If it is real, it would have had to have been taken quite a good distance away with a telephoto lens, thereby altering the apparent distance between the whales, the rowboat and mountains in the background. The funny thing is the fishing pole in the little boat.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
how bizarre it is that there isn’t more medical attention and study into sleep and how we do it/what helps and hinders, etc- given that it comprises almost a full third of our entire life span.
Shouldn’t sleep therapy and other care be just as accessible as any other therapy and medical care?
The more I think about it, and tying in with the holiday season beginning next week, this country is still impaired by an overriding and incapacitating puritanical sentiment/mindset still very much present in our society - one of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, being undeserving in Gods eyes, not appearing to be too accepting of too much pleasure.
Of course it’s all hypocritical, because we’ve become a hyper hedonistic culture. And of course dichotomously we’re also the world’s most punitive, certainly at least in terms of per capita. There’s a corollary there but I just can’t find it now, due somewhat to my own lack of sleep. To that point of punitiveness, just read a passage in a book by Angela Davis about the origins of the Penitentiary, which was to create a place based on penitence, ultimately designed to rehabilitate people, not damage them further. Anyway, “the soul of America” that Neoliberals keep yarning about in their TrumpDerangementSyndrome is not what they like to pretend it is - it’s a lot darker.
Sleep therapy?
That’s for Europeans or sumthin’!
We’re hearty, self-made Americans!
What’s next, massages for everyone too?
Well, yes. That would be progress, in a civilized society.
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—
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
I believe you're on to something. Sleep is a close cousin of idleness. I agree with Mark Slouka:
A resuscitated orthodoxy, so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, rules the land. Like any religion worth its salt, it shapes our world in its image, demonizing if necessary, absorbing when possible. Thus has the great sovereign territory of what Nabokov called “unreal estate,” the continent of invisible possessions from time to talent to contentment, been either infantilized, rendered unclean, or translated into the grammar of dollars and cents. Thus has the great wilderness of the inner life been compressed into a median strip by the demands of the “real world,” which of course is anything but. Thus have we succeeded in transforming even ourselves into bipedal products, paying richly for seminars that teach us how to market the self so it may be sold to the highest bidder. Or perhaps “down the river” is the phrase.
Ah, but here’s the rub: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy.”
...
Not long ago, at the kind of dinner party I rarely attend, I made the mistake of admitting that I not only liked to sleep but liked to get at least eight hours a night whenever possible, and that nine would be better still. The reaction – a complex Pinot Noir of nervous laughter displaced by expressions of disbelief and condescension – suggested that my transgression had been, on some level, a political one. I was reminded of the time I’d confessed to Roger Angell that I did not much care for baseball.
My comment was immediately rebutted by testimonials to sleeplessness: two of the nine guests confessed to being insomniacs; a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters claimed indignantly that she couldn’t remember when she had ever gotten eight hours of sleep; two other guests declared themselves grateful for five or six. It mattered little that I’d arranged my life differently, and accepted the sacrifices that arrangement entailed. Eight hours! There was something willful about it. Arrogant, even. Suitably chastened, I held my tongue, and escaped alone to tell Thee.
how bizarre it is that there isn’t more medical attention and study into sleep and how we do it/what helps and hinders, etc- given that it comprises almost a full third of our entire life span.
Shouldn’t sleep therapy and other care be just as accessible as any other therapy and medical care?
The more I think about it, and tying in with the holiday season beginning next week, this country is still impaired by an overriding and incapacitating puritanical sentiment/mindset still very much present in our society - one of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, being undeserving in Gods eyes, not appearing to be too accepting of too much pleasure.
