what do you think about when you have nothing to do?

I make mental lists of things to do or I sit and remember happy times.

I usually have something to worry about, and when I have nothing else to do I tend to end up worrying about things even though I try not to. I don't enjoy this at all, which is why I prefer to have a good book or music with me.

I people watch too, and I'm terrible for listening into other peoples conversations.

i avoid it by having a book everywhere.

I look out the window and have thoughts about what I see, like "mmm, round stones . . . nice."

i think about sweet, sweet death.

I try to avoid such situations by bringing a book with me, because if I'm left with my thoughts I tend to brood on what I don't like about my life. Positive: I don't dwell on the past or what might happen. Negative: I never face up to what I need to do to improve my life.

either brooding regarding my life or mulling over the problems of humanity

i think about how I can improve my appearance and get a boyfriend

i never took a bus alone

Music. I always think about music, whether it's music I'm learning, music I recently learned, music I heard, music I just remembered, or music I'm idly composing.

Oh, and BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!!!

The finitude of existence, and whether that indie-looking person across the bus is going to the same show.

we don't really take buses here. but until recently i drove a car with absolutely no sound system. most commutes were consumed with thoughts of intense hatred for suv drivers.

Incidentally there is more time to be spent pondering the finitude of existence while waiting for the fucking Damen bus which never fucking comes.

once I drove a car with one speaker. at the time I often thought about what the other halves of songs sounded like.

well, yes, jlu, sometimes

I look at angles and circles and the lines on the subway car. I watch people react to each other, the way they suffle their feet. The way all most all but two of the poles (the ones gaurding the doors) on any section of the TTC are rounded. How most of the poles aren't an equal distance from the walls of the subway. I try to find triangles and take guesses at angles and try to feel if the car is going up or down.
Im a bad physics geek that way.

ten things I have thought about in idle time on public transportation:

1. if muslim women do their hair underneath their head thingies
2. whether people would look at me and think I was a moron when I couldn't make the back door work right, before I figured out how the back door worked
3. the bassline to "metronomic underground", and a whitesnake song
4. oh no what if I fall asleep?
5. my tooth hurts
6. sorrows of young werther-style pinings (nb I have never read sorrows of young werther but you get me)
7. I don't think my shaver is working right
8. trying to count out the rhythm of a song on the wrong beat, like x-1-2-3-4 when the song goes 1-2-3-4-1 etc
9. boobies
10. english candy drill

i have this awful schizo interior monologue.

I worry that my chin is too fat. Honestly. For the whole journey.

mostly about music, philosophy and uh "what's happening on ILX these days?!?" oh and "shit what do i prepare this evening?"

i don't think. i read. i'm reading violette leduc. i don't like her writing. i have read the novels of two french women and i have liked neother sofar. can anyone recommmedn me anything bgttetter? please?

I was on a train about a month ago, with nothing to do or look at outside (it was dark) for the next 2 hours. A bloke boarded and sat in the seats in front of me on the opposite side of the aisle. He pulled out a laptop and loaded up a DVD, "cool" I thought, I'll get to watch the movie over his shoulder, (even though he had headphones on to hear, it'll at least surely have some decent special fx to watch!).
I sat there silently hoping that it was going to be Lord of the Rings or something. And do you know what the film was ? It was 3 episodes of the bungling detective "Columbo". groan.

Hmmm, this is a good question, let me think...

1) Is that girl looking at me?
2) What shoes are these people wearing?
3) Shall I record a new album?
4) What should I call it? (cue list of song titles)
5) Should I buy the Shakira album?
6) I hate people who drop litter and spit out chewing gum
7) I'm on a rock spinning around the sun, but life is basically okay, and there's no reason why life should be good (this thought I find strangely comforting)
8) That Murakami, he's got a thing about ears
9) That guy is behaving strangely, I shall keep my eye on him
10) I need to call X

and yes, I love it when I have nothing but my thoughts.

these are my favourite times, ever. i tell myself little stories - what would happen if... i got that boy, i sold a million records, i moved to som fantastic place - which often form the germs of fan fict or novels. if it's somewhere with good rhtym - a train or a brisk walk - i come up with song lyrics. so many songs i've scribbled on the back of train schedules. i'd never take a book for times like these. fill my best dreamtime with someone else's thoughts... never.

I write lyrics too - on anything I can find. Usually at stoplights since I do alot of driving alone. So I have all these scraps of paper in my purse and my car that are wadded up like trash but they have my random lyrics on them.
And I make mental to-do lists constantly. Then I end up with this really long list (when I can't write them down) of like 10 things and I have to keep rehearsing them in my head and try to think of acronyms or something so that I'll remember all of them later.
I also do the "what if" game, but usually about really silly things. Like what if that tree on the side of the road suddenly crashed down. And all the trees started crashing and causing wrecks and everyone would think it was the apocolypse and run and scream... Or I'll imagine that there are people hiding in the trees.
When I'm walking alone, like in the grocery store, I often imagine everyone suddenly bursting into song and dance.
And I constantly have a radio playing somewhere in my head. So when I'm alone (or, more embarassingly, when I'm not) I'll often find myself humming something or singing along and then thinking, hmmm... that's weird. I didn't even realize I was doing that...

