Happy Hour [15/9/23]

I need a drink

15/9/23 Hannibal 28

I enjoy solitude, a quiet time with my thoughts. A study by the University of Virginia has shown that many people are bored or uncomfortable, with even as short of a time as 6 minutes without distraction, and will “administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.” Are you a daydreamer, introspective? Or do find that more painful than zapping yourself with voltage, DeadSplinters? I have a few ideas about some of the folks here, but I won’t mention any names, lol.

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28 Comments

  1. I love solitude. I liked to daydream and fantasize as a kid and philosophize as a teen/young adult. Now my alone thoughts consist of anxieties and mental lists to combat those anxieties. At least I’m never bored? Maybe shock therapy would work in my favor?

  2. you know…i’m perfectly happy to sit or stand around letting my mind wander….but well…if you’re going to give me the option to zapp myself

    ….yeaaah….that’s happening

    especially if its a big red button

     

    • I knew it! Not even because you’re bored but just because, lol. I suspect there’s at least one more of the guys here, possibly two, that would answer the same.

      • well….the first time would be to find out if the button actually does zap me…..could be it dispenses cookies you know…. people lie

        any times after that are just coz

  3. I’m ok alone with my thoughts but enjoy having friends around.  We finally got to England, 5.5 hours late.  A train ride, a tube ride, & a 10 minute walk later & at our dive hotel just in time to rush out for dinner.  Amazing Turkish food & a drink later & we’re back at hotel with a beer.  Tomorrow we have to make up for all we missed today so another 10 mile walk day!  I get my 1 beer (got used to extended pub time in Ireland!) then off to bed.

  7. Ngl, I’d be curious about exaaaaactly *how* shocky-feeling, the shocks that zapper administered were….

     

    Is it like the zap of static electricity you get when you walk around in socks in the winter, or like an electric fence… or like a field-dog’s training collar?….

    And is it an *immediate* zap, or delayed by a few seconds?🤔🤔🤔

    So I’d ponder all the things towonder, then push the button a time or to, to test which theories would be correct….

    And then I’d happily go back to wondering about all the *other* things–because ADHD-brain means there’s alllllllllways *something* to wonder about, look up, read about, ponder over, figure out, and just generally be curious about….

    And then there are things to learn…

    Things to MAKE….

    *New* things to try making (success USUALLY takes a few tries, before you get the design/patterning *exactly* right…

    There are books to read, things to color, OTHER things to draw….

    Things to puzzle over, and *also* actual puzzles to put together…

    Did I mention the coloring?😉

    And SOOOOOOOOOOO many books to read!!!

    And *if* for some reason, one was to *actually* manage to become “bored”?

    There’s ALWAYS the world *outside* to go wander in & look at stuff–and there’s SURE to be *something* to be curious out there–annnnnd then you follow all *those* tangents, until you circle back & remember to look up *the first thing*–and after THAT, you just wander a bit more, and start the WHOLE process over again.

    There are ALLLLLLLLWAYS things to learn about–it’s impossible to be bored, unless one is purposefully TRYING to be bored!

    Plus, Books & coloring/art/crafting.🤗💖

      • Tbh, I kinda wish there was a lot *MORE* “Quiet time with your thoughts,” than I currently get–so that my brain *isn’t* quite sooooo full of *ALLTHEIDEAS* for fun/useful things, and there was actually the time to MAKE some of *the things*, rather than just *the IDEA of “the things”*😉💖

      • But they’re specifically talking about a limited amount of time in a situation where you can’t do anything but think or push the button. Like when you’re in the exam room waiting on the doctor. I’ll think about what I’m reading, or something I dreamed. Maybe run through a few songs in my head, or cast my favorite book as a film. There’s always something to think about. 🙂

        • ALWAYS stuff to think about!

          (And that button to wonder about, too!

          Why is it there, who put it there, znd HOW zappy *is* it, really?!?😉😆😂🤣)

      • I’m SOOOOOO lucky I’m not a cat, Hannibal–nine lives would NEVER be enough!😉😆😂🤣💖

        Seriously, though?

        As BOTH an introvert, *and* an Only Child, I NEED “downtime”/ quiet/ “solitude-ish” time to recover & stay (mostly-ish?) sane.

        It doesn’t HAVE to be “full/silent solitude”!

        Tbh, some of my *favotite* times are the “sitting quietly, doing something alone, together with each other”–reading, making, crafting, etc, while someone else is in the same space, happily doing *something* there that THEY love doing.

        I grew *up* doing that–my mom & dad were both readers when I was little–so times like Sunday afternoon, after we got home from going to Church, then Grandpa & Grandma’s, Mom, Dad, & I would just sit in the living room with the TV on *something* all reading our own books–and it was AWESOME and cozy!😁🤗😉

          • I honestly feel like I got lucky, and had the BEST of both worlds–kids & cousins CLOSE (a block or so, literally!), *AND* the ability to just be by myself when/as needed–and then a mom into sewing & crafting, so there was ALWAYS *something* to do/make/try making, if I had an inclination💖

            Maybe it was ‘cuz of having grandparents from the Depression Era (and rural)?

            But *my* generation grew up around SO many creative/ “handy” folks, that taught us how to just *make* the thing we wanted/needed–‘cuz back then, they often didn’t have any ability to GET *the thing* otherwise😉

  8. I live alone. And now that I WFH since 2020, I worry that I’ve gone a little feral. I’m an only child so I’ve never had a problem with my own company, but now I have a pathological aversion to anything but.

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