Kitty snores too

a lot

Dreamstates

I've decided to outline this in more detail than mere mentions, mostly
for my own "compleat reference" should I ever want this list again.

Note: I have no sleeping disorders. But I do have a very strong and
creative dreamstate that often enjoys intermingling with my waking
state, as outlined below.

1. When I get tired, I literally have five minutes or less to get my
butt in bed or I fall asleep wherever I am. It's reminiscent of
narcolepsy, but it isn't that, because it generally occurs only around
my bedtime and when it doesn't it's when I did NOT sleep very well for
a few days. I am fully aware (often I can still hear what's going on
around me) when this occurs but can do nothing to stop it.

2. I've dreamt while I was still awake, and often I'm aware that I'm
asleep. When I was a kid, I was tested for epilepsy after seeing
shapes dancing around when I was awake, but they ruled it out saying
maybe I'd grow out of it. Now I know it was my dreamstate
experimenting with daylight.

3. Once I adjust to a sleeping schedule, I can wake up one minute
before the alarm goes off, or I can wake up and think, "Three, two,
one..." [alarm sounds]

4. The one sleeping schedule I can't seem to adjust to is staying up
all night, regularly. My body prefers to wake up naturally to
creeping daylight, which is actually pretty normal I think.

5. I've occasionally focused on a problem before bed and had the
answer appear to me while I'm sleeping. When this occurs, I'm very
aware of what the answer is for and that I need to remember it, and I
do.

6. I can sometimes control my dreams (lucid dreaming). It tends to
happen in spurts - i.e., a few nights in a row with long spells in
between. I suspect that for me it depends on current interests.

7. Most of my dreams are vivid, colourful, silent, emotionless, and
very symbolic. Typically I feel like I'm an observer, even when
participating; the participation is how I find information to
observe. Conversations can exist but I don't hear them or see mouths
moving; I only get the understanding of what the person is "saying"
and how I'm responding.

8. I find that remembering my dreams depends on at least one of the
following in my waking life: a) I'm very emotional about something,
regardless of the involved emotion; b) I'm feeling spiritual or having
"ah ha" moments of realisation; c) I'm working on a problem; d) I'm
learning a new subject, idea, etc - i.e., figuring something out; e)
my sleeping schedule is stable.

9. Once I'm asleep, it can be impossible to wake me up. I've slept
through a snake being draped around my neck, loud noises, someone
knocking on my door (which was only about five feet from my sleeping
self), and people shaking me to get me to wake up. However, I will
readily wake up to a fire alarm, alarm clock (usually and only if I
don't wake up before it goes off), and an unfamiliar presence or scent
in the room.

10. I have spoken in my sleep (sometimes carrying on my side of a
conversation I don't later remember), and while I don't recall
actually sleepwalking, I have somehow managed to roll myself up in a
blanket so my arms were bound to my sides, then fell asleep bent up so
half of my weight was on the top of my head. That time I honestly
thought some weird sicko had broken into my house and did that to me
because I couldn't figure out how I could do it to myself (I lived
alone). I've also fallen asleep while chatting online, and have typed
out things I can't remember dreaming about, much to the fear and
amusement of friends.

11. I do snore. Regularly. And I toss and turn a lot, but I feel
very rested despite this provided I'm permitted my full 6-8 hours of
sleep.

You might be a geek (or at least a bit odd) if...

You realize that you're happy because you see your handwriting going
uphill and then you have to blog about it.

lymph nodes!!

Yayyyyy!!!!! I was right!! They ARE swelling because of bug bytes!!
*not surprised but relieved to know it's common*

http://www.plateaupediatrics.com/lymphnodeinfo.html

See, every year I go through this. Mosquitoes come around, byte me on
the head, huge lump, then two little lymph nodes on the left side of
my neck just at the hairline swell up into little lumps. At first I
didn't know they were nodes but consultation with anatomy pictures
showed me that's what they probably were, which made sense given venom
was making its way through the area.

Yesterday I was driving along and felt an itchy zing on my head. I
reached back and scratched and felt something under my nail. It was a
tiny ant! By the time I got to my destination I had this almond-sized
lump on the back of my head, and today I've got the two node lumps.
Who would have figured a tiny ant could do that...

