reOrganize Life: A Journal

What i have been doing...

2006-02-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

Re: last post.

Tomorrow.

2006-01-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

With pen to page I set words together, great pros spin out in a menagerie of vision and life, But I'm sposta be researching things to improve myself. And I guess that brings me to procrastination...

Word: Procrastinate

Pronunciation: pr&-'kras-t&-"nAt, prO-
Function: verb.
Inflected Form(s): -nat·ed; -nat·ing.
Etymology: Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare, from pro- forward + crastinus of tomorrow, from cras tomorrow.
transitive senses : to put off intentionally and habitually.
intransitive senses : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.

Word: Pro-

Function: prefix
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin, from Greek, before, forward, forth, for, from pro.
1 a : earlier than : prior to : before <prothalamion> b : rudimentary : PROT <pronucleus> c : precursory <proinsulin>
2 a : located in front of or at the front of : anterior to <procephalic> <proventriculus> b : front : anterior <prothorax>
3 : projecting <prognathous>

Word: -ation

Function: noun suffix
Etymology: Middle English -acioun, from Old French -ation, from Latin -ation-, -atio, from -a-, stem vowel of 1st conj. + -tion-, -tio, n. suffix.
: action or process ation> : something connected with an action or process ation>.

So if I read this right, procrastination is that the first (Pro-) action (-ation) you take is not doing it today (crastinus). First I'll point out how much fun language is. Any time I can refer to the action involved in inaction I'm happy. Second I would very much like to thank John Perry, Dexterity.com, CalPoly SAS and so many more for giving me the opportunity to waste so much time reading on this phenomena. The amount of time I spent reading on procrastination is only rivaled by the time I used reading on the importance of time management. Man you can waste time reading about time management. I recommend it, it feels like your getting something accomplished kinda. I guess I'll just end with a plea to you to help fund your local charity for procrastinators. Procrastinatiology, very little is being done in this vast and interesting field of study and your money could keep it that way. g

(Oh ya, just wasted all my work time on this. Admit it, I'm good.)

The Trials of Change.

2006-01-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

With all seriousness I set forth to improve. I found a good point to start this process and with head held high I got to bed early! That's right, you read it properly. No need to reread it, as a matter of fact I'll just retype it for you to save you the effort. I went to bed early. And how did that go for you? The masses tone in. well I got up about an hour later. With defeat in my heart I made a drink and played a game. Ooh the woe, the unbearable woe. I did get a new high score though, so that's cool. Now don't take this the wrong way, I am still convinced that sleeping more would be the best spot to start but... well, maybe I can find a second best place to start and just use that one. I have no idea what that might be. Guess I'll need to work on that. I'll start with a Google search and a bunch of reading. That should keep me up late. g

On sleep deprivation.

2006-01-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not going to concern myself with the why, my why is self imposed as I have said. If you're trying to find out why you're having trouble sleeping then at the bottom of this post I'll add a few reference sites that might help. I'll be concentrating on the effects of it. First how to tell if you're sleep deprived...now I really do think most of you are smart enough to know if you need more sleep but I'll add this just in case you think your just lazy, maybe this will show you thats not true. Heaven knows I used to think I was just lazy but now I know I'm tired and lazy.

Basic symptoms of sleep deprivation: Umm, you're tired. Oh and an over all drop in physical energy, slurred speech, shortened concentration span, and your tired a lot.

Some consequences of sleep deprivation: attention lapses, reduced short-term memory capacity. Immune system functionality is decreased, this would lead to greater chance of infections and disease. A change to your metabolism that looks like it leads to weight gain. There is also evidence that sleep deprivation could affect your body's ability to process glucose and this would give the appearance of early stages of diabetes. Some of the longer winded articles I found show that when you're sleep deprived your brain activity changes drastically. Something about the part of your frontal lobe used for speech and a few other things shut down almost completely and another part of your brain picks up the slack.

This part of the brain isn't designed for this and that's probably why you get speech slur and short term memory problems.

There's a lot about body aging in the stuff I found and how even constant mild sleep deprivation increases the body's aging. I didn't read enough on this to comment really. I didn't want to read more to tell you the truth, I'm guessing this is the part I don't want to know about. I'll just keep believing that as long as I start taking care of myself now everything will be ok.

And after all that here is the irony of it, theres nothing better then finishing an article on sleep deprivation and looking up at the clock and seeing 2:48am. Laters, g

Sleep Disorder Site, And Another.

Where to start...

2006-01-05T15:24:00.000-08:00

After weeks of much reading and great contemplation (or a few nights of drinking and video games) i have decided on a starting point. i think i am going to start with sleep. (If i didn't add anything more that would just sound lazy) For awhile i was thinking i was depressed, seeing how i was tired all the time, And some oh so helpful sole pointed out thats a sure sign of depression. Well of coarse that made me worry quit a bit. Then after a time where the thought that i might be depressed was bumming me out, i really started to think about other reasons i might be tired. Ok, obviously i don't get enough sleep at night. I have prided myself over the years for being a sleep deprived night owl. But i choose to ignore that day to day as the reason for being tired cause thats my normal way of being and this has been an abnormal kind of tired. deciding to revisit my out-look on self sleep deprivation i started reading what i could find on sleep and how it affects us. All the good and bad of it. Now if i wasn't depressed before, i certainly am now. In reading i have found that a lot of the damage i have done to myself over the years isn't something i can make up for. Now for the mere fact that my long and sorted past of sleep deprivation happened to be because i was having a nightlife that would have made a fairly good yet disjointed movie about neon lights, dark dance floor corners and coffee shops, I'm not upset in the least about the damage done. I say with a smile, Well Worth It! Now my more recent sleeplessness isn't so glamorous. Its more the thing that a short documentary about computer game addictions are made (but never aired). So, as i see it i'm clinging not only on to old habits for nostalgia but also because of an odd need for, and i hate this phrase, Me time. I spent most of my 20s living on my own and traveling for my job and that kept me in hotel rooms alone for weeks at a time. Now with kids and a wife i have none of the quiet time i used to have. So i take that time when the rest of them sleep. All of this long winded typing is coming back to the same point. The place I'm starting is sleep. Everything i hear about sleep or the lack there of, suggests some of the benefits of proper sleep are better memory and concentration levels. Staring a project thats going to need a lot of concentration and that other thing, i see tackling sleep as an auspicious beginning. Now to read more on sleep. Guess ill do a book report of sorts on what i find. g

1st start

2006-01-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

Even with the pessimism that went in to the title of this post i really do have good intentions. i have recently started looking at my life a little closer and, as i have many times before, i decided it needed a make over of some kind. ill start back a bit for history and then see if i can figure out a process for making a change this time around.

The brief what was...

i was working at an architectural firm for two years a while back and realized i just didn't like sitting behind a desk all day redrawing someone else's ideas. Now i had no responsibilities and no bills so i decided this was a great time to just quit and look for something else that i wanted to be when i grew up. i took a job to fill in the time while i did the usual soul searching and low and behold 15 years later i'm still at that job. As i see it i still haven't figured out what i'm going to do when i grow up. Now unlike before i do have responsibilities (at least thats what my two kids seem to tell me) and i do have some bills (RE: two kids) so i thought this was a great time to start thinking about what changes i can make to my life(sarcasm really doesn't type well). So thats the quick and dirty of it.

Next part (well, this is the intent) is to examine where i am and what can be done to improve it. And here is where i should be asking for wishes of luck, but ill just hope for self-perseverance. g