Keeping busy, moving along

I wrote a post a few weeks ago now about how people use their time now that the vast majority of us have descended from "student" to "unemployed bum".

I've settled a bit more into the routine of not having much to do other than collect dole, look for work, create things for self to do. I can't say I like it much, but there we are.

Things I am doing to stop myself going mad without an authority figure giving me work are:

Teaching myself to play guitar. I've got an old, 3/4 size acoustic my dad owned, with five out of six strings, three of which are about as old as the parent I was given it by picked it up after seeing as he was done with it. Progress is painfully slow. I can stiltingly play the intro to I Walk The Line. Still, got plenty of time on my hands and who knows, I might treat it to some new strings.

Teaching myself to play harmonica. I bought one. With dole money. It was £6, so no major guilt about it.

Re-teaching myself Spanish to a basic level. I've kind of already said that I have a basic understanding on some job applications. Nothing where I'd actually need to use the fact that apparently hablo espanol but I hate the fact that in five years I've forgotten pretty much everything from GCSE days with the Peruvian menace we had as a teacher.

Buying and reading books.

Buying and reading graphic novels, some of which I've read (and am buying to fulfil my habit of collecting copies of everything I've ever borrowed, got rid of or got out of a library) and some which I've been ogling for the last three years while never justifying buying them while there were proper books I was being told to read. I'm starting with some perrenials, including Batman: Hush and my favourite Batman series, though I only have one issue of it, War Games. Reviews to follow.

Very recently, over the last three or four days, I've had a spike in my Twitter usage and live news access- that is, the staring at the screen in despair mode I've been adopting. But this will pass, hopefully, and I'm posting about something unrelated today to alleviate all the crushing "what?" from this week.

What about you lot out there in the big wide world? Got lists of things you're doing to stave off boredom/ the crushing realisation that a degree being good for you is a lie?