Sheets and Wind

I don't even know if anybody reads this thing but i'm thinking of incorporating Tales of A New Insomniac or something into the title. It seems most posts revolve around the new Holy Grail, sleep.

After a number of Moosies, Cameron's and G&Ts last night I slept like a baby for the first time in weeks. However, this blissful event was ruined since this was also one of the first times in weeks that I absolutely had to be awake in the morning, first thing in the morning at that. So I was up at 7 after probably the most consecutive hours of sleep (5) since early July. I got to school and reread the article that I was to present while sucking back coffee and a few tylenol just for good measure.

Finished the meeting and came straight back to bed as I was feeling a little worse for wear. Much to my surprise i was out like a light, not even "The Hitchiker's Guide To the Galaxy" (book not movie) could keep me awake. I went back to the school after a couple hour snooze and am just getting home now. You'd think I would have gotten a lot done in the 7 hours that I was there but you'd be wrong. I still can't get the eyetracker gear to work, my data is not cooperating at all and the server was screwy. So it really wasn't all because I wasn't working but because other things weren't working. Shocking isn't it? Technology that doesn't work.

I'm gonna go now and fake the futile effort of going to sleep. Take care all.

Strange Day

The day started off fairly routine. I woke up still very tired but had actually gotten a fair bit of sleep. Apparently 6 Corona do a better job in promoting sleep than sleeping pills do!! Remember that any doctors that might stumble upon this post. Imagine a prescription for beer, wouldn't that be weird.

Anyway...where was I? Oh yeah waking up....so I did the usual, made a coffee and sat down in front of the computer. After checking email and various other websites I logged into messenger and ended up chatting with Brad for a bit. After a while we signed off and I went looking for news on the regatta with very little luck. So I grabbed a towel and went to get a shower. I got out the bedroom door and then some undetermined amount of time later, I woke up in a crumpled mess in the hallway. I fainted or blacked out or something. Noone else was here and I have no idea how long I was out. It could have been 1 min or 10. Weird and a little freaky.

I got up felt a little woozy so continued slowly to the bathroom and washed my face, went to the kitchen and ate an apple, put my sneakers on and wandered over to the hospital where I sat for about 2 hours and ate 3 mars bars only to have the doc say, "I dunno". Haha....$200,000 in student loans comes up with that answer. He said it likely that I was partially dehydrated from said sleeping remedy and the lack of sleep/heat may also have played a role. I told him I should get an MRI and then he argued with me that it wasn't necessary so I said I'm going to get one anyway and that freaked him out a bit until i told him I knew the guy who ran the place. He then recommended some multivitamin that i will have to buy tomorrow I suppose and lots of water. Anyway I'm feeling Ok now, still a bit dizzy, even though I still can't sleep and there isn't a Corona to be had!! Here's to remaining concsious for the whole day tomorrow!!

Anyway that was my weird day.

A New-To-Me Joke and Semi-Mental Music

As I sit here once again Sleepless In .... what seems like a cruel and unusual kind of purgatory, I remember a joke I read earlier today in a book. "The last man on earth walks into a bar and says, 'Drink, could I get another bartender'". I thought that was hysterically funny but then that's me and a previous post shows my bent sense of humour. Although now that I think about it I didn't laugh for some reason when I read it---strange.

Also as I sit here in this suspended state of desired unconsciousness I subject myself to, what my family would call, 'Semi-Mental' music. Norah Jones singing about yellow fields, mountain tops and cloudy days does nothing to quell the innate quest(s) that I seek (i.e., sleep, food, .... etc). She has a voice like one of MY old shoes, comfortable and familiar but ruins whatever socks you might be wearing ["Like lightning in a dark room...Like the desert waiting for the rain...Like a school kid waiting for the spring...Just sitting here waiting____" (insert innate quest in blank)] but I love listening to her nonetheless. I'm thinking I'm a little semi-mental at times, both literally and as my family would mean it. Likely one meaning more than the other and this pertinence tends to vary.

Anyway I'm going to see if a bit of Poison or maybe Bon Jovi will help me off to LaLa land, doubtful but worth a shot through the heart. (hahaha...Bon Jovi joke for those of you who didn't get it!!). Hey Beth...do you remember this?....wait for it wait for it wait for it "COLOUR".....if you didn't get it right away or have yet to figure it out then that is your job for the rest of the day, to figure out what your sleep deprived, possible false memory syndrome brother is talking about.

G'Nite All. Be good.

"Hoping for some kind of sign." -- Norah

Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You

Happy pseudo-Birthday Alex!! (Do you remember what pseudo means?)

