ok, more super brief updates:
just recovered from 5 days of strep throat, yay!
still super duper broke, boo!
(theoretically)achieved employment as maintainence staff at bethel, yay!
position is currently on call only, with small chance of calls, boo!
job interview sunday (movie theater), yay!
parents returned from europe today (more people to mooch off of), yay!
There are two new avenues I want to take this blog down:
1. I want to start writing movie reviews. because I've been watching a lot of movies recently and (more) people need to know how I feel about them.
2. Sharing all the fascinating, if completely useless, shit I find on stumble upon. because I feel better about wasting my time on these things if I can tempt other people into joining me.
honestly there are like 18 unposted articles that I have half-written on this blog right now; whenever I manage to develop some self-discipline, both the readers of this blog (myself included) will experience literary rapture.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
gah, still running behind on these, a quick catch up:
Friday night I went to Weaverville with my sister for the 4th weekend. It was pretty weird seeing so many high school acquaintances. After hitting the helena swimming hole I got pretty drunk and apparently got kicked out of both bars (everyone says the bouncers were just being assholes). I remember having fun though. I connected with Anthony Forslen who is apparently some kind of Hollywood big shot now? I woke up in Joelle's car around 730am as she got in and raced over the hill in a desperate attempt to arrive at work on time. She made the normally hour-long drive in 34 minutes, but still ended up losing her shift.
Saturday I recovered. Sunday I also kinda recovered, but more of an emotional recovery. Monday I decided to try coming out of my funk. Today I'm back to whatever state I suppose could be closest to my normal.
Despite the dramatic diversion from my sleeping schedule this weekend, I still feel like its going well. Today I had no problem falling asleep during my naps. I spent the day job hunting, with a an excessive-heat mandated break for swimming. I also returned to my exercise routine, spent some time with the dorns, went grocery shopping, and wrote this blog. Basically I'm just trying to affirm to myself that I'm doing ok. I really need a job.
Friday night I went to Weaverville with my sister for the 4th weekend. It was pretty weird seeing so many high school acquaintances. After hitting the helena swimming hole I got pretty drunk and apparently got kicked out of both bars (everyone says the bouncers were just being assholes). I remember having fun though. I connected with Anthony Forslen who is apparently some kind of Hollywood big shot now? I woke up in Joelle's car around 730am as she got in and raced over the hill in a desperate attempt to arrive at work on time. She made the normally hour-long drive in 34 minutes, but still ended up losing her shift.
Saturday I recovered. Sunday I also kinda recovered, but more of an emotional recovery. Monday I decided to try coming out of my funk. Today I'm back to whatever state I suppose could be closest to my normal.
Despite the dramatic diversion from my sleeping schedule this weekend, I still feel like its going well. Today I had no problem falling asleep during my naps. I spent the day job hunting, with a an excessive-heat mandated break for swimming. I also returned to my exercise routine, spent some time with the dorns, went grocery shopping, and wrote this blog. Basically I'm just trying to affirm to myself that I'm doing ok. I really need a job.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The regular posts begin (I hope)
I'm writing this more as an act of self discipline than a work of inspiration. I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing and become less dependent upon inspirational impulses and nostalgic whims.
Wednesday night I drove to Weaverville and visited a friend. I was partly conned into attending a pyramid scheme presentation. I say partly because despite directly inquiring as to whether the presentation was indeed a pyramid scheme and receiving a very clear response to the negative, I was completely unsurprised to find myself listening to a very intentionally worded marketing proposal.
