I’ve not come across Tedium (.co) before, and what a lovely brass-mine it is of things that pop in and out of mind, explored or dissected by its contributors, it is.
Apart from the ‘oh, really?’ moments, the tone is just shy of snarky, which I find really endearing - fr’example “Your time was just wasted by Ernie Smith” type credits at the end of posts. The site claims to be “The Dull Side of the Internet’ (capitals by them) with the gift (or curse?) of celebrating the not so interesting, but which as a result shines a bare 90w lightbulb onto everyday stuff that have amazing (well, I use the term loosely) histories.
It’s sites (resources, rather) like these that I find irresistible. Epistemologically speaking, making the acquaintance with the reason why everyday things just ‘are’ is something you should find time to do, especially if you’re really busy - to jog your mind about for a bit so as you can come back to something with new perspectives - but especially if you’re not so pressured.
The worse thing about having time to kill (and isn’t that a terrible turn of phrase?) is battling a creeping sense of not-usefulness, and so fear of being overlooked. Finding any kind of focus can be super-useful to breaking out of that train of thought. Taking time to dip into other spaces and disappear down rabbit holes - especially when they’re Tedium-like paean’s to the humble, ordinary and everyday are a real mental tonic.
Want proof? This little diversion came as I found out where drink coasters originated. Followed by a short detour of patent applications to improve the humble beer mat (spoiler alert. They don’t.) Which then reminded me of the examples I cheekily downloaded from the amazing Scarfolk Council blogspot. And in three skips I’d an idea for 300-odd words. Bet I couldn’t have AI’d that. Takes a person coasting along to make those kind of connections and find inspiration.
Apologies to Richard Littler at https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/ for pinching the beermat picture. But I did buy the set athttps://saatchistore.com/scarfolk-beer-mat-set-by-richard-littler by way of recompense:)
