Boredom

Boredom is something I haven't felt in a long while, and still don't.  It is kind of nice:  I have a stack of approximately 3 million things I'd like to do, half of which are fun, so I never end up in that paradoxical state of not wanting to do anything and wondering what to do. 

I was concerned that, with course work over, I might become bored.  Not so!  My time is like a vacuum that sucks up activities to fill it.  Here is a list of activities, that go from those taking the least time, to those taking the most.

• Dodgeball: what, sports and Richard?!  Oh yes, the physical sport will just keep on coming!  We lost our first game, but I'm impressed at our ability to follow the rules.  *cough otherteamcheatedofcourse cough* :D
• 3-Pitch: baseball, oh my.  In 2006, I attended a game between my sister's then-law firm and some other law firms.  One of them was short a player and drafted me.  We then went on to CRUSH my sister's team, with me catching a player out, throwing a player out, and batting in two runs.  It was momentous.  In our first game of 3-pitch, it was also momentous!  I missed a ball in the out field, I failed to throw it to second, and I batted the ball right into someone's mitt.  Things got better in the last half of the match, though :)  Despite losing in runs batted in, we still won, by virtue of the other team having insufficient females.  Mwahaha.
• Trivia Club: because my memory is awful, I thought practising trivia would exercise it.  After two practises, my memory is no better, but I have improved my sense of worthlessness when it comes to retaining knowledge.  :D  The club's members are also quite fun and relaxed, so it never feels socially awkward.
• GSETA: after a discussion with some friends, I felt obliged to join GSETA to help improve my and others' understanding of what they do.  It turns out, they're a radical left-wing paramilitary organisation plotting to turn every cow at UoG into an ecospy and- and- and they do bake sales and run educational campaigns and disseminate information and promote diets that spare animals from being raised poorly and slaughtered.  None of the vegans have exhibited their vegan powers, yet.
• Quidditch: yes, you read that correctly.  I now play Quidditch twice a week.  Sadly, as Muggles, we more run around like fools with brooms between our legs (one person had a vacuum handle, which I think is cheating) but it is amazing fun and I sustained a traumatic chest injury when colliding with another chaser trying to grab the Quaffle.  Ouch!
• Kendo!  I've been internally dying to resume kendo practise for the last year.  I hate that it's one of the things I often defer when school gets out of control, or when costs become excessive.  Again, another sensei with another style, but at least I'll get to whack people with bamboo again.  That's the important part, right?  I actually enjoy kendo more for the technique and exercise than for the violence.
• GXml and libgdata: yes, open source projects!   It's kind of my dream work to be doing, and I give a bit of time each day to figure out existing bugs and push these forward.  Steady as she goes.  I blog about these under the #Development label (more mundane details) and #GNOME label (more public updates). 
• Thesis Work: the most important thing I have to do.  I am going to start writing a lot more about this under #School once I have more finished items to share ;D

I'm not usually one for clubs and sports, but with potentially my last year in University ahead of me, I'd like to be more active rather than spending over 12 hours a day working and feeling mentally exhausted all the time.  There is still more I'd like to be doing: I am terribly behind in cultural consumption: book reading (Adam Bede plods along slowly), video gaming (I am acquiring games faster than completing them!), and anime watching (my poorly underused Netflix!).

Ah well!  I think the reason I'm currently playing sports is because I love to Play, and my access to that has been limited for a while.  Hooray for silly fun!