I thought I'd post some pictures of you at your birthday party so you can go and see them whenever you want or show your friends at their house. So all the pics below are from your party on Saturday except for one. I'm glad that you had a great time, I'm happy that you liked your flowers and am glad that you and your friends gave your Mom fits (Just kidding on that last point of course!!! hahahhaha).

Why Can't I Sleep

Look at all the pretty sheep,
why is it I can't bleatin' sleep?
I've been to bed three different times,
yet here I am composing stupid little rhymes.
Would it help to bang my head against the wall?
Nope, but maybe an ambulance I should call.
Did ya like the last line from yoda?
I think I'll go and get some juice or a soda.
Went to store but forgot what I was wearing,
Brown pants, blue shirt, yellow hat...people were staring.
Got a cookie, milk and green tea
will sleep now come for me?
I guess I might as well start the day
for there seems little point to hit the hay.
I hope all who read this got some sleep
while I sat here counting bleatin' sheep.

Eyes and Basketballs

So the lab recently bought a new eye-tracker (should that be one word???) system and I spent most of today attempting to set it up. I've decided that I'm not inept but rather new technology doesn't like me. Step by step through the manual I plodded and in my defence I did get the video to work but the thing couldn't track a basketball let alone an eye. I couldn't even get the darn display to come up on the screen to allow me to try and track something. Back at it from scratch again tomorrow for the third time.

Today wasn't a total loss for the first time in a while since I got to look at my new data and lo and behold the welcome sight of significant results where there should be and >.05 where there shouldn't be. Now to write it up and have it ripped to shreads by reviewers. Does the fun ever end?

The only other thing of consequence today was a ball game with a friend's team, Funnilingus. We put up a valiant effort but with my idiotic ground out to lead off the bottom of the 9th and an inning ending popfly we left runners at the corners and ended up losing by a run. Painful but it was nice to be doing something that didn't require electricity!

Anyway good night and who wants to work with eye-trackers anyway.

Noo nee noo nee noo

It must come as a great shock to find out that it's 3:45am and I'm still awake, sweating and generally feeling like ..... well you can guess what I'm feeling like. I really brought this on myself tonight since I fell asleep when I got back from school around 6:30 or so and didn't wake up until 11. Why do they make scientific journal articles so boring? There are no good characters and the plots are generally quite predictable! I was pretty upset with myself since I was looking forward to talking to some little redhead who will remain nameless. I'll have to try and get her early tomorrow evening sometime, that anonymous redhead.

I have no real news other than Judy (my supervisor) is having a party this Saturday night which is serving as a birthday party for two grad students (Phil and Heather). That should be fun and it will be nice to get out of the house and go somewhere other than school or a pool hall. Not that I'm not enjoying kicking Jim's butt but some variety is welcomed.

Anyway...I'm signing off to pace the floor a little more and to complain to the walls as there is no one else to complain to. LOL. I'll likely be awake and bored this time tomorrow so I'll be sure to post another whiny useless note!!! G'nite all. Be good.

Rude Awakening!!!!!!!!!

Just had to tell this....got to sleep around 4 or so and set alarm for 8 but didn't need to bother with the alarm since a crew of workmen showed up at 7:30 to reshingle the house!!! And these guys were prompt, the first hammer fell at 7:35 and it has sounded like I'm in my own private earthquake ever since. Anyway thought I'd share my extremely rude awakening. Be good.

No Rest For the Weary (Is that how you spell "weary"?)

Well, as the song in the last blog said, "It's 3am..." Yes, yes it is and I'm here awake and sweaty yet again. It was so muggy today and it started to rain around 3pm or so and I nearly cried I was so glad to see it with the hope of the humidity dropping. No dice! It rained for all of about 5 minutes and did nothing but exacerbate the humidity! Man oh man. Anyway I did a bit of a rain dance on my way back up to the lab but it did nothing, as you probably suspected. I was in the lab most of the day basking in the air conditioned space, listening to my i-tunes and, oh yeah, working. I kinda wish I hadn't been working as I was not all that pleased with the data I've collected recently. Very noisy and unexpected results which, as you probably know, are rarely good. So I'll collect some more and tweek what I have in the hopes that it hasn't been a waste of time.

Other than that it was a boring Civic Holiday Day. What kind of name is that for a holiday anyway? You'd think that someone would have had the job of coming up with a name for the holiday that was today. Anything would have been better than what it is called now. Why not Summertime Day or Civie Day even? Whatever... anyway enough of that.

I've got very little else on my MTMM (aka. mind that's mostly mush) right now besides getting to sleep so I am going to put this blog to bed and then myself. Hopefully both acts will result in the desired consequence. Love to all that read this.

(P.S.-- Alex if you see this then check out the links on the right hand side of the page, they're yours!)