Seconded. (the drinking part)
I’ll come to your defense. It was so not funny that it ended up being funny again.
TMI to the extreme, but if Hal Briston has to put up with stupid sheep comments until the day he dies, then Auto
can deal with a couple of ladle comments lobbed his way every once in a while.
To be honest, I thought Id’ have come up sooner.
The title + poster’s history= almost perfect setup. I tried to resist, but no luck, apparently. Never funny? Maybe your humor pick-ups are a little dusty. Admittedly, I have only recently read the origin of the ladel refrences, and haven’t tracked down all of its uses. Maybe it has been overused. Doesn’t change the fact that this setup is too easy. Perhaps I’m being insensitive, but, don’t post embarassing stuff if you don’t want to see it brought up again.
And, gotcha ya is still funny.
Hi Opal has always been lame.
The ladle comments dont bother me as long as they’re not mean-spirited.
And yeah Omegaman, we’re cool.
Back on topic, I watched Evil Dead II last night. Between that and a few Steel Reserves, I feel a lot better today 
I’ll confess that when I read the OP, and saw it was you who posted it, I thought, “He doesn’t strike me as a guy who has trouble figuring ways to amuse himself when alone.” 
Work out. That sinking, lonely feeling of despair is pure fuel I tell ya. I always come out feeling much better about myself and refreshed about the prospect of going out to meet new people.
Also, though I’m not a habitual smoker, going down to Naturas Cafe with a friend and getting a hookah for an evening always ends with me, said friend, and 2-6 strangers sitting around a table having some random conversation and sharing some laughs. Live music is part of the experience too. Hangover and bloated feelings the next day not included.
Why is it that when someone doesn’t find something funny they are accused of having an insufficient sense of humor? I don’t find the sheep stuff funny either. I’m casting about for a SDMB in-joke besides “gotcha ya!” that I do find funny and not coming up with one. My sense of humor is perfectly fine; it just doesn’t match up with yours.
I, however, never post embarrassing stuff, so I am not at all personally worried. (hm, better run a vanity search just to be sure) It doesn’t seem to bother **Autolycus, ** to his credit, but that doesn’t mean that I have to find it funny, either.
But, to follow your point, I kind of thought maybe the OP had tried the ladle and it hadn’t worked, so that was why he wanted suggestions.
I never had much alone time myself until my recent divorce. I moved right out of my mother’s house and in with my husband-to-be, so I never got the opportunity to get used to being alone for more than a few hours at a time before.
I must say, now that I have some time by myself occasionally, I relish it, mostly. I can make plans to clean the house and garage, mow the yard and trim the hedges (of many small villages*), then just blow the whole thing off and drink a beer in front of the TV or outside in the lawn chair. There’s nobody to demand the dinner menu or complain that the yard is starting to look like the lonesome prairie.
Having said that, when it’s night and I’m alone I sometimes feel aimless and unsettled. I guess that’s uppity talk for “lonely”.
At those times I usually get out some of my old books, you know the ones, they feel like old friends. (I’d name some of my old friends for you, but somebody might make fun of them and I hate to see a friend embarrassed.)
Or I’ll watch a favorite, or sometimes new, movie. I make it an occasion: pop some corn, make myself a soft drink (a rare treat for me), get out a pillow and blanket for the couch and settle in for a solitary sleep-over. I like Shaun of the Dead, probably because I can’t watch it with the kids around.
*for some reason one of my favorite “alone time” movies is The Three Amigos and whenever I think, “I’ve gotta trim the damn hedges” I mentally add, “of many small villages.”
Indulge depression for one day (sleeping, drinking, crying, whatever) and then force yourself out of the house and into a situation where there will be other people. You will have gotten the bad out of your system and hopefully will begin to see that everything will be ok.
Maybe because you came off like a wet blanket?
[/hijack]
Back on topic–
Sort your photos- you’ll remember all those fun times and places and people.
Exercise- usually leads to a sense of well-being.
Check around for local activity clubs- perhaps in weekly broadsheets or a local website.
I drink until I dont feel that way anymore… Im not advising that for you but its what works for me 
I usually only get lonely at night when it would be nice to cuddle with someone on the couch while watching a movie so drinking works well for me too.
But since you’ve had problems of induling a little too much, as do I from time to time, I have another suggestion that I recently started doing myself and helps me feel better.
One Saturday night while watching adult swim, I think Inuyasha (SIT!) was on, and I was feeling a little down and I started thinking about how I can only experience existance through my own senses and so thusly the world only exists because I am here to experience it and I could destroy the universe by simply offing myself. (I wasn’t seriously considering suicide, never have, just a fun thought process.) So as I kept on thinking I thought, “You know I’m not in that bad of a mood so I’ll let you, the universe, live another day though I’ll probably kill you tomorrow.” And that gave me a sense of importance and necessity and power and it made me feel better. So I think that thought from time to time and it makes me smile inside and I feel better.
That someone so kindred to me in spirit sits uncuddled on her couch is simultaneously heartening and saddening.
I’m going to go ahead and cast a vote against this. Unless your not talking about until you pass out. I tried this for a few years and although the immediate results were good in the long term it really solved nothing.