Of course it’s all hypocritical, because we’ve become a hyper hedonistic culture. And of course dichotomously we’re also the world’s most punitive, certainly at least in terms of per capita. There’s a corollary there but I just can’t find it now, due somewhat to my own lack of sleep. To that point of punitiveness, just read a passage in a book by Angela Davis about the origins of the Penitentiary, which was to create a place based on penitence, ultimately designed to rehabilitate people, not damage them further. Anyway, “the soul of America” that Neoliberals keep yarning about in their TrumpDerangementSyndrome is not what they like to pretend it is - it’s a lot darker.
Sleep therapy?
That’s for Europeans or sumthin’!
We’re hearty, self-made Americans!
What’s next, massages for everyone too?
Well, yes. That would be progress, in a civilized society.
up
0 users have voted.
—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Great indictment of the over-stimulation and commodification of our lives ruled by dazzling gadgets, gizmos and entertainment that come at us non-stop.
Twain often said he was the laziest man in the world, and would frequently spend chunks of the day in bed and in his pajamas.
I know that when I'm feeling what could be called a little brain fog or out of sorts, a nap, even a short one, almost invariably recharges me and refreshes my mind. Just resting, closing one's eyes, just simply getting away from any hustle and bustle, seems to open up portals or allow a clearing away of interference.
I believe you're on to something. Sleep is a close cousin of idleness. I agree with Mark Slouka:
A resuscitated orthodoxy, so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, rules the land. Like any religion worth its salt, it shapes our world in its image, demonizing if necessary, absorbing when possible. Thus has the great sovereign territory of what Nabokov called “unreal estate,” the continent of invisible possessions from time to talent to contentment, been either infantilized, rendered unclean, or translated into the grammar of dollars and cents. Thus has the great wilderness of the inner life been compressed into a median strip by the demands of the “real world,” which of course is anything but. Thus have we succeeded in transforming even ourselves into bipedal products, paying richly for seminars that teach us how to market the self so it may be sold to the highest bidder. Or perhaps “down the river” is the phrase.
Ah, but here’s the rub: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy.”
...
Not long ago, at the kind of dinner party I rarely attend, I made the mistake of admitting that I not only liked to sleep but liked to get at least eight hours a night whenever possible, and that nine would be better still. The reaction – a complex Pinot Noir of nervous laughter displaced by expressions of disbelief and condescension – suggested that my transgression had been, on some level, a political one. I was reminded of the time I’d confessed to Roger Angell that I did not much care for baseball.
My comment was immediately rebutted by testimonials to sleeplessness: two of the nine guests confessed to being insomniacs; a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters claimed indignantly that she couldn’t remember when she had ever gotten eight hours of sleep; two other guests declared themselves grateful for five or six. It mattered little that I’d arranged my life differently, and accepted the sacrifices that arrangement entailed. Eight hours! There was something willful about it. Arrogant, even. Suitably chastened, I held my tongue, and escaped alone to tell Thee.
That's one of them. "Just Asking" is another. Also, in a different way, "Conspiracy of Two" by Jay Newton-Small and Michael Sherer, which came out in Time in 2011, and "As the World Burns" by Ryan Lizza, which appeared in the New Yorker in 2010. It's weird to think that as little as eight years ago I could have found an article that was useful in Time.
Another weirdness: Lizza is the chief Washington correspondent for Politico now. I bet he hasn't written an article like "As the World Burns" in about six years at least. That's not how you get and keep jobs like the chief Washington correspondent for Politico. Jay Newton-Small seems to be doing serious work on Alzheimer's . She's still at Time. But she's writing lots of articles about how women taking leadership positions is going to change the world, which is, to put it the most kindly, an outdated perspective. I tend to become automatically suspicious these days when I see someone approaching issues from that angle. It's kind of sad, but there it is.
Michael Sherer is now at the Washington Post. I try not to categorically dismiss people based on association, but I think it's likely that one cannot cover politics for the Post without being compromised in every fiber of your being.
I'd be glad to discover I'm wrong about that.
