live in your world, play in mine. it's friday and in layman's terms that means "extreme boredom day with nothing to do." here is what i used to do at home, pre-job: i surfed the web and endlessly read about sports, news, blogs and whatever happened to strike my fancy. i could do this for a good five hours without moving. here is what i do at work: i surf the web and endlessly read articles about sports, music, pop culture and blogs. i have to avoid the websites with shiny pictures so i covertly (and quickly) copy and paste the text from everything to an open email message so that it looks like i'm only doing email. it's not a fail safe system but at a sideways glance it looks like i'm only reading lots of email. the difference between web surfing at home and web surfing here is that i get bored. like really really bored.



i never understood it when people said "i'm bored with web surfing." to me, the internet had everything i ever wanted: hours of endless entertainment and knowledge at your fingertips. but now, forced to sit in front of a computer for eight hours, my patience for web surfing has been challenged time and time again. this is kind of a tragedy. i feel a part of myself dying. but i attribute my lack of enthusiasm for web surfing not to any changes in me but rather to my fear of getting caught reading stuff online. i believe in my heart of hearts that i could still surf the web all day and given the right opportunity, and a crack of a chance, i will live up to that challenge. but "working" under the untiring glare of the office lights, i am afraid to surf with impunity. i am weak and fearful of that great eye in the sky, sue me.



the only way i can properly entertain myself at moments of extreme boredom is to set up little projects for myself. for example, yesterday was greek mythology day. i read all about herakles and his twelve trials plus all the stories of the olympians. a few days ago it was arnold schwarzenegger day. before that i believe i was on hip hop lyrics as poetry day. basically i'm working on my degree in the world wide web. i will graduate in five to seven years, if my michigan experience was any indicator of my ability to perform and concentrate concurrently.



so far today i have been reading articles like "why i hate weblogs," because a class i re-take over and over again is "articles about blogging." and this is not on any curriculum but more like extra credit: "accept jesus and receive a playstation two." happy friday.