Distraction by Doodling

If you are anything like me, the familiar seed of procrastination is beginning to sow itself in your mind once more. For the last 4 months my brain has been able to do exactly what it likes. Now, however, it is being forced into the horrifying world of reading for essays. Rank.

Home (not so) Sweet Home.

The intensity of the boredom never fails to amaze. With this comes the new found vigour to procrastinate. And I have found the best way. Stop wasting your time on Facebook or with another trip to the Library café because you are convinced you’re dehydrated. Try a Google Doodle.

A Google Doodle is something that Google replace their normal home-screen image with, above the search bar. And over the years they have come up with some stunningly addictive ideas. Here are The Tab’s highlights:

Les Paul’s 96th Birthday

A mind boggling array of fun can be had here. Google created a guitar that you can play with your keyboard or mouse, and you can record your creations. In the first 48 hours after Google put this up, in the US alone, 5.1 years of music was recorded! You can have a go yourself here. For tips on how to play Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’ check out this video.

Jimmy Hendrix comes to George Square.

30th Anniversary of Pacman

Pretty much does what it says on the tin, and can easily fill that gap between your 2pm lecture in DHT and your 4pm in Appleton. See if you can beat The Tab’s top score of 10380 here.

About as old school as the book you should be reading.

Olympics 2012 – Canoe Slalom

What better way to alleviate the dreary rain fall on the Meadows as you look out of the 5th floor windows than to relive the greatest summer of all time. Or perhaps look forward to Glasgow 2014. Maybe not. Canoe slalom with your left and right keys here.

Watch out for the rocks, trust me on that one.

Zamboni Driving

For those of you who don’t know what zamboni-ing is (I didn’t either), it is driving around on the machine that flattens out the ice after an ice hockey game. This doodle celebrated the 112th birthday of the man who invented it, Frank Zamboni. Try drawing the biggest penis you can and scrubbing it out, or warm up your skills for an impromptu ice hockey game on a near by loch here.

So many possibilities for immature ice drawing.

Chinese Year of the Snake

To celebrate the coming of the Chinese Year of the Snake in 2013, Google launched their own version of Snake. If Pacman was too old school for you, you might remember playing this on your parents’ Nokia 3210. Reawaken your skills here and put off that tutorial reading for 10 minutes longer. Go on, you definitely want to.

What are they going to do for year of the rooster?

Claude Debussy’s 151st

Not an interactive game as such, but if you have spent too much time playing on snake and the time pressure is on, sit back and listen to this recording of Clair de Lune set to a doodlers animation, which will make all your problems fly away.

More relaxing than lunch in rotato.

So doodle away, and if you are feeling really bold, doodle on the massive screens in the pods on the ground floor. Next level entertainment.