More polyphase twiddling

Not content with the early-morning grogginess I was experiencing on my pentaphasic schedule (four 20-minute naps plus one core of roughly 3 hours), I decided to try what is known in the polyphasic community as "Dymaxion Sleep." A term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller, this schedule consists of four evenly-spaced naps of 30 minutes each. After four days of it, however, I am finding that I still gravitate toward a core sleep between the hours of 4 and 7 am. Not that big of a deal, I suppose. I'm actually doing a bit of free-running sleep with this new schedule, trying to find what nap hours give me the most satisfying rest. Hopefully these will be kind enough to mesh well with my school schedule, which has recently been cut back to only my logic class after I determined that I simply will not be able to hack taking Precalc as a single course. Even with Jeff as a tutor, the class just. moves. too. fast. As much as I despise admitting defeat, having only one class 3x a week does allow me a bit more ease in monkeying with my sleep patterns, as well as freeing up time for other things, such as, possibly, a job. Jury's still out on that one, as I still have a godawful load of crap here to sell on eBay, should I ever be able to once again muster the gumption to list. Don't know why I so despise the process...but I do. Perhaps after my mid-November trek north. I usually return from a vacation, even a miniature one, with renewed gusto for such unpleasantness. We shall see...

In any event, I'm thinking that if I can settle myself into a reasonably structured sleep schedule that keeps my energy levels where I want them, I just might be able to hold down a part-time job of some little import. I've always wanted a book store job, for example. If I can ensure that all of my shifts are 6 hours or less (which, if given as a limitation going in, shouldn't be much of a problem for a part-timer), things should work out fine. The other thought I had was to return to my inventory job, but...although I know from experience that that sort of work doesn't go well with a monophasic sleep schedule, I also realize that any strict sort of polyphase is not the answer, either, due to the "you're stuck inside until it's over" nature of most inventories. A third option which presented itself just the other day was a "casual" Postal Service employee. You're not a member of the Postal Service, so, no benes, but it pays absurdly well, if erratically. One final thought that I've been toying with for quite a while is applying at Starbucks. It's not really a place where I think I'd have all that much temptation to indulge, and apparently even PT employees receive benefits. Not such a bad thing, really, as long as I think I can handle the mundanity of the work and my own lack of interest in the "culture" (if I dare call it that).

Material posessions

The parking lot of our warehouse complex was paved last week. Ever since then, I've been meaning to get out and rollerblade around it; I love blading on freshly laid asphalt. I have a really nice set of genuine Rollerblades that I bought, gads, when I was 19. They still roll as smoothly as the day I got them. They look like hell today, because they've been participating in the warehouse's controlled fiberglass dust collection system for the last two years. But as I brought them out and dusted them off, I was still proud of my purchase, and had cause to ponder how wonderful it is to have really nice stuff that looks like crap. My dad was always big on maintaining the appearances of things, I think mostly for resale value. But I tend to keep things until they die, so I'd rather they take on a certain, er, patina. I don't want people coveting my stuff. I want them to think it's crap, so they leave it, and me, alone. Meanwhile I have a wonderful [whatever] to use without concern. It kinda bums me out that I can't make my beloved DSLR look like a piece of crap. I'd worry about it a lot less if I could.

But anyway. Unfortunately, not all parts of my rollerblades' composition have fared as well as the bearings and wheels. When I cinched the right ankle support up this morning, I only put it one click into the ratchet mechanism, and then moved on to my other boot. As I was lacing up the left, I felt the right one let loose, and thought that, since I'd only gone as far as the first click, I'd probably missed it, or got it cross-threaded, and it had sprung free. Imagine my surprise when I looked back over at it, and realized that the plastic of the ankle support had just snapped, back behind the ratchet mechanism. Major bummer, as, these 'blades without ankle support are, well, a challenge, to say the least. When I grabbed the two halves & tried to wrestle them back together, thinking maybe there would be some other way to connect them, the back split, right up the center attachment holes! Disgusted by the deteriorated state of the plastic, I ripped the matching piece off of the left skate without even trying to buckle it. It didn't put up much resistance, so I don't imagine I caused it a particularly premature demise. Then I rolled into the bathroom (no easy feat) and grabbed the vet wrap. Unfortunately, said vet wrap is veeeeery old, so it was much gooier than it should have been. In the end, though, it served the purpose, even if I did wind up with sticky purple fingers. It wasn't nearly as tight as it should have been, though, so my skating was cut a bit short by sore ankles. I can't feel them right now, but I'm sure tomorrow morning I'll wonder who went after them with a brickbat. I've found some satin binding tape that I believe will have less give, so I'll give that a shot next. Ideally I was thinking of using some of Jeff's retired toe straps, but they all seem to have buggered off.

In all, I'm still pleased with my 'blades; they're a blast to skate, and I really shouldn't have gone so long without using them. Bonus: if there would have been anyone inclined to be covetous of them when they were intact but scruffy, there will be no one at all interested in them once they're held together with brown satin. :)

Academics Anonymous

This is toooo freakin' funny. I stumbled across the concept of hypertext fiction/nonfiction "books" when Jeff & I were touring the Technologies of Writing exhibit at the Harry Ransom Galleries in Austin. I've only just now gotten round to looking into the phenomenon, however. In so doing, I've stumbled across the Academics Anonymous document. Unfortunately, the preface page appears to be out of commission, but the remainder of the document seems intact. Here's the home page:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~djr/pages/writer/books/html/addictions/aa-tc.html

I really enjoyed reading through some of the diagnoses & drugs indicated therefor, but didn't totally lose it until I hit this page:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~djr/pages/writer/books/html/addictions/aa-ami6.html

And this one, especially the end...ouch!
http://home.olemiss.edu/~djr/pages/writer/books/html/addictions/aa-ami18.html

Eeeeyup. My name's Michelle, and I'm an addict. :D