Audience Participation

[my_window_seat]

How I Know I'm a Deeply Fucked-Up Person - Clue #97

As a kid, one of my frequent pastimes used to be, not playing with dolls, but inventing and 'practicing' survival skills.  Figure out what kinds of things I would need to do to get by in the world if everything I knew were suddenly turned upside down.   What kinds of plants are edible?  If I were lost in the forest, how would I find shelter, food, etc.?  One of my favorite books of all time?  My Side of the Mountain - a children's guide to living with nothing more than a pocket knife, a ball of twine and a bent pin. 

I used to seriously think about things like, how long before canned goods aren't okay to eat anymore?  Would I be able to treat myself for a snakebite?  How would I do "x" if I lost my right hand? 

The question I want to ask a person to tell me about their character isn't something like, "What would you do if you won the lottery!!11!!!" or "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would YOU be!"

Can't you just hear the smiley face emoticons?  Does it set your teeth on edge the way it does mine?

This is one of reasons I know I'm not one of the sanest people on the planet.  Because as a kid, I didn't imagine unicorns and fairies and what kind of pretty, pretty princess I would be.  And as an adult, my idea of winning the lottery is imagining the world as it would be without the human viral load it currently carries, and what it would be like to rebuild it a piece at a time, with whatever happens to be at hand. 

I don't care about what you'd do with boodles of money or as a fucking tree or some shit. 

The question I'd want to ask someone to get an idea of their character would be, "What kind of life would you live if you were the only survivor (that you knew of) of an Extinction Level Event?"

So tell me -
What would you do if life as we know it came to an end?

Are you a survivor?
Would you want to be?

Tell me about your version of the apocalypse.

Tell me now.

Comments

[adam-is-klingon.livejournal.com]

as a kid, I've always imagined what i would do if life as we know it came to an end, but never as a sole survivor. I really can't see a point to life if i have no one to share it with.

my version of the apocalypse is the total collapse of the world's governments, advanced energy sources and communication services, what causes people to revert to tribal society.
I always asked myself if I'd be able to lead a tribe, to be responsible for people's to such an extent and if i'd be able to bring my vision of a better society to the rest of the darkening world.

[dj-twig.livejournal.com]

even though i have haver never tried, i always try to learn more about how to grow things...

[elsean.livejournal.com]

Having watched I Am Legend and played Fallout one and two, I definitely understand the importance of a canine companion.

That said, it would depend on where I was bunkered down when it all happened. If it happened while I was smack dab in the middle of the mountains surrounded by another four months worth of snow and ice, I'd see if I had enough resources to comfortably hold out until spring. Failing that, I'd probably take down a crap-load of sleeping pills. On the other hand, if I was in say New Mexico or the Pacific Northwest, winter wouldn't be so bad and I could hang around for a while yet. During the warmer months I'd make a mad dash to Florida, and proceed to travel up and down the east coast where there would likely be a lot more goods to scour given the population density. To keep myself sane; books, vidja-ma-games, drawing utensils, exploring, whatever struck my fancy. I'd be too interested at first to just leave it all alone. If I couldn't get comfortable with the rest of my life after a couple years, I might end it there too. My survival would ultimately boil down to how convenient life could be, and if I could maintain interest. Kinda lame, huh?

The sort of apocalypse I'd imagine would probably involve huge percentages of the world population just up and evaporating, and my survival being the product of some wacky fluke. If there were still chunks of people or civilization around, I wouldn't feel at all like it was the end of days; more of a minor setback in the long run.

[kamarie.livejournal.com]

See, I don't think you're insane at all. I've spent many hours contemplating these very things. I do not watch too many movies or read too many books about the apocalypse, though because my imagination is a bit over-active and I think I get too paranoid! However...

If life as I knew it came to an end, I would mourn, and then I would pick myself up by the bootstraps and get moving. I am a survivor. I've done it before and can do it again. Part of the reason I joined the Marines (aside from pissing off my parents) was to learn survival skills, and I did. I have many ideas of the first move I'd make if everything just changed and no one was around. But I do know military bases are loaded with the best survival gear you need.

(I used to have an "Oh-Shit" box. It was filled with music, books, etc. of things I would need to restart society. I don't have that any more!)

My version of the apocalypse relates to global warming. I think the weather shift would be massive, and would kill a lot of people that aren't survivors. It's really frightening to thing of a massive ice age that would cover Canada and the US. But it's likely and possible.

I do not, however, need the extra fun of zombies and man-eating monsters. That's why I don't watch the movies. Real nature is scary enough!

