Brilliant! It's Christmas day! I hope you all have a most fantastically awesome and wonderful day! I shall mostly be with my Mum and some relatives for lots of food eating.
I'm back from Exeter now and I'm living with my Mummy in Merley. We don't have broadband yet, so this is going slowly on dialup. Ooh, the doorbell!
People are here half an hour early. Gotta go now. no time to read over 50 emails. Byeeee!
...for a while anyway. I'm going home tomorrow and my Mum doesn't have broadband yet! Nooooooooooo! Hopfully some neighbours will have unsecured wirelass access I can borrow. If not then my mobile bill may be quite large.
Pete's birthday happened with no one being over alcoholed, which was nice. We had presents arranged as Nicola from Girls Aloud's body and 2 chocolate rice crispy cakes as breasts. Pete is now a Ninja, tho he has lost all his Ninja weapons. Luckily the Ninjas most powerful weapon is his own body. This isn't good news for Pete tho.
I managed to connect 20 party poppers together, which amazingly went off perfectly one after the other in a about half a second. Now there's a big mess. Next time it'll be 50 at a time.
I don't seem to be able to get up in the morning very well now. I woke up at 8:30 but didn't get up until 10:30. Time for food now.
So much work! So little what ever that word is that means I'm not lazy.
I had another one of those weird dreams last night. This is what I wrote on my phone after I woke up:
Just had a dream. Woke at 4:28am. Seems to b when I go to bed late. Only been asleep about 10mins.Writing it down as soon as I wake up helps me remember it a lot. I was definately aware I was dreaming, tho it was near impossible to change anything - possibly because it was a virtually empty dream anyway. Reading about lucid dreams just before going to bed seems to make dreams more lucid too. Also not drinking much / anything.
Similar experiance as b4 but high pitch noise. Very empty + black. I reied 2 continue it longer, but didn't like it/got bored.
Decided to wate up instead. I think I may have woken up instantly, but couldn't fully open my eyes/move 4 some time, prob over 30 sec.
Next time I'll try to dream longer + change it.
Last night I had the strangest dream ever. It's highly confusing so a little difficult to explain but I'll give it my best shot.
Last night on the way to the pub last night I was talking to Looloo about dreams and I told him about a dream I had a few months ago where my room was shaking. Like if you were to look left and right really quickly but thought you were looking straight ahead. Maybe this was REM with my eyes open. Who knows? Pretty scary stuff anyway. I realised it was a dream fairly quickly (my room doesn't normally shake like this) and decided to wake up. I think this is a lucid dream, tho I could be technically wrong. I thought I could wake up straight away after realising I was dreaming. Unfortunately I couldn't. This was really scary as I felt trapped in the dream. Luckily I actually did manage to wake up just a few seconds later.
We went to the pub, did pub things, then came back. We watched a couple of uber-mirthful Whose Line is it Anyway episodes then I went to sleep at about 3am. At probably around 4am I began dreaming. I had the same dream as before, where my room was shaking, so I woke myself up. I woke up quicker than last time but not as quickly as I would have liked. I lay awake for a short while then driftred back to sleep fairly quickly. Soon after falling asleep I dreamt my room was shaking again! This time it was really difficult to wake up, even though I was fully aware I was dreaming.
When I woke up after the second room shaking dream I couldn't quite believe my mind. Now fully awake, I turned my bedside lamp on. It was 4:18am. I realised I hadn't actually woken up after the first room shake: I had just dreamt I'd woken up. This was seriously weird. Fairly Matrixy.
I had dreamt I was having a bad dream, then dreamt I'd woken up. I really thought I was awake and can remember the time I "woke up". I then dreamt I went back to sleep and had another dream, which I really woke up from.
I realise that's really difficult to understand (and possibly believe) but try to visualise it for a moment. I'll draw a diagram explanation later if I can be bothered.
Does anyone who understands sleep / dreams know what was happening to my brain? Has anyone had similar experiences? I'd had just 1 pint of beer and a coke. No drugs or anything, but I did have an odly tasting banana that afternoon.
I always thought I'd know if I was dreaming or not, especially if I thought I'd just woken up. But now I don't always know. I'm pretty sure I'm awake now. I need a good way of checking.
Maybe tonight I'll dream that I dream that I wake up. I hope not though.
Update: After reading wikipedia for a while, I've found it's not unheard of: False awakening.
