Most of my life, I was a slave to my mind, and if you'd asked me I would have said straight-faced that the whole useful world was inside it; a straight-up victim of stockholm syndrome of the brain. Held and tortured and unable to even think of another reality.

Here's what I've learned: The body is a violin that responds exquisitely to ( Read more... )

So, as a trained philosopher I try not to moralize, kinda for the same reason that, as a kungfu enthusiast, I try to stay out of bar-fights:  it's neither fair, nor usually fun, nor often useful.  But I've seen some disturbing actions by my peers lately, and my peers are generally smart people who deserve an opportunity to learn.  So…into the ( Read more... )

I like how natural it feels to refer to the world forcing me to be monophasic as "forced desynchrony".  Like, yes, forcing vegetarians to eat burgers is not ok, and neither is forcing me to sleep on your shitty 8-hour schedule.  ::glare::

Anyway, I'm mostly back!  The period of sleep-dep was a day longer than I expected, and nearly ( Read more... )

Some days, it seems, I do all the things that matter before about 7am.

I stretch.  I put on a bouncy song and do silk-reeling, or just dancing, until my body feels fluid and warm.  Since I haven't slept longer than 4-6h max, I'm not horribly stiff or sore anyway, but man it feels really good to move, to loosen up.

I make coffee and ( Read more... )

"Forced desynchrony," I've been told many times, "is considered torture" by many authoritative organizations.  Usually phrased as a warning against any mad-scientist tendencies I may have developed, any uncontrollable urge to inflict terrible sleep-dep on other people.

Most people who throw that shit around have no idea what desynchrony and ( Read more... )

A few days ago I wrote this post, wherein I tried my hand at restating the classic Buddhist prescriptions for "right speech".

The shit I do with my free time.  :D

One thing I was consciously doing was updating the language to make it as clear and relevant in a modern context as possible, knowing that part of the gift of the original ( Read more... )

I have to say, I think my single favorite thing about polyphasic sleep…is the people I've met because of it.  I won't try to list them all, becase I'd miss some that I talk to less frequently or recently and then feel bad; but man, there are quite a lot who are simply amazing, and of kinds and calibers I'd have a slim chance to ever run into ( Read more... )

Questions I must answer before speaking up / correcting someone:
1. Do I thoroughly practice what I’m about to preach?
2. Do I even preach what I’m about to preach?
3. Am I speaking up because I really want to help, or is it because I’m angry, or because I want to be on record as being right?
4. Do I actually know what I’m talking about here, or is ( Read more... )

Questions I must answer before speaking up / correcting someone:
1. Do I thoroughly practice what I’m about to preach?
2. Do I even preach what I’m about to preach?
3. Am I speaking up because I really want to help, or is it because I’m angry, or because I want to be on record as being right?
4. Do I actually know what I’m talking about here, or is ( Read more... )

When I hit a block and find myself staring at a million things to do or think or figure out, sometimes it helps to just try and encapsulate the things I can't do in some meaningful category.  Then, if they sit there a bit, often one or more of them will sheepishly present a useful next step or next piece to be done.  It's like, they love being ( Read more... )