[cygnus.livejournal.com]

This is actually something I think about fairly often, since I'm pretty sure I'd be fucked if society collapsed. Immunosuppressants don't just grow on trees. Oh, I'd be okay for a little while, raiding pharmacies, but it won't take long for the supply in my immediate area to run out, and if I couldn't find any more reliable stores of medicines, my kidney would start to fail, and I don't have the slightest idea how to operate a dialysis machine. Now I could try to go and find other survivors, and there might be a slight little chance that I'd run into a dialysis technician, and maybe that person would be compassionate enough to help me out instead of looking out for number one, and maybe Randal Flagg isn't that bad a guy after all, but I wouldn't want to play those odds. I'd off myself; gotta be more pleasant than dying of acute organ failure.

I never understood the point of asking people what kind of tree they would be, although if some people would just turn INTO trees, I'd have no problem with that.

[wunderhund.livejournal.com]

If thoughts like these are signs of insanity, who wants to be sane? To me, the fact that you have read and love My Side of the Mountain is a superb sign of mental health.

I've been contemplating survival in a post-apocalyptic world for as long as I can remember. My focus has always been on social aspects, on the assumption that enough people survive to organize into primitive societies and be threatened by rival factions. I have spent a lot of time contemplating the best strategy for arming and feeding a small but hardy group of dedicated survivors in the smoldering ruins of our once-great cities. Also, the existence of substantial groups allows thinking about the future - learning how to test the soil for radioactivity before planting crops, separating the muties out of your cattle herds, etc.

My personal version of the apocalypse started in 8th grade english class, during which our teacher gave us two days a week to work on our own creative writing projects. I started a story based on the question of what would happen if everyone older than we 8th graders - all the adults, high school students, etc. - were to suddenly drop dead due to an inexplicable disease/chemical. How would we survive? What would we do with the bodies? Who would get to the local gun stores first? I envisioned every school becoming a fortress, its sports fields and grounds turned over to primitive agriculture, its fences fortified with walls of overturned cars and desks. Epic wars were fought over territory and supplies. Eventually it escalated until entire cities, then states were unified and fighting one another. I spent years expanding the story. I think I'd written a couple hundred pages - at least 4 spiral notebooks - before moving on Just like you worry whether or not contemplating survival strategies makes you crazy, I wonder what it says about me that I assume the default condition of mankind is savage war.

[the-paco.livejournal.com]

My big thing would be nuclear war/attack, some sort of zombie plague, Chinese invasion, or simply increasingly Orwellian tightening of the noose on various freedoms. My plans of escape normally center around a cataclysmic event itself and how prepared I can be for it.

Basic Provisions:
Weapons:
At least one long range rifle in .300 winchester caliber or better, and one in .50 BMG for anti-material work. Assorted small arms in 9mm caliber to allow for easy fiberglass and clothing penetration. Semi-auto H&K or Glock, and an MP5. Reloading supplies for all, dies to make rudimentary lead bullets of both hollowpoint and bluntnose variety. Every other provision can either be hunted for or killed for.

Givens:
1) Any nuclear threat has to result in at least moving to an area that doesn't have an international airport or military base nearby. Dallas is not a good place go be.

2) Large cities, third world countries, possibly contestable borders, and major artery freeways must be avoided.

3) Plague: move inwards in US (unless originating). Head north. Limited nuclear attack: Move far north or towards Mexican border, center of country and all coast lines must be avoided.

4) Cars are death, motorcycles a must, depending on severity. Must be dual-purpose/Enduro variety, simple, and reliable.

5) Zombies: Consider exception to car rule, get to west texas/plains state. Watch world reaction to avoid 3 and 1 as responses from panicking governments. stock up on 9mm rounds and include a semi-auto rifle of common caliber (.22, .30-06, 5.56).

6) To trust others is death.

In order of notice:
1-5 years:
Big issues IE: Plague, Expanded Nuclear Exchange, China goes expansionist, zombie outbreak in Africa/Asia shown as "contained".
I immediately cut back personal spending, get a much smaller place, work overtime, pour extra money into advancing plans to buy and provision a sailboat. Invest time/money/printer paper into plans and kits for passive electricity generation and storage. As time grows short, I launch from the Gulf Coast in Texas (not Galveston) and make best speed towards Australia via either Panama canal or (if threat is naval) Cape Horn. Provisioning would include electric/manual watermakers, dehydrated foods/canned foods/preserves/powders, sail sewing machine, etc.

6 months - 1 year:
Aborted same, sell car immediately upon arrival in Galveston, buy provisions, steal boat.

