Entertainment During the BUG IN

by **jeffmw** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:49 pm

Everyone is talking about food water medical stores during the SHTF. After you have all that How about Stuff to keep your family or your self entertained during the initial crisis. Like What movies and or tv series games and so one would you have on your labtop and or hard drive or dvd music collection assuming you can keep it charged if you dont have power, How would you stayed entertained during the Initial Crisis untell things settle down.

by **AnonEmous** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:15 pm

Have given this relatively little thought, but in a bad emergency I probably would be focused on the radio listening for news... but in a power outage, snowed in situation, would probably find some games, play cards, or turn to the radio again, but for entertainment rather than news.

by **TacAir** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:19 pm

Several decks of cards
Cribbage board
Shortwave radio + large antenna

Not a fan of board games.

OF course, I've reached the age where a nap sounds like fun....

by **connecticut_yankee** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:27 pm

Thousands of pounds of books. Also, I have offline backups of some websites for kicks and giggles.

Not -those- kinds of websites. Damn.

by **majorhavoc** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:55 pm

This is a really valid question. Especially if you have a family, some non-electron powered entertainment is an important part of your disaster response kit. Even if you're not a fan of board games, having a few tucked away is a good idea. It's surprising what suddenly becomes interesting and engaging when you're snowed/flooded in. Or under stress and feeling the need to reassure your family (and yourself) that while the damage and loss may be severe, the important things in life are still with you.

If you have children, some paper, glue, crayons and scissors can go a long way to keeping the younger ones entertained.

I also like CT Yankee's suggestion of books. Lots of books.

And since you'll likely be using this stuff indoors and without power, I'll put in another plug for something that often gets overlooked in disaster kits: some good portable area lighting: something a bit more appropriate for activities around a table than that 235 lumen tactical flashlight.

by **bigmattdaddywack** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:05 pm

Spades. Spades can keep you going for hours. Other card games as well. You can also create useful and artistic things as well out of wood,clay, and metal.

Get acoustic instruments and learn how to play your favorite Death and thrash metal on them. That can be entertaining.

Fuck with the neighbors.

Your imagination is the limit.

by **grennels** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:09 pm

It wasn't a bug in but we had a scheduled electrical outage last week.
Power was out for 1 1/2 hours. We played records on the Victrola I bought
at an auction for $6 when I was 12 years old. Very enjoyable. Would work just
as well in a long term bug in.

by **Drethos** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:16 pm

To be honest with you i can pretty much entertain my self for days with as little as 2ft of paracord, a sock, and a pen. I don't need much when the lights go out.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

by **fourway** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:24 pm

Drethos wrote:To be honest with you i can pretty much entertain my self for days with as little as 2ft of paracord, a sock, and a pen. I don't need much when the lights go out.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

You need to be careful though, hundreds of people accidentally hang themselves each year "entertaining" themselves that way.

by **Shaper** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:29 pm

Books, Books, and more Books
Warhammer 40k
Magic: The Gathering
Various Art/Crafts Media (paints, chalk, clay, etc.)
Board Games
RPG's (minimal experience though)
Music (instruments, and if there is power, MP3's)
Martial Arts Training (has dedicated room for training)
Electronics (parts/components, solder/iron, blank/scrap circuit boards, test equipment) ...For me mostly
Leather Working (hand tools, and a good stock of leather)
Wood working (hand tools, power tools if surplus power available)
Metal Working (mostly power inclusive)

Coming soon...

HAM radio (outside human interaction)
High Quality Telescope
Metal Forge/Anvil/Crucible
Pets/Farm Animals

Many of these are dependent on noise restrictions, power limitations, and varied interest throughout the family, but they are all viable in some form or the other.

by **none1** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:01 pm

well, my understanding is before electricity and video games, guys spent more time with a GF .....

I mean, if its the paw, the worlds gona need repopulating, right?

Course, if you didn't remember to prep for waste disposal, (which is often missing in folks list of preps) I'm expecting a bunch of folks to be busy doing chores like digging out door receptacles.

Reloading all that spent brass you've been collecting but not got around to?
Firing up the Ham radio?

wait wait, this sounds too much fun, how long do we get to bug in for? GF, ham radio, reloading, target practice .....

by **bigmattdaddywack** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:35 pm

fourway wrote:
Drethos wrote:To be honest with you i can pretty much entertain my self for days with as little as 2ft of paracord, a sock, and a pen. I don't need much when the lights go out.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

You need to be careful though, hundreds of people accidentally hang themselves each year "entertaining" themselves that way.

Absolutely beautiful.

by **ZombieGranny** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:52 pm

by **majorhavoc** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:02 pm

Let's go to Granny's house!

by **wee drop o' bush** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:24 pm

majorhavoc wrote:Let's go to Granny's house!

I already want to go there

ZG you rock.

by **LtCmdLeia** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:43 pm

My house is the same as ZG. We have more books than we have shelf space, and a bazillion board games from all over the world.

