improving

so i had five hours of sleep last night and two the night before, so it's getting better. but i was taking out my contacts at 11pm last night and thinking, "I. Am. Not. Tired." and meaning it! and feeling odd about that - this sudden shortage kind of makes me feel tough. like, i can maintain all sense of normalcy and focus while on so little sleep and it makes me wonder how little i really need.

i don't like waking up tired, though, so i'm not pushing it. but the physiology is really facinating... like the legend of Da Vinci sleeping 20 minutes every four hours. i just googled it and apparently it's a legitimate idea called Polyphasic Sleep.

one serious side effect for me on this nutty schedule is that it makes me feel seriously nostalgic and empathetic. i've been moved by stupid commercials, on and off glued to BBC news, and devouring Mike Doughty's blog. Mike Doughty is totally my new celebrity crush. the list is maybe five men long, but he's just reached the ranks. Click here to check out the blog. Scroll down and check out his links to his writing from Ethiopia, it's worth it. in a very narcisstic way it makes me think of some of my writing from other countries. i posted a few of them on my new portfolio site (click here). the rest of them will come probably this weekend.

Mike quotes one of his many tour guides:
"Eritrea think you can make a country with blood and iron," Genanew says, "but Ethiopia know you can make a country only with loving."

beautiful. one of my sisters is very anti-online anything, which at this point in my career and general life is antithetical to my every- day- experience. mike doughty's blog is exactly what the value of blogs is: people read it, people get it, people receive a window into another experience that they would never otherwise know. if well written, it's the same as reading a magazine or novel. for example, brahm stoker's dracula could have been a blog - a huge part of that book is comprised of diary entries. same. exact. idea. except doughty hasn't encountered any vampires that i've read about.

i heart mike doughty.