(Awesomity is a scale of awesomeness.) Monday 28th November 2005 was the day Faithless played at the BiC. I was there (With Hannah, Looloo and Fern (and her friends)). It was absolutely amazing!
Sister Bliss did some astoundingly euphioric keyboardyness. I could listen to that stuff for days on end.
There were 2 phenominal drummers (actually 1 drummer + 1 percussionist) who were more rhythmic than a TR808.
There seemed to be 2 guitarists, tho I'm not sure. Sometimes lots of effects were used (like with the base on a song near the beginning) and sometimes it was virtually acoustic.
Maxi Jazz was stupenous. He did most of the singing / "rapping" tho there were 2 other incredible singers (one called LSK) who led in some songs.
Rollo apaprently doesn't tour with them. Strange.
They played lots of new stuff and many classics like God is a DJ and Insomnia. They encored with Salva Mea which was uber-cool, tho it was a silly mix that made it more funky and jungley instead of wonderously euphoric.
The best bit was undoubtedly We Come One. Lots of audience participation. It's very difficult not to jump as high as you possibly can to every single beat of that song.
Easily the best gig I've ever been to. Even better than any gig I haven't gone to.
Afterwardsly, we didn't go to spoons as they errorfully don't let people in after 11. Tescos was obviously the substitute destination. Food was purchased and I replaced my leaky coffee filter with a more cunning "Bush" one. It has added features such as not leaking and an enigmatic timer for future coffee.
My car doesn't work so well now. Downhill is fine. Going along flat roads is just OK. Uphill is a bad idea. Very bad. On one hill, which I normally do over 50mph in 3rd or 4th, I had to change down progressively into 2nd, then 1st! Before hitting the hill I seriously thought we wouldn't make it. I prayed and my little 1.0 VW Polo just got to the top! Woo! The journey took about 2 and a quarter hours, instead of the 1 and a half it would normally take at 1am. Now it's at a garage, where I'll probably have to spend more money I don't have getting it fixed. That reminds me, I have to call the garage tomorrow morning.
Today I made coffee whilst in the shower. Less mysteriously as you may first imagine, as I used the magical "future coffee" function of my coffee produceulator. I should write a dictionary of all the adaptations I've made to English.
Whoah, long post. I'll boldify it, as Tom does, but I invented first, before Tom was even born. Ha!
Sooo...
I've been reading lots (prob close to 10,000 words) about polyphasic sleep and biphasic sleep. It looks seriously interesting and I may try it.
Monophasic sleep: People generally sleep monophasically, where you getaround 7 hours of sleep a night in 1 big block. This almost compliments our circadian rhythm of about 25 hours and goes well with night and day. With this sleeping, you get 4 or 5 complete sets of the ~90 minute sleep cycle of the 4 types of NREM and REM sleep.
Polyphasic sleep: What babies, animals and some people do is change this rythm. As well as the 25 hour circardian rhythm we also have a 4 hour rythm (can't remember what it's called now). Some people have (after about a week of adjusting) convertred to polyphasic sleep, where they sleep for 20 minutes every 4 ours (6 times a day). Their bodies adjust so they go into REM and stage 4 NREM much quicker. This means you can get 2 hours sleep out of every 24 hours but get more REM sleep then most people. Some famous people did this (eg da Vinci). Lots of people says it makes them feel much more refreshed than before and more creative.
People sometimes do this for up to 6 months at a time, just occasionally reverting back to monophasic sleep for 1 night. Your body probably does useful things in stage 1, 2 and 3 of NREM so I don't know how sustainable this is in the long term - especially doing lots of sports.
Biphasic sleep: Another alternative is to get a "core sleep" of 3 or 4 hours at night, then have either a 90min nap in the afternoon or about 4 20min naps throughout the day. This means you'd get all the stages of sleep needed, more REM sleep and more waking hours.
Some dude called Stampi wrote a book about all this, but its $155 on amazon for some reason. There haven't been any in depth long-term studies yet, tho girrafes seem to cope perfectly well. Some people crave grapes, strangely.
The main bad points about changing to biphasic or polyphasic sleep rythms seem to be the adjustment period (which lasts under a week) and the having to nap during the day, which could cause problems in social situations.
When I have lots of spare time I may try biphasic sleep. My plan is to sleep from about 4am until 7:30am (I'll probably sleep until 9am, knowing me), then have 1 or 2 90min naps during the day if possible. Who knows if this'll work.
