Bore-dumb

Lately I've been bored.  I suppose that is why I haven't posted much lately.

The other day I worked an evening shift, so I had the morning and afternoon free.  I scooted around the house aimlessly, looking for something to do.  Mostly I just annoyed Veep.

I did take some time on the thinking couch, trying not to look at the mylar balloon (it has moved from one truss to the other by the way).  I was trying to figure out why I was so bored--usually I'm not.  Part of it is the lack of exercise.  I did commute to work over the weekend, which was the only thing that kept me sane, but overall my energy is feeling like the global economy--full blown recession.

Thinking couch boredom from my vantage.  

I thought blogging would entertain me, give me something to do.  But I couldn't think of one interesting thing to blog about.  So I asked Veep, "Am I boring?"  To which she replied, "Yes." She missed the "am I fat" subtext that I'm so apt to gloss over when she asks me a similar question (I have been accused of being too honest at times).  So that got me thinking.  Am I boring?  I suppose I would put myself on the lower half of the spectrum of interesting if I were the one in charge of assigning everyone's "interesting score", but I'm ok with that.  I still find life worthwhile and like to think I learn a something new every day.  And apart from this blog, I don't really subject others to my hum drum lifestyle.  So I figure I'm harmless.

Anyway, in my bored state, I surfed my usual blogs and came across Lance Armstrong's Twitter page, via BikeSnob NYC (my latest conspiracy theory is that BSNYC and LA have made a super secret symbiotic marketing pact--LA wears the Snob's T-shirt and Snob mentions LA on his blog twice each week.  It is the next level of marketing, if you will.  Although I'm not sure what they're selling yet--cancer research or ironic opinions.  And I'm sure Fatcyclist is at least peripherally involved.  Yes, I'm that bored).  If you are older than me and don't know what Twitter is, it's basically blogging to the second power, a page where you remotely post what you're doing hour to hour.  And it makes sense that a celebrity might benefit from using Twitter--to keep their public abreast of their very interesting and undoubtedly profound daily movements.  Certainly Mr. Armstrong is interesting.  And I'm sure it has much to do with his "transparent" return to cycling and, in this instance, is acutually somewhat useful.  For the average user, however, I see Twitter contributing an inordinate share to internet pollution--mountains of binary code piling up to the stratosphere with information that is 99.9% useless.

In the same vein, I've watched Veep having fun on Facebook, reconnecting with people, getting friend invites, invites to join causes, getting pokes, writing on walls, chatting, etc.  After a while I thought I'd give it a try, so I signed up.  I've found a few old friends, and it has been great.  But somehow I haven't gotten quite the response she has.  After a week on Facebook, she had 100 friends, and more showing up all the time.  After about a month, I've got like 30, the bulk of which are nieces, nephews, and in-laws (so they have to accept my friend invites).

So, as I continued to stay fixed on the thinking couch, I pondered what it would look like if I started "twittering."  How painful would it be for someone else to read my theoretical twitter page?:

Read a sweet article on Idiopathic Hyperphosphatasia.  Lights out.  11:13 pm from twitterberry

Gave in and ate a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats.  10:12 pm from twitterberry

Reminded Schmoopie to turn the computer off in 5 minutes and get to bed.  9:55 pm from twitterberry

Just nagged the girls a third time to finish up their homework and take showers before bedtime.  8:47 pm from twitterberry

Just played MarioKart with Sal, let him win.  Again.  8:14 pm from twitterberry

Just spent about 45 minutes surfing bike sites, 15 of those minutes drooling over the high res pic of the Co-motion Americano that I want to get next year.  7:34 pm from twitterberry

Skipped the evening business meeting.  Ate spaghetti with the kids (meat sauce and garlic bread, yum)  6:46 pm from twitterberry

Heading home.  5:04 pm from twitterberry

Just about one hour left  (more like 1.5).  So far, the case of the day goes to a textbook cam type femoral acetabular impingement.  3:20 pm from twitterberry

Afternoon injection done.  It was a knee, used my beloved anterolateral approach.  2:25 pm from twitterberry

Ready to eat lunch and pull up the daily Bike Snob post.  The tally for the morning:  7 knees, 4 shoulders, 2 hips, 1 ankle, 1 wrist, and a finger.  Plus a batch of radiographs (one good case of gout).  12:14 pm from twitterberry

Quick shoulder injection, pain reduced.  8:42 am from twitterberry

Showered and clean, time to work.  7:50 am from twitterberry

 I’m up, got my gear together and am off to work.  6:49 am from twitterberry

You get the picture (by the way, I don't have a theoretical balckberry, but if it's good enough for Lance. . . ).  As a point of clarification, putting a needle in someone's shoulder or hip or knee may sound interesting, but after doing it a few hundred times it ain't.

I think the idea of Twitter would be more interesting if people's random thoughts were involuntarily captured.  This, of course, would require more than the 140 or so characters that each twitter post is allowed to have.  Maybe I would move a few spots up the "interesting spectrum" if some of my odd thoughts were "Twitterable" or, if you will, "thinkerable":

Sal is the Michael Jordan of pre-k art.  7:14 pm Nov 14 from thinkerberry

Schmoopie and Boofis are lucky they aren't lefty.  I think left handed scissors are proof of discrimination in the public school system.  We need more than just another left handed president (which is the real reason I voted for Obama), we need a left handed secretary of education.  Or perhaps a lefty lobby.  A grassroots effort would be even better, but with only 7-10% of the population being lefty, we'll need to reach across the aisle to our right handed friends and neighbors.  7:59 pm Nov 14 from Thinkerberry

 

I think I skipped teenage angst and now have middle age angst, but I'm not sure what that means.  Perhaps an analogy would help:  Middle age angst is like this stand of bare aspens in the middle of the woods.  Hmmm.  Perhaps an analogy won't help.  I still don't know what it means.  Analogies are stupid.  4:42 pm Nov 19 from Thinkerberry

Wow, that's a blurry picture.  Cameraphone, you let me down.  4:43 pm Nov 19 from Thinkerberry

Hmm, I hope I don't catch any strange disease reassembling this deer skeleton.  Three adjacent cervical vertebrae, cool.  I wonder why the coyotes didnt eat these ribs.  2:19 pm Nov 18 from Thinkerberry

I think I should get a haircut.  Or maybe I shouldn't since more hair could help me stay warmer with winter approaching.  I get the impression Veep likes spiky hair and all my hair wants to do when it gets long is feather.  Veep definitely doesn't like the feather.  Maybe I was born too late.  1:25 pm Nov 18 from Thinkerberry

I like bagpipes with drums.  I don't like bagpipes without drums.  Marimbas and banjos are cool too.  Folk festivals are fun.  12:21 pm Nov 8 from Thinkerberry

Hmmm.  Well.  I think I might have actually slipped a few spots.

I think I just need a new project to keep me busy and off the couch.