It’s that season: the season when you’re supposed to be counting your blessings, thinking of the things for which you’re thankful, and generally being full of peace and goodwill to all. Thinking about 2020 makes that a particularly surreal activity. It could make your brain hurt.
Trying to get all serious about this just made me exhausted. So instead, I’m taking a break from all the serious thinking and sharing some of the things that just give me that moment of zen in my work day. If you want, join me in the silly frivolity of the things I waste time with use as mini-breaks in my workday.
This charity in the U.K. runs a farm for rescued animals. They tweet daily, and the farmer/narrator and his massive love for his motley crew of cats and ducks and geese and goats and cows and everything just makes me happy, if only for a few minutes every day.
Growing up on a cattle ranch we had a lot of working dogs, but the favorites were always heelers, which are now given the fancy name of “Australian Cattle Dog.” But they’ll always be heelers to me, and the @heelersbot delivers them every day. I want one so badly, but my city lifestyle doesn’t really make one a good fit. So I live vicariously through these guys.
I also want a lynx, which is really not something that can or should happen, thus @HourlyLynxes.
I have aspirations of being a birder, but the visitors to my feeder are pretty boring. So it’s @BirdPerHour to the rescue. I mean, look at these guys.
I also can’t collect high-end art, but I can enjoy snippets during the workday. Of course @JohnConstableRA is not an 18th century master, but they are an awfully good Twitter curator.
There’s always a bit of perspective to be found from @TweetsofOld. I don’t know how they find the perfect headline for the moment from the last century, but they unerringly do.
It’s not that I don’t have real, serious things for which I’m thankful. But after a year like this, a little bit of levity—a break from all the horrendous stuff—helps. It’s mini-therapy. So in the spirit of giving the gift of absurdity to everyone, what are your favorite time-wasters online rabbit holes?