Leave a comment if you've tried this or think I should / shouldn't for any reason. It's all very exciting.
I got this in an email forward. Seems legit.
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the
removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer,ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
My brain doesn't seem to work things like this out very well. Lots of bewafflement.
Ooh, I put my contacts in without a mirror today. Easily. 
This is the birthday card I got from my uncle and aunt when I was about 3 or 4. It's awesome. It could actually be the possession I've owned for the longest. I'm going to think for a while and check that with my brain...
This was done when I was completely in control of all my senses.
It's a cheese grater (with a cowboy hat on) being propped up by top-hatted stickmen sliding down a slide whilst fishing in a stream for assorted extra-terrestrial objects.
Whoever makes up the best caption wins! I'm not sure what yet. Maybe an envelope.
You'd have thought Chloe would only sit in a chair with no seat once. Well, you'd be wrong. This is in Tom's room. The other one is in Nick's room.
I made this out of wire. Complete with stirrups. I let it choose its own name, which it hasn't told me yet. I live in hope.
When we (Jade, Lisa, Tom, Nick, Mike, Pete and me) went to Thorpe park Pete and Tom got attacked by security guards. That seems to be the only photo I took on that day. Silly me.
This adult drinking game sold in Poundland (for just £1! Bargain!) says you have to nominate the "ugliest player" to start. Oh the mirth.
I have one monitor, with another monitor on top. Upside-down.
FAQs
Where'd you get the other 1 from?
Engineering department was giving away free monitors.
Why?
Because I can
Seriously, why?
So I can see more music + MSN + the time.
Isn't the top 1 upside-down?
Yes, I just said that earlier. I have a magical NVidia program that turns it upside-down. It can go sideways too, tho that would be silly.
Is it safe?
Possibly 1 of the safest things in my room at the moment. It's a bit wobbly.
We went to a party where the dress code was "casual". Louis misheard and thought they said "stick loads of random objects to yourself with gaffer tape". Not really. But that would have been a funny story wouldn't it?
This is the famous largest sandwich in the world. And for all you people wondering, yes, I do have a big mouth.
Hannah and Becky came to Exeter last weekend and we saw Reindeer! Woo!
Tom + I got up for our 9am lecture and were visciously attacked by falling snow in our eyes and noses.
Ingerdients:
4 thick slices of hovis bread
Mayo
Patae
Sliced ham
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Honey
Cheese
Pasta sauce
2 packets of crisps
Stuff to add next time:
Margerine
Chicken nuggets
Burgers
Sausages
Burgers
Martmite
Noodles
Pasta
Yesterday I drove a minibus! That was fun. Then we went to Tesco. That was also fun.
O2 are now giving away their SIM cards for free (up to 4). These are the 300 texts a month free ones. Woo!
Hmmm...
Anyone want to buy my blog?
My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?
Soooo...
Yesterday was bowling. My record was just over 22mph. I wasn't going for points. Yesterday was also clocks going back day, which was nice.
The day before was breakdancing social at Timepiece. Twas awesome with dancing + suchlike. Go there now! We also turned a pumpkin into an uber-jack-o-lantern with dangerously wired up bulb + smoke machine pointing into the street.
Fryday was 9am lecture day. After that comes Community Action (CA), which was super-duper-fun! We took some kids swimming. I'm pretty good at kid throwing. We laterly got chips (with cheese!) then nearly went to the ram, but didn't.
Thursday was a big work day. More work than cheese in fact. Then we went clubbing at Arena, where my shoes were wrong.
Wednesday was squash day, followed by breakdancing.
Tuesday must have been something, but I don't remember what.
Monday was breakdancing with mats! I'm learning backflips. Slowly.
Before that is completely unknown. Today is the start of "reflection week", which means fewer lectures but more work. I believe the plan for today is Rileys, breakdancing, pub then houseparty, but is subject to change.
Rain is approaching so I better leave
The lesser-spotted Mike-Santa
Our Christmas tree - erected late October, just in time for Christmas.
One of Santa's little helpers.
Hey! It's just over a month until Christmas! Woo! Highly exciting!
Lots of random people walk by our house so we did a little Christmas dance. We also ended up inviting some of them to our Christmas party. Lots of people seem to like our lights and our Christmas Mike Santa.
