Paper planes with the kids

The purpose of this blog, its reason for being, its mission statement is to ‘build a guide to surviving life in the 21st Century, from a geek perspective’.

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Lunchtime ‘Window Shop’ Challenge

A while ago I wrote a post called ‘ten things to do on a rainy lunchbreak‘ and one of the ideas I suggested was the Lunchtime Challenge.

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10 things to do on a rainy lunchbreak

We all love lists, they’re the mainstay of the blogosphere and pretty much the sole type of content on the DIGG homepage (or at least it often feels that way).

I’ve made lists before, I’ve put together lists of the people I’d most like to have dinner with, the people I’d like to run my fantasy magazine and others - this is my first top ten list.

It’s the list of things to do on a rainy day during your lunchbreak.

1 ) Read a book
Reading is fun and I like to keep a book in my bag at all times - that way I can quickly pull it out and read it. Although reading at your desk in an open plan office isn’t much fun - you need ’spaces’ in your workplace for this to work.

2 ) Eat
Just gourge yourself on nasty fatty snacks to kill time.

3 ) Listen to podcasts on your iPod
What it says on the tin really, just find a quiet corner, put the buds in and listen away to anything from TWIT to the Friday Comedy Podcast from BBC Radio 4.

4 ) Catch up on TV
If your in the UK you can visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer or itv.com and catch up with last nights television that you might have missed. It’s also a great way of knowing what people were talking about on your office facebook group or even around the water cooler this morning. I haven’t included 4OD as it requires a download and probably won’t work in most offices.

5 ) Read blogs
Just go to technorati.com and read blog posts on a massive range of issues from Britney and her kids to the cost of a loaf of bread in Brighton!

6 ) Annoy workmates
Find different ways of pissing off the other people stuck in the office during a busy lunchbreak. This could be another list on its own but for example you could:

1) Shout out the results of last nights footie match so that anyone that recorded it hears.

2) Hum really loudly an annoying tune so nobody can get it out of their head.

3) Talk about the ending of a TV show or film you know people haven’t seen yet and want to.

7 ) Play games
Go to somewhere like king.com or search the BBC for a range of games and get playing. See if you can beat your own personal best bejewelled score.

8 ) Get wet
Go outside and get soaking wet and then come back into the office and pretend to everyone that you REALLY LOVE THE RAIN and NEVER GET COLDS. Then spend the rest of the day sneezing and coughing.

9 ) Go virtual window shopping
Head over to Apple.com, Amazon.com, Play.com, Dell.com or any e-commerce site of your choice and make up shopping baskets of things you’d love to have but can’t afford.

A good game is to set yourself a budget (say £10,000) and see if you can hit that figure EXACTLY within a certain amount of time (say 10 minutes).

You could make it more challenging by setting certain criteria like it must include at least seven CDs with a folky-blues feel and a green label.

In fact you could involve other bored workmates and set each other challenges. (I might do a full post on the Virtual Shopping Game next time I’m bored at lunchtime).

10 ) Make a list
Think of something and then make a list and see if you can get everyone else in the office also bored and not able to go out due to the rain to join in - might start a fun debate.

Can you think of any more?

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