{"id":9,"date":"2008-01-07T11:32:17","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T16:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=9"},"modified":"2018-10-31T14:20:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T18:20:04","slug":"boredom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"Boredom"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/o>Two weeks away and now I\u2019m back at work. <\/span>Clocked in at 9:30am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. <\/span>Deleted everything in my inbox because anyone who emailed me while I was on vacation is a fucking asshole and not deserving of my attention. <\/span>Dumped my physical inbox into the trashcan \u2013 same reason. <\/span>Swept a bunch of shit off my desk that had urgent post-it notes attached to it. <\/span>Put my feet up, undid my belt, and settled in for a long day of screwing off.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken about 20 minutes to hit my boredom threshold, but I finally have enough wits to properly catch up on all of the blogs I follow. <\/span>There are many things I do throughout the work day to try and kill my brain. <\/span>Heaven forbid I allow myself a moment of silence where my brain might be able to figure out how much of a waste every aspect of my life has become. <\/span>If only Charlie Whitman had access to the internet\u2026he probably would have never climbed that clock tower.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Right before Whitman killed his mother and went on his shooting rampage, he bought binoculars, a knife, and fucking spam. <\/span>Then he went to a movie. <\/span>That\u2019s classic boredom right there. <\/span>I know well what was going through his mind \u2013 do anything to distract yourself. <\/span>Even if it means walking out to 7-11. <\/span>But then you can\u2019t just wander around the shelves and buy nothing because the clerk is looking at you. <\/span>It\u2019s all about guilt. <\/span>So you buy the spam thinking, hey, this will be a funny gift to give mom. <\/span>And if she doesn\u2019t get the joke I\u2019ll kill her!<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on a Work Stoppage Policy for about two years now. <\/span>As testament to the sort of job I have, my supervisors have yet to notice. <\/span>The fact that I can just give up on the job and approach startling and even physically painful levels of boredom is also the reason I\u2019m sticking with this job. <\/span>Sure, it sounds like I\u2019m complaining about having nothing worthwhile to do, but why the fuck would I want to work? <\/span>These people who always need to be busy and working are also in danger of climbing the clock tower. <\/span>Unless you\u2019re saving a life, defending my freedom, or making my goddamned waffles, then you\u2019re not achieving anything at work. <\/span>So welcome the boredom! <\/span>Let\u2019s talk blogs.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

There are, of course, the Greatsociety forums<\/a>. <\/span>A great time waster! <\/span>It\u2019s there that a small group of misfits trade barbs all day and talk about Battlestar Galactica. <\/span>Fun enough, but there\u2019s always a need for more. <\/span>I find myself easily able to get lost in the often wordy OTIS<\/a> site. <\/span>Wordy is difficult sometimes because, around 1pm on weekdays, I inject silica gel directly into my frontal lobe and poke out my eyes with a pencil as part of a daily Satanic rite designed to get me out of the working world and still, somehow, make money. <\/span>But when I\u2019m awake and looking to kill time in the morning, it\u2019s always nice to see an update.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

The most recent is about \u201cAmerica<\/st1>\u2019s Stonehenge<\/st1><\/a>.\u201d <\/span>To anyone who has read Michael Marshall Smith\u2019s Straw Men<\/em> trilogy, this is particularly thrilling. <\/span>Now you have to read those books because I\u2019m not going to provide an explanation. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

For some reason, I like to read Adventures in Drinking<\/a>. <\/span>I think it ranks high as the most pointless site ever. <\/span>At first, for about a month, I hated the pointless \u201crandom thoughts\u201d updates\u2026but then I became strangely addicted to them. <\/span>It\u2019s hard to explain and is only something that the truly bored can latch onto. <\/span>It\u2019s the intelligent older sister of Drinking for Two<\/a>, which is also mysteriously addictive after lengthy exposure. <\/span>And currently appears to be down, which may be a blessing in disguise. <\/span>I get those two confused, as well, and can\u2019t be bothered to look at them now and provide any sort of coherent analysis. <\/span>Just shut up and have a drink.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

Ever since the active days at Big <\/st1>Dead Place<\/st1><\/a>, I\u2019ve been fascinated by the concept of summering or wintering on an Antarctic base. <\/span>Big <\/st1>Dead Place<\/st1> went on a sort of hiatus (with occasional spurts of activity) after they published their book, so I\u2019m thrilled that Frontierwatch<\/a> remains. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

I will confess, just between us, dear internet, that I\u2019m something of a fan of canal boating. <\/span>For the last few years, I\u2019ve managed to put together two weeks or more each summer on the canals of <\/st1>England<\/st1>. <\/span>There are a few thousand miles worth of canals in the <\/st1>UK<\/st1>, all of them increasingly overcrowded with leisure boats and weird water gypsies. <\/span>A subset of the weird water gypsy group are the die-hard canal people who live aboard their pretty little narrowboats and, year after year, struggle with tourists like me slamming into their moored boats while I go two miles an hour round a bend. <\/span>Which, despite the sometimes bumper car nature of the canals, still feels about as dumb as walking into a wall.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

The initial draw to the canals, back in 04, was because I really liked the idea of staying in the middle of nowhere without having to hike there. <\/span>Just moor up and enjoy the English countryside.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

But, without fail, it always seems like there\u2019s a group of Americans who had the same idea and moored up behind me and went right to insisting on a bonding session because, ohmigod, another American! <\/span>We\u2019ve come to bad times when my instinct, upon meeting fellow Americans, is to deny my nationality. <\/span>It\u2019s not that I\u2019m embarrassed to be an American, I\u2019m just ashamed of my peers. <\/span>I also harbor a dark fear that more than three Americans gathered together, no matter their politics or sensibilities, leads to a sort of Imperial In-Rush that can only end in opening a McDonalds franchise and\/or deciding to purchase a working tank, depending on whether you\u2019re in Britain<\/st1> or <\/st1>Romania<\/st1>.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

(The individuals I met while touring <\/st1>Romania<\/st1> insist that I was the only one who showed serious interest in purchasing a tank on the black market.)<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

Since the scant few American canals are just No Fun, that leaves me with a sort of unrequited hobby. <\/span>Therefore, I steer towards blogs maintained by some of those live-aboard types. <\/span>Granny Buttons<\/a> is where it began. <\/span>I personally ran into him briefly in 06. <\/span>Then I moved on to the Gypsy Rover<\/a> blog, and Balmaha<\/a>, and No Problem<\/a>, and Seyella<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

Pursuing another passion of mine \u2013 exploring lost <\/st1>Americana<\/st1> and this country\u2019s endless back roads \u2013 I\u2019ve recently dug up Southern Byways<\/a>, which fails to really get to the underbelly of the blue highways. <\/span>I want rural decay along 66 or 50 or 40 or any of the old Federal Highways. <\/span>I\u2019m open to suggestions on blogs maintained by weirdoes who travel the back roads year round. <\/span>I know there\u2019s a subculture out there doing just that, but why aren\u2019t they online? <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, <\/span>I read a group of blogs maintained by friends, but I\u2019m not going to mention them because (a) they never mention me and (b) I just hit page three and I can\u2019t remember anything I\u2019ve written. <\/span>Which means I\u2019ll have to go back and read over everything and run the spellchecker and, well, that\u2019s just sounding like work right now. <\/span>And I don\u2019t work. <\/span>Especially when there\u2019s a new update at Hot Chicks with Douchebags<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks away and now I\u2019m back at work. Clocked in at 9:30am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Deleted everything in my inbox because anyone who emailed me while I was on vacation is a fucking asshole and not deserving of my …<\/p>\n

Boredom<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[400],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","tag-wage-slave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1256,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/1256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}