I'm guessing Sherer hasn't written many articles like Conspiracy of Two lately. On the other hand, his pedigree and career, like Jay Newton-Small's, leads me to believe that, perhaps, Conspiracy of Two was not intended to be the revelation it actually was. See, it basically fawns on Obama and, to a lesser extent, Boehner. That's the tone. But it revealed something very significant. I wonder if they actually did that by mistake?
Great indictment of the over-stimulation and commodification of our lives ruled by dazzling gadgets, gizmos and entertainment that come at us non-stop.
Twain often said he was the laziest man in the world, and would frequently spend chunks of the day in bed and in his pajamas.
I know that when I'm feeling what could be called a little brain fog or out of sorts, a nap, even a short one, almost invariably recharges me and refreshes my mind. Just resting, closing one's eyes, just simply getting away from any hustle and bustle, seems to open up portals or allow a clearing away of interference.
Look forward to reading the rest when I can.
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—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due.
I believe you're on to something. Sleep is a close cousin of idleness. I agree with Mark Slouka:
A resuscitated orthodoxy, so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, rules the land. Like any religion worth its salt, it shapes our world in its image, demonizing if necessary, absorbing when possible. Thus has the great sovereign territory of what Nabokov called “unreal estate,” the continent of invisible possessions from time to talent to contentment, been either infantilized, rendered unclean, or translated into the grammar of dollars and cents. Thus has the great wilderness of the inner life been compressed into a median strip by the demands of the “real world,” which of course is anything but. Thus have we succeeded in transforming even ourselves into bipedal products, paying richly for seminars that teach us how to market the self so it may be sold to the highest bidder. Or perhaps “down the river” is the phrase.
Ah, but here’s the rub: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy.”
...
Not long ago, at the kind of dinner party I rarely attend, I made the mistake of admitting that I not only liked to sleep but liked to get at least eight hours a night whenever possible, and that nine would be better still. The reaction – a complex Pinot Noir of nervous laughter displaced by expressions of disbelief and condescension – suggested that my transgression had been, on some level, a political one. I was reminded of the time I’d confessed to Roger Angell that I did not much care for baseball.
My comment was immediately rebutted by testimonials to sleeplessness: two of the nine guests confessed to being insomniacs; a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters claimed indignantly that she couldn’t remember when she had ever gotten eight hours of sleep; two other guests declared themselves grateful for five or six. It mattered little that I’d arranged my life differently, and accepted the sacrifices that arrangement entailed. Eight hours! There was something willful about it. Arrogant, even. Suitably chastened, I held my tongue, and escaped alone to tell Thee.
The leaves have been falling like snow the last couple of days. Yesterday's rain helped speed up the process.
I saw yesterday you asked about sweet potatoes. We put 3 of our 10 beds in them. We do get vole damage...just have to plant enough to compensate. Deer love them (and you too can eat the greens). They are drought tolerant. Our 3 - 25x3' beds provide us with about 3 bushels. After digging we wash and sort them by size and put them in boxes. Then we put them in the little room which houses the water heater to heat cure tham. They work the opposite from corn whose sugars turn to starch. The sweet potato starch turns to sugar with curing. After two to three week we bring them to the pantry where they will last up to a year.
I am actually wondering why the roots are small. Perhaps because they were put in barrels instead of the ground? Hmm.
I'll check the links you so kindly provided.
The leaves have been falling like snow the last couple of days. Yesterday's rain helped speed up the process.
I saw yesterday you asked about sweet potatoes. We put 3 of our 10 beds in them. We do get vole damage...just have to plant enough to compensate. Deer love them (and you too can eat the greens). They are drought tolerant. Our 3 - 25x3' beds provide us with about 3 bushels. After digging we wash and sort them by size and put them in boxes. Then we put them in the little room which houses the water heater to heat cure tham. They work the opposite from corn whose sugars turn to starch. The sweet potato starch turns to sugar with curing. After two to three week we bring them to the pantry where they will last up to a year.
