News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by freedomben on Saturday March 17, 2018 @12:43AM (#16605642)
Fascinating, I experienced this also. The boredom really rots your mind. At one point we began converting t-shirts into whips and practiced whipping at all the flies (man was there an abundance of flies). After many months of this you can get amazingly accurate. Most of us could easily take out flies who had landed, and the elites could nail the bastards in the air while they flew.

We had an interesting problem develop where people were going to the medic tent and getting prescribed Ambien for sleep, but then they would stay up after taking it. It makes you feel really drunk, and it was the only escape from the drudgery. This substance abuse may have ironically saved our sanity.

Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by wallace_f on Saturday March 17, 2018 @01:33AM (#16605729)
What about video games, board games, or study for the MCAT (or another exam). Would you be able to do those things?
Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by austincheney on Saturday March 17, 2018 @09:18AM (#16606828)
Some locations have major video game centers. There are tons of free used novels to read. I always recommend soldiers carry a primary novel on their person and a secondary novel in their gear if they are traveling. It is not always convenient to get into your gear and pull out a laptop, but a novel can be easily slipped in and out of your cargo pocket.

I refined my programming skills developing a personal open source software tool over two deployments. Two deployments was almost enough to transform me from a junior developer into a strong senior. I also passed the CISSP exam on the first try because I had time to read the entire course book and think about the qualifying management scenarios.

You absolutely have to find a way to say busy. Boredom reinforces your loneliness and lack of emotional intimacy, which is a bad place to be in.

Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by hudibras on Saturday March 17, 2018 @02:40PM (#16608357)
Kindles are great, too.
Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by qrbLPHiKpiux on Saturday March 17, 2018 @05:57AM (#16606237)
We played Sequence all the time.

Tallil, Iraq, 2008

Re:Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women by dempseye on Saturday March 17, 2018 @11:02AM (#16607250)
Ah yes, the old Ambien trick.