Afterwards we went out on the town to two of the only three establishments open in Weaverville after 9pm (The third is oddly a 24 hour CVS drug store). It was my first time in a Weaverville bar. Having long anticipated this moment, I tried to appreciate the ironic novelty of it, but I don't think I did so well. We visited both the Diggins and the New Yorker, met a few friends (and teachers) from high school, and had very stereotypical discussions about girls and sex. Upon my departure we made plans for the 4th of July weekend, which begins this morning and I will try to remember/record.
also, a strange development with my increasingly decrepit mobile device: the particular alarm sound that I have of late been using to wake up from my naps has ceased to sound. That is, every ring/alarm/song/sound in my default repository of tones plays fine except for the one tone that I programmed into all my scheduled naps. I have no idea why one sound, having previously worked great, suddenly fails all together. The funny thing is that I have no idea when the alarm stopped working, every time I woke up before the alarm, I'd turn it off; and every time I woke up after the alarm date, I just assumed that I had slept through it.
oh, and I recently re-watched Boondock Saints and hated it. Well I guess I didn't hate it, but I found myself thinking, 'this really isn't that great of a movie' and I was utterly repulsed by the whole concept of the film. They go around killing people that they think are evil, but they never show one offence done by the supposedly evil men, they just take it all for granted on the word of another 'scumbag' who the audience is suppose to like because he's funny... It's absolutely horrifying. The major offenders referred to are drug dealers and pimps, two activities that I personally don't even think should be illegal (they should be regulated though, more opinion on this later) let alone carry a death penalty. I mean think about what's happening here:
Passionate religious extremists cite holy scripture and immoral behavior as evidence of God's will for them to embark upon a violent holy war against declaimed immoral infidels...
The only difference between the Boondock Saints and Islamic Terrorists is the fake Irish accent.
Wednesday night I drove to Weaverville and visited a friend. I was partly conned into attending a pyramid scheme presentation. I say partly because despite directly inquiring as to whether the presentation was indeed a pyramid scheme and receiving a very clear response to the negative, I was completely unsurprised to find myself listening to a very intentionally worded marketing proposal.
Afterwards we went out on the town to two of the only three establishments open in Weaverville after 9pm (The third is oddly a 24 hour CVS drug store). It was my first time in a Weaverville bar. Having long anticipated this moment, I tried to appreciate the ironic novelty of it, but I don't think I did so well. We visited both the Diggins and the New Yorker, met a few friends (and teachers) from high school, and had very stereotypical discussions about girls and sex. Upon my departure we made plans for the 4th of July weekend, which begins this morning and I will try to remember/record.
also, a strange development with my increasingly decrepit mobile device: the particular alarm sound that I have of late been using to wake up from my naps has ceased to sound. That is, every ring/alarm/song/sound in my default repository of tones plays fine except for the one tone that I programmed into all my scheduled naps. I have no idea why one sound, having previously worked great, suddenly fails all together. The funny thing is that I have no idea when the alarm stopped working, every time I woke up before the alarm, I'd turn it off; and every time I woke up after the alarm date, I just assumed that I had slept through it.
oh, and I recently re-watched Boondock Saints and hated it. Well I guess I didn't hate it, but I found myself thinking, 'this really isn't that great of a movie' and I was utterly repulsed by the whole concept of the film. They go around killing people that they think are evil, but they never show one offence done by the supposedly evil men, they just take it all for granted on the word of another 'scumbag' who the audience is suppose to like because he's funny... It's absolutely horrifying. The major offenders referred to are drug dealers and pimps, two activities that I personally don't even think should be illegal (they should be regulated though, more opinion on this later) let alone carry a death penalty. I mean think about what's happening here:
Passionate religious extremists cite holy scripture and immoral behavior as evidence of God's will for them to embark upon a violent holy war against declaimed immoral infidels...
The only difference between the Boondock Saints and Islamic Terrorists is the fake Irish accent.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Some catch up
Ok, so its been 20 days. I hate trying to remember things so I'll just say my polyphasic sleep experiment has had a rocky start, but for the last 4-5 days or so I've been doing pretty well, except for a few slip ups, usually about 3 hours, but in general I've found that my body is much much more efficient at sleeping and I sleep far far less now than previously. Hopefully everything will be running smoothly by the end of the month.
