What things should you do more?

[The Curmudgeon]

You know, no-one's perfect. But I'd like to think the loyal Dwellers here are more well rounded than most. We're all fairly well read, literate people with a wide and varied taste in books, music and film. That's got to count for something.

But what qualities or skills do you lack in that you really should brush up on? What do you notice in others that doesn't exist within yourself?

For starters, I wish I had more of a grip on, you know, the REAL world going around us. I mean, I have a basic grasp of the politics of the world, but no real understanding or in-depth opinions. Which pisses me off a bit, as its quite possibly the most important stuff happening all around, and I remain fairly ignorant to it all. But I criticise people for not knowing who, say, Jim Morrison is, yet I remain ignorant to the figures who make the decisions for us all?

Another thing - I really need to be healthier. My diet isn't terrible, kind of, but it could be a LOT better, and I don't exercise at all. I think 'cos I'm naturally slim, I don't feel I need to exercise. But, of course I should. Yet I don't. I mean, who can be bothered doing all that shit?

I also wish I DO more things. Like, I got a health insurance thing a few months back, and the girl was asking me things I did in my spare time. "Do you do any sports?" No. "Do you.. go jogging?" No. "Play football in the park sometimes?" No. "Do you do.. anything physical?" Yeah, that wasn't a long conversation.

So there we go. Some soul-searching and lifestyle discussion courtesy of The Curmudgeon. Your turn.

[trashcanman]

Don;t bother boning up on politics. It just makes you angry and jaded. Especially once you realize that for every well-read, intelligent person who does his/her homework and carefully considers who and what to vote for, there are at least 10,000 ignoramuses who vote blindly based solely on either party allegiances or whatever Fox News/Oprah/CNN/their parents/etc say. Or as Bob Mould sang it:

"Government authorize education
(Don't mean a thing)
They'll teach you what they want you to think
(Don't mean a thing)
Saturation of stars and stripes
(Don't mean a thing)
The only freedom worth fighting for is for what you think

Why bother spending time
Reading up on things
Everybody's an authority
In a free land" -Husker Du

So depressing, so true.

I wish I read more (novels and nonfiction, I mean), I wish I could play guitar worth a shit, and I really wish I could draw. I've always had amazing images in my head that will never see the light of day. I tried trained myself for years using tracing paper and practicing and no matter what else I did once I stopped directly tracing and actually put pencil to paper myself, it turned out looking like a kindergartner drew it. I envy the hell out of people like Frank Miller who have such amazing talent in both writing and art. So not fair.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah, with you on the drawing front. It sometimes FEELS like you should be able to do it, like, you can see it in your head, but then when you put pen to paper..

Guitar was just something I never took to. Tedious, frustrating and fucking painful on your fingers - I long ago left that to rock stars. Like drawing, I really do think it's something you're born with. Sure, you can learn to play, like, the intro to Seven Nation Army or something, but guys like Prince or Hendrix are just born with it.

[Benjamin Haines]

My biggest problem is that I'm late for everything. Like, damn near everything. I say I'll be somewhere by 7:00pm, and I'll somehow end up there at 7:10pm. A day that I'm not late for work (by a minute or by seven minutes) is rare, and I think the fact that I work hard is the only reason why they haven't fired me after three years. In high school I would ride the bus to get there and still manage to be get to homeroom late because I'd be hanging with peoples in the halls and such. In college, I'm regularly running to get to class on time, and frequently walking in the door a minute or two late. I always say that I need to work on that, and even when I try to, something always just seems to come up to eat away at my time.

Another thing which is semi-related to that is my nocturnalism. I really am a night owl in every sense of the word. I can get an hour of sleep, wake up early in the morning totally tired, go about my daytime business groggy as hell, but once the sun sets I just feel alert and awake and not at all interested in going to sleep. I'm home for the summer right now and almost every day that I work at my Food Lion (a grocery store) is the closing shift (from sometime in the afternoon to 11:00pm or later), so just about every night this summer I've gotten to sleep anywhere from 5:00am to 10:00am and woken up before 2:00pm. I enjoy sleeping and that feeling of being well-rested, but I don't like spending time on actually being asleep because I feel like I'm wasting time that could be spent actually doing things. I don't need a whole lot of sleep to function, and the sunlight morning hours just seem to be when it's best for me to sleep. Of course, I'm heading back to college this Friday, and I'm going to have to get out of this routine with classes starting again.

