• 07Feb

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

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  • 07Feb

    #polyphasicsleep Day 2

    It’s after 1am, and here I am, 48 hours “in”. I’m surviving quite well.

    Naps

    My 10am nap was great, and 4pm was perfect (I awakened about 15 seconds before the timer went off!). At 10pm, though, I was awake for 5 minutes or more before I finally fell asleep. Oh, that sounds pretentious, huh? Please understand: normally, if I toss and turn for 5-10 minutes, I get up. If I’m tossing/turning even the slightest bit, then I’m not sleepy enough to go to bed. Emil and I have always joked that I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow. I’ve done that my whole life, so any time spent trying to fall asleep is frustrating.

    Challenge

    My biggest challenge today was to stay focused on any sitting/thinking activities. If I’m moving around (photo shoots, errands), or with a group of people (#roundrockjelly or our Settlers of Catan group), I’m fine. I don’t notice any feeling of tired or sleepy. It’s when I sit in front of this giant monitor that resembles a tv—something I love to fall asleep to—that I struggle a little. And, little is the right word. It’s a little bit of a struggle. I still only feel like I was up late last night….and not at all like I’ve only had 11 hours of sleep across two days.

    My other biggest challenge so far when it comes to sleeping is that I can’t always turn my brain off. Ideas and thoughts and words are buzzing through my head. If I can clear my mind, I fall fast asleep.

    Alarms

    After Emil did me the favor of some research, I downloaded Alarm Clock Pro and set some sha-weet alarms for my computer. In each case, they raise the volume to the Mac and iTunes, display an alarm notice on the screen, and play music from a playlist I selected. They can also do a bunch of other things like sending emails and text messages, too. The alarms telling me to go to bed are soft and gentle. The ones telling me to wake up start gently and work their way up to peppy before they become obnoxious. I hope that this will get me used to waking up on my own (or at least while the sounds are still fairly quiet) so that I’m as little of a disruption to Emil as possible.

    Future

    I think my biggest problem with the timing will be the 10pm nap. Whether it’s our favorite tv shows or a night out with friends, I’m going to have to take a break from it. Everything I’ve read says you can postpone a nap for up to about an hour, but that skipping them requires a lot of catch up. I’m also working out a plan for how I can nap at 4pm and then 10pm during the next wedding I have where portraits start at 3:30 and we should be home from the event by 10:30. The good thing about multiple photographers at weddings is that I have someone to lean on. So, my current plan is to nap early and then late.

    Ideals

    Once I’m used to this and can focus a little better, this should result in more time for me for reading, more time for As You Wish for editing and marketing, and more time for Emil and our home. There are literally hundreds of items on my todo list at any point. They are all things I need and/or want to do. This should help me make a bigger dent in several aspects of my life.

    No Concerns

    Before I go on, I should clarify: if you do the research, you won’t see any negative health concerns. Again, huge numbers of people do this for their profession or so that the third shift worker can pick up the kids from school or whatever. And, from what I’ve read, it’s just about as difficult to switch back to monophasic sleep as it is to convert to polyphasic. So, the body can adapt. Besides, Emil’s always been polyphasic, just by a few hours at a time instead of in 20-minute increments! LOL.

    Hopes

    If this works and I can adjust, my hope is that my sleep cycle shifts down to just 3 hours (2-5am or 3-6am) so I can squeeze one more hour out of it. My theory is that I lived on 5 hours of sleep each night in college…and of course, hardly any of that was good sleep. So, if I’m getting 5 hours per day now, then I can work down to 4 total and get the same quality of sleep. Waking up ahead of the alarm at 5:20 this morning proved me right, in my mind, at least.

    [You can find our thread about polyphasic sleep on Twitter by searching for the hashtag, #polyphasicsleep.]

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  • 06Feb

    Polyphasic Sleeping

    Poly Who What?

    I’ve begun a polyphasic sleeping routine known as the Everyman. There is a ton of information available via Google; and Dustin Curtis offers a great article with good visuals. The gist is this, we cycle in and out of REM sleep throughout the time we are sleeping. REM is the good quality sleep we need. So, the standard eight hours of sleep is very wasteful. Napping every few hours is far more efficient and will teach your body to get “just” REM sleep instead of wasting time drifting in/out of REM.

    Why

    I’ve been without enough time for too many years. I’ve given up too many things that I want to do for the sake of others, be they professional or personal obligations or just my nature to put others ahead of myself. I’ve missed reading the most.

