My friend Rick and I have never been able to agree on ANYTHING. Besides him being kind of a chauvinistic ass, I guess we faught mostly because ever since we were teenagers, he’d flit between being a paranoid pessimistic, or an agitated ‘who gives a fxck!!’ daredevil maniac who drove too fast, swore too much and laughed too hard for too long. I know how it looks like – that he probably had a drug problem, but trust me, he was the sober one. Just a tad childish, a wee bit crazy and proli’ a bit too hooked on video games for comfort. Fighting aside, we were pretty tight till we turned 19 and went off to different Unis. Now many years later ~ we meet up for coffee once in a blue moon or cuss in drunken joy if we happen meet at local watering holes (rare as I hardly go out). There was a time though, when we’d email each other regularly (the year we turned 20 to be precise – you know, away from home and all alone in Uni busy settling in blablabla). Once he even sent me a snail mail – not so much a letter as a bumper sticker he’d bought from an Australian flea market that said “I’d be a people person if people weren’t such assholes!” . *sigh* typical.From the rough two hundred emails we wrote each other that year, only one stands out in my mind. Our all-time, undefeated HUGE argument on BOREDOM. See, he’d written me a whiny longass mail berating the Australian education system (actually he was never much of a scholar so he’d have hated any form of education anyway) whilst cussing life away from home, ending with how BORED he was all the time *whine,whine,whine*. I responded with adolescent Jules-typical bitchiness: telling him to shut the fxck up and quit complaining, that everyone our age got bored. That anyone of every age got bored. That the thing to do was to stop being bored and do something about it. This then led to our longest e-arguments ever. Four longass emails from both sides ended with him (in essence) going: If you’re so good at getting over being bored then tell me how lah! Oooo it was SO on. I can’t remember what I wrote him exactly. But I DO know it was a list that ran from Number 1 – 20 in reverse. I also know that it ended with a phone call from Australia from Rick, laughing his ass off and saying “you win!”. yay! :)
Enter 2011. Another friend (who shall remain nameless ‘cos I know he reads my blog), no less whiny than Rick (though more stable and pro-education hehe) craps on about how bored HE is. 32-year old me is too wise, mature, sphinx-like and composed to argue. Out loud. Hehe... It made me think though, how DO i remain so awesome? Putting aside (to quote Barney Stinson) the additional “awesome glands in my brain” of course. Seriously, I’m hardly ever bored!
So I know it’s more than 10 years since I rebelliously wrote out THE LIST for Rick. Back then kids didn’t have easy internet access, big allowances, cars even... we rode the bus or walked to cyber cafes, those without mobiles used payphones, some of us worked part time in college cafeterias. Tsktsk.. lucky kids today. With the advent of facebook and its complementing games ie. Restaurant City (me likey!), I’m not quite sure how anyone could still be bored in this day and age, but evidently you still can (yes I’m talking to YOU, you-who-must-not-be-named). So here’s my 2011 list, upgraded to NOT include the “hanging out with friends” / “getting sloshed” / “getting stoned” variation, also without some of the stuff 20-year-old-Jules put on her list ie. studying/ finishing up reports / research etc. Suck this:
TOP 20 WAYS TO BEAT BOREDOM, ALONE!
20. Pray. *don’t hit me!* No, seriously. Meditate. Pray. Thank Him for all His blessings. Maybe then you won’t feel so bored you ungrateful jackass.19. Do your Accounting. Can be depressing (depending on the state of your accounts) but bet your bottom dollar you won’t be bored for long. I consolidate my income to my probable spending before each month every month. Then as soon as I get paid, I pay my bills according to budget (rarely off track unless there was a premium shoe sale), try to save a little and blow the rest as per plan!
