BS: Insipidity abounds

Subject: Insipidity abounds
From: GUEST,Prosaic one
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 06:18 PM

I'm just so tired and bored of everything. Not even music is giving me any spark. I don't even know why I'm posting this here, except for perhaps the idea that expelling the feeling from my own consciousness and letting it see the light of day might transform my mood into something less banal.

"There is nothing new under the sun..."

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 06:53 PM

Go for a good, fast paced walk, GUEST, prosaic one...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: weepiper
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 07:34 PM

Preferably up somewhere high

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Leadfingers
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 07:48 PM

Even better take two or three dogs for a walk in the woods.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 07:56 PM

I get that feeling sometimes too, GUEST. It is a sure sign that I have gotten stuck in an unproductive rut, and my soul is not happy about it. I wish I could offer you an easy or obvious solution...

There was a time when those afflicted with terminal ennui could run off and join the French Foreign Legion, where they found a cure for boredom fighting off hordes of raging desert tribesman and getting staked out on anthills and carved up with curved swords and flayed alive by grinning bedouins. A superb cure for that "been there done that" feeling that grips the jaded soul from time to time...

Those were the days, eh?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Amos
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 08:00 PM

Oh, sigh -- you know darn well that the minute you start generating interest, you'll be interested. Sllough off those old filters. Go plunge naked in a brook or sleep in a horse stall, carve a boulder or construct something,. It is not newness under the sun that makes things interesting but newness in the spirit, in the moment. Why make yourself old and bored?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 09:30 PM

So, just how the heck do you pronounce insipidity? I'm sure that Amos could come up with some clever songs using the word... "I'm sick of this city and this insipidity, so I wrote this little ditty?" :-)

Jerry (I'm no Amos.)

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Amos
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 09:43 PM

Actually, Jerry, I don't think there really is such a word -- I think insipidness is correct. I suppose it would be pronounced in-sip-ID-i-tee. But I can't think of any really good rhymes -- I'd have to make up words like dripidity or well, there is quiddity but I am not sure how I could ever use it! :>)    As for "being no Amos", I am more sorry not to be a Jerry!! I know I am missing a lot! Of course, the identity is always greener on the other side of the interface, isn't it?? LOL!!

Thanks, mate!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 10:06 PM

... but insipidity being doggeral, you could certainly write a dipitidy rather than a ditty.

I'd avoid the obvious rhyme with stupidity and keep it light(?).

(Most of my rhymes suggest the latter, I'm afraid.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 10:37 PM

Insipidity! A marvelous word! It means wallowishnesse, vasauourinesse. From Randall Cotgraves English and French Dictionary of 1611 (he spelt it insipiditie) Modern- tastelessness, or the quality of being insipid. Pedanticize and show your superiorness to dullardism and abandon tediosity.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 10:52 PM

Buy a new guitar...or preferably a very expensive old one. That REALLY changes the dynamics around this house.........Oh wait a minute, you wanted POSITIVE change!

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 02 - 11:21 PM

Good idea! Going into hock for something expensive insures that you will be too busy trying to pay for it to mope. And you will have to learn how to handle it to prove yourself to others in the family.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 12:46 AM

In-sipidity doo-dah, quiddity-yay
Pedanticize in a tedious way;
Superios-ily, dullards I say,
Still every dogger'll have his day.

O SO IT'S VASAUROURINESSESAURUS IZZIT? Thought he was Extincted. / Pfui. Mustard fergot to take me Prosaic.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: CarolC
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 03:52 AM

The best thing for insipidity, I find, is a really nice imported cheese, some good imported ripe olives, perhaps some very good grapes and sliced apples, and a baguette of some excellent, very crusty, French bread.

When that doesn't work, sometimes the only thing for it is to have a really good mope. Just sort of wallow in it for a bit, until the boredom gets tedious. Then go outside and enjoy something, like the night sky, or a gentle breeze, or something that smells really good.

Or you could just take up accordion playing. That almost always works.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: C-flat
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 04:19 AM

If you're suffering from Insipidity,
Don't just sit on your arse and say "Pity me",
Get up and get out,
Take a walk, look about!
You can call what you find serendipity.
C-flat

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Troll
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 06:41 AM

Go volunteer at your local VA Hospital or cancer ward. That'll cure you in a hurry.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: GUEST,Gern
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 11:10 AM

Tell us there's nothing new under the sun, and then you come up with a word like 'insipidity'? I too would prescribe some musical therapy, preferably for an appreciative audience, even if it's just yourself. Get thou a banjo! Remember the Peanuts comic strip where Linus suggests that every newborn baby should be issued a banjo? Others may insist that you count your blessings that this never happened. But many's the time I picked mine up whilst in a funk and walked away de-funked. Also, be grateful for caring friends at Mudcat and elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 11:50 AM

A-plus, C-flat. Spot On, Right Arm, On the Nose, Exactly. Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of Limerick.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 11:52 AM

Insipidity is hardly new- In print in the 16th century. Yes, a wallow in Stilton cheese, cognac pate and a good wine always helps. (Or go to McDonalds and calory up).

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 12:08 PM

ANYTHING but Macdonalds-the banjo idea is better.Do you know that cartoon is reprinted in Pete Seegers Banjo Book?

