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I am damn near terminally bored.
Daedalus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm a CS student. This summer I landed a fairly lucrative and (at the time) interesting internship. The downside is that I had to relocate from Binghamton (which, yeah, isn't that great) to Rome, NY. Rome, NY is a small town that used to have an Air Force base next to it. All of the base (except for the research lab where I now work) got shut down when the Cold War ended, and the local town of Rome shrank and the nearby city of Utica completely collapsed, turning into a vast, depressing landscape of large abandoned buildings, kind of like most cities in upstate New York.
The internship started out very interesting but lately has been really boring, as you'd be able to infer from (for instance) the frequency of my forum posts during work hours.
My girlfriend (of three years and change) used to be in Binghamton, and I would go back there every weekend (bumming a ride with the professors I'm working with so I wasn't spending $BIGNUM in gas), but she's in Ecuador now in a study abroad program and doesn't get back until around the time this internship ends (early August). Everyone else I know from college is in their respective hometown for the summer, as far as I can tell. I dunno, maybe part of my problem is that I don't know how to spend my free time when she's not around. Or maybe it's that I don't know how to spend my free time when nobody is around. Either way.
There is basically nothing to fucking do in this town. It's an economically depressed shithole and the only reason it didn't become a ghost town when the base closed is that it never quite got big enough in the first place to truly collapse.
To compound problems, I don't own a car. I have a bicycle, which is sufficient to get me to work and back every day and get me as far as Wal-Mart (on the other side of Rome, about six miles away) on the weekends. Utica is right out, not that there's much to do there either.
I've been killing my free time playing video games (natch) and riding (and repairing) my bicycle. I've got like nothing to do. I've asked one of the other interns, the guy I share a cubicle with (and whose apartment is in Utica, not Rome), what he does around here, and it's basically "Well, on weekdays I sit around and play on my PS3, and on weekends I drive to New Jersey".
This is really a long shot, but if anyone has any idea of anything so I don't die of boredom, that'd be really great.
The internship started out very interesting but lately has been really boring, as you'd be able to infer from (for instance) the frequency of my forum posts during work hours.
My girlfriend (of three years and change) used to be in Binghamton, and I would go back there every weekend (bumming a ride with the professors I'm working with so I wasn't spending $BIGNUM in gas), but she's in Ecuador now in a study abroad program and doesn't get back until around the time this internship ends (early August). Everyone else I know from college is in their respective hometown for the summer, as far as I can tell. I dunno, maybe part of my problem is that I don't know how to spend my free time when she's not around. Or maybe it's that I don't know how to spend my free time when nobody is around. Either way.
There is basically nothing to fucking do in this town. It's an economically depressed shithole and the only reason it didn't become a ghost town when the base closed is that it never quite got big enough in the first place to truly collapse.
To compound problems, I don't own a car. I have a bicycle, which is sufficient to get me to work and back every day and get me as far as Wal-Mart (on the other side of Rome, about six miles away) on the weekends. Utica is right out, not that there's much to do there either.
I've been killing my free time playing video games (natch) and riding (and repairing) my bicycle. I've got like nothing to do. I've asked one of the other interns, the guy I share a cubicle with (and whose apartment is in Utica, not Rome), what he does around here, and it's basically "Well, on weekdays I sit around and play on my PS3, and on weekends I drive to New Jersey".
This is really a long shot, but if anyone has any idea of anything so I don't die of boredom, that'd be really great.
Daedalus on
Posts
Maybe. I can't really buy a lot of shit right now, though, not while living in the temporary dorm-like housing they've allotted for me.
Ever thought about doing some Urban Exploration out at the abandoned air force base?
Neal Stephenson
Hm. Most of it got bought up (the airfield became a flight school, etc) but there are still a few clusters of abandoned buildings. Maybe I'll give it a shot. It's gotta be better than the current situation.
It would be more fun if I was in Utica, probably, but you gotta make do with what you have.
I've been doing a good deal of bicycle repair, lately, since my bike was in terrible shape when I brought it up here and it badly needed a tune-up. It's much better now. I've still got a bit more to do, but this is pretty much something I only have time for on the weekends.