    So, a few months ago, when I learned about polyphasic sleeping (via @maczter in #AWTWX), I was intrigued. I wanted to try it, but I’ve never been a very good napper. I wake up with a nap “hangover” that is far worse than going without sleep. (The only advice I’ve ever had on this is that I nap for too long. Since I don’t like napping, it has never been intentional. Thus, I didn’t have an alarm.) Anyway, I wanted to try it, but felt I needed a accountability/support buddy, so I put out a call on Twitter. No takers. Twice. :(

    How

    During that time I gained confidence. I thought about all the people who use this method of sleeping: military personnel, medical staff, shift workers. When you think about it, there are lot of them. No wonder Wal-Mart can be busy at 3am (so I hear). Well if all those people can do it, I can, too! After all, I had already reduced my caffeine by a lot.

    Over the next few weeks, I kept thinking I wanted to try this. At a #AWTWX blogging session, it came up again. I said I needed a buddy and just as @maczter was declining the opportunity to be on the phone with another man’s wife at 3am, I realized that a buddy is ideal, but terribly unrealistic. They’d have to want/need the exact same schedule as me. So, while @maczter and @jeremya started that very day, I designed my schedule and then waited a couple of days for my schedule to settle around the key nap times.

    The advice is to go cold turkey rather than phasing in. It supposedly takes most people about a week to adjust. The good news for me is that I already fall asleep quickly and soundly and enter REM almost immediately.

    I picked 2am-6am for my sleep time. I know I can stay up until 2am pretty easily, but 3am seemed too much of a challenge on a daily basis. Ditto on the other end. I’ve had to get up at 6am on a regular basis before. While it’s terribly difficult, I can do it. I know myself, though. I know that if my wake up time was 5am that I’d end up snoozing (a giant no-no of polyphasic sleeping) and then would ruin my plan.

    Spinning off a pattern that @maczter selected, I picked nap times at 10am, 4pm, and, 10pm.  10am is a tad early, but it gives me time to have an early morning appointment and then nap and gives me time to nap and then go to one of my many 11am-ish meetings. 4pm is the same thing, but on the other end. I can have afternoon appointments and then have my nap before Emil gets home from work. 10pm is in the middle of the rest of the time I’m awake for the “day”.

    6:00 AM - wake
    7:00 AM -
    8:00 AM -
    9:00 AM -
    10:00 AM - nap
    11:00 AM -
    12:00 PM -
    1:00 PM -
    2:00 PM -
    3:00 PM -
    4:00 PM - nap
    5:00 PM -
    6:00 PM -
    7:00 PM -
    8:00 PM -
    9:00 PM -
    10:00 PM - nap
    11:00 PM -
    12:00 AM -
    1:00 AM -
    2:00 AM - sleep
    3:00 AM - sleep
    4:00 AM - sleep
    5:00 AM - sleep

    When

    Day 1

    I planned on beginning this on Friday night, but then Thursday night, I was up until 2am working on some bridal images. By that time, I knew I could adjust Friday to fit, so I took advantage. I went to be at 2am and then got up at 7am when Emil’s alarm went off. It’s not quite cold turkey, but was far better than 6am for an impromptu start. At 10am, I wasn’t yet sleepy, but forced myself to nap. I actually entered REM.

    Friday is always a very busy day for me. Between #roundrockjelly and an afternoon portrait session in downtown Austin, my day was full. It kept me busy and I didn’t feel sleepy at all. Even when my 4pm nap rolled around, I was awake for the whole thing.

    We met Hilarie for happy hour. A little bit of alcohol was a little sleep-inducing, but I had no problem making it to my 10pm nap. And, for one of the only times in my life, I awoke from that nap refreshed.

    1am was a different story. I was getting a little fuzzy brained and didn’t want to do any real work for fear of messing something up. I watched a movie (Analyze This) and was dozing briefly near the end. Emil was so supportive. He had texted me at 4pm to wish me a good nap, and he stayed up with me until 2am to make sure I didn’t fall asleep.

    Day 2

    I awoke at 5:20am today. I wasn’t bright-eyed and busy-tailed, so I went back to sleep. I regret that. I should have gotten up ahead of the alarm. Instead, 6am caught me in the middle of REM (I think) and made it much harder to awaken.

    This first hour+ while I’ve written this post has been hard. I could easily go back to bed. But, it’s not much harder for me than being at work at 7 or 8am used to be. And, it’s only downhill from here.

    Now, I have to go out and get moving. I think I’ll take care of laundry and groceries.

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  • 31Jan

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-31

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  • 24Jan

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-24

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  • 22Jan

    Dreams through Groupon in just 4 days

    Wow. What a week it has been! And it’s just Thursday.