Hmm. I've not photoed 4 ages. My puta tells me I have 665 photos that arent on the Interweb. I'll try 2 fix that today. Need lunch first tho.
In the mean time, try SnapFish. If that link doesn't work, try this one. For just 99p postage you get some free photos delivered. It has online photo storage / hosting too.
No internet for ages = no upblogdates + many emails. Fixed now.
Lots has happened since mid August. I have photographic evidence of some. Woo!
Mum (Alison) got married (to Adrian) and Dad (Martin) got married (to Gill). All very strange and confusing, but people seem to be getting happier, which is good.
We got a sale agreed on our house in Oakley Hill and my Mum's renting a place in Colehill. Dad's on honeymoon thing at moment, but living near Manchester after. People moving into Oakley Hill tomorrow, so today is last day!
I'm currently living in Colehill with Mum and Adrian but moving to Exeter in September.
Going on holiday to Barcelona from 7th to 11th, which should be awesome! Term starts on the 3rd Oct and I can give blood from the 4th. Then it's my birthday on the 9th Oct - hopefully going to Thorpe park! Woo!
That's all for now.
I finally have UK maps on my phone! Nokia mobile search is amazing and works on my 7610! The maps aren't quite as good as Google maps, but the interface is very good. Now I'll never be lost! I used 200k of bandwidth in a minute or two, so watch out for data costs.
This seems quite cool, but it would be better if it could text all your friends instead of emailing them: Let ALL your friends & family know you're ok with 1 text @ www.textOK.com. Profits go to chairty, which is nice. Basically, when someone bombs London, you text "OK
If your a random reader, wiggle over to Nick's blog and add a silly comment. He can't work out how to add new posts.
Alsoly, this is cheaper than Skype, but I haven't tried it yet.
I just found this video from Opsound. It's very cool. Watch it now. Yahoo also have a Creative Commons search thinggy.
More stuff: the new Apple computers may have hardware DRM. Bad badness.
Mobile Google Maps looks brilliant, but I haven't got it to work onmy Nokia 7610 on O2 UK yet. Poo.
The Open CD is very cool. Get it now.
The BBC have an interesting report on illegal music downloading. Coolness. I need to eat now.
Although most of my brain was awake last night it seems the spelling part was not. In other news I am the pancake master (from here).
I drank way too much coffee today so when I went to bed I couldn't sleep. I decided to get up and rewrite SPRAN. Now it's almost 5am and it's starting to get light.
I am now getting fairly good at handstands. I believe I'll be able to walk 10 hand-steps within a week! Then comes one-handed ones...
A good idea from 43folders:
Messy house? Always keep several get well cards on the mantel….. so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you’ve been sick and unable to clean.
Okay. Imagine a coffee cafetiere, which has the letters T.N.T. on it and instead of a normal plunger has a detonator-type plunger. Hannah got the idea after I told people the joke I stole from Eddie Izzard (I think) about a house down the street exploding whenever I make coffee. It's funny. Anyway, we're going to make them and become millionaires.
Update: They won't actually make anything explode, they're jsut normal cafetieres with TNT written on them for funnyness.
Anyone know the best way for me to get photos from my mobile phone (Nokia 7610) to blogger? Alsoly, I'm also adding technorati tags to my blog. If you don't know what that means then don't worry and eat more tuna.
The future seems to be getting closer now. Here's what may or may not happen:
Wow!
Last night we got back from the most amazing holiday ever!
Here's roughly what happened in super-quick sentences:
Fryday: Get on a plane to Franceland. Get 100mph taxi which drives on the wrong side of the road to hostel. Wiggle over to some food place and do some eating. See the Eiffel Tower in the distance and wobble generally towards it. Talk to funny French people who pretended not to understand Lisa's French and spilt beer on Alex. Then Alex and I pretended we didn't really know how to get back, when all along we knew exactly where were were. Managed to squeeze back to the hostel just before the curfew. Slept like a biscuit as it was quite hot, but not too hot.
Woke up at like 5am in the morning on Sat due to Sun being silly. Gradually woke up less then more and got up around 7am (still in the morning!) for knee-operated showers. Learnt the whole of the Paris metro system and did some underground zooming over to DISNEYLAND!
