Stop and Smell the Sudoku

I'm a busy person. I feel like I'm constantly on the go -- studying for class, reading in preparation for a lecture, writing a paper, attending club meetings, working club functions -- whatever. It's as if I'm constantly on the go. And yet, somehow, despite all of this action, I still find time to waste.

I've found that there are many ways to waste time in college. In The Daily Cal (UC Berkeley's free and independent representative of the fourth estate) there's sudoku and crosswords on the last page. It's fantastic. Mindless little activites with absolutely no educational value -- the perfect waster of time. Of course, you can tell yourself that you're throwing your time away. You can tell yourself that you're stretching your mind, doing these puzzles as an exercise to hone your mental acuity. But you know you're lying to yourself. It's not practice for balancing your books or warming up for starting your math homework by doing Sudoku. Crossword puzzles won't help improve your writing skills or make you a better speaker. It's just something fun to fiddle with while you're waiting for class to start.

It's like keeping your hands busy when you're feeling restless. Same thing. You're keeping your mind active as a way to relieve the tension caused by procrastination or plain, old down time. Puzzles are the mental twiddling of thumbs, only one step above counting the number of panels on the ceiling. But then, of course, when you finish a puzzle, it all seems so worth it. There's a momentary feeling of absolute elation and joy over a job well done.

Until you realize that what you just finished was meaningless and now you've gone and finished the sudoku with two hours left to kill. Then the happiness fades and the boredom sets in.

There are other ways to waste time, though. Crossword and sudoky are just the most accessible ways. The traditional wasters of time are a little harder to get to (ie television, movies, video games, etc) but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Laptops are the norm. We all have personal computers and the whole campus is moving toward total wireless access. Voila. A whole new world of cyber distractions is opened up to the entertainment-starved college community.

Various sites offer venues to watch TV shows of all kinds, everything from top-rated television hits to cancelled series that have been long forgotten. It's great -- me, a 21st century teen able to see Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. Not to mention the modern day shows that have premiered since I've moved to college (specifically Journeyman and Pushing Daisies) that are just fun to watch. It's pretty cool. Not that I watch TV all the time. Far from it. I rarely watch anything. But it's nice to occasionally brew myself a cup of tea and relax in between readings by chilling in the Twilight Zone. That alone knocks out an hour or so.

As for games, the computer gives you those too. Can you say Minesweeper? Solitaire? I certainly can. Those games rock my socks. If I wanted to, I could shrink those sweet, sweet babies and play them during lecture -- something many of my classmates do. Alas, I've never worked up the courage to do that, fearing some omnipotent and angry GSI hovering over my shoulder or missing some important point.

And then they're blogging. The digital version of a diary. One of my personal favorites. It's a good way to reflect on the day, gather your thoughts, and provide something for yourself to look back on and laugh. Not that I would ever write one during class.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to paying attention to the professor.