bored at work? been there, been that (throwback 2010)

we all get our share of those days when we feel oh-so-bored at work...sometimes there's a cause for it (stressor-boss, dead-end job and the like), sometimes, it just happens, as if it's a part of an unending cycle. here are 5 of the things i did before to boot me out of the feeling, might (fingerscrossed) work for you too:

1. following the advise of a plurkfriend, i tried getting enough sunlight, fresh air, and exercise before work. i also did brisk-walking (pretending i'm about to miss someone or something if i don't rush) in-between work and people-watching (best place to do this is a university park) after work.

2. 'coz it cured my boredom in the past, i tried helping a friend's organization- planning learning sessions and activities for out-of-school youth. i also did encoding for a citizens group, and packing of relief goods (among others) after-work time til after midnight. yeah, it's selfishness(and selflessness altogether). you may also want to go out and pick up trash in your community (did this with my playmates when i was 10)- and get fun not from picking trash but from the look on the people's faces wondering what you're up to. that gave me something to think about (other than work) while at work, and something to look forward to too.

3. oh this one's a sure hit- visit the library (or if you can't go out during work hours, surf surf surf) and check out some weird books (i read witchcraft).

4. i did something new! i tried learning japanese (used a book) then french (used an audio-book) then mandarin (used a book again) then spanish (this i did online) then german (attended saturday classes). didn't succeed at all of it but it sure did steal some of those boring moments (hopelessly trying to translate curses in my head). i tried learning the sign language (something to do with my fingers during dull moments) - i ended up to only learning words that are in two songs used by my teacher...i also tried to learn how to dance the way bollywood stars do just with a compilation of music videos from india (spent a lot of time imagining and laughing at myself while working)- whew! fun!

5. i re-decorated my fugly room (again, something to occupy mind and look forward to)! with magazines and newspaper first then old CDs and post-its. but if you don't want to or afraid you might feel depressed instead of just bored afterwards, just exercise-pushing furniture this way and that.

yeah, those are my top 5 attempts...as i stated in the beginning, some worked (for most, only for a while) some didn't but hey, nothing's not worth trying :) if one of these works for you, tell me about it...but if none, you can tell me about it too, let's share a good laugh and go back to spending/stealing some time of boredom at work searching for a new job. (lol)

mosquito-reality bites

i don't know how and why but there are some mosquitoes that can bring in fatal illness such as dengue hemorrhagic fever. it takes 3 to 15 days incubation and the bitten person will feel all the symptoms the illness holds. we had our battle with such illness when such infected our beautiful young man (7-year old wowa) in 2009.

the sad thing about this is that dengue doesn't have any cure, what you have is the treatment of its symptoms which are usually high fever, coughing, stomach and muscle pains. since bleeding is existent, the possibility of a 'shock' is also high. this is where management and prompt caring action of the doctor is needed. bloodcount has to be monitored and so is the condition of the patient. since dehydration is a killer, fluids must be taken every now and then (intravenous when needed).

we were blessed to have a huge number of prayer warriors, heavens may have been noisy then with cries and prayers from our friends, relatives and colleagues. we were blessed too to have a son who was somewhat-too-mature-for-his-age  trying his best to take his oral dextrose, camote tops-soup, bananas, apple juice and medicine (for fever, for coughs and the zinc supplement) every now and then. he even read his laboratory results and tried 'hypnotizing' the world that he will soon be fine. with those, with his 24/7-kind doctor (god bless you doc sheena) and our 100%-almost-paranoid-looking-after---he was fine and he recovered. now he's 11 and we're still watchful. we always remind him to retouch on 'bugshield' when he's in school and drink lotsa water... we don't want to have that episode again...

one shouldn't be too complacent. everyone should try to boost his/her immunity and drink lots of water, for many reasons other than this. and yes, one should avoid (or limit) exposure to mosquitoes, use mosquito repellant as needed. use long pants (pajamas) or long sleeves if possible. and most of all, rest ---we can only do so much as human beings. nothing beats taking good care of our bodies, the temple of our souls.