Sweet potato seedlings in containers have a tendency to become root-bound. When the roots — which turn into the actual sweet potatoes — begin to grow in the pot, they will often circle around the inside of the pot. Once that happens, there’s a chance they won’t fill out properly.
I have a social obligation this morning--my mom's best friend whom I haven't seen in 40 years is in town and I'm supposed to have breakfast with them. So I won't be in much till around noon, but I'll see y'all then!
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—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) urged the director of the Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday to be honest with the American people about what happened in the death of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“How can I put this? Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jeffrey Epstein — name three things that don’t hang themselves,” Kennedy told Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “That’s what the American people think. That’s what the American people think!”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) urged the director of the Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday to be honest with the American people about what happened in the death of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“How can I put this? Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jeffrey Epstein — name three things that don’t hang themselves,” Kennedy told Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “That’s what the American people think. That’s what the American people think!”
up
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—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I've noticed in the last two and a half months, I sleep much better than I used to. I fall asleep within minutes of going to bed (something that never used to happen), sleep through the entire night (another thing that never used to happen) and wake up feeling rested and not groggy (also a new development)
Since the only change I've made to my daily routine is my diet, I can't help but wonder if there's a corollary?
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—
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I've noticed in the last two and a half months, I sleep much better than I used to. I fall asleep within minutes of going to bed (something that never used to happen), sleep through the entire night (another thing that never used to happen) and wake up feeling rested and not groggy (also a new development)
Since the only change I've made to my daily routine is my diet, I can't help but wonder if there's a corollary?
up
0 users have voted.
—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I stopped eating sugar, grains, and dairy two and half months ago, and most recently, I began intermittent fasting where I only take my meals between the hours of 11am - 8pm. I've already lost a dress size, and I'm hoping to lose another one by the end of January.
Low-dairy is just my ordinary life, since my body reacts badly to dairy.
Sugar, well, I've been eating rather a lot of sugar.
I'd really like to do better as far as the grain is concerned. It made such a difference! The key appears to be not staying up late enough to get hungry again. Or, alternatively, to keep something in the house (like a hunk of pot roast or some fish) that I can nosh on without eating grain or sugar.
but that's kind of a vicious cycle, now that I think of it. Easier to stay on diet if I don't stay awake; easier to go to sleep if I stay on diet.
I stopped eating sugar, grains, and dairy two and half months ago, and most recently, I began intermittent fasting where I only take my meals between the hours of 11am - 8pm. I've already lost a dress size, and I'm hoping to lose another one by the end of January.
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0 users have voted.
—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I had insomnia for most of my adult life. When my kids were in school there were lots of times that I had to stay up all night just to make sure I was up when they needed to wake up and go to school, then I'd catch a few hours sleep during school hours. I tried for years to sleep at night when everyone else did. I tried OTC sleep aids like Unisom, but they just gave me restless leg syndrome which made it even harder to sleep.
Then on the night of the day that my dad died, I took some melatonin that my mother had given me. Then I slept. All night. Now I take it almost every night. I sleep all night and am usually up between 7 and 9 without the grogginess that I always used to have. When I get ready to go to sleep, I eat 2 melatonin gummies and 2 one-a-day gummies. Then I watch something on tv until my eyes can't stay open which doesn't take long - 30 minutes to an hour. When I run out I usually go without for a few days before I buy more. Those nights that I go without it takes longer, sometimes much longer, to fall asleep. Being able to enjoy the morning hours is a fairly new thing for me.
I know pills would probably be better than the sugary gummies. But I wouldn't take the pills because I hate swallowing them.
But I'm taking a ton of Cal/Mag every day now for other health reasons, and no soap. I haven't actually tried melatonin yet. Maybe I should.
I had insomnia for most of my adult life. When my kids were in school there were lots of times that I had to stay up all night just to make sure I was up when they needed to wake up and go to school, then I'd catch a few hours sleep during school hours. I tried for years to sleep at night when everyone else did. I tried OTC sleep aids like Unisom, but they just gave me restless leg syndrome which made it even harder to sleep.
