This epic winter weather has already caused rolling blackouts in our Bayou City, and more threaten to follow. If you’re on top of your game (or in a hospital), your generator will kick on and keep the party going. But what about us plebeians stranded at home without gas power to save the day?

After you’ve partaken in the obvious blackout recreational activity (if you have to be told what it is, you're doing it wrong), try out some of our suggestions.

Yes, CultureMap has compiled ideas to pass the time while you wait for the Internet to return . . . so you can return to reading CultureMap.

Before you get started, add the following key items to your blackout kit: Fire extinguisher, glow sticks, battery-powered boombox and karaoke machine.

1. Booze it up

A blackout calls for a blackout state of drunkenness. Down all the beer in the fridge (it’s getting warm, anyway), raid the liquor cabinet and travel the bumpy road to blackout drunk. You’re not driving anywhere with the roads iced-over, anyway.

This is when the fire extinguisher comes in handy, as tipsy partiers + firewater + lit candles = house on fire.

Houses on fire are not sexy, and, contrary to logic, it turns out sleet/snow/rain will not extinguish the flames.

Tip: Ladies, you might want to go easy on the booze as there’s a fair chance you’re now in the early stages of producing a blackout baby.

2. Check in on your elderly neighbors

They’re probably fine — if those solar shield sunglasses say anything, it’s that old people totally over-prepare. Regardless, checking up on the fogies next door will put you in their good graces, which is integral to convincing them not to call the cops when your rave rages past midnight.

Tip: Visit your neighbors before you attempt blackout drunk.

3. Throw a rave

Bust out the glow sticks and battery-powered stereo for an impromptu rave. If you run out of glow sticks, tell guests to bring car flares or sacrifice their iPhones’ precious battery life to download the glowstick app. This could be the snowpocalypse, so why not roll with the rolling blackouts?

4. Host a séance

The rave idea may seem tired to the seasoned blackout-er who started pulling this stunt back in ’94. The true thrill-seeker should hold a séance.

By now the weather updates and alcohol will have bred an environment of fear, turning your rational-minded roommates and coworkers into maudlin panic machines. Insist you hear a spirit calling. Act possessed. Repeat until someone starts crying.

5. Binge on the contents of your freezer

A blackout is the Fat Tuesday of natural disasters and the perfect excuse to consume everything in the freezer. What? It’s just going to melt anyway.

Next, move on to perishables in the fridge. (Challenge: try to bust that myth that you can’t drink a gallon of milk in an hour without vomiting.)

6. Karaoke to Rent

They didn’t have heat or power, and you don't have heat or power! You know what they did have? Each other!

At least one person in your group knows the story, right? Artists and street-people struggling in downtown New York? No? Not ringing a bell? OK, speed-dial your bestie in Montrose, then blast the soundtrack, light trash-can fires (so warm and urbane), and eat Cap'n Crunch straight out of the box.