A gnome walks up to your computer...
 

… and hands you a letter. The letter reads as follows:

You have been cursed and blessed at the same time. The curse is that you must abandon your present life immediately – indeed, you are already dead to it, and all memory of it will fade in mere moments after reading this letter. The blessing is that you will be transported back in time to any location in the world and any period in the past 1000 years, and dropped into a full life with complete understanding of that time and place.

There are three aspects of your new life: time, place, and “who” you are (king? farmer? soldier? anything you wish). But alas, you can only be specific about two of the three. The third is left completely to chance.

You must decide within a minute of reading this sentence, or the gnome will rip your head off and uses it for a cosmic bowling bowl.

Have a nice day.

Make your choice.

Dallas, 1963, hopefully not riding in an open-topped car

Lesbian supermodel about five minutes ago.

Yeah, that would work...

Maine, 1980.

Cosmic bowling ball. Get to see the stars.

Alternatively, me, six hours before the gnome arrives, so I can decide not to eat the brown acid.

I think I'd be a stud high school quarterback any time in the last 25 years.

Hey, it's your trip.

Hmmm, over 30 views + 5 responses = lots of cosmic bowling balls :D

Emperor.
China.

MIT, 1972, student

astronaut, 1969

frigate captain
Boston

President, 2000.

Edit - Yay! 3000!

Indy 500 racecar seat, 2005.

this one is a big gamble.

1776
constitutional delegate

New York Yankee

1927

Rock star, 1967.

WSU Couger, 2:27 pm today

whoa.

Multi-Biillionaire, Current day....I could care less where I am. I'll buy something and make it better or go somewhere else and buy things.

So if I said Draft Dodger at 2:26pm today, would that mean that I would become WSUCougar?

*keeanu voice on*

whoa.

I'll be the gnome.

What if you don't follow directions?

Also, who gets to pick your third choice? I could see lots of crappy random possibilities:

MIT, 1972, laboratory rat
Rock Star, 1967, Saudi Arabia
Emperor, China, 1949

Oh yeah, for me--Sultan of Brunei, 1995.

Myself, March 1994, Galesburg, MI.

NHL Referee
May 27, 1993

Yeah, I was hoping that wild card aspect might prompt some interesting choices or discussion.

If the gnome was a rules lawyer, I'd imagine that he'd take a hard line on some of these answers, including yours. "Sultan" would be boiled down to a generic equivalent, and Brunei would be tossed out. Altough a cool choice, "New York Yankee 1927" is fudging the three aspects (either "baseball player 1927" or "New York 1927" would be more in keeping). But it's all meant in good fun...

1) Sultan
2) Of Brunei
3) 1995

:)

Personally, I'd go with...

Regent, 340 BC.

WSUCougar gets to pick all 3.

Yes, though "Sultan of Brunei" can be considered a singular title...

The one minute aspect is a bit harsh. I panicked and chose San Francisco 1965. I have absolutely no idea why.

Heh. You mean something like:

Richard Simmons
1990s
videos everywhere

Oh my god, you're Willie Mays!

Horace Grant's goggles
NBA Finals, 1993

Buzzbee picked mine

You do realize you could be a cosmonaut...

Apple employee with large amounts of shares
1980

No. Cuz then I'd be a cosmonaut, not an astronaut.

Yeah- I think we need a rules lawyer gnome that assures that your previous two don't make the third true. For instance, if you say astronaut 1969, it doesn't make you Neil Armstrong- you could be some Cosmonaut in Siberia or a little kid who will be one of the ones who dies in a shuttle accident. Or 1776 constiutional delegate could be some guy helping establish a colony in Africa and not Tom Jefferson.

EDIT: (already mentioned in examples above)

SI

Someone should go through and fill everyone's requests...

Fucking Nazi Gnome. :mad:

Wrigley Field - 3rd baseline lower level seats, October 14, 2003

Poof! You are a beer!

I was going to say he was a peanut shell.

Poof! You are sweeping up trash.

Benevelont authoritarianism kinda sucks, does it not?

That's a pretty big risk. :eek: