You can call it what you like. I'll call it what it is.
I am now prepared to publish my observations regarding the relative consequences of getting insufficient sleep versus getting just enough sleep.
If I have slept well enough, I find that not only is my initial energy level better, but so is the recharge rate after physical exertion, to the effect that the subjective length of the day is much longer and I am able to get more things done.
By contrast, on days when my sleep has been interrupted — or if I’ve been unable to get much sleep at all, interrupted or not — I start the day tired, get more tired with less exertion, and take much longer before I am able to resume even minimal activity. The day is subjectively much shorter and I get almost nothing done.
I have no conclusions as yet about oversleeping, though I am inclined toward the prejudice based on rare experience, that these incidences result from difficulty getting to sleep for an extended period of time after retiring, and this may account for the feelings of grogginess and low motivation after rising later in the day. The apparent subjective length of such days may also be truncated as much due to the loss of morning activity hours as to a lack of energy or stamina.
So, you don’t need to fly at or near the speed of light to manipulate the rate at which time passes. You only need to cripple your metabolism with insufficient sleep.
After years of drinking my coffee unadulterated (except perhaps occasionally in the evening with my favorite cheap Scotch), I’ve begun using those non-dairy creamers to reduce the acidity of my morning pick-me-up.
This probably won’t last more than a few months I think. When my stomach stops feeling gurgly after a few cups I may even go back to the dark roast I used to favor — though the lower caffeine content in dark roast coffee may result in my drinking more, which…
Okay, maybe not dark roast.
Happy New Year and all that jazz.
Tally Book content from before I migrated to WordPress can be browsed here.
Many years ago, I stumbled on the one sure way to make sure that I keep my New Year’s resolutions: to make only one. Which is…
“I resolve to make only one New Year’s resolution.”
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Merry Christmas.
In the previous post I mention my suspicion that “former” intelligence community employees at Twitter were actually assigned there by their agencies to pursue official objectives.
It has since come out that there’s even a term for it, because of course there is: sheep-dipping.
Maybe you’ve seen the recent meme holding that “conspiracy theory” is just another term for “spoiler.”
Whatever a former intelligence community operative, analyst, or manager may sincerely believe, as long as he or she still has a security clearance, I cannot afford to believe they are truly “out.”
That goes especially for former IC employees who went to work for Twitter during its years as a political censorship op masquerading as a social media platform.
The runoff election for U.S. Senate was a charlie foxtrot in my precinct, apparently, so it’s not terrible that I haven’t voted on Election Day since shortly after the late Mrs. McG and I moved into this house in 2012.
I think the county needs to add more early-voting venues though, and probably look into increasing precinct polling places after recent consolidations — of which one involved my precinct, one of two that had particular issues on Election Day. The population growth here, and the increased voter participation, are conspiring to make previous assumptions about resource adequacy somewhat… inadequate.
At any rate, the campaign ads are gone now, for a few months at least. The email and text spam probably won’t subside for long though. Our excruciating presidential nominating process is explicitly responsible for the endless political seasons in this country, even though down-ballot races don’t need to last anywhere near as long — they do anyway though, because during presidential cycles they have to compete for attention and money.
It’ll be easier to endure the initial stages by adopting an attitude of pox omnibus domibus eorum. Not that they’ll care, or notice.
McG's Tally Book 2023 