It’s Sunday, and despite having multiple options for entertainment, I’m officially bored.
I can head out to the gym to sweat it out. I have already witnessed my training reap massive fruits in the last quarter. But it needed consistency, and ironically, going to the gym today would be an essential part of the odyssey.
I could practice playing guitar. I was lucky to get hold of a talented musician as a guitar teacher. Two hours (at a minimum) are spent every Friday evening learning new songs or ornamenting old ones. They need a lot of practice and dedication.
I could play a video game. I could return to my blissful childhood days playing on a PC with no video card. Just yesterday, I downloaded one of my favorite games, Skyrim SE, and upgraded it with a few visually outstanding mods. It felt like re-reading my favorite novel in a custom-designed book boasting a great binder and an old manuscript’s sweet but rusty vanillic scent.
But I am still bored.
I want to head out to the gym, but it makes me shudder to effectively kiss this weekend “goodbye.” Three hours at the gym, many more spent in recovery, and the rest of the day gets slotted for lunch, dinner, and sleep.
I want to practice my guitar, but I’ll be honest— “Georgia on my mind” makes me drowsy. It’s an easy 6-chord song that won’t impress any lady over 65.
My guitar teacher is an older Floridian in his late 50s, so we have quite a cultural gap. He isn’t forcing me to learn the song, but it had scope to expand my music theory knowledge. So, I was more than glad to add those jazzy Dmin6 and Cm7b5. Now, not so much.
I could play Skyrim SE or Civilization 6. Perhaps, for the latter, I could watch strategy videos or retry playing a save to get better scores. For some reason, I just feel guilty about whiling away my time gaming on a Sunday.
When we spend a millennium upgrading a skill in a game, we don’t transfer the benefits out of the virtual world. If I spend hours crafting armor and selling them to bump up my light armor and mercantile skill, does it improve the same real-life virtue? If I play my lute by clicking a button several thousand times, does it make me a better musician?
I don’t think so.
I could continue reading Bill Bryson’s “Made In America.” The initial chapters were interesting, but the vast array of distractions on the phone is shoving me under the ADD spectrum. I cannot bring myself to focus on a book anymore.
Every few minutes, I would either daydream or segue into bingeing Youtube shorts while planning to google a landmark historical event in the book.
Damn you, internet!
Options, options everywhere, but each with a string attached. A part of me likens it to the difference between loneliness and being alone.
Even the weather is contradictory—it’s a bright, sunny day with a temperature that hovers around 0C. It tempts us to open doors, but even a small slit in the window is enough to make us hibernate.
I hope I find something interesting to do. I am happy to have a vacant Sunday on my hands. With work gradually ramping up, I will soon get loaded on weekends.
Until then, I would probably get bored and write an article about how life’s so dull. By the time I finish writing and editing this one, I’m sure Monday will be right around the corner to rope me in.