Safe Excitement

Watching Paint Dry

Watching paint dry is, hands down, the leading dull activity. Watching paint dry is synonymous with being dull. It's so easy to do. You simply paint something, then pull up a chair and watch. To ramp up the excitement, use a rocking chair.

The Official Watching Paint Dry Webcam

The Official Watching Paint Dry Webcam allows viewers to watch paint dry without actually painting a wall. Viewers have fun using control buttons on the website to move the ladder to the right, left, or center.

Digital Paint — it drys digitally — never needs repainting

The website watch-paint-dry.php shows paint drying on your computer screen. Convenient because the paint never drys. So when you want to watch again. all you do is hit your computer's refresh button. Much easier than repainting a wall again.

 

Going Professional

Having the last laugh about watching paint dry is Keith Jackson. Keith gets paid for it. He is a professional paint drying watcher. The London transport system hires Keith when they are painting their underground stations to advise on when it is OK for subway passengers to walk on the station floors again.

Keith stares at the paint for hours, occasionally touching it with a finger to see how it is coming along.

Click here to read more about Keith in London's The Daily Mirror.

YouTube

Watching paint dry is now, of course, on YouTube. There are several videos on YouTube of watching paint dry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1VEY7ndKCs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PjUvZm-6PU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jECynrO9GQQ

 

Watching Grass Grow

There are many locations to watch grass grow. Home owners have it easy with their front yards and backyards. Apartment dwellers can go to parks.

Watching Grass Grow Webcam

Even easier is viewing the Watching Grass Grow Webcam. The webcam was breaking news:

breaking-news1

The website has still photos showing the a lawn's progress:

watching_grass_grow_2003_04_30  watching_grass_grow_2003_05_31  watching_grass_grow_2003_09_29  watching_grass_grow_2004_06_20 

   

Wood Warping

Fill a bucket with water. Put a piece of wood in the bucket. Watch the wood warp.
wood-warp
Wikipedia has an informative article (click here) about the various ways wood warps.
   

Weather Channel

Watching the Weather Channel is great fun:
weather
   

Riding Through Car Wash

Riding through a car wash is exciting. To prepare for this experience, to make sure you won't get scared when doing the real thing, click here to watch a video of a ride through a car wash.

   

Cheese Rolling

Stilton Cheese Rolling Championships — Cambridgeshire, England

Cheese rolling is an annual event in Stilton. Hundreds of villagers and visitors line the racecourse that begins at The Bell Inn and ends at the bottom of Fen Street and Church Street. Contestants group together in teams of four.

Click here to view the Stilton Village website. The website has many interesting pictures of the cheese rolling over the years.

img_8384tn

Race Underway

m_monks_rolling_600

Holly Rollers

 


Warning—not for dull men:

Extreme Cheese Rolling — Gloucester Cheese Roll — Gloucestershire, England

Unlike the Stilton Cheese Roll, where cheese is rolled down a relatively flat road, the Gloucester Cheese Roll on a steep hill.

104_0566

Each year there a many injuries. This is Extreme Cheese Rolling. It is not an event for dull men.

craig_fairley2

The event had been held in May each year on Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire. Up until 2010. The 2010 event was cancelled (click here) due to the inability to arrange sufficient insurance coverage.

103_0345

   

Cement

Watching cement being poured, trowelling, and setting provides endless hours of entertainment.

The Sound of Cement. It also is enjoyable to listen to the cement mixer.To listen to cement mixer sounds, click here to get to a great website about antique cement mixers. The audio on the website — the rhythmic sounds — can be listened to for hours.

   

Defragging

Windows users enjoy watching their computers defragging.
Mac users suffer from Defrag Envy. Rarely do they need to defrag. Click here for an explnation on You Tude about why defragging is rarely needed for Macs.
   

Use-By Dates

Clarissa has thoughts about use-by dates:
Clarissa_article-1192223-054bface000005dc-230_233x428
Click here to read about this in MailOnline
   

Watched Pot

   

To-Do Lists

   

Stone Skimming

How To

Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip

Skip, skip

   

Bubble Wrap

Bubble Wrap, close up

Bubble Wrap Stomp

   

Metronome Listening

   

Water Freezing

   

Windscreen Wipers Wiping

(Windshield Wipers in the U.S.)

Even if you are not out driving your car or, even if you are out driving but it is not raining, you can listen to windshield wipers wiping. Click here to hear some great sounding wipers. Click here for some that sound rather funny.

   

Thumb Twiddling

BBC

A BBC article (click here) describes thumb twiddling as an ancient art and that it is a subject having many nuances and a depth not seen upon initial contemplation.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a perfectly dull article about thumb twiddling (click here). They say thumb twiddling is often cited as an example of a useless, time-wasting activity, an activity that yield no useful results.

Uncyclopedia

Uncyclopedia has an article about thumb twiddling (click here), which they say is an ancient martial art known as "thumb fu."

Uncyclopedia shows a statue in honor of thumb twiddlers:

210px-thumb_statue

   

Shoe Laces

The premier website for shoelacing is Ian's Shoelace Site.

Ian's website has a Shoelacing Photo of the Week. The photo for the week of August 10, 2009 is a brightly lacing method on a pair of crossword patterned Converse All Star sneakers::

   

Raking

   

Curling

Curling

 

Wall Street's Romance with Curling

 

26curlblog_1-thumbstandard

   

Listening to Rain

You can enjoy listening to rain even when it is not raining — click here to listen to soothing sounds of rain, with calming background scenes, on YouTube.

   

Darning Socks

Darning Socks — a lost art?

180px-hole-in-the-sock

Click here for an informative Facebook page about this

 

 

   

Elevator Riding

Elevator

Extreme Elevator Music Listening

   

Escalator Riding

escalators
   
© 1996-2010 International Council of Dull Men, London and Washington DC

Website developed by Katalyst Solutions