Then on the night of the day that my dad died, I took some melatonin that my mother had given me. Then I slept. All night. Now I take it almost every night. I sleep all night and am usually up between 7 and 9 without the grogginess that I always used to have. When I get ready to go to sleep, I eat 2 melatonin gummies and 2 one-a-day gummies. Then I watch something on tv until my eyes can't stay open which doesn't take long - 30 minutes to an hour. When I run out I usually go without for a few days before I buy more. Those nights that I go without it takes longer, sometimes much longer, to fall asleep. Being able to enjoy the morning hours is a fairly new thing for me.
I know pills would probably be better than the sugary gummies. But I wouldn't take the pills because I hate swallowing them.
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—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Melatonin had the opposite effect for me. I spent the entire night walking around, trying to just calm down.
Everyone else has had good luck with it.
Like, for instance, a small to moderate amount of stimulants actually calms me down rather than making me buzzy.
I've heard that that's a thing: that there's a portion of the human population that simply responds in the opposite way to some drugs.
#11.1 Melatonin had the opposite effect for me. I spent the entire night walking around, trying to just calm down.
Everyone else has had good luck with it.
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—
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I drive my doctors nuts when they want to put me on something and I tell them I have tried them before and they don't work plus I get horrible side effects that are unusual. My CA doctor thought I was making it up, but he saw the side effects himself after I tried them for him. He then said that I drive him f'cking nuts.
Ambian and Lunesta keep me wide awake and I feel drunk the next morning. I would have gotten a DUI if I had driven while affected.
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
When I get my teeth worked on, more likely than not, the deadening shots do not work. Sometimes they will cause extreme facial swelling and nerve damage. If it is anything significant, I just go to an oral surgeon and go under with a valium drip.
Maybe 1% of all people taking terblafine for toenail fungus will have the skin on their arms,legs, hands and feet, dry out and peel off. In that and only that regard, I am a 1%er!
I took 1 Chantix one time. 8 solid hours of terrifying psychedelic dreams. I recently found that neither morphine nor fentanyl reduced the pain of a copperhead bite. Not one bit.
The routine eye drop to deaden my eye for a simple lens clean by laser went south, set me on fire, and my eye was almost blood red, and the dr. had to make a decision whether to even do it. None of the staff or the dr. had ever seen that reaction before.
Recently, I had 30 days of antibiotics, got some probiotics to restore bowel sanity bugs. It only takes 7 days for everybody else. I just took No. 18.
And you do not want to know what people tell me I have done for 12 hours after going under with valium drip. I save those stories for sitting around a campfire, drinking beer with my best buds.
Comments
I can only add:
[video: https://youtu.be/bsRNCvHXHHU]
Or
[video: https://youtu.be/DJJIQZhZZRc]
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Wonderful!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
amazing photo
Humpback whales feeding
Wow. Is that real?!?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Wherever did you find that spectacular picture?
P.S. As awesome a sight as that is, I'm not sure I'd like to be as close to those humongous whales that little boat seems to be. Yikes!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Can't say for sure
If it is real, it would have had to have been taken quite a good distance away with a telephoto lens, thereby altering the apparent distance between the whales, the rowboat and mountains in the background. The funny thing is the fishing pole in the little boat.
Found it on Naked Capitalism.
Just repeat this mantra
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
LOL
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I once brought up to a doctor
how bizarre it is that there isn’t more medical attention and study into sleep and how we do it/what helps and hinders, etc- given that it comprises almost a full third of our entire life span.
Shouldn’t sleep therapy and other care be just as accessible as any other therapy and medical care?
The more I think about it, and tying in with the holiday season beginning next week, this country is still impaired by an overriding and incapacitating puritanical sentiment/mindset still very much present in our society - one of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, being undeserving in Gods eyes, not appearing to be too accepting of too much pleasure.