18. Catch up on your office work. Don’t know about you but sometimes I prefer to work at home. Unlike the office, you can think/ type while smoking. Besides, the more you accomplish, the higher your chances are of being promoted/ head-hunted to high flying, highly paid corporate bitch/ jackass. It’s harder to be bored with all that lovely money waiting to be spent ;)
17. Organise. For instance – I have separate DVD folders for different movie genres (I keep ‘horror’ at the back ‘cos some of the covers are scary). Do what it takes to organise your books/ magazines/ make-up/ documents/ tools etc.
16. Get artsy. Sadly, the older I get, the more sensible I get – now that I know I’ll never be a great artist. So I reupholstered my bedhead, painted my bookshelf and am planning on stencilling that same bookshelf. I also constantly doodle ink line-art trees and butterflies.
15. Housework! Yes, cleaning is therapeutic – for men who aren’t man enough to clean the toilet then wash and wax the car! Sew on those missing buttons. Or go gardening! I used to weed manually but have since bought an electric grass trimmer and MAN! mowing sure is fun... Stop living in a sty you little piggy
14. Drive!! If you have a car, go cruising. I looovvveee cruising. It gives me a chance to think things over ~ or you can just drive blankly, enjoy the close proximity of air-conditioning on a hot day whilst singing along at the top of your lungs with no one to judge your off-pitch awesomeness (this particularly for closet-boyband-lovers who act all grungy and macho, you know who you are heh)
13. WALK. Then again, to each his own – you may prefer running. I walk, careful to not bring valuables along (except RM2 in case I meet the ice cream man – anything more than that for a vanilla cone is daylight robbery!). While you’re on that walk, check out the scenery and if it’s good enough, settle down and get ready to...
12. People-watch, laugh in your head. (out-loud is rude)
11. Read. Whatever floats your boat. Magazines, horror, chick lit, the Bible. CULTURE up!!
10. Watch movies/ glee/ ugly betty/ desperate housewives etc. Again – whatev you like dahling.
9. Download stuff (the anticipation of finding a long-lost fave 80s movie torrent is adrenaline in itself). And don't be a scrooge ~ sharing is caring!! Upload too.. Just make sure you have an active anti-virus system.
8. SHOP. I can buy two week’s worth of groceries with rm50 – yes my Mother taught me well. Of course I’m only shopping for ME, but that’s beside the point: If you’re bored you must have time to kill. If you have time to kill then kill it at the supermarket. Really THINK why a particular brand of milk is better. Check all their expiration dates. Mentally calculate how much you save by buying a bigger carton of milk. If you suck as much as I do at Maths, it’ll take you forever!
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| *I didn't buy this hat either* |
7. Browse. I bum around in my favourite boutiques all the time. Try on shiteloads of different outfits and shoes – enjoy the activity of dressing and undressing over and over and over again. If you see a hat you love but know you’ll never wear, do what I do ~ *snap* then runawayyy... makes for a cool facebook profile pic yah?
6. Book-browse. Variation of reading, but this way you do it without necessarily having to buy a book. Most bookstores won’t kick you out for reading. I once spent 3 hours in a bookstore reading a novel. The ending was disappointing, so I didn’t buy it
5. E-browse. Look up the stuff you’ve always wondered about ie. “What is Marcia Cross’ real hair colour?” “Is Scott Baio still hot?” “What happened to Edward Furlong?”
4. Write nonsensical articles like this.
3. Rock it. Or whatever it is you like listening to.
2. While you’re at no.3, lay back and stare blankly at the ceiling. Aaaaahhhhhh... which will proli’ land you at my all-time No.1 activity of how NOT to be bored when alone:
1. SLEEP.
Tadaahhhh.... Now you’re not only NOT bored, but you’ve a super organised and clean house, stocked fridge, clean yard, enriched mind, soul and tired out (but healthy) body so you can sleep well.Didn’t even need to add in my back-up point IMAGINE/ DAYDREAM. Kill-time, SCORE! Totally.
*Disclaimer: This article was NOT meant for smug-marrieds. Don’t wanna hear about how lucky the rest of us are to be so free. Don’t really care about how busy you are either. Article was in response to bored-alone-friend’s whining. Go fly a kite with your kid.