I think about dreams. My dreaming life is more interesting, but more difficult and confusing, than my real life.

I have this thing, of thinking "Right, what next?", as if I have a massive to do list, and then I realise I really don't (though I wuv days when I do)

Does anyone else go through imaginary conversations with friends they don't see enough? The usual result of this is me having nothing left to say when I do see them. Actually, I don't do this enough these days, y'know, for practice. Hmmm.

it's not at all organized. sometimes i make up stories about imaginary people.

I have fantasies on public transport about becoming a famous footballer who revolutionises the game by showing that greed is destroying it, who wins the world cup for England and takes time to lead AFC Wimbledon to European Cup glory and kills Charles Koppel on the way by catching him with a deliberately wayward shot which hits him underneath his nose at the right angle and velocity.

I later become Prime Minister, then President of Europe, before a popular groundswell in the entire world declares me all high emperor of the known universe.

I can't help it. What's an Arian to do except harbour thoughts of power and leadership and global domination?

I speculate about fellow passengers. I think about stuff I'm going to write. I have little arguments in my head with people/writings that have annoyed me. I think about sex. That fucking Dan Clowes story where he imagines tube passengers on a desert island has had a bad influence. I think about shopping. I look at the buildings we're passing and try and imagine what they're like inside.

As a continuation...

11. boobies
12. morbid thoughts
13. misanthropy
14. high school memories
15. ILX threads I'm gonna start

I'm about to take an hour's drive to see my nuts, and ill, family (one newly in the hospital, one newly out.) despite booming new system my thoughts will wander. more lists:

1. what do babies think about while in the hospital?
2. will i be conscripted into baby sitting?
3. am i bitch if i don't?
4. will my stepdad yell at me for making my mom cry despite the fact that she's clearly insane?
5. what would it be like to live in (insert various small town I pass through)?
6. I should put this song on anthony's cd
7. how late can I leave today and still make it to the bar for the festivities?
8. am i an alcoholic?
9. why didn't my brother and his wife use birth control appropriately?
10. I wonder if that gas station has good corn dogs?

(Before I finished that sentence, I thought I'd discovered the best possible typo for "aunts".)

"hmmmmm.... i'm going to be here for a while... i should get something to eat. shit.... do i have my cashline card on me? fuck. fuckety fuck. where the fuck is it? now i have to go home again. yeah.... that thats great david. OK, don't panic. calm, calm, calm. argh, what time is it? Is my watch at the right time... the board says it's quarter past but i'm still only at ten. I wonder if my watch gets gradually out of time over time. I always set it to exactly the right time off teletext. why? why is the world against me? Why? Oh my god, my cards in my pocket. I can eat. Yay [mental smiley face] whats my pin code? I know where the keys are and what sequence i press the keys in, but what the is my pin code? Shhhhh, shhhhhhhhh.... if i think too much about it i'll not remember it. But I *don't* remember it. How much should I take out? 20, i'll take 20. why is it taking so long? It doesn’t usually take this long. I put in the wrong pin, didn’t I? Oh… wait, here we go. Che-ching! Mnnnnn….. sandwiches or burgerking? Be healthy vs. taste good. Hmmmm…. Is that… fuck it is… don’t look, don’t look, she won’t see you if you don’t look. Assume the tree position, hehe. Ok, fuck it, burgerking it is. Diet another day….

… hot! hot hot hot hot… Ugh, horrible coffee. Why do I never remember that? I can remember the words to every song I’ve ever heard, but I can’t remember burgerkings coffee sucks? How do they fix the tables to the floor? Oh, they don’t. Is… is that my phone? No, it’s his. Okay, stop staring. Shit, I meant to download that song before I left. Doesn’t matter, but I’ll forget. Also, need to get information about broadband. Hmmmmm mental note: broadband. I wonder if they’ll need to dig up my garden for the cables... that would be messy. Maybe I won’t bother. Why don’t they just keep all the cables overground? Ohhh… I wish I could fly. What was that? I belive I can fly…. I belive I can touch the sky…. I something la la la la la la la…. La la la la la fly away…

… I hope I don’t get that creepy conducter that talks to me. Ugh, I hate trains. No, they’re good actually, for what they do. Oh my god. I have become my high school chem. teacher. four till eight on Friday. That’s not bad, I’ll be back in time for fraiser. I hope it’s not busy. I wonder if I can dodge my fare… oh no wait… I bought a return. Heh, well maybe I’ll just pretend. I should bring a book. Maybe there’ll be a paper on the train. I thought I was reading a book… oh yeah… hmmmm… I’ll have to start it again. Oh…. I need to pee. Hmmmm….. not using public toilets. No way. Wait till I get home. Don’t think about waterfalls. Eep… "

-Dave

most commutes were consumed with thoughts of intense hatred for suv drivers
This is something I frequently think about when I have all too much to do.

