B is for Boredom

Not that I could possibly be bored while writing this post, but you know we all get bored every once in a while. Boredom is just an inevitability, especially if you're out of school and unemployed. Sometimes there's just no one around, or it's the middle of the night and you're just not tired, yet your brain isn't sharp enough to sustain writing or blogging. So here is a list of my tried and true methods to beat boredom!

E-Mail ~ This never takes long for me. Even managing my multiple accounts only takes 10 minutes tops. Still, if I'm especially bored, I might try going through old messages and deleting/organizing them.

Facebook ~ Again, I usually don't spend very long on here. A quick skim of my homepage, then a glance at my profile is enough to satisfy me most of the time. But if I'm trying to beat a serious bout of boredom I might randomly poke someone, organize my Visual Bookshelf, or redo my Flair board. I've been known to spend hours at that.

Google Reader ~ What better (and more productive) way to beat boredom than to catch up on all the blogs I'm following? And if I've finished all my sorted blogs, I can go through my unsorted blogs and get them organized! Yay for organization.

YouTube ~ As everyone probably knows, it's far too easy to spend an eternity on YouTube, hopping around from video to related video. Watching the FailBlog series alone can take hours. Personally, I find the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged videos, Potter Puppet Pals, and various videogame walkthroughs extremely entertaining. But there's so much out there, I'm sure anyone can easily find their own poison.

DeviantArt ~Sometimes I'm looking for something in particular, such as stock items for graphics. Sometimes I'm browsing for a good story. Either way, DeviantArt offers a pleasant distraction from one's boredom.

Diffindo ~ I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but I'm part of a Harry Potter Role-Play site. Each person creates an original character and places them inside the HP universe. We've recently gone through a bit of a reset, so everyone's starting fresh. And even if no one's on to interact with, there's always working on one's character profile.

Pokemon ~ Yes, I'm in my 20's and I still play Pokemon...What can I say? It appeals to my love of collecting as well as pandering to my ineptness with run/jump gameplay.

iTunes ~ I have a lot of music. A lot of it comes from CDs where I just import everything and go on my merry way, without ever listening to all the tracks! So, when I'm in a particular funk, I listen and rate what I have. I usually don't get very far, as my attention eventually shifts to what I'm doing in the foreground, but any progress makes me feel better.

Paint.NET ~ This Photoshop-like freeware program is practically my best friend when I'm bored. Whether I'm creating signatures for character profiles, floorplans for role-plays, or graphics for this blog, I can easily occupy myself for hours at a time.

Re-Organizing my Bookshelves ~ I've probably done this 3 times in the last couple months. As soon as I get a new book, my entire shelving system is thrown out of whack! Well, okay, it depends on the book and what shelf it goes on. Gotta have everything looking nice, after all.

TV ~ For the longest time I relied on my VCR to tape my weekly TV shows. Now I use a TiVo...and am I ever glad I switched (thank you, Dad)! My top shows include:

House, Bones, Castle, Fringe, Glee, Sanctuary
Leverage, Burn Notice
Rotten Tomatoes, Futurama, Family Guy, iCarly, American Idol

Or there's always popping in a movie...but that list is waaaay too long to type out. Maybe another day...

But of course, if all else fails, I can always read a book!

Some B Books I've Read:

A Breathtaking B Group:

The B Font: