boredom

How To Keep Bored People Entertained In The Future.

~ taran.a.rampersad@gmail.com ~ 4 Comments

Sometime in the future, assuming humanity survives despite itself, there will be archaeological digs that will try to understand we, the predecessors to whatever comes next.

They’re going to want to know how we lived, what we did – really boring stuff for us. It’s not exciting at all or you wouldn’t be reading this.

So, you know that drawer where you have all that stuff you cannot get yourself to throw away? Take that drawer and empty it out on a work table. Don’t use the good table. It is necessary to use the bad table, the one that has an awkward tilt and is scratched up so that your significant other won’t be upset.

Stare at the stuff for a while. Soak in all the junk, the USB cables, the charging cables, etc. Maybe break some of the stuff open just to see what’s inside. Connect what you can connect with glue, screws, nuts and bolts – whatever. Make a doohickey, or a whizbang, or something like them. It should have absolutely no purpose, but it should look purposeful. It’s a good idea to make sure it won’t hurt the environment.

This can take some time, so make sure you stop for meals, sleep, etc.

Once you’re happy with your object, type up some instructions on how to use your device. Be imaginative. For example:

SuperWhamoDyne Internet Oscillator (SIO) Instructions:

Make sure it is a sunny day, and place outside until the lights come on. The SIO will create an Internet connection to the Muskovite Satellites in orbit and begin the oscillation that will cause transmogrification of information so it is more consumable.

It is advised that you and your computing device are at least 100 meters away when operating it, as this device sometimes attracts lightning.

SuperWhamoDyne! The Future Was Misplaced!

It’s suggested that you use automatic translation to some language that has fallen out of popular use, then laminate it.

Now that you have your object and the instructions, and cleaned out that drawer, the next step is to take it somewhere remote – away from people, and simply leave the object there with the instructions. Abandoned houses or shacks make ideal places.

The future was misplaced – like this object that has been confounding people.

Things To Do Online

~ taran.a.rampersad@gmail.com ~ 1 Comment

Boredom definitionAs people get used to this ‘normal’ of being home, and as they run out of things to do and are tired of all the noise related to the pandemic (as opposed to the useful information from WHO and local health authorities)… well, there are things to do. Had this happened before the Internet… well… but it has happened after the Internet, so there’s so much more to do.

It’s amazingly easy to find things to do once you take a break from the social networks. They don’t enrich you. Only you enrich you.

I’ve broken it up into exploration and education… to me these things are not mutually exclusive, but to others…

Explore (Fun)

Maybe you don’t feel like exploring space with NASA and want something more grounded.

Try 500 online museums from around the world, courtesy Google, a stunning display of our world digitized.

You can go further and use Google’s Streetview to see other distant places on the planet, captured by Google’s nosy cameras.

Reading? Try the Gutenburg Project, where you can find all sorts of books that are legally free and yes, are available in e-reader formats.

I’ve been joking about people staring into their kitchens and not knowing what to do with them – which presents the opportunity for exploring recipes. Hit a search engine and see what you can find to cook.

Being a bit of a nerd myself, I sometimes explore Wikipedia and read up on random things as well. I’m that person that uses the ‘random page’ functionality.

Online Courses

Imagine 1,500 online courses you can take at no cost. You don’t need to. OpenCulture.com lists 1,500 online courses. Some come with completion certificates.

If you want to be more direct about it, here’s online courses by a few major institutions:

Networks such as LinkedIn and others have more professional certificates available as well, but those are (of course) at a cost.