Otherwise, I think about all of the shit I haven't accomplished and get peeved about people like Zadie Smith for writing novels and being published and famous at such a young age. I think about mundane errands that I only think about when I can't possibly accomplish them, and speculate on how long past due they are. I also consider how school is so skewed that the only way you can do really fun things like study abroad is if you don't have to worry about actually getting a job and paying off loans upon graduation, which necessitates doing things like moot court, law review, etc. I also try to plan a way to maximize income while minimizing hours after graduation, and after running through all of this I tend to construct elaborate flights of fancy which I resist coming out of because they seem increasingly real the longer I block out the world around me.

Another answer: Paris. I think about Paris.

France. Texas sometimes too.

What about Paris, Texas?

sex

but i'm bored, yet toondrunk to think about sex. i feel lost

Hey Di! You are online at the same time as me, we should so an AIM chat or something except I do not quite know how this strange compuder thing works HOOM precious... and I wd probably only make bad Lord of the Rings comments anyway.

Sex? WHERE!

sarah waht is your AIM name?

Ah the thing is I'm at a friends PC running some strange keerewaazzeee form of linux which I ph34r does not have AIM! I think it has IRC if anyone wants to do that and I can find out how the fuck it works damn you Debian...

i am lucylurex

i don't think this has IRC, oh the pain@!

there is no such thing as a bad LOTR comment! sam gamgee is my third husband after marc bolan and steve sheeley. i am trying not to imagine them making sweet homoeroticicms

Oh poo! I could do with this whole instant chat thing!!! You should download mirc, it aint a long download...

MMM posting while I was posting!

I saw the TWO TOWERS again today, preciouss.... WOAR, Frodo hobbit ANGST with the Nazgul in Osgillath!!

Haha whilst me and Lixi were waiting for a bus out of Crouch End we waited outside a restauraunt called "Mazgul" (or something). Ph34r!!!

i haven't even seen two tower yet, i am waiting til it is cheap. does your computer have msn messenger? I WILL TRY TO GET irc.

I have only just figgered out how to turn the speakers on (sleater kinney yay!) so I doubt it has msn messanger (there are a lot of things called gnome, methinks owner of aforesaid computer must be into gnomeish pr0n.).

I shall make sure I havce irc too then! For PC it's just www.mirc.com I *think*

oooh which sleater kinney

my IRC name will be marcbolan

Dig Me Out yum grrrly roxx0r! Shite handbags though.

Damn I am too petrified of this computer to do anything else with it! Dammit!

no don't leave! i am nearly finished downloading!

No no I am not going anywhere, I just don't know which is the damn IRC program on this thing!

Although I am a grebt haxx0r throwing me straight into Linux whilst the ownder sleeps is still a little difficult to figger out what is what.

if you get into IRC, try lucylurex. what is your IRC name?

sex, work, music and abt ILX threads (in no particurlar order) (thinking abt how x poster annoyed me and I'd like to to his house and...OK I'll stop there).

I'll barely walk to the bathroom without grabbing my walkman and a book, so this rarely happens, which is for the best, as I'd just make myself miserable.

Today's internal dialogue, 2pm, West London:

What if the world doesn't end? What if the universe doesn't implode in a puff of smoke? What if life just goes on the same way it always has? What if the purpose of life is to create a purpose? I think I'll eat this sandwich in the park. I must remember to thank Ned for the Endless Drift CD. The girl in that shop is quite cute. What if I always just lurch between a vague feeling of happiness, and a vague feeling of depression? Lurch is too extreme, I mean shift. Oh all the benches are taken, I'd feel too self concious sitting on the grass, there's one over there. That girl is quite cute, this sandwich is horrible, I'll probably get food poisoning. I hope that football doesn't get kicked toward me. She's drinking sprite. Shall I start a post on ILE about the "internal dialogue" and get other people to post their internal dialogues? I better not, it may not get many responses and it may be a bit self indulgent. Hey, didn't Josh start something similar a while back? I'll do a search when I get home. What if I can't remember what I was thinking about when I come to write this down, it'll look like I just edited it to make me look cool.

nothing really, usually end up staring at someone for the entire bus journey. If there ugle, rip em if there not still rip em!

Generally the song "Eye of the Tiger" comes into my head.

I think about...listen to this,you will find this fascinating...I imagine the world has ended and the only survivers are myself and this bus load of people let say 12, Now its up to us to mate and keep this world going, I think about who I would have to mate, its fun because there cud be ugly people (which there usually is) and I have to decide which one I should impregnant if the world did end. Because they are ugly I have to choose the least ugliest first.

You are probably thinking this is so sad, but it passes my time, and I find funny inside.