Cool Waste Of Time - Let's Play Hooky!

by , 1:05 PM EDT, September 27th, 2005

"The summer sun is fading as the year grows old, and darker days are drawing near..."

If the melancholy lyrics from the 1978 release of War of the Worlds has you yearning for more time on the beach, take some solace in the notion that you are not alone.

Our off time, especially here in the U.S., is seldom enough for us to fully enjoy ourselves, and that's because we've forgotten how to chill. We lug laptops and cell phones on our vacations thinking that we might leisurely look over that account, or relax while creating that presentation. We've shoehorned ourselves into the modus of work such that we can't seem to leave it behind.

What we need to break us out of this lock-step mindset is to do something radical, something wild and crazy, something done for the sheer joy of it, something we haven't done since school: We need to play hooky!

And so, while eying the exit and the boss's office door, it is with great pleasure that we offer this installment of A Cool Waste of Time.

Hooky Kit complete with fake head for fooling your boss

The folks at the MiniUSA.Com site have put together a cool little package that you can download and install. It consists of a neat screen saver that produces the sounds of someone diligently at work, and displays a desktop with work related applications running. You also get a " sophisticated cranial modeling system that gives the illusion you're sitting at your computer."

When you need to get some time away from your desk, fire up this screen saver, activate your cranial decoy, and it will look and sound like you are working into the wee hours of the morning.

Of course, we can't ask you to do anything that will get you fired; all we are suggesting is that you take a look and make your on decision.

Do you work on the Hunsucker Account or go wiggle your toes in the surf for an hour?

[Note: This can also be used to fool bosses and coworkers while you take off to catch the upcoming movie, Serenity.]

[Note: Note also that the MiniUSA site will pop a popup on your screen ever so often telling you to leave. We suggest you turn on your popup blocker.)

Do you have a Cool Waste of Time you found on the Internet? Tell Vern Seward all about it, and he's pass it around...

MiniUSA Hooky Kit