In other news I'm still broke.
Recent habits that are concerning me: online dating. I'm not sure why, but I've been spending a disconcerting amount of time on online dating sites. Also not sure why I'm admitting this. Have also been unusually active on facebook. I think I might be coming down with a case of loneliness. I need to blog more.
Garrett Inouye and Aimee Wong came up last week for a Bethel conference and stayed with me. Good conversations were had. Wish I had been blogging them.
Watched Trainspotting last night. Great movie, the scene with the dead baby is still haunting me though.
Seriously need to start being more productive gah.
In other news I'm still broke.
Recent habits that are concerning me: online dating. I'm not sure why, but I've been spending a disconcerting amount of time on online dating sites. Also not sure why I'm admitting this. Have also been unusually active on facebook. I think I might be coming down with a case of loneliness. I need to blog more.
Garrett Inouye and Aimee Wong came up last week for a Bethel conference and stayed with me. Good conversations were had. Wish I had been blogging them.
Watched Trainspotting last night. Great movie, the scene with the dead baby is still haunting me though.
Seriously need to start being more productive gah.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 3
Morning nap: ultimately, unsuccessful. was a little refreshed and meditated, but no actual sleep like last night. but some insight on the sleeping process and requirements gained.
went to store, bought ingrediants and made breakfast for everybody. Tried to make omlet and bacon. learned that cooking requires skill and practice, and a little bit of knowing what the hell you're doing. omlet turned into scrambled eggs with bell peppers, bacon, and pico de gallo. It was ok. vegies a little raw? I don't know. Also, nobody has yet awaken to try my breakfast, I forget that normal kids don't get up before seven. except for working ones. Cheyanne is suppose to work this morning, but probly wont have time for breakfast.
very tired. will probly attemt psuedo nap very soon.
pseudo nap somewhat successful, slept some, still tired.
update:
sick. sick sick sick. goddammit. experiment is postponed
went to store, bought ingrediants and made breakfast for everybody. Tried to make omlet and bacon. learned that cooking requires skill and practice, and a little bit of knowing what the hell you're doing. omlet turned into scrambled eggs with bell peppers, bacon, and pico de gallo. It was ok. vegies a little raw? I don't know. Also, nobody has yet awaken to try my breakfast, I forget that normal kids don't get up before seven. except for working ones. Cheyanne is suppose to work this morning, but probly wont have time for breakfast.
very tired. will probly attemt psuedo nap very soon.
pseudo nap somewhat successful, slept some, still tired.
update:
sick. sick sick sick. goddammit. experiment is postponed
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Polyphasic Sleep: Day Two. updates
Morning update:
after reading more interesting blog material I had my 5:30 sleep session. So far all is well. I'm not sure I really slept in the strictest sense of the term, but I got out of bed feeling rested so I'm not complaining. Afterwards I ran a (fast) mile with Jake and got some asthma, which developed into a weird cough/itchy throat that has stayed with me all day. After the run I decided I felt like doing a workout so I drove down to the Y where I found my dad actually swimming laps. We were a little surprised to see each other, he because I was up early, me because he was at the gym. I did an easy workout, had good stamina considering I haven't worked out in months.
some notes: time goes by much slower. I'm more interested in staying busy than I've ever been. Surprisingly Not lethargic.
after work out I became more tired.
exercise = good
driving = not a good idea
some interesting psychological effects:
lowered inhibitions, strangely giddy, tiny flee-like creatures hovering in my periphreal vision.
random thoughts:
why don't I have a fucking lemur?
second nap of the day, (830) taken: success. woke up after exactly 23 minutes. Still not really going fully unconscious, but still felling refreshed, although right now, still tired.
