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Archive for February, 2010

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28

Sunday, 2010-February-28 by

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Many of you will remember our Bryan neighbors, Paul & Victoria Springer. They used to be as into Hallowe’en as we were so on the years when our parties would sync up, we’d all wander to their party and their guests would all wander over to our’s. They had the keg of beer, we had queso and kitty litter cake. Win-win and much fun. Paul spent a couple of years teaching at West Point while Victoria finished some courses and started her research. Eventually, she moved up there with him and then they re-located to Alabama.

Well, Paul wrote a book and it’s currently in pre-sales and scheduled for a March release.

Congratulations, Paul!!!

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Candlelight Vigil

Thursday, 2010-February-25 by

Last week’s #ATXplanecrash hit close to home, literally. It occurred just a couple of “highway” blocks south of where we live. I was home, never heard a boom, and didn’t see any smoke.

Twitter was our source for information. I learned of it first, there (just like I did of Michael Jackson’s death) and Re-Tweeted significant information so that our friends would see it, too.

It was a bit surreal and resurrected tragedies in my life—the Paris tornado (1982), Hurricane Andrew (1992), Aggie Bonfire (1999), and yes, the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks—only on a much smaller scale. The day’s news blurbs via Twitter and local network streaming were even a little reminiscent of the Columbine tragedy.

Tomorrow night, our friends—@kimhollenshead, @laniar, and @bennrosales—are hosing a Candlelight Vigil in memory and honor of those affected. True to the open-minded and welcoming style of Austin, it’s a secular not-quite-”Kumbaya”-but-with-that-spirit event that is designed only to bring the community together in the aftermath of a tragedy. If you are in Austin, please join us:

#ATXplanecrash site
Candlelight Vigil
25-Feb-2010
6:15pm
BYO candles
across 183 in the Gateway Lawn

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#snOwMG Austin

Wednesday, 2010-February-24 by
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

Sunday, 2010-February-21 by

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#polyphasicsleep Day 11

Monday, 2010-February-15 by

I hit another wave of some #polyphasicsleep challenges.

I can nap easily and hit REM sleep almost instantly, now. I even start to feel a little sleepy ~40 minutes before each nap.

Staying up until 3am has been tough for these last couple of days, though. So, I’ve been going to sleep at ~1:30. Now, this is still way better than 11:30ish in terms of adding hours to my day. However, it seems my body is still adjusting.

Now that I’ve added all this time, I have to re-balance my time. For example, I can watch “my” tv in the afternoon, but if I wait until after Emil goes to sleep to try to watch stuff he doesn’t care for, I’m more likely to fall asleep before my 2:30 or 3am bedtime. There are also a lot of Internet things I used to do during the day that I now need to move to the wee hours.

So, I’m not really struggling…just still mixing things up to suit the new lifestyle.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14

Sunday, 2010-February-14 by

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Tweaking (#polyphasic)sleep-ing

Tuesday, 2010-February-9 by

My new #polyphasicsleep routine hit a couple of snags.

The Superbowl didn’t interfere with my naps, but it did get me off to a bad start of the week. I just fell out of a routine. I had a meeting that conflicted with a nap, but forgot about it until it was too late to nap early. And then I fell asleep off schedule 3 times in two days. grrr.

We are also adjusting the schedule to make it easier for Emil. A 6am wake up for me was just enough to disturb his last hour of sleep. So, we split down the middle for 6:30. I plan to stay up until 2:30 or 3am to make up the difference on the other side.

New Schedule

6:30 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 -
3:00 AM - sleep
4:00 AM - sleep
5:00 AM - sleep
6:00 AM - sleep

This gives me 3.5 hours at “night” and another hour during the day in the form of three 20-minute naps.

They say the first week is the hardest. I was doing SO GOOD until the damn superbowl. Maybe the reason the first week is the hardest is not due to adjusting to the sleep pattern and the pseud0 jet lag. Maybe the reason the first week is hardest is because you have to work around the stuff that can interfere with the schedule…like life.

Adjusted

The other good news is that I’m sleeping almost instantly when I do nap. I think my adjustment period on that skill was really short. In fact, I’m starting to feel ready for my 10am nap. Since I have #AWTWX at 10:30 downtown today. I’m going to get all my stuff ready, drive there, and nap in the car before our meeting.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

Sunday, 2010-February-7 by

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#polyphasicsleep Day 2

Sunday, 2010-February-7 by

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.

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