Monday 14 April 2003

Pic of the day: Sunset at the Chaos Node.

Too much sleep ...

... and too little alcohol. According to a comrade in high school, this was the root of all his problems. He was also a heathen (and a member of the Heathen Society of Norway), a proud sinner and one of the guys I got along with the best. I was a Christian fundamentalist, so we knew where we had each other. A good enemy is better than an uncertain friend, so it sometimes seems. I also like the expression used by Petronia (or is that Sabina?) when talking about the anime Hikaru no Go: Touya fell in rivalry with Hikaru. She seems to disbelieve that anyone can fall in rivalry, actually, but she still deserves credit for bringing me that beautiful expression.

As you may guess, I am associating wildly here, because I slept away the day. Well, the workday at least; then I played Dark Age of Camelot, and ate (I am usually extra hungry when I am almost out of food, and I hadn't bought groceries for more than the weekend) and then I slept again.

My body reacts to stress by not sleeping in the night, but it sleeps so much better during office hours. Especially if I am not actually at the workplace. The trick is too fall asleep so early in the morning that you could not reasonably go to work, but so late that you sleep through most of the workday despite the loud blaring of your clock radio, trying in vain to wake you up with lively music and news of wars and SARS.

It is a quite efficient strategy from my body too, because work is the only real stress in my life. I live all alone, so being at home is virtually paradise. (While I am sure real paradise is even better, I wouldn't say no to spending an eternity like this either.) Recently, I don't even have the Catwoman to stress me with ICQ anymore, as she has hared off on some adventure without ICQ access. Consequently I have disabled the program. It felt a little strange at first to not have anyone mew at me in the middle of the night, but I soon got used to it again. (For some reason, the ICQ's default incoming message sound reminds me of nothing as much as a cat mewing. Perhaps it is just me.) Anyway, it hasn't helped me get more sleep in the night.

Oh, and too little alcohol? I seem to forget drinking alcoholic soda, even though I have a couple bottles in my fridge. After reading the thorough article in Scientific American about the health benefits of moderate alcohol use, I have sincerely tried to drink a glass every day. But it keeps slipping my mind, or I just don't feel like it. Of course, those who feel like it will probably have a hard time stopping at one glass. So I may have drawn the better part of the wishbone after all.

Sometimes it seems I do that a lot, don't I?