Crafts/Creativity

Boredom is Better than You Believe

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I admit that title was slightly tortured, but it will have to do. It’s a B we all deal with, at some time or another, and the work of artists and writers throughout the centuries can reflect it. More so, creative work may even be shaped by it. See? Being bored isn’t all bad. Hmm. That would have made a better title.


Boredom: A Lively History by Peter Toohey. Amazon for $11.99. In the first book to argue for the benefits of boredom, Peter Toohey dispels the myth that it’s simply a childish emotion or an existential malaise like Jean-Paul Sartre’s nausea. He shows how boredom is, in fact, one of our most common and constructive emotions and is an essential part of the human experience.

This informative and entertaining investigation of boredom—what it is and what it isn’t, its uses and its dangers—spans more than 3,000 years of history and takes readers through fascinating neurological and psychological theories of emotion, as well as recent scientific investigations, to illustrate its role in our lives. There are Australian aboriginals and bored Romans, Jeffrey Archer and caged cockatoos, Camus and the early Christians, Dürer and Degas. Toohey also explores the important role that boredom plays in popular and highbrow culture and how over the centuries it has proven to be a stimulus for art and literature.

Toohey shows that boredom is a universal emotion experienced by humans throughout history and he explains its place, and value, in today’s world. Boredom: A Lively History is vital reading for anyone interested in what goes on when supposedly nothing happens.

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At Amazon, the Book Buys You

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OK, that’s not entirely accurate. Or remotely accurate, but I couldn’t resist the joke.

Normally, about now I’d be telling you about a book you can buy from Amazon, but today I figured I’d flip that. I don’t know if you know, but Amazon will buy your books as well. It’s like a big, natural circle of reading. Amazon pays for shipping, so it won’t cost you anything. Current best-sellers are probably your best bet, but at least that takes some of the guilt out of buying a full-priced new book.

And it’s not just for books, either. You can trade in movies, video games and other things, and get an Amazon gift card in exchange. When I logged in, it even told me what some things I’d bought from Amazon were worth, which is nice to know, not that I’m parting with my Zumba World Party, which is the most fun game ever, but I digress.

So you can use books to feed your reading habit. It’s beautiful, in a way.

Anyway, thus concludes this public service announcement.

 

 

 

Oh Ho Ho It’s Magic (Tricks)

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Maybe you’re a nascent Barney Stintson in training (hopefully not. But maybe you are). Maybe you’ve just always wondered how they did that. Maybe you like to mystify children. Or maybe you’re not a fan of small talk.

Whatever it is, everyone needs a hobby. Why not magic?


Magic Tricks – 50 Simple, Fun and Quick Tricks Book (How To Be the Life of the Party) by Joshua Minute. Amazon for $3.99. Magic Tricks 50 Simple, Fun and Quick Tricks

Having a few magic tricks “up your sleeve” can go a long way in making you the life of the party – and that is what we want to do – provide you with varying types of knowledge that you can use to entertain and have fun.

Now the quickest way to do this is to learn some easy magic tricks and then go and challenge your friends with a trick or two.

Here is one example of a baffling and entertaining trick. Learn The Impossible (and Impassable) Corks. This trick baffles just about everyone that it is shown to. In fact, you can actually show the people how to do it and they, still, won’t be able to do it. This trick has even stumped Ph D’s in engineering for hours.

If you want something less challenging, read about how to levitate a cup. We guarantee you that as soon as you are done reading the trick you WILL be able to make that cup float.

If that trick isn’t enough, learn how to call a coin flip, correctly, one hundred percent o f the time. Again, those around you will never guess how this trick is done either.

The magic tricks in this ebook were purposely selected to accomplish three things. They had to be easy to do, they had to be fun and challenging, and they had to use something that you would find at a party or at a dinner in a fancy restaurant (or have on you, like a deck of cards.) Other tricks use bottles, napkins, coins, paper money, straws, bread, utensils and more).

Slay Boredom with 10 Big Project Ideas

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Bored kids? Bored you? Feeling creative? Or want to daydream about something you might do eventually but probably won’t? Check out these fun projects you can do together, by yourself, or just read about doing.

10 Big Project Ideas for You and Your Kids (Vol. 1) by Charlie Baskins. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Are you looking for a cool project to work on with or for your kids? This project presents 10 great ideas for doing something more than the ordinary, and gives inspiration on how to turn the mundane into the extraordinary! (Volume 1 of a series)