ENTRY BEGINS
Currently Reading: "The Evolution of Useful Things" - Henry Petroski
A list of songs appearing at least partially in recent nightmares, and what I can sort-of remember dreaming about at the time:
-Cleaning a man's vomit off the floor as he and some others were failing a series of tests designed around temptation
-Arguing with the king of the world
-(only part of the string line)Conducting a passenger with my car through a foreign country at night when suddenly the two-lane highway we were traveling on shifts into a snow-covered pile of abandoned semi-trucks and cars filling a massive crater, only realizing too late that the other traffic I was following was edging around the side of this as I crashed down into a hole further along amongst the wreckage
-running through a crowd, looking for the little girl with the pet octopus in her nose (which later launched an explosion of irremovable parasitic eggs all over everybody)
-sneaking through airport security trying not to be recognized, because I had just escaped from prison where I was being held for damaging the concept of electricity
I blame Isak Dinesen for all of this, that passage in his book where the sculptor's apprentice is wandering down the narrower and narrower passages of the city allowed my subconscious to seize upon the opportunity to change itself, my nightmares used to be cerebral, they weren't like scenes from a never-ending surrealist action movie. Admittedly I have been sleeping at strange hours in short bursts in an attempt to maintain my eight-hours-of-sleep resolution, and the Earth's light cycle has been changing with the seasons, etc. but it has never been like this before, and I didn't hear any of these songs in the past two months so I doubt that any intervening experience has tied them operant-conditioning style to specific thoughts of mine.
Perhaps it has been my work, the redefinition of Alzheimer's into three separate stages is a very interesting topic, mainly because our species does not really know what Alzheimer's is, and post-autopsy many people who should have been exhibiting all of the symptoms did not display a trace of cognitive impairment, leading to a hypothesis that some people are protected in some way in the short term (the short term being decades and decades of life).
Earlier this week I did indeed watch the whole UP series in one sitting, followed by an interview with Ebert on the series in the DVD extras where he mentions to the director that reports of people doing what I just did resulted in a metaphysical experience of watching life pass by an accelerated rate, a conceit making it one of the most important film projects to ever be recorded- although it was different and perhaps better for older people to watch each film as it came out every seven years of their own life up to this point because the waiting and aging with the cast was a visceral reminder of the collective condition of existence.
I went to see "También la lluvia" this week with a friend and enjoyed the portrayal of Christopher Columbus. I played through all of medical school without a single misdiagnosis, BECAUSE NOBODY DIES ON MY WATCH. "Machine of Death" is asking for submissions for a sequel, which had I known they were going to do I would have started a story after Halloween, but now I feel like I would have to reread the whole first book again to better form in-jokes and get the character names, and that might be rather boring since now I know how each of the characters eventually ends up meeting their fate. Also I am considering taking a week off to go mountain climbing this Summer in Colorado, and if I do that I think that the resort towns may have better bungee jumping facilities than Iowa, where honestly not many of my friends have expressed interest in joining me anyway, so really it doesn't matter where or when I go, I am sure that I can get time off. 3QD had an essay recently on whether marathons were actually worth all of the trouble, and I sort of agree that once you run one there really is no purpose to do another unless you beat your personal time (unless there is lots of Rock and Roll music), which was why I am trying to move on to the Iron Man next year anyway, and maybe some crazier runs. Charity 5Ks and 10ks are easy and don't even require training so they do not overburden society much I think for the benefits they provide to the needy.
ENTRY ENDS
A list of songs appearing at least partially in recent nightmares, and what I can sort-of remember dreaming about at the time:
-Cleaning a man's vomit off the floor as he and some others were failing a series of tests designed around temptation
-Arguing with the king of the world
-(only part of the string line)Conducting a passenger with my car through a foreign country at night when suddenly the two-lane highway we were traveling on shifts into a snow-covered pile of abandoned semi-trucks and cars filling a massive crater, only realizing too late that the other traffic I was following was edging around the side of this as I crashed down into a hole further along amongst the wreckage
-running through a crowd, looking for the little girl with the pet octopus in her nose (which later launched an explosion of irremovable parasitic eggs all over everybody)
-sneaking through airport security trying not to be recognized, because I had just escaped from prison where I was being held for damaging the concept of electricity
I blame Isak Dinesen for all of this, that passage in his book where the sculptor's apprentice is wandering down the narrower and narrower passages of the city allowed my subconscious to seize upon the opportunity to change itself, my nightmares used to be cerebral, they weren't like scenes from a never-ending surrealist action movie. Admittedly I have been sleeping at strange hours in short bursts in an attempt to maintain my eight-hours-of-sleep resolution, and the Earth's light cycle has been changing with the seasons, etc. but it has never been like this before, and I didn't hear any of these songs in the past two months so I doubt that any intervening experience has tied them operant-conditioning style to specific thoughts of mine.
Perhaps it has been my work, the redefinition of Alzheimer's into three separate stages is a very interesting topic, mainly because our species does not really know what Alzheimer's is, and post-autopsy many people who should have been exhibiting all of the symptoms did not display a trace of cognitive impairment, leading to a hypothesis that some people are protected in some way in the short term (the short term being decades and decades of life).
Earlier this week I did indeed watch the whole UP series in one sitting, followed by an interview with Ebert on the series in the DVD extras where he mentions to the director that reports of people doing what I just did resulted in a metaphysical experience of watching life pass by an accelerated rate, a conceit making it one of the most important film projects to ever be recorded- although it was different and perhaps better for older people to watch each film as it came out every seven years of their own life up to this point because the waiting and aging with the cast was a visceral reminder of the collective condition of existence.
I went to see "También la lluvia" this week with a friend and enjoyed the portrayal of Christopher Columbus. I played through all of medical school without a single misdiagnosis, BECAUSE NOBODY DIES ON MY WATCH. "Machine of Death" is asking for submissions for a sequel, which had I known they were going to do I would have started a story after Halloween, but now I feel like I would have to reread the whole first book again to better form in-jokes and get the character names, and that might be rather boring since now I know how each of the characters eventually ends up meeting their fate. Also I am considering taking a week off to go mountain climbing this Summer in Colorado, and if I do that I think that the resort towns may have better bungee jumping facilities than Iowa, where honestly not many of my friends have expressed interest in joining me anyway, so really it doesn't matter where or when I go, I am sure that I can get time off. 3QD had an essay recently on whether marathons were actually worth all of the trouble, and I sort of agree that once you run one there really is no purpose to do another unless you beat your personal time (unless there is lots of Rock and Roll music), which was why I am trying to move on to the Iron Man next year anyway, and maybe some crazier runs. Charity 5Ks and 10ks are easy and don't even require training so they do not overburden society much I think for the benefits they provide to the needy.
ENTRY ENDS