[The Curmudgeon]

Man, my sleep pattern is seriously beginning to worry me (and my wife). I just can't seem to do it anymore.

I'm on sleeping pills at night, which don't work, and then I'm on energy pills in the morning because I'm exhausted. I'm even trying Gin-sing(sp?) tablets but they don't work either.

Case in point: I went to bed at midnight, had a Shining nightmare (been reading the book, had a dream where room 217 was next to my old bedroom when I lived with my parents. That I was lying in bed and the door of Room 217 SNAPPED open and suddenly this.. thing.. was on trying to bite my face and I was screaming hoping someone would wake me up 'cos I knew it was a nightmare).

Sorry, I digress, yes - woke up at 1:30 and lay there till 3 before getting up. I've now been up for four hours. This is happening ALL THE TIME.

[trashcanman]

Did you learn nothing from Heath Ledger? Other than "never trust an Olsen twin", I mean. Mixing stimulants (uppers) and depressants (downers) is a huge fucking no no. I almost never have nightmares myself, but "Wolfen" (the book) scared me shitless. Then again, even that one was aided by the sounds of my dogs pacing up and down the wooden deck outside of my bedroom window while I slept. Assholes.

[The Curmudgeon]

Don't start writing my eulogy just yet, Trashy - we're not talking prescription meds or anything like that - its all over the counter stuff I'm taking. For now...

As for that Olsen twin comment - you know, I had no idea that was even part of the whole story, rumoured or not. I didn't read a lot of the news coverage (him being dead was enough for me - I find news coverage of stuff like that depressing. It really is Vulture News) but I don't think the UK news even mentioned her. Very strange.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

I know how you feel...I've suffered from this myself. Last year it got to the point where I was sleeping roughly 3-4 hours a DAY. Nothing will get to you more than lack of sleep. You might find that you can get even more irate and angry over things if this keep up too long. I've found many things covering "insomnia" and they all have different ways of "treating" it. I'm gonna give you the best of the basic information.

1) DO NOT use drugs to fix this problem. As you are discovering, they often offer very little relief and often require that you also take other drugs to keep you awake. The solution(s) you need are not medicinal but rather practical solutions.

2) How often do you use the TV/computer? Many people these days use them over 50% of their time awake. Try a reduction in the time spent...say an hour or so. Also, you MUST NOT....repeat MUST NOT watch the TV or view your computer screen for one entire hour before going to bed. Quickly edited films/shows/tv ads, console/PC games or flash style internet ads are HUGE culprits in stimulating your mind to a degree that it doesn't feel tired. Make the time you free up used towards getting other things done that otherwise would stress you out once it's near bedtime and you realize it hasn't been done yet.

3) What kind of diet do you really have? Certain foods should not be eaten when you have only 3 hours or less before you go to bed. These can include:

Chocolate
Onions
Tomatoes
Spicy foods

Also, avoid caffeine, nicotine or alcohol starting in the late afternoon all the way until the time you go to bed. Caffeine and nicotine are quite stimulating while alcohol can cause you to have a sub-par level of sleeping.

4) Look around you; is your house organized or cluttered? Clutter in a house is reflective of the clutter in your emotional life. Perhaps you have stress over issues at work, home, school, family or friends. Clean up your clutter in the house, it can help you focus on cleaning up the emotional clutter.

5) Learn to reduce your stress. Decide which issues you can reasonably handle, which issues will take time and which issues you just might not be able to change no matter how hard you try. Doing this will make your mind less active at night when it is closer to bed time.

6) Exercise at least once a day. Get out and walk anywhere for a half an hour to an hour a day.

7) Make a solid routine for going to sleep. Slip on a soothing Prince album, read a book or magazine....it doesn't matter so long as it doesn't activate your mind much more than just reading or listening.

8) Solid bedtimes and wake-up times are a MUST. For example: bed by 11pm, up by 8am. DON'T DEVIATE from this.

Once you get those things in motion, you'll start to notice a change. It'll take a bit, and don't get discouraged. Just keep at it.

[The Curmudgeon]

Wow. Appreciate the concern, Wolfy. And the sleeping pills I'd moved on to seemed to be doing the trick (I wasn't taking enough before), and it was only today my eyes snapped open at 4am and refused to shut again.

There are a million different "do this, don't do this, try this" methods, but I think everyone is different. I always watch TV before I go to bed, always have, and its never been a problem before.

Maybe I've got a guilty conscience.