Friday, April 22, 2016

Non-Admitted Students Weekend

This past weekend was the Admitted Students Weekend at Harvard, an event where admitted freshmen for the class of 2020 are encouraged to visit the school to learn more about what it's like to live there.
I obviously did not spend that weekend in Cambridge, as much as I would have liked it. Being inexhaustibly hopeful, I had tried to keep that weekend clear on my schedule, but my rejection left me with a conspicuous hole on the calendar. So how did I spend that time?

I went to PrepperCon. This is not a prep school convention, as one friend misinterpreted. This is a convention for doomsday preppers. And they had everything. Gigantic trucks, tents, generators, filtration systems, weapons, ammunition, shelters, firestarters and an abundance of preserved food (and therefore free samples). There was even a custom-built hurricane simulator that allowed guests to be exposed to 120-mile-per-hour winds.

While there, I attended a seminar on preparing for and survivng an EMP (electromagnetic pulse, for the layman). As an amateur sci-fi author with an interest in post-apocalypse stories, this was pure gold. I learned a whole bunch of stuff about Faraday cages, phases of disruption and arc lightning, but the most interesting parts were about reconstructing a society after an EMP. Since national infrastructure would collapse, self-sufficiency, sanitation and defense become the largest concerns.

As much as I'd love to keep talking about the EMP class, I know that if you're genuinely interested you can learn more from Wikipedia than from me. This is, after all, a chronicle of post-Ivy League rejection, not post-apocalypse survival, so I figure I should move on to the other displays.

This is a picture of frankly the scariest truck I've ever seen. I'm in there for scale; keep in mind, at 6'3" I'm not exactly short, and this thing is huge. It boasts six-wheel drive, the ability to ford six feet of water and EMP hardening, and it's even street legal. Though why you would worry about street legality in the apocalypse, I have no idea. It burns enough fuel you would never drive it while society is still functioning. Oh, and the zombies all over it are a nice touch.

This is a Vital Dome. It's a survival structure not meant so much for camping, but for replacing your house should it be destroyed. It's designed to last through three years of continuous living, and the transparent panels allow it to glean heat from the sun. It can also be retrofitted with woodburning stoves, solar panels and every kind of furniture to make it your home sweet home in the aftermath of a disaster.

These tents are designed to be mounted on top of your car. Being above ground, you aren't at risk from encounters with small wildlife, and a condensation pad and integrated floor padding ensure that you can sleep comfortably with no accumulation of mold. I actually want one of these, because it would work extremely well for camping. I saw another one on top of a jeep towing a Base Camp trailer, which had a sink, water heater, solar panels, shower, plenty of storage space, a Faraday cage for EMP-proof tech storage and a steel frame thick enough to resist lower-caliber bullets. I want one of those, too, but I'll have to wait until I have a grown-up job. And a car to pull it with.

Lastly, I couldn't leave without a particular machete that caught my eye. I'm going to enjoy having that on camping trips, as well.

I'm highly satisfied with my use of Non-Admitted Students Weekend myself, and I would encourage any Rejects out there to make the most of it. It's our time, and we should make it memorable.

Hic Manebimus Optime!


For more information regarding any of the things I mentioned, refer to these handy links:
PrepperCon
Vital Domes
Base Camp Trailers
Tuff Trucks
EMP Wikipedia Article

1 comment:

  1. Great post! The huge "zombie" truck is still my favorite. :)

    ReplyDelete