Not happy --not happy at all.

It all began last week. One of my clients runs a pretty high pressure work environment. When things are going well, everything and everybody is in good spirits and works hard. However, any little bump in the road usually turns into a stress situation fairly quickly. Lets just say that the situation early last week was basically a sink-hole kind of deal with all the stress that comes with that.

At first, it looked like the easy solutions were going to do the trick, but I soon learned this mess was the gift that just keeps on giving. Professional courtesy demands I keep the details out of this, so I will. Lets just say what started out as a decent week ended up being one of the longest periods I have ever been awake in my entire life.

The peak time without sleep was somewhere around 40 hours or so. It's kind of funny actually. The first day was really tough, but then I hit my second wind, then a third, and then I was just UP... Crazy UP, as in I'm not sure I even remember what a morning really is supposed to be like UP. Coffee is a good call anytime kind of UP.

The being UP for a long fucking time bit is the point of my post, I suppose, not the problem that caused it. In that vein, let me expand on that a bit.

In a morbid sort of way, I recommend everybody experience this at one point in their lives, ideally a point where your support structure is solid because you are going to need it. (I did, thank you Seana!)

The days blur and time becomes this thing you note, but really don't want to pay much attention to. This brings me to the first realization; namely, the only reason we really consider time is that we have something to look forward to. If this is not the case, time then really does not matter much at all. Wierd.

Memory changes too. After this experience, I firmly believe one of the reasons we need to sleep has to do with cerbreal house cleaning. Short term memory and long term memory are related through sleep somehow. Our brains take that time to sort the good stuff from the crap. When we awaken, our brains are nice and tidy, for the most part, ready to do battle again.

Well, here is an interesting thought! If there is literally nothing good happening, which clearly was the case for me, then there is a lot less reason to sleep. Why bother cleaning house if everything in it simply needs to go? For me, staying awake throughout the debacle meant the ability to compartmentalize it when it finally ends.

That's exactly what happened! After one nights sleep, it all seemed to just fade with only the bare minimum information preserved for hating later.

Damn Cool

This particular gift just does keep on giving, by the way. My entire schedule for the next week or so afterword is almost as hosed as that week was. That's exactly why I'm not too happy right now. Between OpenGeek blowing up after a benign post, resulting in the new look you see here, all the little crap that would have gotten done needs to be done right frickin' now for another few days on end. (Which is what I am supposed to be doing instead of posting here on OpenGeek. --A guy can only take so much, I swear!)

There is an upside though. I used to dread the all nighter. Well, I still do, but you know what?

It's not nearly as bad. A simple one day all nighter really is nothing compared to 40 or so hours. I think I gained something good in that. Of course it's not good to work straight through, but being able to do so with few worries is a nice thing to be able to take advantage of from time to time.

(Back to work... I'm out of the dog house and back to normal sometime later this week, I hope.)


Oh, there was a point to this post besides my whining and over analysis of my current plight; namely, the Tard Blog is back! Damn fine timing too.

Warning, if you are short on time, don't visit this site like I just did. It will suck up hours while you laugh until you cry! Man, I never knew just how funny the lives of these special ed kids really is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not laughing at them, but with them! That's a big difference I want to to think about before sending me, or the Tard Blog any hate mail --thanks.

You will have reached a new level of compassion and respect for those wonderful beings willing and able to work with the special ed kids. Hats off, I couldn't do it!

(The Riti Sped archives are the very best, IMHO)

The first part of this post demonstrates the Dingus patented speed reading bold trick. In a hurry? Just read the bold words and you are outta here in half the time! I think I'll call this use of formatting capability spolding. (Another wacko definition post coming soon, I can feel it!)