Sorry, guys, it’s been kind of hectic, so you get another “Life hacks with Mickey” posts.

In addition to jobs that can be varying levels of fulfilling and satisfying, from very to not at all, there are also the portions of real life outside of work that you need to take care of.

Housework, shopping, yard work, commutes.

Bluetooth is becoming one of my favorite things.  I have several bluetooth speakers, and wireless earbuds.  These things and podcasts are a freaking godsend for doing most of those things.  Vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, laundry, as long as you don’t get too far from your phone, you’re good.

Granted, with the wireless earbuds I have, I’ve got a pretty good range, as long as I don’t get a wall between me and the phone.

Seriously, I kind of really love living in the future, guys.

I also have a tendency to make up stories in my head.  Some of these get written out and re-worked on their own, or used while GM-ing games (see one of the games I’m running at ACNW this year), others never make it outside of my head during commutes.  I’ve done this, since I was a child.  On long car trips, I would sit in the back of the van and watch the landscape go by while telling myself stories.  Given how long we would drive for some of our vacations, some of those stories got pretty long and involved.  It didn’t really occur to me to start putting those down until I was much older.

Also, ebooks are so amazing to me.  I can keep a couple hundred books with me all the time and never have to carry anything heavier than my phone or tablet.  And audio books, we make three hour trips to the east side of the state pretty regularly, and if we have to take two cars for some reason, I can either bluetooth, or plug my phone into the stereo and listen to a book as I go.

Yeah, I know, most of you young’s are like, “What’s the big deal, old woman?”

Child of the 70s and 80s here.

The idea that you could watch TV on your phone was straight up sci fi when I was a kid.  The kind of shit you only saw on the Jetsons or Buck Rogers.  But now?

The majority of the time I take it as much for granted as the younger generations do. But every once in a while, while I’m bouncing around doing vacuuming while singing along to a Spotify playlist instead of being at the mercy of the radio, it strikes me how very different life is within the space of my lifetime.

The first pair of headphones I ever got made my neck hurt they were so heavy.  And you were tethered by wires.  Our first VCR had a “remote,” at the end of a 25 foot cord.  Seriously.

So, yeah, the future is pretty god damned good for entertaining yourself when you have to attend to the less fun parts of your life.  You can listen to music or audio books while doing something tedious at work, or at home.  As someone whose family vehicles had am/fm 8-track players, a car stereo that syncs to my phone sometimes feels like magic.

So, yeah, those are most of my tips.  Take advantage either of your own imagination or technology to keep from going stir crazy.

If you like what you read here, or want to fund my continued search for distraction in an uncaring word, which then funds your distraction, please consider donating using the link at the top right of the page:  Keep Us Geeking, or checking out my Patreon.  Thank you! Or if you’d like to enable me to fly to Australia to hug a certain female comedian.

Also, if you’d like to see what sort of fiction I write when left to my own devices, please feel free to check out my fiction Patreon, Nothing Nice Comes Out of My Head.