I have often been accused, and rightly so, of having an over-active imagination. Things I have previously convinced myself of:
1) my cat can read my mind and is messing with me
2) my skunk pillow is frustrated by my undue attention to my pound puppy
3) the letters in my bowl of Alphabits are spelling out a message of epic import
But having an over-busy mind is not without its benefits. Over the years of too many college lectures, staff meetings and long train rides I've created quite the repertoire of ways to amuse myself. Some of my favorites?
Editing my life into music videos
Music videos are my favorite form of media - because they are just the right length for my attention span. I can totally give myself over to imagining the camera angles and coloring and wardrobe for any given song. My imaginary music video for Liam Finn's Energy Spent includes lots of golden, sunset-colored light, sun flares, old bicycles and cute girls with long hair drinking beer on a porch.
Creating back stories1) my cat can read my mind and is messing with me
2) my skunk pillow is frustrated by my undue attention to my pound puppy
3) the letters in my bowl of Alphabits are spelling out a message of epic import
But having an over-busy mind is not without its benefits. Over the years of too many college lectures, staff meetings and long train rides I've created quite the repertoire of ways to amuse myself. Some of my favorites?
Editing my life into music videos
Music videos are my favorite form of media - because they are just the right length for my attention span. I can totally give myself over to imagining the camera angles and coloring and wardrobe for any given song. My imaginary music video for Liam Finn's Energy Spent includes lots of golden, sunset-colored light, sun flares, old bicycles and cute girls with long hair drinking beer on a porch.
Instead of paying attention to the accounting bit of the staff meeting, why not construct the childhood of the newest addition to the company? Sure, he looks benign - all male pattern baldness and khakis, but he got kicked out of every school in the tri-county area for his high school shenanigans, and he only settled down when he had to marry his knocked-up 17 year-old-girlfriend. Now he collects model trains and spends hours painting tiny trees and lamp posts in his basement.
Editing Conversations
Have you ever listened to someone say something like this: "But then we had to reschedule for Tuesday ... no, wait ... Wednesday .... no, Tuesday, because she had a dentist appointment to get her teeth whitened. She drinks too much Pepsi, you know? No, wait. It's Coke. She drinks too much Coke." Meanwhile, your brain is slowing melting and dripping out your ear because you're going to lay on your death bed and want those 45 seconds back someday.
In this scenario, I pull from my years of copy editing and imagine a typed script of everything I've just heard. Then I take an imaginary red pen and edit all that foolishness down to "we had to reschedule for Tuesday." Gratifying isn't it?
In this scenario, I pull from my years of copy editing and imagine a typed script of everything I've just heard. Then I take an imaginary red pen and edit all that foolishness down to "we had to reschedule for Tuesday." Gratifying isn't it?
Making up definitions for comment confirmation words
We all do this a little bit right? They are always this.close to being a real word! Some of my favorites are ovetreu: a French term for poached eggs. Or how's about magiza: a particularly small magazine from Italy. Or ackab: like back stab in pig latin. But not.
What mental games do you play to get you through boring bits of your day?
What mental games do you play to get you through boring bits of your day?
17 comments:
This is so cool! Oh, I'm also tripping about just-about-anything giving me a message of epic proportions: most videos are clairvoyant :))
And I also make up music videos, or just imagine myself on stage, singing to everyone I know... :))
Silly things, but everything is better than boredom!
I think of comics in my head. But, I never transfer them to paper because I suck at drawing, and I don't actually have the attention span to draw it all out.
Back stories all the way!!!
Also I have an ongoing soap opera in my life in my head, in which right now I am about 35 years old... my (fake) life is crazzzy!
PS: you're tagged! feel free to pass it on :)
Oh gosh we are scarily similar... I'm such a music-video-imagining nut it's untrue, every song on my ipod has one. Super post x
I do those things too! I also caption my life as if it was a Far Side cartoon.
"As soon as Andrea saw the duck, she knew it was going to be a bad day."
So sorry I haven't sent you those replies to the questions yet - this week has been so crazy. We're trying to cram things into a short week, as we're away in Wellington this weekend for work ... excuses, excuses ... anyway, I'll try and get them to you tomorrow.
A xxx
No worris, cat! Can't wait to read what you have for me.
hi sarah! thx for visiting my site! i love that white dress...is that you?
OK. Unfortunately, my mind chatter is coming from a strong germophobic base. It goes something like this....
Oh, you KNOW that she did not wash her hands! Now she is touching the handle! Great, nice going you dirty idiot. Why is that lady coughing on the salad? What is WRONG with these people?
All of this is usually backed by some really bad grocery store music. I always get the soft pop songs they place at the market stuck in my head for days at a time. It is truly a battle being me. Picture salmonella dancing to an Air Supply song and you have the music video that lives in MY head.
Also... I woke from a dream last night convinced that a nest of bees was living in the wall above my head. It took me a full minute or two of being awake to realize we were indeed bee free. Crazy.
God, I'm so guilty of editing conversations. I also edit emails, picking people up on dodgy grammar and overuse of exclamation marks. Sometimes I even send them back to the sender.
In the office I count the number of times a co-worker talks about herself during the day, the final number has never been less than nine.
Fictional backstories are the best. I am totally guilty of doing that for every interesting looking customer that comes into the restaurant where I work.
Sometimes, I go out alone to give MYSELF a fictional backstory. Just for an afterwork drink or something. It's fun.
My other one is embarassing. See, I always wanted to be in a band but have no musical talents. So sometimes if there is a good song on, I will zone into music video world, imagining that I am Blondie or Joan Jett or Jim Morrison (it's not gender specific). I picture myself on stage in front of an audience of fans. I think most normal people get over this by the time they turn 13..
lol, I count the number of times someone* complains. I do math to equal 1 or 0 from the amounts I'm processing, like $1145.00 is 1*1*5-4=1. So lame! But I'm an accountant. I also rearrange words I hear into a list of same lettered words, like 'stop it' would be sit & top. Again, so lame. I can't believe I told you this!!
Eyeliah: If by 'lame' you mean 'awesome'! That number game might just have to be added to my selections!
"Meanwhile, your brain is slowing melting and dripping out your ear because you're going to lay on your death bed and want those 45 seconds back someday."
HILARIOUS!!!
I imagine I am writing each word I read sometimes. Very odd. And can be time consuming!
I love editing - conversations, emails, tv and movie scripts. I never imagined I had a big red pen before, but now I will! If you happen to see red crosses and circles floating in the air near you, you'll know I've been there!
I also like to pretend I am on the outside of myself looking in and I narrate what I'm doing. Often in strange accents.
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