Monday, November 06, 2006

Things You Could Be Doing Instead Of Obsessively Following Politics (I)

[Posted by reader_iam]

Pretend you're a movie mogul and rack up big bucks for your studio. (Hat tip to Pop Goes the Library, a site I follow regularly and enjoy, by the way.)

Think about why you're not among the 10 percent of people in the U.S. who contribute more than 80 percent of the volunteer hours offered each year. Most of those 10 percent don't have a lot of spare time either, so make the time to go do some good.

Read up on the myths surrounding the first Thanksgiving and come up with a "real" authentic menu. Figure out how you can get the ingredients together in time to put your research into practice this Thanksgiving.

Learn and then teach a young person the difference between Manet and Monet.

Take a virtual tour through an ancient Egyptian mummy, or maybe you'd prefer a trip to a museum on the other side of the world or a country or city you've been unable to visit in person. (Skip the Virtual Tour of the U.S. Government, though, since that might defeat the point of the exercise.)

Have "more fun than you can shake a frozen gnome at" by learning how to play Euchre, a game that a surprisingly diverse group of people--even those who don't play (?!?--keep telling me I should take up.

Study Feldenkrais and improve your mind and body. If it's good enough for the wise and centered Amba, it's good enough for me, and after reading a good chunk of the resources she links in her right-hand sidebar, I actually looked into finding a local practioner last spring. Alas, the closest I could find was a couple hours away.

Emulate the Know-It-All and start reading a whole set of encyclopedias (but skip anything having to do with modern politics; no need to go overboard about it).

Take on the challenge of distilling Absinthe, which modern-day afficionados say really WON'T drive you crazy, which is more than you can say about obsessively following politics.

Start reading Eide Neurolearning Blog regularly,follow ALL of the links in the posts, and check out its blogroll while you're at it. There's a whole other world out there! And I bow down to any blogger who can suggest that you try your hand at extracting DNA with your kid (using dried peas) and make you feel as if you might actually be able to follow through.

Get serious about Legos!