If you’re anything like me you get bored sometimes.
Actually, if you’re like me you get bored a lot.
I know some of you have jobs to fill time, some of you study, and some of you enjoy staring blankly into space for hours. While these are all good ways to occupy time, they’re not very entertaining or good if you are unemployed, have only one class and have eyes that dry out easily.
So, I’ve decided to let you in on some of the things I do to kill time when I’m not writing, reading or otherwise engaged.
Obviously there are things like exercise and shopping that one can do to waste the day away. I’m not really one for either in mass quantities and I suspect neither are most of my readers. So I’m going to write about what I know – the Internet.
All of you out there have Internet access, whether at home or on campus. I know there are some Internet activities you can’t do at school (online chat, many games, porn) so I’m not including those in my compilation.
Instead I’m going to talk about simple, little things that can take up a few minutes or many hours simply dependant on your attention span and how easily amused you are.
First off is something that I’ve found myself mildly obsessed with lately. My Space is addictive. You can start an account and literally go nuts with your profile. Put up pictures, add banners, even stream videos – a friend of mine has a gay pimp music video, I have one from PETA showing how badly animals are treated in slaughterhouses. It’s your profile; you can do damn near anything you want with it.
Once you’re set up you can add friends and then spend hours upon hours viewing other people’s profiles. I’ve found at least a dozen people I knew in high school this way, half of whom I honestly forgot existed until I saw them on other people’s friends lists.
That’s the great thing about My Space (and its counterparts like Live Journal and Facebook) it’s free and endlessly entertaining.
The only real problem is that you can’t really hide once you have an account. My Space is not something I suggest if you owe people money or need to disappear for a while. There’s a search tool where people can type in your name and poof, there you are.
Granted, you can make up a name when opening an account, but if you want old friends to find you that just won’t do.
On an interesting side note, I am the only Randi Brockman on My Space, so if you happen to search for me (you know you’re interested) that is in fact me in the picture with Piglet.
You can also search for bands and check out tracks from their latest albums, including many local bands. And for the really, really sadistic out there, there’s a Rate Your Professor page if you list ETSU on your profile through schools.
It’s kind of interesting to see how other people rate your favorite teachers, and some comments are really enlightening, or at least humorous. My favorite is the “Dr. Crofts (English) is sexy” comment; Chris loves that Tudico (Philosophy) has a low score despite being one of the most praised teachers he’s ever had.
You should really check it out, even if you’re not that bored.
Another favorite pastime of mine that can waste hours and brain cells is taking stupid quizzes. There are entire web sites dedicated to them; there’s everything from “What SLC Punk character are you?” (I’m John the “Mod”) to “Which Dysfunctional Care Bear are you?” (Gay Bear, baby). Quizilla has a lot, however, many are really, really dumb; but you can make your own as well so that could be fun.
You can learn a lot about yourself with these things, I mean without online quizzes I would have never known I was Nerds candy or that I am zero percent redneck. Seriously, you must give them a go.
I also suggest pages like Atom Films and College Humor. There are little movies and random junk to look at, all in the name of good fun and wasted afternoons (or early mornings).
If you’re a game geek you should check out Red versus Blue, a must for anyone who gets entertained by game characters mocked up in video form. Chris gives them two thumbs up, Ishmael gives them two paws. I personally couldn’t care less because I don’t game.
Chat forums are also a pretty good way to spend time and possibly learn stuff. I don’t mean chat rooms, those are verboten in campus computer labs (but you can check them out at home if you wish) but forums are OK. You can read posts from other people and respond if you want. There are video game forums, television forums (I spent an hour on HBO’s Rome forum Tuesday), informational forums (health, extra-curricular activities, school) and even just your plain old random chat forums.
I spend a fair amount of time on PETA2’s forums because they let me in on the goings-on in animal rights around the world, and sometimes it’s just plain funny to read what people have to say about their lives.
Most chat forums are like that, you can learn a lot about total strangers in a fairly short amount of time. This goes both ways though, so if you don’t want Joe Schmo in Utah to know your life story, watch what you post.
Now, if you really want to get into the time wasters, I submit to you the epitome of boredom killers: boredom-killers.com. Oh yes, there is a web site. To be honest, it is more of a page of links to other sites, but it is a handy tool to have on your favorites list all the same.
I’ve found too many useless sites because of boredom-killers.com that I can’t name them all. There are a few, however, that are just too fun or cute not to mention. I’ll warn you, not all links from the main page work, but a lot do. I’m not going to suggest any dead links though, because I’m so nice to you.
* Where is Jesus? – Where’s Waldo, with Jesus. It’s funny and kind of tough. Try it, you’ll love it.
* Block Structure Porn – Dirty, wrong and just plain gross to think about. Lego’s in compromising positions. Let’s leave it at that.
* Adopt a Pet – Bunnyhero Labs lets you create and adopt cyber pets that you can post on your web pages (like My Space). Super cute and super fun; you should name a llama after me!
* The Mini-Mizer – Make a Lego version of you or someone else. Not to be combined with Block Structure Porn … unless you’re into that.
* Rather Good – Here you’ll find all kinds of random crap, including Punk Kittens. And really, who doesn’t love a punk kitten?
There are a lot of other links but those are the ones I like most. But see what floats your boat.
I hope something I’ve listed here can help you make it through a long, boring afternoon. Or at least a long, boring break between classes.
Maybe you have better online time wasters, if so congratulations, fill me in. I’m always in need of a good way to be even lazier. Mohawktown@hotmail.com or etnews@etsu.edu.
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