Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Boredom Room

how wealthy people can solve the problem of boredom
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For those of you fortunate enough to be able to design and build your own house, a means of solving the problem of boredom can be built in using a bit of careful planning and a Boredom Room.

The Boredom Room is essentially a symmetrical room (preferably hexagonal, but it could have more sides depending on your budget) placed at the centre of your house. On each wall, identical doors lead to different rooms; hence, no matter where you look you see the same thing.

The rooms connected to the Boredom Room have to be functional, that is they have an activity attached to them: the study, kitchen, rumpus room, computer room, and lounge room are all candidates, as well as the back yard and front yard.

When you are bored and simply cannot decide what to do with your time, you go into the boredom room, close all the doors, sit on an office swivel chair and spin. The first door you feel the compulsion to go through wins. You get to do the activity associated with that room.

sdm, Oct 23 2001

A Rebours, par Joris-Karl Huysmans http://cage.rug.ac....iterature/ARebours/
En francais, malheureusement. [pottedstu, Oct 23 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allen Poe http://eserver.org/..._the_red_death.html
Multi-roomed decadent pleasure-seeking. [pottedstu, Oct 23 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

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       I think the problem that affects the wealthy is a more fundamental existential unease. Whatever door they were to pass through, whatever activity they were to indulge in, they would feel the same hollow, unsatisfying claw squeezing at the depth of their inner being. Mere activity is not enough to displace the realisation that for all your worldly goods, life is pointless and arbitrary, your wealth is undeserved and your dreams, now achieved, all lie behind you.
pottedstu, Oct 23 2001
  

       [UB]: The characters in "Cube" seemed anything but bored. I imagine if you were wealthy enough, you could install a working replica of the cube from the film in your house and never be bored again.
snarfyguy, Oct 23 2001
  

       Whoah, whoah people. Existential unease? Goal fulfilment? Calm down!   

       The mention of wealthy people was not an indictment of the rich, just a statement of opinion: I would hazard a guess that the only people willing to purchase one of these rooms would be the ones who wouldn’t have to worry about going into debt over something essentially frivolous and gimmicky.   

       This was just meant to be a thing that people put in their house so they can say, "look at this thing I have in my house". Like a pool table, indoor swimming pool or torture rack.   

       Oh, and not quite there, waugs. This is more designed to alleviate boredom than confuse and disorientate.
sdm, Oct 24 2001
  

       You Are Here
thumbwax, Oct 24 2001
  

       Pah, boredom. Wish I had time to be bored (except at work but that's what I'm paid for). If you're bored, it's your own fault. You should create your own entertainment, not rely on a 1-in-6 chance of doing the laundry. This might be fun for a few minutes, but I think the Dice Man had the edge on the dice-rolling entertainment. And if you're bored and rich, that betrays an uncommon lack of imagination. I'm not seriously suggesting all rich men are crippled with existential unease, or ought to turn their houses into any of the fictional residences described, I just think that while this might be fun for an hour or two, it's not going to alleviate real boredom, at least not unless you put either a different women or a different cocktail behind each door. But anything involving spinning yourself round and round on a chair gets a croissant on principle. That's how I amuse myself at work, and I don't even have the doors.
pottedstu, Oct 24 2001
  

       If you have a conection to halfbakery then boredom seems somewhat unlikley...
RobertKidney, Oct 24 2001
  

       I spent a year in that room, one Sunday.
stupop, Oct 24 2001
  

       In as much as a car alleviates the problems of distance through petrol, synthetics and such.
sdm, Oct 24 2001
  

       You've got a swivel chair, dontcha? You're already half way there!
sdm, Oct 25 2001
  

       Cubicle spinny random workswap: spin in yr chair. Whoever you end up pointing to, do their job for the rest of the day. If you can do it quicker, do someone else's also. Possibly more fun with kissing.
pottedstu, Oct 25 2001
  

       "we're just animals howling in the night, because its better than the silence." -Torchwood
krigre55, Dec 19 2007
  
      
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