They all decided to make a game. They got permission to use an engine that people at our university were developing, and each of them took over a different part of it. AI, graphics, etc. Basically, they are filling their time doing something that relates to their major. Maybe you could code little things, learn a language you don't know, etc? But that's not really all that fun (to some people).
Read, try to watch a lot of movies, write, draw, paint. Find interesting places around your town. I was so disappointed to come back home over the summer to my shithole home town because I'd found so many random, great places up in my small college town. Then I realized I never really looked around here and have found some cool things, even after living here for 10+ years. Basically, what I'm saying is, though there may not be a bunch of fun stuff obviously available, if you just take a day or two and walk around to places you wouldn't ordinarily go, you might have some fun. Take a digital camera with you. If you don't have one, buy one. Cause I know that you can afford one after a day's work, and a high quality one after maybe a week. (Going off of the several CS internships I've read about). Actually that's just my impulse buyer speaking, but it's an idea. Maybe see if there are any tiny shops you may have missed? I know I've found/revisited some I hadn't heard about in years, and they were pretty interesting.
Take up exercising? Lifting? Etc? Self-improvement is very satisfying when you're bored. And if you don't feel like it, or think it's too time consuming, just ask yourself, "What else would I be doing right now?" If you don't know where to get started, the health/fitness thread is a great place.
I'll try to think up some more stuff because, honestly, I'm nearly in the same boat. As much as I've found here, this place is small and can only offer so much.
Exercise ain't a bad idea either. Maybe some running or biking? You can also explore the town while getting a work out in
BTW, shout out to Binghamton, NY.
Bearcats?
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Another problem is motivation, I guess. I dunno, whenever I'm lonely I get kind of listless and lazy and don't want to leave my room; it's something I really have to work on. But I'm working on it.
My understanding is that exercise will help with that, so I'd look into one of the more athletic suggestions. It may help in larger ways than alleviating boredom.
Like, could you go out for beers?
You've got a bike and you're working on that. Honestly, I'd say "do that." I've gotten more and more into cycling and it can be a lot of fun if you treat it like a sport. Things like "learn an instrument" or other creative solo pursuits will probably just make you want to get a group of people together (which won't exist in Rome) or move (expensive).
Yet I've gotten into challenge riding, and completed my first metric century last weekend. It felt great to know I biked 70 miles in a single day, and was an awesome personal challenge. Spend the week tuning your bike and working, and look up a good bike path for you to take on the weekend. Have a hand pump, spare tube, stuff like that so you don't get stranded, but if you treat it like training, it will probably help you in a lot of ways, like a) more motivation, since you'll be doing physically active things, b) more things to talk about with people, c) a hobby you can get into and learn about, d) an awesome night sleep after a challenging ride, e) a sense of accomplishment each weekend.
Upstate is tough, man -- it's like an arm of Ohio that's equally depressed and depressing.
Yeah, I've decided that that's what I'm gonna do. I'd been biking quite a bit on the weekends but my weekdays were really boring, but I just realized that there's really no reason why I can't bike on weekday nights if I'm careful about it, so I just now got back from a Wal-Mart run (around 11 miles for the round trip) where I bought a bike headlight and taillight (the typical plastic pieces of Wal-Mart shit, but functional). I'm going to start biking around Rome more and seeing what there is to be seen: at the very least I'll be getting some exercise and finding my way around. Maybe I'll get a cheap camera and take some pictures or something too, who knows.
At least this situation is only temporary. Binghamton's not that great, nor is Troy (where I grew up) but I never knew that upstate NY could get this bad.
Thanks for the help, guys; I guess I needed the encouragement more than anything.
I've thought about it, but he leaves on the weekends, and on the weekdays, he has a place in Utica and I'm in Rome, and my only transportation is a bicycle, which ain't gonna cut it for that distance at night.
