An unofficial chapter of the popular Dull Men's Club.
1. Relevant commentary on your own dull life. Posts should be about your own dull, lived experience. This is our most important rule. Direct questions, random thoughts, comment baiting, advice seeking, many uses of "discuss" rarely comply with this rule.
2. Original, Fresh, Meaningful Content.
3. Avoid repetitive topics.
4. This is not a search engine
Use a search engine, a tradesperson, Reddit, friends, a specialist Facebook group, apps, Wikipedia, an AI chat, a reverse image search etc. to answer simple questions or identify objects. Also see rule 1, “comment baiting”.
There are a number of content specific communities with subject matter experts who can help you.
Some other communities to consider before posting:
5. Keep it dull. If it puts us to sleep, it’s on the right track. Examples of likely not dull: jokes, gross stuff (including toes), politics, religion, royalty, illness or injury, killing things for fun, or promotional content. Feel free to post these elsewhere.
6. No hate speech, sexism, or bullying No sexism, hate speech, degrading or excessively foul language, or other harmful language. No othering or dehumanizing of anyone or negativity towards any gender identity.
7. Proofread before posting. Use good grammar and punctuation. Avoid useless phrases. Some examples: - starting a post with "So" - starting a post with pointless phrases, like "I hope this is allowed" or “this is my first post” Only share good quality, cropped images. Do not share screenshots of images; share the original image.
.
I used to be a Medic and Firefighter-- in short I was an adrenaline junkie. And now I'm old and retired. And my body is bent and currently a bit broken. I seek to learn how to be dull.
Despite the enjoyment of watching the hummingbirds at my feeders and the light gardening I do. I still think I could become even more satisfied with my dullness.
Guide me to complete dullness!
Backyard chickens?
Have you tried building a HAM radio?
Asking for advice on being dull is next level dull
Well, Thank You for the compliment!
Find more plants that attract hummingbirds.
Plant them.
Watch them grow.
Now find another variety.
Watch it grow.
Hell yeah.
Edit: also. Ponder the plants. Ponder the hummingbirds. Ponder your orb.
Paddle boarding if you've got a calm body of water nearby? It's like a nice little hike but on water, easy on knees, gotta have a bit of balance though. Talking about hiking, how about hiking?
There are two main ingredients:
Let’s start with the hummingbirds. Observe them. Give it time. Get rid of distractions. Focus on the birds. See how they look. How do they behave. Can you identify individuals? Do they visit at specific times? Focus on the details. Don’t look at your phone. Let the birds mesmerise you. Do they have habits? Dive deeper into the life of those birds. Become an expert.
This can be applied to just about anything really.
Crack a book open. If you want to get real wild, take out a notebook and pen and write some stuff down!
Oh I read a lot. Mostly technical manuals. But I am trying to branch out into long boring novels. But it's hard. I love reading about metallurgy and horology. It makes me excited. And I'm not sure if dull people should be excited about anything. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
I don't like writing for 2 reasons, One-- I have filled out too many run reports. Bad vibes there. And secondly-- I'm a lefty and writing is not designed for us Bar Sinister types to do. I can't even decipher what I wrote half the time.
technical manuals
metallurgy and horology
Accept that you're already prime dull. Let. It. Go. Old man
Aye. It is we who need help from you!
OP needs to learn acceptance. The dull is strong with him but he doesn't feel it yet
Horology is hardly dull. We all have to do something. No shame in it.
Have you considered a 2nd career in Emergency Management? It's an armchair sport for adrenaline junkies.
I'm damn near 70 now. It's only a couple of years away and a paying job with regular hours? No thanks! Besides, I was the emergency management director of our small town for about 6 years. But since we didn't have any townwide emergencies during my benevolent reign, it was indeed a dull extra job that had no salary. Though I did spend most of my time wearing that hat rewriting and updating many of the protocols. Since no one had done so in 40 years. So that's a tee shirt I got already.
3 Pro tips for those interested in such a job,
Never go to a small town city council meeting and complain about the lack of preparedness for ANYTHING. You will quickly find it's you who will be doing the preparing to the tune of the railroad vote that is about to run you over....
If you really need help call the local Methodist Minister. Turns out, they also have large emergency books with names and phone numbers to gather help from other Methodist churches. They will gladly come and help you clear damage from yards and streets for free. You can mobilize an amazing number of people willing to help with the cleanup.
When the emergency hits, close all roads in and out of town. Let no one you don't know in. Armed guards if you have to. Scammers abound and are waiting for this exact moment to prey upon people who are in shock from the disaster. Keep them OUT!
****Bonus Tip-- Be wary of the Red Cross. They are of the firm belief that they know more than you do about what your town and people need. And they ain't got time to listen to you. They are the Pros and you aren't. And it's often an all or nothing package with them. Do as they say, and only what they say, when they tell you.
Wave at all of your neighbors. Hell, wave at everyone. But not too long. If you wave too long, funny enough, you become less dull and more of a topic of discussion.
My nearest neighbor is over a mile away. And there are too many trees in between. A hazard of living in the middle of a sparsely inhabited forest I suppose. But we do wave at each other and even visit each other at times.
I do understand about the waving thing. And yes, if you wave too long, people do start to talk about you for sure. And you need to be careful of how energetic you wave also. That too is also a point of discussion at the local cafe.
Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Getting to Where You Are, by Steven Harrison
There is a lot of value in the pursuit of self-knowledge, though I think most people hearing it described find it dull (you just... sit? for hours?). I recommend reading these in the order presented here. They will guide you in meditation without any of the mystical or religious nonsense. Learn to breathe, learn to focus, learn to be.
YouTube has some incredible videos for beginners on basically any craft or skill you can imagine. Whittling, mending clothes, pottery/sculpture, organizing your home, watercolor painting, carpentry, cooking and baking… you get the idea. Anything you’re even slightly interested in will probably have good quality videos showing you step by step how to do it.
In addition to all the satisfying activities above, consider also: contributing photos to Seek or iNaturalist (citizen science plants and animal observation/identification database), visiting local cemeteries and entering images or information based on requests on Find a Grave, and checking out what events your library has going on.