HOW TO SIMULATE SHIPBOARD LIFE AT HOME.


1.  Lock all friends and family outside. Your only means of communication should
 be with letters that your neighbors have held for at least three weeks and 
 discarded one out of five.

2.  Surround yourself with 250 people you don’t like i.e. people who smoke, 
flatulate loudly, fragrantly, and often, snore like a Mack truck going up hill, 
and use foul language the way a child uses sugar on cereal.  

3. Unplug all radios and TVs to completely cut yourself off from the outside 
world. Have TIME or NEWSWEEK from two months ago and a PLAYBOY with all the 
pictures torn out.  

4.  Monitor all home appliances hourly, recording all pertinent info 
(i.e.-what’s plugged in, what lights are on, what doors are open etc. If not 
used recently, cover with tags labeled DANGER.  

5.  Do not flush the toilet for five days to simulate the smell of  forty 
people using the same washroom at once. After that flush once daily.  

6.  Lock the bathroom door twice a day for a four-hour period.  

7.  Wear only military uniforms. Even though nobody cares, once each week clean 
and press your dress uniform and wear it for 20 minutes and then change into 
your normal uniform.  

8.  Cut your hair weekly, making it shorter each time, until you are bald or 
look like you tangled with a demented sheep sheerer.  

9.  Work 18 hour cycles, sleeping only four hours at a time to ensure that 
your body neither knows nor cares whether it is day or night.  

10.  Listen to your favorite cassette six times every day for two weeks; then 
play music that causes acute nausea until you are glad to get back to your 
favorite cassette.  

11.  Cut a twin mattress in half and enclose three sides of the bed. Add a roof 
that prevents you from sitting in an upright position. Now place it on a 
platform so that it is about four feet off the floor. Place a small dead animal
underneath it to simulate the smell of your bunkmate's socks.  

12.  Set your alarm to go off at ten minute intervals for the first hour of 
sleep to simulate the various times that watch keepers bump around and wake you 
up. Place your bed on a rocking table to ensure you are tossed around the 
remaining three hours Make use of a custom alarm clock that will duplicate the 
sound of the action alarm.  

13.  Have week old fruit and veggies delivered to your garage and wait two weeks
 before eating them.  

14.  Prepare all meals blindfolded, using all the spices you can get your hands 
on or none at all. Remove the blindfold and eat everything in less than three 
minutes.  

15.  Periodically shut off all the power and run around shouting 
“Fire,Fire,Fire” several times. Do this until you lose your voice and then 
restore the power.  

16.  At least once a month force the commode to overflow into the bathroom to 
simulate a Hull Tech boo-boo.  

17.  Buy a gas mask and smear it with rancid animal fat. Scrub the face shield 
with steel wool until you can no longer see out of it. Wear this for two hours 
every fifth day, especially in the bathroom.  

18.Study the owner’s manuals for all your household appliances, and regularly 
take them apart and put them back together again.  

19.  Remove all plants, pictures, and decorations. Paint everything gray, white,
 or the shade of hospital smocks.  

20.  Buy 50 cases of rolled cardboard (fake toilet paper) and lock up all but 
two rolls. Ensure one is always wet.  

21.  Smash your forehead or shins with a hammer every two days to simulate 
collision injuries sustained on Navy vessels.  

22.When making sandwiches, leave the bread out for about six days or until hard 
and stale whichever comes first.  

23.  Every 10 weeks simulate leave in a foreign port. Go directly to the city 
slums, wearing your best clothes. Find the worst looking place and ask for the 
most expensive imported beer they carry. Drink as many as you can in four hours.
 Take a cab home using the longest possible route. Tip the cabbie after he 
 charges you double because you dress funny and don't speak right.  

24.  Use fresh milk for only two days after going on leave.  

25.  Keep the bedroom thermostat at 5C and use only one blanket.  

26.  Ensure that the water heater is connected to a device that provides water 
at a ratio varying from a fast drip and a weak trickle with the temperature 
alternating rapidly between 1C and 95C



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