If there's an interest, why not go all out and learn Flamenco guitar, a.k.a. "Spanish style"? I've been playing it for about a year, and I find it infinitely more rewarding than an electric. A lot of people around here would say that it comes down to the sound you want in a guitar, and while that's somewhat true you can only get so far with an electric until you hit a serious roadblock. With flamenco style, there is so much more you can do on your own, and in my opinion I find that you can really get your money's worth out of a solid acoustic. If you've got the pockets, i'd go with a La Patrie standard model, but if not any nylon string acoustic will do.
The only catch to this is that you might want to find a teacher, and since you seem to be in the middle of nowheresville this might be a problem. Granted, you can teach yourself this style, but it is not an easy task.
This is probably a rather far-fetched idea to pursue, but I thought i'd toss my cards in the game anyways.
I'm actually going to bike to the Wal Mart myself tomorrow morning so i can get some rope to fix the hammock in my back yard. Another thing that is nice about being the middle of nowhere is that you can spend a lot of time drinkin a beer and reading a good book.
electric guitars- they can become sort of useless if you can't find a band, or at least a drummer. sure you can keep working on it, but you're always going to be missing something.
-Find a favorite author. Or three. Just browse the bookstore (or Amazon.com) in the section for the genre of your choice and grab cheap mass market paperbacks, $8 a pop. Read the first chapter while you're there, see if it seems like a book you could get into, buy it if so. When you like an author, read more of their books! I've found that as I get used to an author's style I begin to enjoy their work more and more, and see more things in it.
-Get really good at a multiplayer game. You've already been playing games a lot, that's good. One way to enjoy yourself gaming without spending a shit-ton of money is to become an expert in one multiplayer game. Hell, if it's your thing, you could even spring for an MMORPG. $15/month is pretty cheap compared to a consistent habit of buying expensive single player games.
-Teach yourself something new. Whether it be drawing, programming, music, writing, or whatever else, once you find a hobby you can stick to it without incurring additional expenses for quite a long time. Heck, a lot of this stuff can be done for $0.00. Sit down at MS Word and start writing. Grab some printer paper and a pencil and start scribbling. Snag Visual C# Express and XNA 2.0 and look up some tutorials online. Speaking of which, the internet is a great resource for learning almost anything, if you know how to look.
-Adopt a pet from a local shelter. It's a lot cheaper than other means of getting pets, and you're probably saving it from being euthanized, if the shelter is anything like the places around here. On the plus side there's a lot to do to take care of a new pet (and train it in the case of a young dog), and it'll keep you company.
-Find some new music to enjoy. Explore outside your musical comfort zone (assuming you have one), you might find out that you like different things. I used to scorn rap in favor of rock and metal until I gave the genre a good once-through--now a few of my favorite albums are rap albums. http://www.rateyourmusic.com/ is a good resource for finding new music to try out.
-Learn to cook (or cook new things). If you get creative and possibly scour the internet for cool recipes, you can have good food cheap, the cooking of which will both use up your time and leave you more money for other things to enjoy.
-Work out. If you want to bulk up, try grabbing a cheap bench and some dumbbells--it's less expensive than a gym membership and you can do it from the comfort of your home. If you want to lose weight, ride your bike around or just run. Get a good regimen going, it makes you feel better about yourself, makes you healthier, and makes you look better.
a fading melody - my indie platformer for the xbox 360
This. So hard.
Seriously, I can't stress enough how much of a waste of money a electric is unless you've got a group of buddies to play with. Over 90% of guitar songs are nothing but chords, even more so with an electric. With the other style however, you've got access to a lot of great traditional and modern classics, some of those songs taking well over a year before you can master them. Songs like "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams, Vamo Alla Flamenco from Final Fantasy IX, or Song for Stephen by Antoine Dufour are great examples. Truth be told I find Classical Gas to be the easiest of those three, mainly because most of the song takes place on the top frets.
Nothing burns the day faster than a good acoustic in hand and a plethora of songs to work on. It's the sole reason that I haven't gone crazy this past year while waiting for my other school to start up.
Take up cooking, as well. You've got nothing better to do, may as well improve your diet and learn a skill that will help you pick up women.