I ran across this file on the maiden voyage of Dr. Serendipity Brown's Time Machine back in 2353. There's now a fifty foot obelisk on the site in Kelso, Washington where the time machine landed in 1985. Oddly enough it was still a vacant lot in the 26th century when they built the historic marker.
12.6.09
On Being a Professional Wallflower
Wendell Howe:
May I ask how you avoid giving away your time traveling to the folks you are meeting?
Signed: Katherine aka KatFlap
I would be happy to answer that question.
I am a Temporal Anthropologist. That is a title that takes decades of education and training to acquire. I had to get a doctorate in both History and Anthropology to even be considered for the real training. The hardest part is acquiring a Time Travel License. To be certified I had to be trained to never stand out, to fade into the crowd, to be unmemorable, least my presence have an impact on those around me. I was also trained to be introverted. I must not make friends or even have meaningful conversations with those in the past, least I influence them and change history that way. It must be as though I was never there. I discuss the importance of avoiding Time Manipulation in my essay “Why the Institute of Time Travel is Necessary” in my April posting.
People have wondered why I am not allowed out of the Victorian Age. That is because I am ingrained in this era. I’ve been teased that I’m more Victorian than Queen Victoria! Outside of a few necessary high tech items that have been carefully disguised (see my essay below “Tools of the Trade”), just about everything I own is Victorian. My clothes, down to my underwear, is Victorian. I don’t even own a 27th century suit. I shave even when I’m in the 27th century with a straight razor. I have developed an embarrassing Victorian modesty. My mannerisms and speech are Victorian. I fit in so perfectly that if I told anyone in the 19th century that I was from the future, they would laugh at me. On the down side, I no longer fit in the 27th century. But then, anyone devoted and crazy enough to become a Temporal Anthropologist, never felt like they belonged to the 27th century anyway, but to another time.
It can be a lonely life. I feel an outsider in the 27th century. Yet the 19th century, where I feel at home, I am not allowed to get involved with anyone. But it’s all necessary to protect Time, and if this is the price I have to pay to be in the Era I love, then so be it. I’m not sorry I became a Temporal Anthropologist. I can’t imagine any other life.
May I ask how you avoid giving away your time traveling to the folks you are meeting?
Signed: Katherine aka KatFlap
I would be happy to answer that question.
I am a Temporal Anthropologist. That is a title that takes decades of education and training to acquire. I had to get a doctorate in both History and Anthropology to even be considered for the real training. The hardest part is acquiring a Time Travel License. To be certified I had to be trained to never stand out, to fade into the crowd, to be unmemorable, least my presence have an impact on those around me. I was also trained to be introverted. I must not make friends or even have meaningful conversations with those in the past, least I influence them and change history that way. It must be as though I was never there. I discuss the importance of avoiding Time Manipulation in my essay “Why the Institute of Time Travel is Necessary” in my April posting.
People have wondered why I am not allowed out of the Victorian Age. That is because I am ingrained in this era. I’ve been teased that I’m more Victorian than Queen Victoria! Outside of a few necessary high tech items that have been carefully disguised (see my essay below “Tools of the Trade”), just about everything I own is Victorian. My clothes, down to my underwear, is Victorian. I don’t even own a 27th century suit. I shave even when I’m in the 27th century with a straight razor. I have developed an embarrassing Victorian modesty. My mannerisms and speech are Victorian. I fit in so perfectly that if I told anyone in the 19th century that I was from the future, they would laugh at me. On the down side, I no longer fit in the 27th century. But then, anyone devoted and crazy enough to become a Temporal Anthropologist, never felt like they belonged to the 27th century anyway, but to another time.
It can be a lonely life. I feel an outsider in the 27th century. Yet the 19th century, where I feel at home, I am not allowed to get involved with anyone. But it’s all necessary to protect Time, and if this is the price I have to pay to be in the Era I love, then so be it. I’m not sorry I became a Temporal Anthropologist. I can’t imagine any other life.
6.6.09
TimeTweet Archives
I have created a blog with my back Tweets for those of you who want to see what has happened so far.
1.6.09
New Experimental Twitter Tool: TimeTweets
Many of you have wondered how I am able to communicate from the Field. Well, that would be thanks to the brilliant computer programmer and engineer, Antonio Marco. He has developed for Twitter a new tool named TimeTweets, which I am testing out for them. This allows me to communicate from the Victorian Age directly to you back in the 27th century. I think it is a marvelous innovation for raising interest in the discipline of Temporal Anthropology. And from my side it has been nice to be able to talk to you folks back home. Since Temporal Anthropologists aren’t allowed to get involved with people in the past, it can get very lonely in the Field.