Good sleep combo: prenap meditation, during nap listen to lyric-less music/white noise. I listened to some Tibetan meditation music shit I got off torrent and it was really nice, super conducive for sleep. Damn I'm tired. I hope I make it to the afternoon nap.
ate breakfast, delicious tuna melt, seem to prefer eating healthier all of a sudden. nice. also cleaned kitchen while making sandwitch, just flowed, impressive. Kinda losing control over thoughts a little bit, super tired, considering yet another morning nap.
Afternoon update:
damn, took another nap at 930, and then another one, and another, until like 2pm. I hope this doesn't mess me up too bad, I didn't really get that much sleep overall, and I still feel tired, but man, I was struggling before, anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'm suppose to be driving with my sister to sac in a couple hours. Probably she'll do the driving, lol.
End of Day Update:
Instead of ne driving to sacramento, I taught elise to drive my stick-shift, which was a pretty good way to stay awake. During the drive I took my 17:30 nap and maybe got 3 or 4 minutes of good sleep, maybe, though still I don't think I ever really lost consciousness. After we got to Elise's place I took another pseudo nap around 20:30, again not losing consciousness, but feeling somewhat refreshed afterwards. Elise and I proceeded to pick up her friend, Cheyanne, (sp?) who is both a hottie and a super-fun sweetheart type who consistently volunteered to ride stick, wedged between me and Elise in my 84 Nissan two seater (I love having little sisters). We met up with some of their friends, attempted to go longboarding in a parking garage, got caught by police, sat around, watched a video previously captured video of Cheyanne falling on her face while longboarding in parking garage and then the group dropped me off at Elise's for my 23:30 nap and went to Denny's.
The good part: I finally completely achieved legitimate REM sleep during a nap! At least I'm pretty sure, I mean totally passed out, like hardcore, although I can't remember my dream, which is really a bummer since part of the allure of this whole experiment was having lucid dreams, but when I woke up I was completely out of it. I never consciously heard my alarm, I think I unconsciously turned it off, but I kind of vaguely remember it going off, like a dream. All I really remember is staring at my phone and having absolutely no idea where I was or what was happening. As I began to recall my situation I started to freak out a little because it felt like I had been sleeping for so long that I was sure I must have drastically overslept. I was totally dumbfounded when after triple checking the time on my phone it said it was exactly 12am, Wednesday morning, but I couldn't for the life of me remember hearing my alarm go off. I was also tripping out because it really felt like I had been asleep for hours. i felt almost completely refreshed, maybe a little hazy, but seriously it was as if I had a full night's sleep.
Anyway, so I met back up with Elise and her friends, we played some no-stakes poker and then retired to Cheyanne's place since Elise cancelled the internet at her apartment and the notion of trying to stay awake for six hours with no internet really scared me. And this is where I'm officially ending my Second Day blog.
after reading more interesting blog material I had my 5:30 sleep session. So far all is well. I'm not sure I really slept in the strictest sense of the term, but I got out of bed feeling rested so I'm not complaining. Afterwards I ran a (fast) mile with Jake and got some asthma, which developed into a weird cough/itchy throat that has stayed with me all day. After the run I decided I felt like doing a workout so I drove down to the Y where I found my dad actually swimming laps. We were a little surprised to see each other, he because I was up early, me because he was at the gym. I did an easy workout, had good stamina considering I haven't worked out in months.
some notes: time goes by much slower. I'm more interested in staying busy than I've ever been. Surprisingly Not lethargic.
after work out I became more tired.
exercise = good
driving = not a good idea
some interesting psychological effects:
lowered inhibitions, strangely giddy, tiny flee-like creatures hovering in my periphreal vision.
random thoughts:
why don't I have a fucking lemur?
second nap of the day, (830) taken: success. woke up after exactly 23 minutes. Still not really going fully unconscious, but still felling refreshed, although right now, still tired.
Good sleep combo: prenap meditation, during nap listen to lyric-less music/white noise. I listened to some Tibetan meditation music shit I got off torrent and it was really nice, super conducive for sleep. Damn I'm tired. I hope I make it to the afternoon nap.
ate breakfast, delicious tuna melt, seem to prefer eating healthier all of a sudden. nice. also cleaned kitchen while making sandwitch, just flowed, impressive. Kinda losing control over thoughts a little bit, super tired, considering yet another morning nap.
