Favorite Slacking Activity

[vroom]

robotfindskitten

 27/4%

Surfing the Web

 79/10%

Video Games

 85/11%

"Research"

 159/21%

Knuffelen

 37/5%

Wandering

 21/3%

Sleeping

 96/13%

Other

 53/7%

Perl

 142/19%

IRC

 57/8%

756 total votes

[kudra]

Sleep's really my choice, but I had to vote for knuffelen(1) since aside from lekker(2) with accompanying hand motion(3) it's the best Dutch word for non-Dutch people.

(1) snuggling.
(2) delicious/succulent/enjoyable/good
(3) There's a hand motion that goes along with lekker when you're talking about food. Some people have a hard time noticing that the rest of the world has no idea what's going on when they wave their hand frantically over their ear while stuffing their mouthes.

[vroom]

All I can say is that the Dutch are going to love me when I step off a plane provided I ever make it over there.

Thanks to pschoonveld for giving me a crash course in a few choice Dutch words on his recent visit to the states.

vroom | Tim Vroom | [e-mail]

[Jouke]

I guess they will 'knuffel' vroom and find him 'lekker'. ;-)

Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'

[Ovid]

First, the title is a joke. I've had beer with pschoonveld and thus find him rather cool.

That being said, here's a fair warning: when I was moving to Amsterdam, he advised me to demand a certain clause in my contract that translates to "pants not required." Fortunately, I asked what it meant before making said demand :) Since I will be leaving Amsterdam soon, I haven't quite figured out how to exact revenge (just kidding, pschoonveld!).

Incidentally, the "hand motion" that kudra mentions resembles (to me) a Hillary Clinton wave in the direction of one's ear. Never could figure out what that had to do with "lekker."

Cheers,
Ovid

Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just click on the the link and check out our stats.

[asmodai]

Definately agree on the `knuffelen' part. :)

--Jeroen/Asmodai

[larsen]

I'd like to know what other Monks mean with Research

see you

[turnstep]

A couple jobs back, "research" meant testing the performance and responsiveness of the local LAN through a competitive, multi-user virtual reality program. ;)

[Blue]

"Research" for nme was diving deep into my hobby du jour. I donb't actually have a hobby a day, but I will find something interesting, plunge deep into it, giving up sleep, etc. Then, depending on the subject, I will either return to a more $NORM level of interest in it after a few weeks/months, continue and it surplants other things I do permenantly, or burn out and mostly drop it, though still occasionally dabble.

I see myself doing this at work, too, but I control it, so I don't burn myself out, but also usually don't go as deep immediately either. Works out fine.

Sometimes this is something useful - a few years back I my hobby became 'mutual funds', and for a few months I did intense research trying to 'win the game', i.e. meet the goals I wanted (high long term growth, below average risk). Now, long out of touch with that (I burnt out on that mostly), I don't touch the investments I made because I know I'm not in the same zone I was when I made them.

Most of my "hobbies" aren't nearly that productive, and have included most topics from the poll. I have an unfortunate pull for more complex computer games, especially RPGs, and those I will do lots of "research" on.

In summary, "research" for me means a period of discovery about a subject, not needfully something useful.

=Blue
...you might be eaten by a grue...

Update: Typo fixed

[one4k4]

So, what do you mean by...

I see myslef doing this at work, too, but I control it, so I don't burn myself out, but also usually don't go as deep immediately either. Works out fine.

I seem to find myself, while at work, doing things like reading P.M.. I suppose it could be considered learning, after all, they pay me to learn. And to use what I learn. But sometimes I'll splinter with my jobs/responsibilities, and end up getting a headache. Partly because I found an interesting subject I just cant put down, (Maybe... Net::AIM today?) and I still have to crank out some code for project-x,y,or z. That cranked code usually requires a bit of learning as well. Thus, headache.

_14k4 ([e-mail] - poorheart.com)

[gaudior]

All of these fit into the category of research.

Which is nice.

• web surfing
• magazine reading
• configuration file tinkering
• intranet homepage tinkering
• slashdot
• perl monks
• freshmeat
• bugtraq
• Hot or Not ;-)

Between Research and Admin in our corporate time-tracking tool, there is plenty of room for slack.

---

Always keep a song in your heart.
It's like karaoke for the voices in your head.

[arhuman]

For me 'research' means learning/coding/experimenting on various fields : security, Network/system administration, languages (ESPECIALLY Perl !)


"Trying to be a SMART lamer" (thanx to Merlyn ;-)

[footpad]

Well, I suppose "Surfing the web" comes closest to my favorite slacking activity: Spending time at the Monastery.

