Bored...

On a completely unrelated note, I sincerely believe that anyone who takes this blog seriously deserves every bit of trouble that comes his/her way.

On a slightly related note, has anyone read the book "Bored of the Rings"? It is supposed to be a slightly dated parody of the Tolkien classic "Lord of the Rings". I wonder where I can get hold of a copy of the book. (Hint: If you guys are looking to buy me a present either for Christmas or my birthday, I am not particular, you might want to consider bored of the rings.) Also, if you haven't read Lord of the Rings or have read it and disliked it, and you are still my friend (I am quite surprised how that came to be) you would do better never to mention the fact to me. I find that I develop a certain dislike to people who don't like some of my favourite books. Believe me, it has nothing to do with you. Call it a personal failing of mine. (Soothsayer predicts: Suddenly many people develop an inexplicable hatred towards the book: Lord of the Rings.)

Now that we have gotten rid of the various notes, let me get to the actual topic that I set out to write. My house mate moved out of the apartment today and took with him, my precioussss (read: television set). I never realized that I was so addicted to TV. Of course, I do own a television set myself. However, under the influence of some mind melding drug, I graciously lent my TV to a friend of mine who had just moved to a new apartment. Today, I almost regretted my altruism and swore never to be that generous again (at least with my TV and definitely not with my computer and internet connection!).

Without a TV, my natural fallback was my laptop. Did the usual ritual of changing the desktop background and rearranging my desklets. Unfortunately there was no new kernel for me to compile and experiment with. So my power management woes (more on this some other day) are still unresolved. Also it has been a particulary unintersting day over at Slashdot, except for the bit about torrent tracker sites. So I spent a good three hours transcribing some dance notes that I borrowed from my good friend. For a while I was toying with the idea of picking up the phone and calling someone, but then I decided against it because the people who would be willing to talk are the ones who have their own sob story to tell. Bored as I was, I was not ready to listen to someone else's sob stories. I was calling to complain and not listen to someone complaining. I assure you that this is not the reason why I do not pick up calls on my cellphone. ::grin::

Eventually, in sheer boredom, I went over to Google and typed "bored" to see what sort of websites it would bring up. Google pulled up about 7,730,000 pages! Glad to know that I am not the only one who thought of typing the word "bored" on Google search. Some pages were quite interesting especially the one about traffic waves, the physics behind traffic jams. (On an unrelated note, the word traffic jam brings to mind some bad memories of a Govinda song.) However, I must say that I was a bit disappointed to note that there were no "self help", psychiatrist websites, or prescription drug (a la prozac, zoloft etc.) advertisements amongst the first 30 search results. After living in United States for so long, I have sort of come to expect these things as the cure for boredom.

So the next time you are in a similar situation, think Google. There is nothing more exciting than wasting time looking over the search results with a small voice (that is your conscience) reminding you in the background that there is research to be done. Oh, what were those lines again?

Woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


P.S. Bush is Time 2004 Man of the Year. Your opinion?