~nv

Windows 7 vs Mac

32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate running in VMWare Fusion with an allocated
1GB RAM on a late-2006 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 3GB RAM and
a "few" apps open in Leopard. I let 7 install occur while I was at
work today, it was more than ready when I got home. A bit sluggish
with 1GB (could open basics but games seem to hang in this
environment) but it's got a nice look and it /does/ work. I might
tweak the VM with another half gig and see how it does. Currently
it's eating 7GB of hard drive space. Leopard is running smoothly
despite hours of this torture. The extra gig I installed a few months
ago may not have been as useful as I'd thought it would be, but I have
faith that it's sped things up somewheres. Maybe for heavy PS
editing? ::shrug::

Windows (running under Fusion in Unity mode):
System Info
Calculator
Paint (they've finally improved it)
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Media Player
Sticky notes

Leopard:
Mail
Firefox
System Preferences, Disk Utility, Activity Monitor, Network Utility
(tiny apps)
Fusion (mediumun)
Team Viewer
CS 3 (biggun)
iPhoto (biggun)
Tux Paint (fun drawing toy)
Xee
GarageBand (biggun)
iTunes (mediumun)
Audacity
Dashboard

Mom's writing

Knowing that Mum doesn't read my blogs (or if she does, she's never
mentioned it), I emailed her about the driving thing I just blogged
about. As I clicked "Send," I had to giggle to myself. Mum's writing
is very short and precise, like a newspaper article, usually. She
hates flowery crap. Me being a flowery writer at times, I often find
myself re-writing my emails to her in an attempt to remove anything
not pertinent to the conversation.

So, first I blogged the driving experience, then I re-read it and
wrote the email to her entirely from scratch, pulling just the more
important bits and pieces from the blog. It basically came out like a
revved-up version of this:

I can drive standard! I was popping the clutch the whole time. Dale
explained that I should ease out instead. Focused on that. Whammo,
got it.

Okay, it was closer to four short paragraphs because I was still so
excited about it and wanted it to read like at least part of me was in
there, but, you get the point.

Sometimes, it's kinda hard to be so expressive. LOL.

~nv

Standard!!

I CAN DRIVE STANDARD!!

Yesterday Dale took me to an old parking lot for another session with
his Acura RSX, which I'd been dreading because I'd stalled the car so
many times last year despite the successes. I was doing horribly at
first (my interpretation) but Dale and my subconscious simply wouldn't
let me quit again. So, after several more stalls, Dale said, "You're
popping the clutch!" I was like, "Eh?" and he said, "I saw it that
time. That's why the car jerks forward like that." He didn't
immediately offer me a solid way to avoid that, but it hit home and I
figured it out myself: I was so worried about my heavy right foot
that I hardly paid attention to my left other than to get it hovering
near the letout point. Then when I thought I started to feel it roll,
I'd pop the clutch, realize I'd given it too much gas, the car would
lurch, I'd pull off the gas in a panic, and before my left foot would
push the clutch back in, the poor thing would go, "WTF are you
DOING?!?" and stall on me.

So the next 10 times or whatever it was, I focused primarily on my
left foot. EASY, I told it, as the car began rolling, and I ignored
my right foot completely, letting it do its own thing. Suddenly it
all made complete sense to me. Dale told me the worst that would
happen is I'd peel out and THAT IS OKAY, but believe it or not, I did
not peel out. It's like my right foot knew how to compensate all
along, and I never gave it a chance to prove itself.

Now that I've experienced the feeling and can duplicate it over and
over and over, I fully understand what Dale kept drilling into me
about conditions affecting how you start. The process isn't something
that can be boxed and wrapped into a tidy little package. It's a
mechanical balance and unless you can sense that balance in your body,
you ain't going nowhere. It's one of those things like blowing a gum
bubble. Until you get it yourself, it just seems like some elusive
irregular pattern.

Not to say I'm a perfect standard driver now, but I can get into first
gear sooooooooooo much easier now that I've got that intuitive
understanding. I'm now sure that if there was an emergency, I could
drive that little bugger. Might be scary due to inexperience, but I
can do it. And early on I understood shifting and how to stop, so
other than practicing more and learning how to go in reverse, I think
I'm all good. My aim now is to do more of this so I'm comfortable
with it and can drive in traffic without fear. In other words, I want
experience like I eventually had with my truck, and to occasionally
drive it around to maintain that comfort level and subject myself to
new experiences. OMG, let me tell you, that little car handles so
well. As I was excitedly telling Dale (as if he doesn't already know
his own car) - it's so... NIMBLE!!! I quickly found myself turning
around without going all around the lot, because that thing has such
an awesomely smaller turning radius than Dante does. There are things
I'd never try with Dante that, for Dale's car, is the norm. Soooooo
different.

Anywho, I'm excited. :)

~nv