Too bad that wasn't one of the the options. :-)

--f

Update: I'm presuming that by "slacking," we mean avoiding work. Since I'm paid to write Pascal code, well, you get the idea.

[AgentM]

Hilarious! In high school, I came up with the term "web research" to mask my activities of myself and friends. In those days, we still had to sign out of the school before leaving it. I'd write down "web research" and we'd go to "The Movie Lab" (where all of the boxes were named after corny movie characters) and had a gibbin'-great time with QuakeTF. I wish I could say I play less TF now, but I don't.

Join me in my quest for maximum fragiliciousness at the Dallas ]Nr[ server if you ever get a chance: 209.39.192.74:27500. See you soon.


AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.

[cat2014]

sadly, there was no playing frisbee with a dog choice (my most favorite slacking activity) so i had to pick web surfing. : ) the frisbee option is great since i can justify it by saying that he needs the exercise anyway. -- cat

[crazyinsomniac]

Jeez, I didn't realize all you monks had so much time to slack, sheesh.

I hardly ever have time to slack per-se, maybe vegitate in front of the boob} box} for an hour, but i consider that rest.

Anyway between a part-time job, 18 units of classes at WVC, of which 2 are programming, 2 are math, and the last one is history(online:-), and some contract work, i can't really slack.

I also manage to spend at least 2-4 hours daily here, but that ain't slacking.

learning != slacking ;-)

 
___crazyinsomniac_______________________________________
Disclaimer: Don't blame. It came from inside the void
perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"

[jynx]

i find it odd that a favorite slacking activity of many a person is playing a violent game. my way of relaxing is beating things into a small, bloody, pulp with really large swords (diablo2). i know others who fry things into congealed dustballs (system shock 2) or choose a variety of weapons to vehemently behead passing troops (Alien Vs Predator). With all this "activity" is it really slacking?


yes  that was a stupid question, sorry for asqing...

jynx

[Anonymous Monk]

Sleep!!!!!!

I need more sleep!

[jeffa]

I like to rent 5 movies over the weekend and
vedge out on da couch - but now that the weather
is starting to get warm I should venture outside


As for slacking on the weekdays - Perl!
Unless a new video game strikes my eye :)


Last one was Thief 2:
In between jobs a while back, I acquired my work
'puter for a good price. I installed Window98 on
it (without even formatting the partition properly
from its previous Red Hat installation) just so I
could play Thief 2 for a whole week


When I finished it, I put Red Hat back on it and went
back to tinkering


Since I can't play any new games on my antiquated Winders
box, I'll have to be content with . . . .

MAME!!!!

>:)

[one4k4]

Wait!
Where's the 'Cowboy Neal|vroom' option when you need it? I had to pick sleep because it wasnt there!

Just thought telling the truth might get me somewhere today. *sarcastic grin*

[Beatnik]

What about on IRC doing Perl??

Greetz
Beatnik
... Quidquid perl dictum sit, altum viditur.

[redmist]

I like going down into the basement, where everything is concrete and bare and the sound reverberates off all the walls endlessly. Then I take pieces of an old bed, and scream at the top of my lungs and make funny noises while I slide and massage and hit the walls with the large piece of metal bed.

redmist
Silicon Cowboy

[PsychoSpunk]

Definitely robotfindskitten. This is made even more amusing since I bought my brother a robot (it's called SumoMan) while I was wandering around Akihabara last week. (I found myself in Japan for Spring Break even though I'm not in school anymore). I'm wondering how his cat is going to react to this thing.

ALL HAIL BRAK!!!

[scottstef]

I voted for robotfindskitten, but super soaker finds kitten is more appropriate, robot finds kitten at my house becomes male dog tries to mate with robot or female dog tries to eat robot. (darn aminals)

[Lexicon]

robotfindskitten might be amuzing, but there is little so entertaining during the wee, dark hours of the morning, during a short respite from deep-hacking, as a nice relaxing bout of Kitten Finds Laser.

-Lexicon

[Segfault]

I had to choose "IRC" since there was no option for both IRC and Perl. I do extensive Perl scripting for IRC in my spare (read: slacking) time, so... :)

[SilverB1rd]

I love to play computer games, mostly strategy. FPS are such a wast of time.

------
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance

[Zo]

I'm surprized to see that no one mentioned, or would dare mention that they actually might 'chat' on AOHell, uh.. L ..
I guess 'old-skool' IRC would be the same?
...as for my 'slacking' activity, I would have to agree with Homer J. Simpson and enjoy the ass-groove in my couch, bag of chips, and the warm-glowing light of the television...
doh! - Zo