. Too bad I have no idea what they have in there I guess I'll just count on my room.

I can easily discard my notebook computer, desk, stuff on the desk since all of this is obviously without use for survival. Except maybe the moose handpuppet (cuuuute) I was given as present the other day. Maybe I can make a living on displaying stories in front of rich people's kids in neighbouring Berlin. But then no rich people there or in any vicinity of 500 miles. Ever heard of this place being the sandbox of the empire?

Additionally to my desk there's my stereo (useless), room plants (schefrellae, useless), a black leather couch which I could sell to some eccentric salesman (and be burned for possessing such whitchcraft). Lamps useless. Lots of books, fictional and non fictional which will not help with survival, unless I want to make a living on predicting the political future of the mark and the empire for the time to come. This is actually a cool idea

Matress (no bed), clothes which make me look a bit strange in those days, CDs, electronics stuff, all useless. Some basic tools in one chest. Some of the stuff in here I could use for hunting. However I have no clue about hunting deer. And it'll be the nobility's priviledge anyway.

I die either of being lynched, of cold, of some sort of plague. If I survive I end up with travellling jugglers, telling fantastic stories of their political environment of the time. Or something like that. Will anyone believe that the Turks will capture Constantinople in 70 years time? Will anyone CARE? The answer is no. A short sad life ahead.

[DaShi]

I warn the natives of the impending arrival of the white man. I help prepare them as much as I can and do my best to integrate into their society. Probably marry some hot injun chic.

[ZEE]

Originally posted by BlackCat


If your'e carefull, you hae a carrer as a jester.

THANKS BC! Teh Seminole's will label me as:

"Silly-White Man" lawlz