Afternoon update:
damn, took another nap at 930, and then another one, and another, until like 2pm. I hope this doesn't mess me up too bad, I didn't really get that much sleep overall, and I still feel tired, but man, I was struggling before, anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'm suppose to be driving with my sister to sac in a couple hours. Probably she'll do the driving, lol.
End of Day Update:
Instead of ne driving to sacramento, I taught elise to drive my stick-shift, which was a pretty good way to stay awake. During the drive I took my 17:30 nap and maybe got 3 or 4 minutes of good sleep, maybe, though still I don't think I ever really lost consciousness. After we got to Elise's place I took another pseudo nap around 20:30, again not losing consciousness, but feeling somewhat refreshed afterwards. Elise and I proceeded to pick up her friend, Cheyanne, (sp?) who is both a hottie and a super-fun sweetheart type who consistently volunteered to ride stick, wedged between me and Elise in my 84 Nissan two seater (I love having little sisters). We met up with some of their friends, attempted to go longboarding in a parking garage, got caught by police, sat around, watched a video previously captured video of Cheyanne falling on her face while longboarding in parking garage and then the group dropped me off at Elise's for my 23:30 nap and went to Denny's.
The good part: I finally completely achieved legitimate REM sleep during a nap! At least I'm pretty sure, I mean totally passed out, like hardcore, although I can't remember my dream, which is really a bummer since part of the allure of this whole experiment was having lucid dreams, but when I woke up I was completely out of it. I never consciously heard my alarm, I think I unconsciously turned it off, but I kind of vaguely remember it going off, like a dream. All I really remember is staring at my phone and having absolutely no idea where I was or what was happening. As I began to recall my situation I started to freak out a little because it felt like I had been sleeping for so long that I was sure I must have drastically overslept. I was totally dumbfounded when after triple checking the time on my phone it said it was exactly 12am, Wednesday morning, but I couldn't for the life of me remember hearing my alarm go off. I was also tripping out because it really felt like I had been asleep for hours. i felt almost completely refreshed, maybe a little hazy, but seriously it was as if I had a full night's sleep.
Anyway, so I met back up with Elise and her friends, we played some no-stakes poker and then retired to Cheyanne's place since Elise cancelled the internet at her apartment and the notion of trying to stay awake for six hours with no internet really scared me. And this is where I'm officially ending my Second Day blog.
Polyphasic Sleep: Day 1
I am three hours from the end of my first 24 hour day of the Dymaxion experiment. Although technically it's been about 38 hours since my last monophasic sleep session, I count the beginning of my day at 7:30am Monday morning because that's when I took my first nap.
So far the experience has been pretty positive. I started out planning my day around what is known as the Uberman schedule which is 6 naps a day instead of four, but a couple hours ago I decided that I would aim for the more efficient 4 nap routine supplemented as needed until I get the hang of speed sleeping (I still have to reset my alarm calendar).
This whole thing is definitely a trip to get used to. I've already had two minor slip ups so far. During my noon nap I couldn't fall asleep, so after filling my belly with soup I decided to give it another try an hour later. I ended up falling into some sort of repose about 10 minutes before my alarm when off but then foolishly reasoned that I should go for a full half-hour, stifled my alarm without adding a backup and ended up being out for almost an hour and a half. It didn't feel like REM sleep, so I'm hoping it didn't set me back too far, but its still a bad precedent to be setting this early on. On a positive note, I felt great after the nap. I ended up going on a nice long jog over to Jake's where I communed and took a very successful nap in his basement-of-a-room, and then jogged over to my parents house where my mom is looking after the Valenzuela children while Leah has her 4th kid. The exercise was fantastic and I ran better than I've ran all year (which isn't much, I've ran maybe a total of three times since I've been home).