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: saulgoldie
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 01:10 PM

Well, "Prosaic," there are some excellent ideas posted here. Enjoying some really sensual experience--taste, smell, touch, sound, or doing for others are things that often bring me back to the world of the living. I do think that we (or at least many of "we") are overwhelmed and feel very insignificant these days. So at least know that you are not alone (in spirit if not physically).

Heck, I was watching some educational thing on astronomy this morning, and realizing how miniscule the whole human race is compared even to the life of Earth and the Sun, much less to the stars and galaxies and universes to which our lives are "realtively speaking" a fraction of the diameter of an electron. Really, what does a universe care about you or me or our clones, or even any so-called leaders living (or pretending to live) or long-dead? There is precious little that anyone or any nation can do that will significantly alter the life of a star, or the expansion of a galaxy. Once we get sucked into whatever black hole is out there waiting for us there is not a darn thing anyone will be able to do except hold on to your hat and quickly review all of your most pleasant memories!

Oh, sorry, I'm supposed to be *lifting* your spirits! ;-) Yes, well, so my point is that you might as well let go and enjoy that which you can reach out and touch or otherwise experience personally and immediately. Make some memories that you can review when and if that black hole takes us. As the others have said, eat some rare and decadent food, drink some fine liquor, and listen to some really nice music, like that album you haven't listened to for 10 years but used to like so much. (I just rediscovered a Ken Nordine/wordjazz album. Now to get the turntable turning...) Or play some yourself.

Music bores you for the moment? Write someone a letter; take a walk around your neighborhood and linger to talk with the other people who live there. Talk about anything, and don't worry about embarassing yourself. Or read some of the Mudcat threads that you normally don't have time for and laugh and think to yourself, "What the hell are those folks going on about?!! I am sooooo glad I am *not* them?"

Irrespective any "afterlife" (and not to offend anyone who does believe) you get one go-around. Each moment that is gone cannot be retrieved. Get up outta your chair and walk around the room. OK, again. Now, put one foot after the other, and move toward something that has been suggested or that you have thought of.

And let us know that you are back when you arrive, please.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: mg
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 01:54 PM

I thank God for every day of insipidity because I know what some of the alternatives are. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 02:47 PM

Oh yes, give me insipidity over the alternative of raging depression and murdurous desires any day....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 05:52 PM

All-Bran might help.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 07:03 PM

Listen to some Kenny G, or some old Pat Boone records. In comparison, even the most insipid experience will seem exciting. :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 07:08 PM

McGrath: **LOL**! It might, indeed. / I must study your posts further, re the rhetorical economy of true eloquence.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 07:33 PM

saulgoldie - thanks verymuch for that wise posting. / It's odd: I love all that Cosmology stuff you spoke of (along with many other phenomena I don't understand, e.g., music, the Irish, my wife...). But somehow, our plancklength insignificance in the universe (or, probably, universes plural) *cheers* me. / Maybe it's because while the cosmos presumably (??) doesn't care about us, still WE, in our mayfly time here, can KNOW about IT. A little bit, anyway. I like that. / Why feel insipid when we can actually peer back in time nearly to the fires of Creation, while creating little sparks of antimatter in the cyclotrons of CERN? (But careful with that stuff there, fellers...) Actually, dunno why, the inconceivable vastnesses of the universes make me feel *more* spiritual, not less. / However, admittedly I shall be happy to miss the coming Cold Dark Epoch, after the black holes have finished their Sucking Up & all winked out in the Big Poof. Ice will Suffice; but I'll take their word for it.

Antisipidly,
-- The Poofa

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 07:36 PM

Buy a broken instrument, and fix it before tomorrow night... Give a dog a bone and record it... play the recording really loud leter on... ride a bike with no hands... get an obnoxious little dog... start writing a song; I know, I've heard it all before too, but just start with a note or a cord... try a new tuning... try a new instrument... try a different approach with the opposite sex... give peace a chance... make a completely new instrument... OR,... Imagine a world where Bush discovers how valuable humanitarian actions really can be... turn off the football... call up your ex (whatever) and cop to some of the BS you could never quite publicly own up to... Want more? ttr

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: kendall
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 08:32 PM

Do something for someone else.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Amos
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 08:34 PM

Make a list of thi9ngs you could never quite tell the truth about and reveal them all to someone kind.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 08:59 PM

You nailed it, Kendall:

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Pennny
Date: 29 Sep 02 - 11:58 PM

Perhaps a volunteer session at an activities session at your local nursing home would enable you to see how much better off you might be than the residents who crave something new or a friendly new face. Blessings are easy to count after seeing old people with sad faces and lost lives. They need our visits and our smiles.Whatever your talent you can be sure it will enrich an otherwise dull day.

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 03:11 AM

Well Amos, that could certainly liven things up if you choose the wrong person!!! Personally I find it easier to reveal these things to a total stranger... like the time I cracked my head on a cast iron toilet cistern when I was 20.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 03:22 AM

Buy a hamster, PS. it looks like theyve started putting extra nines in Amos messages as well now, nobody is safe anymore.john

Subject: RE: BS: Insipidity abounds
From: CarolC
Date: 30 Sep 02 - 04:03 AM

Get engaged to a Newfoundlander who can make you some Jigg's Dinner on Sunday afternoon, and then some Bubble and Squeak from the leftovers for a midnight snack. It's good food. It'll keep you going.