I have reached grandmaster status in boring

The spring semester is over at last. Finals week has been punishing as usual. Back when I was in college, I never dreamed that one day I'd be on the other side of the tests (for those of you playing along at home, I am a test proctor/invigilator in my day job) and that it would be worse than taking the tests myself.

I've worked here four years now, so I know not to ask too much of myself during finals week. I can be productive next week, not now. Fortunately, the only thing I have due at the moment are the proofs for The Weredeer (yes, we're close!). Unfortunately, I have enmeshed myself in an online game.

It's called Ultima Online. I quit playing maybe five years ago and honestly thought the game had closed down. Through really byzantine means--by which I mean that I didn't actually seek it out--I found out a few days ago that the game is still going. So I opened up my old account for the heck of it, and lo and behold all my characters are still there and so are their skills and all their stuff.

This game was a pure time sink for me for years. I can see that it won't be that way for me soon; I figure after a few weeks max, I'll be getting bored with it again, and I'm already finding myself shutting down after a while and doing something else. But I have also spent many hours over the last two days just wasting time in the game. You know what's a time-waster and boring? Fishing in an online game. And yet I spent two-plus hours last night doing just that.

That's fine for finals week. But not next week, when I don't have an excuse to waste time.