(no subject)

I posted this as a comment on poodleface's journal, but thought it would also be interesting to share.

Wake Up 101

The alarm clock by the bed hasn't worked for me in years. Here is Mike's quick guide to getting up when supposed to:

Background: I have a double sleep disorder. First I have an irregular circadian rhythm. Get me stressed and my biological bedtime and wake up time go haywire. I would do great on a planet with a 30 hour day.

I also have this thing (I forgot the name years ago) where I sleep very lightly. Noises like air conditioners turning on, cars driving by and so on wake me up for a split second. I fall back asleep almost instantly, but because of this I never get deep, restful sleep. I'm always being dragged out of deep sleep and it takes the body a while to get back down to it. Around 75% of the way through the night, my body just shuts down all sensory input and refuses to wake up for anything. The end result is I wake up slowly, sleep through alarms and my brain takes about 30 minutes to get up a head of steam.

1. Melatonin - Helps to fight the 'I'm not tired, I'll stare at the walls until 4am' feeling. It is slow to work, so take it at least 1 hour before bed.

2. Valerian Root - Bought in health food stores, GNC, vitamin racks, etc. It makes you sleep very deeply from the beginning, so you get much more restful sleep. It makes waking up a breeze.

3. Alarm for the deaf - A combo: An alarm clock with a flasher circuit that you plug a bright light into. Also a pillow vibrator. It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes, fits under your pillow and when it goes off your head feels like it's in the paint shaker at Home Depot.

4. Scheduled Winamp - I have my computer set up to play a special playlist of extra-perky songs. I just set the scheduled task to start playing them when I want to get up. As an extra bonus, you can record yourself yelling at yourself to get up because you have shit to do. Works best when the computer is not in reach of the bed.

5. Roommate - best if they sleep more lightly than you. All of the above crap will wake them up and they will wake you up just to make it stop.

(no subject)

My continued unemployment has gotten me down. Here now, is a brief history of jobs:

Pre College:

1. Burger King - worked there in high school.
2. Legal assistant - my mom worked in a law office and got me a part time job typing and doing computer work
3. Busboy at Po Folks - hell

College part 1:

4. Ga Tech Library - held this job for the majority of my years at Tech. Liked the people, liked the job, liked the books.

The dropout years:

5. AMC Phipps Plaza- worked every job except the one I wanted: projectionist. still don't eat popcorn much to this day.
6. Private Investigator - not as cool as it sounds
7. Papa Johns - doing my share for the pizza economy

College part 2:

8. Ga Tech Library Redux - still enjoyed it. Worked there as primary job during the times I held the next two.
9. Ga Tech Alumni Association Oral History Program - Listening to old people tell stories about the old days. Wheee!
10. Ga Tech Alumni Association Web Development staff - Listening to stupid people try to tell me how to make web sites. I occasionally managed to play 9 and 10 off each other and get twice the hours.
11. Phone customer service - for Donnelly communications. Another dark day. Listened to idiots ordering woodworking tools, doll houses, duck hunting gear, etc.

The real world:

12. CNN.com - Almost three years there before getting the boot in January.
13. Lynk Systems - fired after one month. Hated the job, so I didn't mind too much.