Like everything else, especially when you have kids, entertaining yourself should be practiced. I know that sounds silly. Kids will have a hard time dealing with the lack of TV and video games post SHTF if they don't know how to do anything else now. (TV turn off week is a great way to get started with that http://www.screenfree.org ) We often have non electric days around here. The TV is only allowed for a little while each day, and we decide together what to watch. Video games are allowed even less frequently. The kids play a lot of board games and read a lot of books, and I encourage it by buying new ones all the time.

by **Ronin672** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:58 pm

I've got quite the same thing here too. The big closet full of games, a couple shelves of books, and if it's not too bad outside, I can play bocce with my wife and the rest of those in house with us. Like it was said by another person, I am easily entertained, it won't take much.

by **ZombieGranny** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:25 pm

Good heavens there is a lot of stuff in my house.
Never see it all at once, and at least half is in drawers or behind closed closet doors.

And I didn't even show any boxes of Lego, train sets, buckets of Perler beads, craft materials, yarn, fabric, lumber & woodworking tools...
Never get bored around here, electricity or not.

by **BadIntel** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:36 pm

ZombieGranny wrote:
And I didn't even show any boxes of Lego, train sets, buckets of Perler beads, craft materials, yarn, fabric, lumber & woodworking tools...
Never get bored around here, electricity or not.

Legos alone are a recipe for infinite fun! When I was a kid, my brothers and I had a huge bucket of Legos (kits would get put together, then disassembled after maybe a couple weeks and added to the collective) that we would use to build anything our imaginations could conceive and spend hours making stories with them

by **Shaper** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:44 pm

BadIntel wrote:
ZombieGranny wrote:
And I didn't even show any boxes of Lego, train sets, buckets of Perler beads, craft materials, yarn, fabric, lumber & woodworking tools...
Never get bored around here, electricity or not.

Legos alone are a recipe for infinite fun! When I was a kid, my brothers and I had a huge bucket of Legos (kits would get put together, then disassembled after maybe a couple weeks and added to the collective) that we would use to build anything our imaginations could conceive and spend hours making stories with them

Once ALL of my little ones get old enough to not ingest them...LEGO is SO on.

by **smokinbunta** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:17 pm

hrm.... i can practically sit there stare at a wall and let my mind slip into a coma... or play pool... the pocket kind....LOLZ

But really... I don't have much interest in board games.. i read but don't own too many books (20 or so?)

So.. reading everything and probably doing lots of push ups and sit ups to keep my body working..

by **DarkAxel** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:35 pm

Thanks to my brother's TBI, he has short-term memory problems, and that effects the type of entertainment he can enjoy. Books are out, but he enjoys magazines (he can actually finish articles in them) and he can read them several times before they are no longer new to him. I keep spare puzzle books and pens/pencils for him (crosswords and search-a-word). Complex board games are out of the question, but games like Life and Connect 4 are OK. I also have tons of picture puzzles stored back.

I'd really like to find a wind-up gramophone for his record collection, and get some solar chargers for his MP3 players and my laptop (DVDs, Old school console games, and eBooks).

by **Rob Salem** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:19 pm

docdredd wrote:My Dungeons and Dragons set.... it's ok you may laugh.... but I know of no other way of burning hundreds of hours just setting at a table.

Yup. Pretty much any RPG. A couple basic books, some dice and paper, good to go. Hell, you don't even need to have the books - just create your own rules. I think having a variety of games is a good plan, as well as books, art supplies, and anything that will keep your mind stimulated. I also think that being able to change up every now and then would help the morale (boredom from stagnation could be a depressant). Also, musical instruments - guitars, drums, piano, etc.

I'd also have some physical activity options on hand - indoor exercise equipment, but also stuff to do outside, assuming that it was safe to go out and play some catch or something.

by **KnightoftheRoc** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:40 am

I've got a pretty extensive library, and now that it's been combined with my fiancee's books, the topic range is quite a bit wider- my own tastes run toward how-to's, sci-fi, and fantasy, with some history thrown in for fun. When starting serious prepping, I decided early on to include some kitchen-table-top games, and to have them range in the number of players. A deck of cards, a couple of board games that can be enjoyed by kids as well as adults, and one I picked up online that teaches herbs and teamwork as you play a candyland type of arrangement, getting to the top of the mountain and back. A good selection of manuals for AD&D 3.0/3.5 as well, and a stock of paper and pencils.

For anything extended, we're pretty well set, between the chores that will need doing and what we have on-hand. the most likely scenario, not that you'd know it THIS winter, is being snowed in, despite being in the middle of the city. So, water and gas would still be on, in all likelihood, but even if they were both off, we have heaters, and could gather fresh snow for melting before even needing to start hauling in water from a nearby natural spring. We're also one of the very few places with a septic tank, so city system backups won't directly affect us.

For warmer weather outages, we can always go outside, BBQ, shoot targets against the shed with the bows or crossbow, throw knives/axes/hatchets, etc., work out on the weight set, or catch up on repairing things in the workshed. There should also be a garden this year (crosses fingers), so there'd be plenty to keep hands busy.