something, but nothing. supposing you were real bored on a weekend. supposing you had no (available) friends, nothing exciting to do, nothing motivating you to do something fulfilling, what could you do? sit around and complain of boredom? that would work, for about two hours. but then you'd still have a whole rest of the night stretching endlessly ahead.

you could call it a night and sleep, but that's a total waste of time. besides, you're not tired.

you could turn to one of your hobbies that doesn't really mean anything in the big scheme of things. re-runs of mtv? movies you've already seen? have an epic chess/video game duel, resulting in yet another temporary, and hardly satisfying, victory? could you call a friend? catch up with them for five minutes right before they head out on their clubbing excursion? go clubbing yourself, again? play some basketball by the pale moonlight? hope against hope that with enough practice you could still be larry bird-lite? or maybe you could re-organize your music/photo files -- a task that takes no less than two full days. that'll be accomplishing something, wouldn't it?

ultimately we complain of not having enough time to do the important things. like hanging out with the friend you've been neglecting for months. preparing a gift package to send to a faraway destination. reading the book that'll change your life. writing down the thoughts that are so damn important. paying bills, figuring out life, making moves. but no, that stuff takes too much energy and a certain go get'em mentality. we're just looking for down time here.

what to do with this down time? be efficient like some crazed energizer bunny? go from completely finishing one task list to another? no way, that's entirely too responsible and not a part of a normal human's genetic makeup. do people, like, do things? do things that don't matter but do them just to fill up the time? are all minutes equally priceless? or are some minutes given to us specifically to be wasted and spent as we please? is that the price of staying sane? having totally unfulfilling down time? what if you're too sane then? and never really bother cashing in any of those priceless minutes? which is the greater waste? does your life plan feature rollover?

can someone actually say that they're never bored? and is that a good thing?