The Science of Sleep
I am such a horrible sleeper. I have trouble falling asleep so I stay up too late, and then once I am asleep I find it impossible to get out of bed. Last weekend I slept in til 11 o’clock one day! (What am I, a uni student?) I really need to get up and exercise in the mornings, and I just can’t. I’m tired and groggy for the first two hours every day and it’s so frustrating. Last week I was reading AskMeFi when I saw a reference to Modafinil. This drug WAKES YOU UP. It sounds awesome. Unfortunately it seems to be prescription-only in Australia, and judging by the online pharmacies, it’s pretty damn expensive too. Crap. I’ll ask my doctor next time I see him, but that looks like a dead end.

The Snook: Just have a coffee!
Me: But I don’t love coffee as much as you, and all the coffeeshops near me in the city suck. Choking down a burnt and bitter long black just makes me ill.
Him: So have an espresso. Pretend it’s medicine.
Me: Now there’s an idea…

Today he made me a macchiato (espresso with a tiny bit of milk) as soon as I got up. I downed it in three sips. Verdict? I’M RARIN’ TO GO!

DUDE! TiVo’s finally coming to Australia! I wonder if there would be any advantage to switching from our MythTV system. As far as I know, the only real advantage would be that TiVo records stuff for you that it thinks you’ll like. That might be neat.

Penn and Buster. Okay, that’s the CUTEST AND FUNNIEST baby picture ever.

Dear god. First home payments hit $3000 per month in Sydney. That’s nearly twice what we pay in rent! See, this is why I don’t want to buy a house.

My daemon is a monkey! You can take a test on the official Golden Compass site. (Link courtesy of Bex.)

Third World*
I didn’t notice anything at first because I had my iPod on. Sure, the house felt a little cold when I walked in the door… It wasn’t until I set my jacket down in the bedroom that I noticed something odd. The little red light on the dehumidifier wasn’t on. I pushed the power button repeatedly but nothing happened. And HEY, the alarm clock’s dead too! The TV won’t turn on! The heater isn’t blowing toasty air! The stove won’t light! WHAT’S HAPPENING? I called the Snook. “I think we blew a fuse. Everything’s dead.” “So fix it. It’s over the fridge.” Oh. Duh. So after ten minutes of wrestling with the door of the fusebox (true story), I got it open and flipped the switch. Ahhh, sweet electricity. Of course, our Internet was still dead, the server was down, and I couldn’t get to the TiFaux. I HAD TO WATCH ACTUAL, BROADCAST TELEVISION, PEOPLE. At one point, my only options were the tabloids and Big Brother, and I couldn’t even fast-forward through the commercials! I NEARLY DIED.

* Don’t give me that look, hippies. Yeah, I know, going without the Internet for two hours is nothing like living in the Third World. I like to exaggerate for comedic effect. And besides, I REALLY ALMOST DID DIE.

“I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose.” What an excellent – yet terrible – essay to contemplate on Memorial Day…

DUDE. Just finally watched the Heroes finale.And I’m actually really pissed off. There were some awesome moments in there, but the climax of Nathan flying off with Peter just enrages me. PETER CAN FLY. Why didn’t he just fly himself? If you’re going to rip off The Iron Giant, you should at least do it right. Or, as the Snook pointed out, why not let Claire shoot him? That only kills one person, not two. Or, as Claire did with Ted, like, ONLY A FEW EPISODES AGO, why not jab him with some tranquilizer? That seemed to work. It was just really, really sloppy and it completely ruined the payoff for me. I loved every single episode up to that one, and now I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth.

I’ll still watch it next year, of course.

Remember the Titanic Super Slide? I think I may have found something even more tacky: the Titanic Kitty Condo. (No, Dr. Amy Jones will not be getting one of these.)