[OT] Reality in six acts a day

[Wildepad]

I've been told that the most popular sea-sickness remedy carries the
warning label: "May cause nausea."

My doctor has chosen a pharmilo...pharacolm...pharmocolomolo...
pill-pushing approach to my condition (as well as adding a new
diagnosis).

I have six time lags a day -- the interval between when the pills kick
in and when their side-effects kick in.

Ever been awake for 72 hours straight and notice how the world changes
a little bit from moment to moment, slipping in and out of phase? That
effect, but never fully awake, never fully asleep, until they wear
off. A few moments of clarity and it's time to start the rollercoaster
again. Add to this dreams are so real it's hard to tell whether or not
they happened.

My leg is on fire, well, it should be, the salamanders started to eat
it when I fell off the raft, no, I must have been dreaming, again, but
the leg really is on fire and it's creeping up the back. That is all
too real.

Repeat.

A tv show about Paris and I'm there in 1092, an itinerant builder with
infinite powers to build a new city for Philip -- concrete and steel
and walls of glass, but I can't put in a water faucet because they'll
never understand how to use it. Doesn't matter, I'm part of the
English invasion, we're lobbing dead cats over the walls, hoping to
start a plague.

Repeat, repeat.

I've got a laptop that's voice capable. I try to write, but it goes
tsk, tsk all the time. It changes what I type in, chopping it into
short bits. Thrown against the wall, it shatters, but each pieces
reforms into a mini, and they climb back onto the bed, each one key,
its eye a shard of the screen.

Repeat, repeat, endlessly.

[Suzanne A Blom]

Post by Wildepad
I've been told that the most popular sea-sickness remedy carries the
warning label: "May cause nausea."
My doctor has chosen a pharmilo...pharacolm...pharmocolomolo...
pill-pushing approach to my condition (as well as adding a new
diagnosis).
I have six time lags a day -- the interval between when the pills kick
in and when their side-effects kick in.
Ever been awake for 72 hours straight and notice how the world changes
a little bit from moment to moment, slipping in and out of phase? That
effect, but never fully awake, never fully asleep, until they wear
off. A few moments of clarity and it's time to start the rollercoaster
again. Add to this dreams are so real it's hard to tell whether or not
they happened.
My leg is on fire, well, it should be, the salamanders started to eat
it when I fell off the raft, no, I must have been dreaming, again, but
the leg really is on fire and it's creeping up the back. That is all
too real.
Repeat.
A tv show about Paris and I'm there in 1092, an itinerant builder with
infinite powers to build a new city for Philip -- concrete and steel
and walls of glass, but I can't put in a water faucet because they'll
never understand how to use it. Doesn't matter, I'm part of the
English invasion, we're lobbing dead cats over the walls, hoping to
start a plague.
Repeat, repeat.
I've got a laptop that's voice capable. I try to write, but it goes
tsk, tsk all the time. It changes what I type in, chopping it into
short bits. Thrown against the wall, it shatters, but each pieces
reforms into a mini, and they climb back onto the bed, each one key,
its eye a shard of the screen.
Repeat, repeat, endlessly.

Well, you do write about it very well. Perhaps this is the time to do all
the description & dream sequence bits?
Hope you get to cut down on the meds soon.

[Heather Jones]

Post by Wildepad
I've been told that the most popular sea-sickness remedy carries the
warning label: "May cause nausea."

<snip>

What's so "off topic"? I'm ready for the plot to kick in. It's a
great few opening paragraphs.

You know, one of the greatest pleasures I get out of this
newsgroup is enjoying watching the language stroll by. The
casual brilliant articulateness is stunning.

Heather

[Irina Rempt]

Post by Wildepad
Ever been awake for 72 hours straight and notice how the world changes
a little bit from moment to moment, slipping in and out of phase? That
effect, but never fully awake, never fully asleep, until they wear
off. A few moments of clarity and it's time to start the rollercoaster
again. Add to this dreams are so real it's hard to tell whether or not
they happened.

Only about 40 hours but that was enough to appreciate the effect.

I spent part of that at Toronto airport, the one (of the three) that's
completely round. It has a waiting area with little adjacent
semicircular bays. I was sitting in one trying to read and to decide
whether I was hungry at all, when people in the bay next to me started
to play a D&D game. If I hadn't assumed I was hallucinating, I'd
probably have asked them if I could join.