    1. Tuesday was our (mine and Beth’s) little Taste of Dream Dinners party. As You Wish provided updated headshots/avatars to those in attendance. Another friend, Victoria sold her necklaces. It was small, but valuable for each of us involved. I have been too slow at getting those images processed.
    2. Wednesday, I was “it” at my monthly Brainstormers group. I presented a problem: how to market to school-age kids, Tweens, and teens and their parents. Through a process that adheres to the rules of Brainstorming, I was literally bouncing up and down at all the fabulous ideas. I can’t wait to implement some of them. I was also happy to see that my brainstorming topic was one that could apply to a lot of the members of the group.
    3. Thursday morning I had an interview for a great job—-I’ve kept my job search a bit on the down-low, I’ve had enough bad bosses/jobs thankyouverymuch [1]—-as an Education Coordinator…but as it turns out, it has a 75% travel time. I could easily be gone Monday-Friday for three weeks of every month. If I get an offer from them, we will have to consider it very carefully.
    4. Thursday all day, As You Wish was the Groupon.com deal of the day for Austin. As of this writing, I have 90 portrait sessions from new clients for the Austin area! And, my business name has been in front of 44,000+ Austin members today. In addition, I also got a new Senior Ambassador, and I sold a Womb-to-Bloom portrait series that includes a maternity session, newborn session, 3-6-9 month sessions, and a first birthday session complete with balloons and CAKE! (Maybe #3 isn’t so important, after all…?). Whew! Late in the day, I learned that a potential bride and a close friend were on the list of those who purchased Groupons. Thank you, both. You “warm the cockles of my cockles”. [2] Ack! I just checked again and it’s up to 95!!

    There have been several other happy moments this week: I was selected to serve on two committees for the Nuptial Essentials Association of Wedding Professionals; I’m going to be working with great folks on both of those! And, my new friend, Hilarie, gave me some excellent feedback on a challenging aspect of my website, which I took to heart and applied fully. Just a few days later, I was able to return the favor to her in the form of reviewing her “audition” piece for a graphic design job. She was pleased with the feedback and genuinely considered my thoughts. She and I are on to something, here… There were others, too. It’s been a week of amazing moments.

    When will my world stop spinning? I can only handle this adrenaline rush for a little while longer. At the same time, it sure is a spinning a web of happiness; a web that I know will catch me when I fall.

    “If my friends could see me, now!” Oh wait; you can! You just did!

    Oh, and BTW, adrenaline and/or sheer excitement is an easy fix for a caffeine dependency. I’ve barely had any today and have hardly noticed. How do I get THAT side effect more often

    Happy Weekend, everyone!

    [1] Do’ort’y the Lawsuit, Poopy CapeHard, Kevin Jack-off-some, REEX, and Urinal Guava
    [2] “warms the cockles of my cockles” I’ve been looking for that reference for years. If you can give me the original reference for this quote, I’ll give you a free portrait session of your choosing (for those nearby) and/or a free design for Valentine’s or other holiday cards (for those far-far away).
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  • 17Jan

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-17

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  • 12Jan

    Your Mom sends Texts

    Here is a texting conversation between me, and let’s say, someone named Charlie:

    Jan 12 8:07am CHARLIE: Eww my finger stinks. What should I do?

      Jan 12 8:08am ME: Ask someone else to smell it.

    Jan 12 8:09am CHARLIE: Is that a paid service?

      Jan 12 8:10am ME: Kinda. They will either smell it or pull it. They will not wash it though.

    Jan 12 8:12am CHARLIE: Hmmm well maybe i should ask your mom then?

      Jan 12 8:14am ME: Sure…oh wait, your mom just rolled over in bed and said she would take care of it. Once she is through with her business though.

    Jan 12 8:16am CHARLIE: What are you doing still in bed?

      Jan 12 8:16am ME: That is kind of personal. You should ask your mom.
      Jan 12 8:18am ME: Are you off today or just waisting tax payers maoney?

    Jan 12 8:24am CHARLIE: I’m pulling into work, which if you are going to be my new daddy, you should be doing too and not lounging around in bed!

      Jan 12 8:26am ME: I have been at work since you started all this. I expect a super father’s day gift this year….

    Jan 12 8:26am CHARLIE: Ass
    Jan 12 8:28am CHARLIE: So ill see you at rosa’s around 11:45?

      Jan 12 8:29am ME: So, you started with smelly finger and end with ass. I think you have answered your own question. Yeah, we will be at Rosa, but closer to noon.

    So, there ends another successful word exchange using modern technology.

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  • 10Jan

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-10

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  • 03Jan

    Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-03

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