Got to Disneyland around 10am and went on lots of rides, ate lots of food. The bestest ride was probably Space Mountain. The Peter Pan ride was good too, but it was over too quickly. Got some photos with the real Disney characters! Went on more rides, got really hot + sleepy legs. Drank a normal amount and went to toilet a normal amount. Managed not to loose Jade and Lisa too much. Did shopping then sat on ground for 1 hour and got a numb bum - I need to eat more.
Then the parade started! I guess this was most probably easily the bestest bit EVER. I'll hoepfully put some photos on the Interweb soon. It was undescribeable, but I'll tell you what happened anyway. All the Disney peeps had huge car type devices with lots of lights on. Then people with lights on did funny dancing and stuff. I was so knackered (not a swear word I think: "Comes from the word we use for killing horses. A knacker is the person who kills the horses, thus the phrase 'bound for the knacker's yard' when something or someone is on its last legs." Who kills horses?) just before as I'd only got about 4 hours sleep and we'd been walking round for hours but the magical parade thinggymabob made be feel so alive and awake as a rabbit! Unfortunately we had to leave the magical land of Disney coz the metro stops at night. In real life we would have stayed there overnight but we didn't. We then twaddled back to Le Hostel de Aloha and had a mini party.
Did some turbo-sleeping on Sat night and woke up before 6am. Had shower then went to get breakfast for the girlies, but they were like "Meh, we'll get it later". Later we zig-zagged on the metro and went to the Loo (pronounced "loo". e.g. "Are you going to the loo?", "Wee!". Some English people were trying to say "Louvre"!) Went in the London Eye, which had got shrunk on transportation, and saw all the cool buildings n stuff. Had the yummiest crepe for lunch and did some more walking. Jade and Lisa's sillyness was increasing exponentially at this point. Did a little purchasing then went to MacDonalds where they serve beer!
We then toodled back to the hostel of sleeplessness and grabbed our stuff and diddled back to the flying plane, where we most un-cunningly missed dinner! Went to go duty free shopping, but couldn't coz of EU wotsit stuff. Poo. Got on the flying plane and was v.upset we had to leave. Saw lots of really small cars and buildings then landed in Southampton. Drove back with oil light on lotsly then got back around 11 and slept. Now it's like 4pm and I've only just got up.
Wow! It seems as tho this actually works! That's cool. I'm eating pasta now. I may blog from a pub l8r!
Super amazingly and 100% of the time now! Woo! I new she'd be back. I may have to post some action shots.
Hola! In total we have raised £229.03 by not drinking alcohol! The good news is that if you have any spare money then you can still give it to charity (like the Red Cross)! It only takes seconds and could save someone's life and mean you spend less on drinking so you don't have a hangover!
Woo-pah! We be going to Disneyland in THREE DAYS! In other news, Sarah and I gave blood today and got a free biscuit! In other news, if I was any faster I'd be a mango.
It's now official: I've just about officially recovered from the Summer Ball. Here's a breakdown of the events:
Hmmm... Snail mail means sending letters by physical post... What about actual snail mail? Send real life snails in the post! You'd need a parcle + some food for it . Possibly a gyroscope so it stays upright. Lots of shock absorbing too. I think it could be done... Who wants me to send them real snail mail? We could be on TV!
It's too hot to sleep, so I blog.
Chloe's party was last night. I drank an average amount but I acted like I'd had more, strangely. I opened a bottle of beer with a can of beer and now my finger has a big red line across it. My watch also slightly brokey was, but hey. We got an Abdula's on the way back and then I woke up. I woke up twice again later, then got up.
Pete & his American buddy, Kev, said "Hey Mr Dave, let's Stone henge it up!", so I was like drivey drivey drive in the hotness + we got there. The we looked at the stones. Then we went to Salisbury and saw the cathederal, got pizza (mmm. Pizza) and ice cream (mmm. Ice cream) and then went drivey drivey drive back here for Big Brother watching (we missed the quiz :-( ).
The F1 was like blargh, so Nikey and Mikey may be rich now. Then I got bored so we watched Naked Gun. Now is now, where I'm typing this. After this, I shall be sleeping, if I can.
Tomorrow I need to:
I'm not sure how this will turn out. A while ago I got a nigerian email scam spam email. I thought I'd reply. Read the comments to see what's happened so far...
Yesterday I put zillions of photos on here. My blog will now take ages to load. There's lots more over there. Leave a comment if you want any photos explained.
.jpg)
