Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Wasting Time

I tend to waste time online, partially because, due to the nature of my job as a night supervisor, I'm left to my own devices at work, but also partially because I have an addictive personality. I'm not sure when this kind of behavior became my default setting, and I'm not really happy that it has, but the fact is I spend too much time sitting right where I'm sitting now, and not enough time pursuing more creative or personally enhancing pastimes. At least when I'm writing I feel that it's not a complete waste of time. Truth be told, that's one of the reasons I've been writing more lately. The next step is to pare down some of my other time-wasting activities here in internetland.

Facebook can be a time suck, although it's also a way to (rather passively, I admit) keep in touch with distant friends. I also use it in my obsessive quest to obtain more music. That said, I thought it might be fun (and perhaps enlightening) to describe below the 10 posts at the top of my Facebook news feed at the moment:

1. Picture of coworker/friend with his baby, mentioning that he voted today (yes, it's election day and yes, I voted by mail). And yes, his baby is cute.

2. Suggested post (basically, an advertisement spewed my way by some Facebook algorithm), featuring an obviously fake news story about a cast member of The Walking Dead contracting Ebola while filming in Africa.

3. Video link about Russians and Muslims fighting, from an obviously right wing junior high school friend. No, I didn't watch it.

4. A Gofundme link posted by a home business I've never purchased anything from. Is your business unsustainable? Beg for money online! That said, I "liked" this page while holiday shopping last year. The woman who runs it sells creepy dolls, which is something that Eva likes. Maybe Eva will get a creepy doll this holiday season. It's always good to buy from people rather than huge, soulless corporations.

5. A band (The Melvins) reminding us all that they're playing in Orlando, FL tonight. The flyer has an artist's interpretation of what Peanuts characters would look like under the influence of bath salts.

6. A post in the "Now Playing" Facebook group (where music nerds upload pictures of whatever record they currently have spinning on their turntable) featuring a picture of a record sleeve by a band I've never heard of.

7. A reminder from a drone musician to attend a show in Japan. As if.

8. Another "I voted" post from a coworker.

9. A notification that a Facebook friend (who I haven't actually interacted with in decades, and even then never on any deep level) commented on a post that doesn't look interesting enough to bother reading.

10. Another Facebook friend (who I actually do sometimes interact with) linking to another story, this time about the murder of an Oklahoma teen who was "allegedly practicing witchcraft". Yet more evil and injustice served up in bite-sized morsels.

There you have it. I'm sure there are many better things I could be doing with my time right now.

In the real world, I'm one night into my work week. Daylight savings time is wreaking havoc with my mornings this week because all of a sudden its broad daylight well before the official camp wake-up time, meaning that many kids are awakened by the sun and then expected to keep absolutely quiet until I come and tell them to start getting ready. Yes, it's almost impossible for fifth graders to do that. My preemptive strike involved having them borrow books last night so they'd have something quiet to do when they awoke. One girl actually got in trouble this morning for reading out loud. Sigh.

A homesick boy(we actually prefer the term, "missing home" these days because this way it sounds less like an affliction) came in last night feeling nauseous (as often happens in this circumstance), so I went and placed a wastebasket near his bunk just in case. This morning, there was a puddle of vomit... next to the wastebasket. Double sigh.

Later, a boy was brought to the hub by his cabin leader because she thought he might have "poison ivy". I told her that this was impossible, and she soon caught on that this was because the local plant is actually Poison Oak. When I looked at the kid though, he was completely covered in a blotchy, red rash. It wasn't from touching Poison Oak. In fact, I'm not sure what it was. Thankfully, our health aide walked in at that moment. She isn't qualified to diagnose this kind of thing either, so this resulted in a call to the boy's parents, who would have to come get him and take him to an actual doctor. Weird.

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