(and I may have been hallucinating; only I don't think I was
hallucinating *that*)

Irina

[Charlie Stross]

Stoned koala bears drooled eucalyptus spittle in awe

Post by Irina Rempt

Post by Wildepad
Ever been awake for 72 hours straight and notice how the world changes
a little bit from moment to moment, slipping in and out of phase? That
effect, but never fully awake, never fully asleep, until they wear
off. A few moments of clarity and it's time to start the rollercoaster
again. Add to this dreams are so real it's hard to tell whether or not
they happened.

Only about 40 hours but that was enough to appreciate the effect.

You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.

Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

Of course, now it's winter -- and my metabolism has decided I
really ought to be fattening up and snoozing in a cave for 20
hours a day. Feh.



-- Charlie

[Zeborah]

Post by Charlie Stross
You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.
Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

I once pulled two all-nighters in a row, with no sleep in between. I do
not recommend it. Anyway, that was in university -- the last three days
of it, in fact -- and since then not getting enough sleep in *one* night
makes me impossible the next day.

Weirder, though, was the time I stayed up all night to watch Season 1 of
Babylon 5, and then walked to church. The whole world seemed so...
4-dimensional, after staring at the tv screen so long. The auditory
hallucinations of a crowd of voices around me was quite normal in
comparison. (Actually it is quite normal, I sometimes get it before
going to sleep. It's fun, though tricky, trying to tune in to them.)

Zeborah

[James Wallis]

Post by Zeborah

Post by Charlie Stross
You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.
Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

I once pulled two all-nighters in a row, with no sleep in between.

I once did three and a half days -- 84 hours -- without sleep, and
walked away from it with a world record. I believe one of the other
participants (there were nine of us, plus a support team) may lurk here.

[Eric Jarvis]

Post by James Wallis

Post by Zeborah

Post by Charlie Stross
You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.
Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

I once pulled two all-nighters in a row, with no sleep in between.

I once did three and a half days -- 84 hours -- without sleep, and
walked away from it with a world record. I believe one of the other
participants (there were nine of us, plus a support team) may lurk here.

Ouch!

I did 64 hours once...I slept on the floor in the end, I couldn't make it
from the shower to the bed.

[Mary Anne Stout]

Post by Zeborah

Post by Charlie Stross
You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.
Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

I once pulled two all-nighters in a row, with no sleep in between. I do
not recommend it. Anyway, that was in university -- the last three days
of it, in fact -- and since then not getting enough sleep in *one* night
makes me impossible the next day.
Weirder, though, was the time I stayed up all night to watch Season 1 of
Babylon 5, and then walked to church. The whole world seemed so...
4-dimensional, after staring at the tv screen so long. The auditory
hallucinations of a crowd of voices around me was quite normal in
comparison. (Actually it is quite normal, I sometimes get it before
going to sleep. It's fun, though tricky, trying to tune in to them.)
Zeborah

I didn't even stay up all night, I merely watched three Star
Wars movie in a row--with only bathroom breaks in between--and then
slept the last three hours of the night. The next day, 4-dimensional was
the perfect word. Everything seemed so..._thick_, and time moved very
strangely. I, too, get the crowd of voices when I'm particularly tired.
They're very annoying because they never say anything I can understand.

[Tim S]

Post by Charlie Stross
Stoned koala bears drooled eucalyptus spittle in awe

Post by Irina Rempt

Post by Wildepad
Ever been awake for 72 hours straight and notice how the world changes
a little bit from moment to moment, slipping in and out of phase? That
effect, but never fully awake, never fully asleep, until they wear
off. A few moments of clarity and it's time to start the rollercoaster
again. Add to this dreams are so real it's hard to tell whether or not
they happened.

Only about 40 hours but that was enough to appreciate the effect.

You stayed awake 40 hours? That effect bites me hard after as
little as 24 hours. I think my all-time record was about 36
hours before my brain crashed.

Sheesh! Wimps! I've worked longer days than 40 hours.

Post by Charlie Stross
Yet more proof that I can't be a real geek.

Not even half way there. The correct behaviour is: party till 4am, go home,
write half your summer project up, doze for a couple of hours, party till
6am, finish writing project, go to another party, at 3am go to sleep on sofa
covered in other people, get up at 7am, take chemistry exam, get 86%, go
home, sleep, party till 3am, go to bed for 3 days.

Now I can't do _that_ any more.

Tim