1 day - 1 week:
Immediately sell car, buy motorcycle and guns. Get out of Dallas immediately, likely heading north. Route to be determined by level of public awareness of crisis.

1 hour:
Steal motorcycle (if convenient/accessible or if public awareness is medium to high). Get out of city by any means necessary at top speed. Strongly consider ambushing a cop for his car/guns, rescue cop as payment if he doesn't put up a fuss. If low traffic, hit 121 to 114, 114 to 35, 35 straight out at 90mph or better, minimum safe distance from airport at time of event 50 miles

<1 hour:
Get in car, depending on time of day and nature of event, North or West. If nuclear and non-peak hours with little public awareness, head west, 121 through Ft Worth to 30, best speed (Focus maxes out about 120), minimum safe distance 30 miles and pray they don't use multi-megaton warhead on Ft Worth.

Post event may allow for gathering of resources and launch of boat depending on level of severity and public response, but by that point I should count on having to head north in most cases, unless massive nuclear engagement has occured, in which case I must avoid the jet stream over north america, and the west coast, possibly could get a decent boat near southern tip of Texas, depending on how fast I could get there. Mobility is key.

First off, you rock! That is an awesome book!

[killbox.livejournal.com]

I wanted to answer this when you first posted it, but I had too much crap to do, so I saved it and said I would get back to it.

My Side of the Mountain -

That was an awesome book, it was read to me as a bedtime story by my mom, and I later on read it for my self several times.

Sam Sribbley, was one of my personal heroes, but it was not until i traveled to see redwoods that i could understand the concept of a tree you could hollow out and lay in.

I too spent most of my childhood building forts, playing survival, and learning to live/track on our land, (i grew up on NM mountain land 15 miles outside of Tijeras)

I also loved swiss family robinson, and other books like that.. I watched lost hoping that they would finally start trying to build technology and was sadly disappointed.

Other books and resources that were pivotal to my childhood, Connections, James Burke shaped my view of how inventions and technology played into the next step up the chain, A boy and his dog, mad max, and even the ewok village in StarWars Return of the jedi, Books like "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" and various military field guides for survival and improvised explosives. even books like "Steal this book" and "Revolution for the hell of it" had things i absorbed into my overbeing.



What would you do if life as we know it came to an end?

Depends on what or why, but if the stuff id mostly intact, my first instinct would be to inventory the things needed for survival, a few guns, medications, packaged foods, water, matches, tinder, and a good vehicle, with plenty of gascans and a method to siphon gas or a diesel at least i could get about by shooting power transformers for the oil to run it off of, if i can't find something else. then its off to explore, hoping i can at least make it to where survival resources are more at hand, coastal areas probably. I would also aong the way explore and loot to find useful books and things needed to make lockpicks, and bolt cutters and the other tools to get wherever needed..

If it was more planet smashing sort of doom, where technology and information were destroyed, and the survivors are scattered and everyone is back to the stoneage? I would do my best to be that crazy old wizard who tries to re-invent and document all the things needed to get back on track.. (hopefully avoiding many of the technological pitfalls by knowing how things work)

Are you a survivor?
Would you want to be?

I like to think when it comes to critical thinking and survival skills im better than average, although with my arthritis and joint problems im no super survivor, i would not be fending off mountain lions with my bare hands ore repelling down mountain faces.

I think i would be much like i am now, a hoarder of things that may come in useful, constantly thinking of everything as potential spare parts, and full of curiosity and the desire to learn/teach/explore

I'm pretty comfortable all on my own, although if there were other people I think I would try to form a small alliance because things like farming and hunting all do better in small groups.

if it was some sort of viral or other death that left everything standing and intact, it would be several lifetimes before all the canned food spoiled and was used up in any moderately populated areas, so i would not really worry.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

I spent a lot of time planning contingencies in high school. I wrote them all down in a journal, which is now lost.

I am unsure if it is a kind of justification for slacking off mentally, but I noticed long ago that people who train skills tend to be a lot more flexible in a situation than people who just make detailed plans. To that end, I made detailed plans on how to train hunting / gathering / fighting skills, and practiced them every weekend. I don't do that so much now because

a: I'm thirty+

b: Politics took over my favorite near-Pleistocene re-creation group.

c: The nightmares/dreams stopped.

d: obsessed with music.

I had a long-standing neurosis that if I failed to plan a contingency for "it" or failed to anticipate "it" that "it" would happen. This was precipitated at a point in my life when I had been transplanted away from all my friends into a school system dominated by drug-running gangs, bullies, and racists and the first time in years that I felt joy and wonder was in watching the launch of the space shuttle Challenger.

I lived through my apocalypse.