Of course it’s all hypocritical, because we’ve become a hyper hedonistic culture. And of course dichotomously we’re also the world’s most punitive, certainly at least in terms of per capita. There’s a corollary there but I just can’t find it now, due somewhat to my own lack of sleep. To that point of punitiveness, just read a passage in a book by Angela Davis about the origins of the Penitentiary, which was to create a place based on penitence, ultimately designed to rehabilitate people, not damage them further. Anyway, “the soul of America” that Neoliberals keep yarning about in their TrumpDerangementSyndrome is not what they like to pretend it is - it’s a lot darker.
Sleep therapy?
That’s for Europeans or sumthin’!
We’re hearty, self-made Americans!
What’s next, massages for everyone too?
Well, yes. That would be progress, in a civilized society.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Great to "see" you, Mark!
I believe you're on to something. Sleep is a close cousin of idleness. I agree with Mark Slouka:
A resuscitated orthodoxy, so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, rules the land. Like any religion worth its salt, it shapes our world in its image, demonizing if necessary, absorbing when possible. Thus has the great sovereign territory of what Nabokov called “unreal estate,” the continent of invisible possessions from time to talent to contentment, been either infantilized, rendered unclean, or translated into the grammar of dollars and cents. Thus has the great wilderness of the inner life been compressed into a median strip by the demands of the “real world,” which of course is anything but. Thus have we succeeded in transforming even ourselves into bipedal products, paying richly for seminars that teach us how to market the self so it may be sold to the highest bidder. Or perhaps “down the river” is the phrase.
Ah, but here’s the rub: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy.”
...
Not long ago, at the kind of dinner party I rarely attend, I made the mistake of admitting that I not only liked to sleep but liked to get at least eight hours a night whenever possible, and that nine would be better still. The reaction – a complex Pinot Noir of nervous laughter displaced by expressions of disbelief and condescension – suggested that my transgression had been, on some level, a political one. I was reminded of the time I’d confessed to Roger Angell that I did not much care for baseball.
My comment was immediately rebutted by testimonials to sleeplessness: two of the nine guests confessed to being insomniacs; a member of the Academy of Arts and Letters claimed indignantly that she couldn’t remember when she had ever gotten eight hours of sleep; two other guests declared themselves grateful for five or six. It mattered little that I’d arranged my life differently, and accepted the sacrifices that arrangement entailed. Eight hours! There was something willful about it. Arrogant, even. Suitably chastened, I held my tongue, and escaped alone to tell Thee.
http://www.molvray.com/ebooks/Quitting_the_Paint_Factory_Mark_Slouka.html
this was from 2004
whole article is well worth reading
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
That was brilliant, really resonated.
Thanks, sister.
Great indictment of the over-stimulation and commodification of our lives ruled by dazzling gadgets, gizmos and entertainment that come at us non-stop.
Twain often said he was the laziest man in the world, and would frequently spend chunks of the day in bed and in his pajamas.
I know that when I'm feeling what could be called a little brain fog or out of sorts, a nap, even a short one, almost invariably recharges me and refreshes my mind. Just resting, closing one's eyes, just simply getting away from any hustle and bustle, seems to open up portals or allow a clearing away of interference.
Look forward to reading the rest when I can.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
There's a few essays and articles that continue
to be of use to me over the years.
That's one of them. "Just Asking" is another. Also, in a different way, "Conspiracy of Two" by Jay Newton-Small and Michael Sherer, which came out in Time in 2011, and "As the World Burns" by Ryan Lizza, which appeared in the New Yorker in 2010. It's weird to think that as little as eight years ago I could have found an article that was useful in Time.