A few of you have teased me about Tweeting from the early 21st century. I’m sure you picked that particular time, because Twitter was still in its infancy and was known for technical difficulties. It was all new then and Twitter was trying to cope with the monster it was creating. I mean, of all the time periods, that would be the least likely to be able to read past and future Tweets, since they are having a hard enough time keeping track of their current Tweets. Thank heavens those early pioneers valiantly marshaled on and smoothed out all those problems, or Twitter never would have survived into the 27th century.
Twitter has assured the Institute of Time Travel that no time periods in between the Victorian Age and the 27th century can read my tweets. Can you imagine the disaster that would cause! What if people really were reading about the future in the 21st century? That could change history and break every law of time travel! The Institute of Time Travel Enforcement Agency would shut this site down immediately!
It’s rumored the Enforcers can go back and “erase” people, making them have an “accident” before they were able to change time. It is just a rumor, though, I think. I would hate for the Enforcers to “erase” poor Mr. Marco. I’m not sure what they would do with me, or for that matter everyone that read these tweets. No, I think erasing so many people in the past would be too risky. What if one of them was suppose to help save the world? More likely the Enforcers would simply erase their memories of me, or go to great lengths to convince everyone this was just a hoax or something. I daresay, it gives me a headache trying to guess what the Enforcers would do. I just don’t have a devious enough mind.
I have also gotten some strange Tweets from people who appear to be outside of accepted reality, like they were coming from another universe or plane of existence. The Institute has decided these are just a bunch of college students pulling a prank. For the Enforcers to accept that these tweets are real would mean the Institute would have to change it’s entire way of thinking. Such a worldview would imply that Time Manipulation doesn’t matter. If you change time you simply create new reality and your own is unaffected. Such a belief would put the Institute out of a job. So officially I have to agree with the Institute that these aren’t real. Unofficially, well…their tweets seem far too consistent to be a just a prank. These “fictional characters” appear to be as real as I am! Besides, they all seem like very nice chaps.
I do hope the Institute of Time Travel will continue to allow me to post TimeTweets on Twitter. I do enjoy communicating with all of you. It certainly beats talking to Samantha, my teapot.
http://twitter.com/Wendell_Howe
A few of you have teased me about Tweeting from the early 21st century. I’m sure you picked that particular time, because Twitter was still in its infancy and was known for technical difficulties. It was all new then and Twitter was trying to cope with the monster it was creating. I mean, of all the time periods, that would be the least likely to be able to read past and future Tweets, since they are having a hard enough time keeping track of their current Tweets. Thank heavens those early pioneers valiantly marshaled on and smoothed out all those problems, or Twitter never would have survived into the 27th century.
Twitter has assured the Institute of Time Travel that no time periods in between the Victorian Age and the 27th century can read my tweets. Can you imagine the disaster that would cause! What if people really were reading about the future in the 21st century? That could change history and break every law of time travel! The Institute of Time Travel Enforcement Agency would shut this site down immediately!
It’s rumored the Enforcers can go back and “erase” people, making them have an “accident” before they were able to change time. It is just a rumor, though, I think. I would hate for the Enforcers to “erase” poor Mr. Marco. I’m not sure what they would do with me, or for that matter everyone that read these tweets. No, I think erasing so many people in the past would be too risky. What if one of them was suppose to help save the world? More likely the Enforcers would simply erase their memories of me, or go to great lengths to convince everyone this was just a hoax or something. I daresay, it gives me a headache trying to guess what the Enforcers would do. I just don’t have a devious enough mind.
I have also gotten some strange Tweets from people who appear to be outside of accepted reality, like they were coming from another universe or plane of existence. The Institute has decided these are just a bunch of college students pulling a prank. For the Enforcers to accept that these tweets are real would mean the Institute would have to change it’s entire way of thinking. Such a worldview would imply that Time Manipulation doesn’t matter. If you change time you simply create new reality and your own is unaffected. Such a belief would put the Institute out of a job. So officially I have to agree with the Institute that these aren’t real. Unofficially, well…their tweets seem far too consistent to be a just a prank. These “fictional characters” appear to be as real as I am! Besides, they all seem like very nice chaps.
I do hope the Institute of Time Travel will continue to allow me to post TimeTweets on Twitter. I do enjoy communicating with all of you. It certainly beats talking to Samantha, my teapot.
http://twitter.com/Wendell_Howe
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