Quarantine started months ago (though it feels like longer), and now, like everyone, you’re bored in the house too. It seems like you would do anything to get out, to see something or someone new; a new tree in a new yard, a different bird song in a different balcony, a different face on a different body. You catch our drift. You’re now even bored of singing ‘I’m bored in the house, and I’m in the house bored.”
Friends, when you’re bored with something, you only need to get a new perspective! So we traveled all over the internet to find you TED Talks and books that will help you unbore yourself! you’re welcome!
Bored? Get a new perspective on plants!
Whether you’re a virtuoso plant grower or you really know your mud with all top tips to care for your plants at your fingertips, you might have always thought of plants to be calm, almost passive beings.
Did you know they can manipulate animals and also use the same kind of branching communication network that your nervous system uses? And they also could be talking about you behind your back.
“Plants are even able to communicate — they are extraordinary communicators. They communicate with other plants. They are able to distinguish kin and non-kin. They communicate with plants of other species and they communicate with animals by producing chemical volatiles, for example, during the pollination.”
Watch this TED Talk by Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso, and you will never see your plants the same way, ever again!
2. Still bored? Check out the magic that whiskey and music could create
We know what you’re thinking. But it’s not that. We’re talking about Swiss artist Fabian Oefner and his use of everyday things to create mind-blowing artworks.
An excerpt from his talk invites you to stop being bored in the house and look at the beauty that constantly surrounds us.
“Those three projects, they’re based on very simple scientific phenomena, such as magnetism, the sound waves, or over here, the physical properties of a substance, and what I’m trying to do is I’m trying to use these phenomena and show them in a poetic and unseen way, and therefore invite the viewer to pause for a moment and think about all the beauty that is constantly surrounding us.”
3. Perpetually bored at home?Check out the history of ‘home’ and everything that lives in it
“It is always quietly thrilling to find yourself looking at a world you know well but have never seen from such an angle before.”, says Bill Bryson in his wonderful book At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Goodreads review: Bryson’s introduction to the book reads how little he knew about the ordinary things of life. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room, to write a history of the world without leaving home. Whatever happens in the world – he demonstrates – ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.
So now, as you wander in your house, from room to room, feeling bored, you should pick this book up and reinvent the way you see your at-home living.
4. Need to get a new perspective on everyday things? Check out these musical banana & pizza slices for computer cursors?
Leftover pizza slices? What if you could use them as arrow buttons on your computer? You might be wondering why you’d want to do that at all. But if you’re bored in the house, this might prove to be a bit more wondrous than you’d imagine.
“And I’ll just hook up a little ground wire to it. And now, if I touch this piece of pizza, the slides that I showed you before should go forward. And now if I hook up this wire just by connecting it to the left arrow, I’m kind of programming it by where I hook it up, now I have a left arrow and a right arrow, so I should be able to go forwards and backward and forwards and backward. Awesome.”
If you’re still confused (or think we’ve gone mad with boredom), watch Electrical Engineer Jay Silver go bananas over everyday things and using them as you’d never think of!
5. All aboard the spaceship Earth
Tired of being bored during quarantine, living in ‘the new normal’? Catapult into space with the adventures of Chris Hadfield and rediscover the way you see life on Earth with An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth.
“I think one reason people like hearing about these sorts of things is that it helps them see the world slightly differently, perhaps even with a sense of wonder. On Earth, it’s just a given that if you put a fork on the table, it will stay there. But remove that one variable, gravity, and everything changes. Forks waft away; people sleep on air. Eating, jumping, drinking from a cup – things you’ve known how to do since you were a toddler suddenly become magical or tricky or endlessly entertaining, and sometimes all three at once. People like being reminded that the impossible really is possible, I think, and I was happy to be able to remind them.”
Goodreads review: You might never be able to build a robot, pilot a spacecraft, make a music video, or perform basic surgery in zero gravity like Col. Hadfield. But his vivid and refreshing insights will teach you how to think like an astronaut. And will help you get a new perspective on the way you view life on Earth-especially your own.
Know someone who keeps complaining about how boring quarantine life is? Share this with them too!
D’you know what else Roomi does outside of helping its readers get a new perspective on everyday things? With our ever-increasing lists of rooms and roommates across the world, we help you find your perfect match! Download the app here and hop on the easiest ride home, ever!