Another weirdness: Lizza is the chief Washington correspondent for Politico now. I bet he hasn't written an article like "As the World Burns" in about six years at least. That's not how you get and keep jobs like the chief Washington correspondent for Politico. Jay Newton-Small seems to be doing serious work on Alzheimer's . She's still at Time. But she's writing lots of articles about how women taking leadership positions is going to change the world, which is, to put it the most kindly, an outdated perspective. I tend to become automatically suspicious these days when I see someone approaching issues from that angle. It's kind of sad, but there it is.
Michael Sherer is now at the Washington Post. I try not to categorically dismiss people based on association, but I think it's likely that one cannot cover politics for the Post without being compromised in every fiber of your being.
I'd be glad to discover I'm wrong about that.
I'm guessing Sherer hasn't written many articles like Conspiracy of Two lately. On the other hand, his pedigree and career, like Jay Newton-Small's, leads me to believe that, perhaps, Conspiracy of Two was not intended to be the revelation it actually was. See, it basically fawns on Obama and, to a lesser extent, Boehner. That's the tone. But it revealed something very significant. I wonder if they actually did that by mistake?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The value of idleness ...
good morning
The leaves have been falling like snow the last couple of days. Yesterday's rain helped speed up the process.
I saw yesterday you asked about sweet potatoes. We put 3 of our 10 beds in them. We do get vole damage...just have to plant enough to compensate. Deer love them (and you too can eat the greens). They are drought tolerant. Our 3 - 25x3' beds provide us with about 3 bushels. After digging we wash and sort them by size and put them in boxes. Then we put them in the little room which houses the water heater to heat cure tham. They work the opposite from corn whose sugars turn to starch. The sweet potato starch turns to sugar with curing. After two to three week we bring them to the pantry where they will last up to a year.
Here's a couple of link about how to grow them.
https://bonnieplants.com/how-to-grow/growing-sweet-potatoes/
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20706654/how-to-grow-sw...
https://thisismygarden.com/2019/01/grow-sweet-potatoes/
(we grow our own slips for next years crop as in the last link)
Let me know if you have a specific questions. All the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks, Lookout!
I am actually wondering why the roots are small. Perhaps because they were put in barrels instead of the ground? Hmm.
I'll check the links you so kindly provided.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It takes 170 + days to mature
We plant mid-May, and harvest mid-Oct. I would be my guess they had not matured if they were small.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I actually waited a couple years to dig them up.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
A-ha!
Sweet potato seedlings in containers have a tendency to become root-bound. When the roots — which turn into the actual sweet potatoes — begin to grow in the pot, they will often circle around the inside of the pot. Once that happens, there’s a chance they won’t fill out properly.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning, everybody,
I have a social obligation this morning--my mom's best friend whom I haven't seen in 40 years is in town and I'm supposed to have breakfast with them. So I won't be in much till around noon, but I'll see y'all then!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
funny senator comment
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) urged the director of the Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday to be honest with the American people about what happened in the death of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“How can I put this? Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jeffrey Epstein — name three things that don’t hang themselves,” Kennedy told Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “That’s what the American people think. That’s what the American people think!”
Damn, that's funny.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
While purely anecdotal...
I've noticed in the last two and a half months, I sleep much better than I used to. I fall asleep within minutes of going to bed (something that never used to happen), sleep through the entire night (another thing that never used to happen) and wake up feeling rested and not groggy (also a new development)
Since the only change I've made to my daily routine is my diet, I can't help but wonder if there's a corollary?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Pardon my forgetting, but what were the specific changes?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The changes in my diet
I stopped eating sugar, grains, and dairy two and half months ago, and most recently, I began intermittent fasting where I only take my meals between the hours of 11am - 8pm. I've already lost a dress size, and I'm hoping to lose another one by the end of January.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Well, I'm trying to stay on a low-grain diet
Low-dairy is just my ordinary life, since my body reacts badly to dairy.
Sugar, well, I've been eating rather a lot of sugar.
