Coffee Talk #28: What Would You Do in a 24-Hour Blackout?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Brock Lesnar’s strange and severe sickness, preparing for the impending (awful) Twilight madness, or the DC Universe’s Blackest Night, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Blackouts scare me. The thought of not being able to play on my consoles or use my PC for an extended and unknown period of time is just…chilling. Sure, it’s more than a bit ridiculous, but I totally admit it. Technology — powered by electricity, of course — is a huge part of how I keep myself entertained. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself during an extended power outage.

Blue LanternFortunately, that’s not really a problem, since I live in a major city in a first-world country. That said, I started thinking about what I would do if such a catastrophe struck (yes, I’m exaggerating). Would I bust out a board game? Would I enjoy an extended round of bedroom activities? Or would I geek it up in another way?

If a blackout struck today, I think I’d read some nerd books. I haven’t really started R.A. Salvatore’s The Ghost King and I’ve totally been digging the various lead-ups to Blackest Night. Candlelight geek reading FTW!!!

How about you? What would you do if you couldn’t touch your consoles, play on the Internet, or “chat” with your fellow RPadholics for 24 hours? How would you spend your time if you didn’t have electricity for 24 hours? (And for the sake of the game, please don’t list playing on your fully charged PSP, Nintendo DS, or iPhone. Ha!)

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

67 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #28: What Would You Do in a 24-Hour Blackout?”

  1. I'd catch up on my reading a bit, I've got a couple of books on cinematography that I haven't gotten around to reading. Candlelight reading FTW Indeed

    I'd also play and hour or two of Zelda and Scribblenauts on my DSi, hehehe sorry Rpad, but I always have at least a couple of hours worth of charge on my DSi, you never know when a blackout might roll by lol

  2. Thankfully, I have kids to keep me entertained. They'd be happy doing loys of things that aren't electric (boogie woogie woogie).

    The last time I was in that situation, it was about 10 years ago and I whooped most of the people that lived on my street in Monopoly (I've never lost a game of Monopoly in my life… for real). See, that's the cool thing about when something like that happens. All the neighbors come out of their holes and want to talk to each other. That's a good thing.

  3. Also, I buckled yesterday and got AC2. That game is actually cooler than I thought it would be.

    Employing legal prostitutes FTW!

  5. Well during my 33 day blackout after Katrina I did all sorts of fun things. Sit around and eat MREs with my friends, go fishing (more like fishing for snakes), read a little bit (too hot to just prop up and just finish a book). Showering with cold water was right up there too! Seriously it sucked except for going to get gas…that was always an adventure.

    If it were just 24 hours…well, I always keep about 40lbs of bagged ice in my deep freeze…so that in conjunction with my ice chest and a bunch of beers….I'd sit on my back porch drinking and burning stuff in my fire pit. The more the merrier too.

  6. Since I have unfortunately grown up in the country, I've known about blackouts. Especially the ice storm in '93 which left us w/o heat or lights for almost 2 weeks. And 10 miles from the nearest town. Soooo my DS has always got some charge in it (sorry!) as I'm usually using Sandrock323's at work lol. Besides that, I've got tons of books…some I've read and some I haven't. I still need to finish The Sword of Truth series, and finish collecting RA Salvatore as well as Terry Pratchett books lol.

  8. @Smartguy – I guess not lol. I just remember those power outages being a bioch. That and there was nothing to do. But hey that's how I gained my love for fantasy novels and gaming eh? Guess it's not all bad ^^

  9. @N8R – so far in that game, there is nothing that a hired band consisting of women of leisure have not been able to accomplish.

    @Blackout – As much as I consider myself a gamer, I am a bibliophile in my heart of hearts, and there are a ton of books in my house that I haven't picked up because the "sex box named Sony" calls with it's pretty colors and instant gratification.

    The longest blackout I was ever in was for about 48 or so hours thanks to one of the many hurricanes that blow through Florida. I was with my family and my 4 best friends came over for a "Hurricane Party" and never left. We played Risk by candlelight for I think 16 hours. It was nerdtastic.

  10. you remember yesterday when we were discussing songs that get stuck in your head?

    well….youve been warned

  12. Last time that happened to me an F5 tornado has just gone by my house (I also grew up on he country) so I spent the next couple days cleaning up the mess and playing card games for the most part. Euchre is the game to play where I'm from, i'm not even sure anyone else here really knows what that game is, I would be amazed if someone does.

  14. im sorry to spam this board with youtube videos, but dj steve porter also did an attack of the show remix, i hold creative people in the highest regard

  15. I haven't been in this situation before but I think being without the internet would be worse then anything. I guess if the cell towers were still working I would always have my phone that I can recharge by car. I've been known to go a whole week without gaming so I'm sure I could entertain myself. I'd sure like to have the time off work though

  17. @Nightshade – is that official yet or still rumored? I am planning on buying the Saboteur regardless, but I thought that was some sad news.

  22. @RROD, Mercenaries and the Battlefront games mostly. I thought destroy all humans was a terrible game I'll admit but it was a lot of fun vaporizing people.

    I'll be bummed if I don't see another Mercenaries game but I'm sure EA will do something with it. I just hope they take a lesson from Red Faction

  23. battlefront was cool…but the other games they have put out were never my cup of tea though. sucks when people lose their jobs though.

  24. @Larcenous – I agree most of their games were mediocre but again with mercs and battlefront and even the first destroy all humans the games were genuinely fun

  26. @Shockwave – Destropy all Humans was fun, but I was never a big fan of the Battlefront/Merc games when they were out. Having a bit more experience in the 3rd person sandboxes now a days might change my mind on them.

