Ugga bugga.
Hale and well met!
Howdy, pardner!
Call me.
Text me.
Yo, sup.
Beam me up!
How you doin’?
We welcome you to Munchkin Land!

Any of these sound particularly appealing? If not, what can you come up with that is better for you?

Pictured on the left is Gerard Butler from the movie Timeline. This was an excellent book by Michael Crichton that was made into a mediocre movie. Like most of Crichton’s works, the books were practically born as screenplays. Not much adaptation was needed to bring them to the big screen. But not all adapted as well as others. Timeline was doomed to be average. But even with its flaws I still enjoyed the movie very much.

Butler plays the role of André Marek who is described as a “medieval enthusiast.” When the professor on their archeological dig in France disappears, it isn’t long until they discover his eyeglasses and a note in his own hand, and in the very chamber they were currently exploring, and somehow both are about 700 years old!

What you’ve got there is one whopper of a time-based puzzle. 🙂

Marek and his friends end up going back in time to 1357 France to find their professor, save the day and bring him back. (It’s a long story.)

The important point here, though, is that Marek is happy as a clam in the past. He fits right in. It turns out that he definitely had the right hobby. In fact, Marek likes the past even more than the real life he left behind. 1357 France is the time and place where Marek was always meant to be.

Given that golden once-in-a-liftetime chance, Marek doesn’t let it slip away. After the castle has been stormed and the professor has been saved, Marek waves goodbye to his friends and embarks on his new life. It’s poignant because we all know it’s a one-way trip.

So this got me thinking. Do you think that here and now is the best “era” for you? Or do you feel you were somehow meant to live in another time or another place? Or both?

Most of my life I considered myself a “futurist,” basically one who likes the latest and greatest. Especially computers and home electronics. But over time my relationship with futuristic things, like technology, has gradually waned, and I find myself looking more often to the past, simpler ways and simpler times. And I find myself thinking strange thoughts, like maybe I wasn’t meant for the future after all.

What do you think? Are you in the right place and time? If you could choose something else, what would it be?