After some visiting at my parents I came home, took a shower, and prepared for my midnight nap. I was feeling pretty tired and was a little worried about my ability to retain consciousness within 30 minutes of losing it. I decided to precede the nap with a meditation session, which seemed to work fairly well, although I stopped and began my nap a little early. I'm not sure if I ever actually slept, I didn't have any dreams that I can remember, I all seem to remember was this weird surreal struggle with myself after my alarm went off. I officially came to two hours later, once again bummed that I broke my rules. Again though, I'm not sure I achieved REM sleep, although I felt really good upon getting up. I decided to skip my tentative 330am nap and go straight through to 5:30, witch I think I'm going to make my official morning nap time for now on.
A side note on how I got into this whole experiment, I stumbled upon this article http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/ by Jordan Lejuwaan, which led me to this blog http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep-log-day-1/ where Steve Pavlina apparently successfully incorporates the Uberman routine (I haven't finished reading it yet). I also followed Lejuwaan's recent attempt at the Dymaxion schedule here http://www.highexistence.com/polyphasic-sleep-cycle-day-1/ Lejuwaan started 2 weeks ago and reported good results the first week, but was since been MIA :S. There are also a number of forums and sites dedicated to those attempting more efficient polyphasic sleeping patterns. I highly recommend anyone who's interested to google this shit.
I'll keep updating
So far the experience has been pretty positive. I started out planning my day around what is known as the Uberman schedule which is 6 naps a day instead of four, but a couple hours ago I decided that I would aim for the more efficient 4 nap routine supplemented as needed until I get the hang of speed sleeping (I still have to reset my alarm calendar).
This whole thing is definitely a trip to get used to. I've already had two minor slip ups so far. During my noon nap I couldn't fall asleep, so after filling my belly with soup I decided to give it another try an hour later. I ended up falling into some sort of repose about 10 minutes before my alarm when off but then foolishly reasoned that I should go for a full half-hour, stifled my alarm without adding a backup and ended up being out for almost an hour and a half. It didn't feel like REM sleep, so I'm hoping it didn't set me back too far, but its still a bad precedent to be setting this early on. On a positive note, I felt great after the nap. I ended up going on a nice long jog over to Jake's where I communed and took a very successful nap in his basement-of-a-room, and then jogged over to my parents house where my mom is looking after the Valenzuela children while Leah has her 4th kid. The exercise was fantastic and I ran better than I've ran all year (which isn't much, I've ran maybe a total of three times since I've been home).
After some visiting at my parents I came home, took a shower, and prepared for my midnight nap. I was feeling pretty tired and was a little worried about my ability to retain consciousness within 30 minutes of losing it. I decided to precede the nap with a meditation session, which seemed to work fairly well, although I stopped and began my nap a little early. I'm not sure if I ever actually slept, I didn't have any dreams that I can remember, I all seem to remember was this weird surreal struggle with myself after my alarm went off. I officially came to two hours later, once again bummed that I broke my rules. Again though, I'm not sure I achieved REM sleep, although I felt really good upon getting up. I decided to skip my tentative 330am nap and go straight through to 5:30, witch I think I'm going to make my official morning nap time for now on.
A side note on how I got into this whole experiment, I stumbled upon this article http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/ by Jordan Lejuwaan, which led me to this blog http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep-log-day-1/ where Steve Pavlina apparently successfully incorporates the Uberman routine (I haven't finished reading it yet). I also followed Lejuwaan's recent attempt at the Dymaxion schedule here http://www.highexistence.com/polyphasic-sleep-cycle-day-1/ Lejuwaan started 2 weeks ago and reported good results the first week, but was since been MIA :S. There are also a number of forums and sites dedicated to those attempting more efficient polyphasic sleeping patterns. I highly recommend anyone who's interested to google this shit.
I'll keep updating
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)