    @Nightshade – The shifting of the game world from black and white to color really grabbed me. That and the walk through they did on G4 – seeing all those little white "collectable" dots on the main map just caused my heart to yell in glee!

  27. I think if Saboteur is better than average it will be a real shame the studio is gone now. The game does look intriguing and I'm stoked to give it a whirl. I should buy it used so I don't hand all my cash to EA

  28. I live in a major city and still have to dill with long term blackouts on a some what yearly bases. Last time I played my DS until the battery died and then read my books. I can always reread Love Hine. :P

  29. if such a thing happens, ill be busting out my magic the gathering cards or some dungeons and dragons, and play with my brother and cousin. Yes, im a total geek

  33. When we had a 30 hour blackout down in Fl from hurricane Gene, we ended up working on a puzzle near the window and drank mead. when we finished the bottle…..heh, 9 months later our daughter was born.

    I would totally do that again (minus having a kid cuz we have 2)

  34. @hrolf – lol ya I'm pretty sure my girlfriend and I could keep entertained. I wouldn't hope for a kid but I'm not at that point yet. I just prefer to practice

  36. @nightshade/Rpad or whoever. Last night I came up on the optional Dragon by the sacred ashes and let me just say that I got my world rocked by that thing at least 5 times. Hell I turned it down to casual and I still can't get that thing below 25% health. Maybe I just need to grab the ashes and move on

  37. Wow somebody mentioned MtG cards holy hell *gets out her big binder of cards all nerdily organized* XD

  38. I forgot to mention earlier…one of my other favorite things to do after Katrina was to drive around where possible ignoring all stop signs, red lights, and just breaking all traffic laws. I really liked speeding in school zones and such. Felt like I was in a zombie movie.

  39. The last "blackout" I was in was in the middle of summer about 4 years ago. A squirrel had climbed the pole across the street from my house and blew up the transformer. It was one of those 105 degree days with 80% humidity. So my wife and I unplugged my computer and drug the battery backup out and plugged a fan into it and layed in the floor trying not to touch anything. When that died we went outside and took a long nap in my truck with the A/C cranked. The only game we played was the dot game. You make a line then I make a line and you try to make boxes. I had made up a bunch of them on the computer for road trips.

  41. @Shockwave562 It's worth killing the dragon. You get an achievement/trophy, plus it gives you a specific scale that Wade can use to make some awesome armor. It's better than the typical drake scale. I'd give it a few more goes on casual and make sure you have at least one ranged person doing damage.

  43. @Shockwave562 For sure! Unlike the other armor Wade makes for you, with this scale you get to choose what type it will be. I think I used Leliana, Shale, and Wynne to beat it. Shale and my character were up front doing some damage and annoying it. Leliana did smaller, but more consistent damage and ended up getting the kill.

  46. @ Hrolf;

    I'm on the same boat as you man, I'm planning to get Dragon Age and play it (in the far future), but with all this Dragon Age talk, I feel as if I already know a whole lot about the game without even picking up the controller.

    -M

  47. @ R-pad, maybe not, but I dont even look at what I gotta do to get achievements or any of the equipment information on first play through.

    no biggie, its not like I can get this game anytime soon. damn there are about 10 games that have been released and I cant get anything till I dont even know when..being broke sucks.

  48. @ Hrolf;

    Wow man, that is the total opposite of my situation. I have enough money to buy all the games I could ever want (and then some), but I don't have any time to play them. I would gladly trade you some of my money for some of your free time.

    -M

  50. Yeah it looks like they took all the lessons they learned from the Mercs series and really put out something quite cool looking in the Saboteur. It’s on my Christmas list. Wondering how they might handle DLC though. I know a number of their titles have been shuttled off to other EA delvelopment houses, so we’ll have to see. Most of their stuff was mediocre at best, but it all had a lot of potential.

    That and the mohawk…

  51. @ Iceman

    no I dont really have time for much gaming anymore, maybe late night on weekends. but still, I would like to own the games to play them when I have the chance.

    lol @ R-pad, yea we have been on the being poor diet now a few weeks and it really sucks.

  52. @ Iceman

    Did you just offer Hrolf a job? Because I don't know how things work in Miami… but where I come from, offering money for free time is a job.

  54. @ Sandrock

    Frozen pizzas are too expensive for us.

    Raman is what I eat for dinner after work, GODS that stuff is so bad for ya though…

  56. @ N8R

    the really crappy thing is we make too much for any assistance. we cant afford our bills, we will most likely lose our vehicle, but hey, we make too much money for any help….

    I have been trying to get financial assistance for a month and a half now to get into a simple 3 week school, and cant afford the child care needed…BUT…we make too much money…

  57. @ Hrolf

    That sucks. I was under the table for 4 years when we started, but in CA they'll do what they gotta do to see that you get EBT. See, the more people they get, the more funding they get. With all the cuts going on here, if they don't keep signing new people up, they stand to take a cut in funding. That's bad for the social workers too.

    See if Iceman will pay you under the table so you can get on EBT!

  62. lol dont even get me started about debt. we worked hard to clear our debt in florida. we moved up here and used the credit we had to get furniture, etc as we left alot when we left, and then BAM the economy went to crap.

  65. Pingback: Congrats to Hrolf!!! | RPad.TV -- Raymond Padilla & friends talk games and geek culture

  66. Is reading books via Stanza on my iPhone against the rules? Because I'd do that. Lovecraft all the way, to match the psychic horror of not having electricity. NYAAAAAAAARGH!

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