I'd really like to do better as far as the grain is concerned. It made such a difference! The key appears to be not staying up late enough to get hungry again. Or, alternatively, to keep something in the house (like a hunk of pot roast or some fish) that I can nosh on without eating grain or sugar.
but that's kind of a vicious cycle, now that I think of it. Easier to stay on diet if I don't stay awake; easier to go to sleep if I stay on diet.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
have you tried sleep sound box?
good luck.
https://www.homedics.com/soundspa.html
That wonderful oldie might also do the trick.
Images of slow dancing in the warm arms of another can be very peace-inducing. I always enjoy your musical contributions, thank you.
No, I'd never heard of it!
Thanks for the link.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
And, oh, thank God,
that machine has buttons. Labeled buttons. Labeled in words!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Sweet dreams ...
[video:https://youtu.be/QUMuDWDVd20]
Oh, I *love* that one!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm glad
It's a winner, and great bedtime listening.
Insomnia
I had insomnia for most of my adult life. When my kids were in school there were lots of times that I had to stay up all night just to make sure I was up when they needed to wake up and go to school, then I'd catch a few hours sleep during school hours. I tried for years to sleep at night when everyone else did. I tried OTC sleep aids like Unisom, but they just gave me restless leg syndrome which made it even harder to sleep.
Then on the night of the day that my dad died, I took some melatonin that my mother had given me. Then I slept. All night. Now I take it almost every night. I sleep all night and am usually up between 7 and 9 without the grogginess that I always used to have. When I get ready to go to sleep, I eat 2 melatonin gummies and 2 one-a-day gummies. Then I watch something on tv until my eyes can't stay open which doesn't take long - 30 minutes to an hour. When I run out I usually go without for a few days before I buy more. Those nights that I go without it takes longer, sometimes much longer, to fall asleep. Being able to enjoy the morning hours is a fairly new thing for me.
I know pills would probably be better than the sugary gummies. But I wouldn't take the pills because I hate swallowing them.
Is it great yet?
I thought maybe magnesium would help.
But I'm taking a ton of Cal/Mag every day now for other health reasons, and no soap. I haven't actually tried melatonin yet. Maybe I should.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I have never been able to sleep.
Melatonin had the opposite effect for me. I spent the entire night walking around, trying to just calm down.
Everyone else has had good luck with it.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Do you often have opposite reactions to controlled
substances?
Like, for instance, a small to moderate amount of stimulants actually calms me down rather than making me buzzy.
I've heard that that's a thing: that there's a portion of the human population that simply responds in the opposite way to some drugs.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I am one of them that reacts the opposite
I drive my doctors nuts when they want to put me on something and I tell them I have tried them before and they don't work plus I get horrible side effects that are unusual. My CA doctor thought I was making it up, but he saw the side effects himself after I tried them for him. He then said that I drive him f'cking nuts.
Ambian and Lunesta keep me wide awake and I feel drunk the next morning. I would have gotten a DUI if I had driven while affected.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Not necessarily opposite effects.
When I get my teeth worked on, more likely than not, the deadening shots do not work. Sometimes they will cause extreme facial swelling and nerve damage. If it is anything significant, I just go to an oral surgeon and go under with a valium drip.
Maybe 1% of all people taking terblafine for toenail fungus will have the skin on their arms,legs, hands and feet, dry out and peel off. In that and only that regard, I am a 1%er!
I took 1 Chantix one time. 8 solid hours of terrifying psychedelic dreams. I recently found that neither morphine nor fentanyl reduced the pain of a copperhead bite. Not one bit.
The routine eye drop to deaden my eye for a simple lens clean by laser went south, set me on fire, and my eye was almost blood red, and the dr. had to make a decision whether to even do it. None of the staff or the dr. had ever seen that reaction before.
Recently, I had 30 days of antibiotics, got some probiotics to restore bowel sanity bugs. It only takes 7 days for everybody else. I just took No. 18.
And you do not want to know what people tell me I have done for 12 hours after going under with valium drip. I save those stories for sitting around a campfire, drinking beer with my best buds.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981