Symptoms: Feeling dull, tired, and lacking enthusiasm for life.
Prognosis: Boredom of the worst kind, the mid-semester slump.
An ailment that strikes everyone at one time or another, especially on those all-too-familiar days when it's too windy to "go fly a kite" or too cold to do anything outside but catch a cold.
Those suffering from boredom may feel that they will never be cured, but there is hope for those willing to try a dose of imagination and innocent mischief.
As treatment in fighting those unavoidable drooling-through-math-class moments, gather some friends and a thinking cap - a little creativity can go a long way with relatively modest resources.
For starters, everyone enjoys sports or games, so it would be a great use of time to invent your own. A classic boredom buster that transcends schools and offices across the country is the chair-rolling race.
"People get rolling chairs and have a teammate push them. Whoever gets to the other side of the room first wins," said Anna Meyers, a sophomore psychology major who likes to call herself a chair-rolling expert.
Another activity to break up the monotony is "box wars." Decorate a cardboard box large enough to fit over the torso, making room for the arms, and wrestle friends in the dark.
"Valanching," named after the TV personality Bruce Valanche, is reserved for those who find traditional prank calling immature.
"I've known people in the dorms who print out pictures of Valanche with the saying, 'You've been Valanched!' on a flyer, along with a phone number and then tape it on random people's doors," said Jono Benoit, a sophomore English major.
"The fun is that it is so random, people have no clue what it means and sometimes they'll call the number to figure it out," he said.
Those ready for an advanced level strategic game can move on to "assoxination."
A group of students, usually neighbors in a dorm, swap cards with each other's names on them. The person you're assigned to is the one you must "sock." This means literally throwing a sock at them, but not within their own rooms. It is a game of elimination - the last person who hasn't been "socked" wins a prize.
"I've heard of a group of over 20 students doing assoxinations in both Goodyear and Governors," Meyers said. "In fact, there is a Facebook group about one going on now."
There are also plenty of simple pranks that are non-destructive and will not harm others that you can pull that will provide entertainment when boredom strikes.
"Hang long strips of scotch tape across someone's door, so when they go to walk out, they get stuck," said Rob Chun, a junior business major.
Rusty O'Popplehan, a sophomore dance major, has his own mischievous ideas to pass the time.
"A prank you can pull on anyone is to hang a rubber band on someone's dorm door, a well-known sign that the occupants are 'in the act,'" O'Popplehan said.
He said the rubber band will spark curiosity from fellow roommates, who will then mill around outside the door speculating as to what might be going on, only to discover later on that their anticipation was in vain.
Caitlin Collins, a freshman nursing major, and her roommate were the victims of massive amounts of duct tape.
"One night, the guys across the hall had covered our entire door in duct tape. We couldn't open the door, and later some guy busted through the tape and grabbed my leg," Collins said.
This, of course, is a fire hazard as is not advised.
Ricky Kahy, a freshman computer engineering major, passes the time with poker and pulling pranks on his friends' cars.
"We put post-it notes on the inside of the windows, put rubber bands and pieces of paper all over the seats, and then we saran wrapped the outside of the car," Kahy said.
Andrea Bastein, a junior accounting major, resorts to less damaging tactics, taking her dog for walks around Delaware Park, and making a regular dinner date with her girlfriend's each month.
When there are no other options, one can always resort to surfing the Internet. Visit collegeboredom.com, youtube.com and collegehumor.com, as well as the popular networking sites, Facebook.com and MySpace.com. There's nothing like watching an old episode of 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' from your childhood days when you should be studying.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
