"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."-Ellen Parr
Weekend Assignment #190: Share some of your favorite boredom-alleviating tactics from when you were a kid. "Kid" in this case can stretch from the ages of about six to eighteen; just pick an age where you did something particularly ingenious (or alternately, just plain weird) and go with it. One caveat: avoid the boredom alleviators where the story could end "and then nine months later little Jimmy was born." because that's in the realm of too much information.
Extra Credit: When was the last time you were really, really bored?
-John Scalzi (By The Way)
I wanted to take a couple days to think about this assignment. I have many of the usual boredom relieving resources that a lot of other kids did when I was a little person. I loved TV, I loved reading, and I loved doing jigsaw puzzles. I always had a camera in my hand, but that wasn't encouraged in times of boredom, because Mom and Dad paid for the photo developing, so I saved my photography for either holidays or special occasions. We live in a different world now. If I had a daughter Athena's age, I would put a digital camera in her hand and encourage some photography. Even if a child is home from school sick, there is a lot around the house that could make a cool subject, such as Pets, Windows, Shadows, and the ever popular Still Life.
However, the Weekend Assignment as me to tell about what I did as a child to alleviate boredom. And John wants weird. Well, see, I played a lot by myself when I was a kid. Our street suffered through the death of a child who lived up the street from me, and who was my best friend until I was about age 8. His name was Mike. After his death, the kids on the street really didn't play together anymore. We did our own thing, in our own yards. It isn't as sad as it sounds though, I think it was our way of healing. Children process things differently then adults do, and while we all remained friends, we all got a look at what being a grown up is like.
My brother is 15 years older then I am, and my sister is 10 years my elder, so I was pretty much an only child, but I wasn't particularly lonely or bored, because the world fascinated me. I don't remember being too bored for too long. I would work jigsaw puzzles, or write in a little journal I had, about missing Mike or about what I had seen and done that day. I wanted to grow up to be a journalist one day.
Well, being a professional Journalist was not to be, but who could have foretold that one day a mass medium would exist called, Blogging, that would allow that something I wrote could be read my someone clear across the country? Who knew that the entries in my paper and pen journal as a child, would be great practice for my life as a blog author? :) Who could know, that it would also lead to my making wonderful friends? Sometimes, great things come along when you least expect it. :) Sorry John, nothing really ingenious here, or weird, but what I did do was a lot of fun.
Extra Credit: It usually takes a lot to bore me, I still find the world fascinating. :)
-OndineMonet
"Bunny Jigsaw"
Pastorino's Pumpkin Farm
Half Moon Bay, California
October 29, 2007
Afternoon
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