Blargh

So much work! So little what ever that word is that means I'm not lazy.

• Microprocessor group stuff for Fryday or later if we get an extension (which we hopefully don't really need).
• Lots of networking stuff for Fryday, which will take lots of time. I'll be drinking coffee instead of beer tonight I think.
• Networking report for January.
• Bioinformatics for January.
• Apply for jobs by some time soon.
• Do loads of odd jobs n stuff.

The good news is that I have about 5 hours of remixed Christmas music, with more on its way! More good news is that I have loads of bananas an apples so i wont go hungry.

No strange dreaming last night as far as I can tell.

Can I have 1/4 kg of coffee in under a week? It's a challenge but I think I can do it. Place bets below.

More weird dreaming

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.

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.

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.

The weird bit this time was knowing I was awake but definately not being able to move. This is called sleep paralysis or hypnagogic paralysis. Wikipedia says it's not too great, as it's geting out of REM sleep too quickly. More stuff here. More Wikipedia says it's actually OK. I've had 2 of the 3 symptoms (apart from the daytime sleep) of nacolepsy. Should I be worried? I'm not.

It seems strange getting into REM sleep in about 10 mins in normal monophasic sleep. There's a chance it was just stage 4 NREM, tho I doubt it.

The paralysis was unusual too. Last time I thought I was alseep but couldn't wake up. This time I didn't try to wake up straight away. I actually tried to stay asleep and change my dream. I believe I managed to wake fairly instantly when I chose to (tho I can't be sure) but was paralysed for around 30 seconds.

The paralysis wasn't scary as I could think what I wanted. I just waited, knowing I'd be able to move in a short while. I think I could open my eyes and bite my tongue first. It was annoying not being able to move my arms.

If this happens again then I'll try really hard to stay asleep. I'll try to create new things in my dream as blackness is a bit boring. As I was getting to sleep before I seemed to be wake inducing a lucid dream (wiki). This seemed like hours before, after I'd woken up, but it must have been just minutes.

If anyone has any similar experiences then please share them. Also if you have any related links or thoughts / suggestions.

I dream of dreaming

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.

Unprecedented levels of awesomity

(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!

Polyphasic sleep

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.

Important announcement from the EC

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.

Signs that make you go "hmmm"

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. 

My favourite card

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... 

I bet even your dreams aren't this random

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. 

Magic

I'm sure this noramlly doesn't work. Water usually falls down. Ah well. 

Cheese me

What a wonderful world we live in. Now I just need to find one in the UK. 

Make up a caption!

Whoever makes up the best caption wins! I'm not sure what yet. Maybe an envelope. 

Mmmmm burger

They make good burgers in Egham 

 

Such an unusual chair

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. 

The wire horse of doom

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. 

For all the world to see

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. 

Drinking in Poundland

This adult drinking game sold in Poundland (for just £1! Bargain!) says you have to nominate the "ugliest player" to start. Oh the mirth. 

This was highly errorfull. Like that time I forgot how to sit down. 

My current monitor situation

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.

 

The unusual fashion sense of the Looloo

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? 

Word record holding sandwich

This is the famous largest sandwich in the world. And for all you people wondering, yes, I do have a big mouth. 

Reindeer! (or however it's spelt)

Hannah and Becky came to Exeter last weekend and we saw Reindeer! Woo! 

More snow!

Tom + I got up for our 9am lecture and were visciously attacked by falling snow in our eyes and noses. 

Snow!

 

Bookmarks / Favourites

Here be all my

Yesterday I got about 30 emails from people wanting to buy Exeter uni safer sex ball tickets. I don't have any.

Today I had 1kg of lasagne for supper and have drank way too much coffee. Possibly 100g of espresso beans.

World's largest sandwich?

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.

Free O2 SIMs

O2 are now giving away their SIM cards for free (up to 4). These are the 300 texts a month free ones. Woo!

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

Hmmm...

Anyone want to buy my blog?

My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?