Late Nite Thoughts
 

Just some deep thoughts that came to me late at nite, 1:01 AM.

Why aren't we out of Iraq yet and letting them build their own country?
Why won't some of my CD-RWs being read by my computer? :redface:
Am I ever going to make up my bed again?
Will I choose to vote in the next presidential election? Is it a bitch to register to vote?
Why haven't we discovered aliens yet...I'm sure they exist...that'd be a freaking lonely existant for Planet Earth.
I'm really happy my girlfriend decided to attend U of I next year... :)

Well those are my late nite thoughts. Feel free to post yours!

did you ever think anything you didn't say?

To answer your questions:

Because it's Dubya's legacy, and he's trying to make American democracy work at all costs.

Because your computer is a hyper-sensitive bitch. :)

You should register to vote and vote in 2008. It's easy to register.

Aliens are out there...they're just not believed by the "right" person yet.

U of I is a good school...hopefully you two will stay together after she gets there. :)

Jim, he did think stuff he didn't say, but was afraid of the responses he'd get from us.

*thinks* Yeah, nothing deep right now. It's early though...I'll hit this one again later.

What is your girlfriends interests? Just curious, I work at the U of Iowa in the Biology Dept.

Actually it's the University of Illinois. And, thanks for the answers sycamore :P

1:01am! :eek:

I'm usually in bed by 10-10:30pm. I wait for the weather (most of the time) then I channel surf for about 5-10 minutes. Turn the tube off. Roll over and start cutting ZZZzzz's...

Late night thoughts? Don't want any.

I'm in college. 1 o clock is friggin' early, man.

Well, I guess that makes more sense since you're in Champaign. :right: Duh. That's what I get for trying to be in a hurry. Carry on...

It has been a long time. Good to get it out of your system now. Someday you might have to work for a living.

Are you serious!? :eek:
:yeldead:

I got to bed at around 1:00 and I am the same age as Fresh. But I also usually wakeup/get waken up by my roommate at around 6:45-7:00.

Labrat, you work at Iowa?

"Who hates Iowa?"
"We hate Iowa!"

We have a good amount of the Big 10 represented here.

:smack:

I forgot the ;)

Relax... I'm just jealous... :cool:

But then what happens on the weekends? You get to catch up on sleep, right?

Where is my 10mm wrench? Why don't the wrench sets come with TWO of them, since the first one is ALWAYS abducted by aliens? Why can't 3/8 == 10mm??

Why is the manual wrong? I looked for thirty minutes for the "difficult to reach but easy to turn" drain petcock on the radiator located "under the bottom hose" IN VAIN. People, it's on the other side of the radiator. The "other" left side of the radiator. Under the "other" radiator hose, on the side of the "other" bottom... sheesh. Yeah, I'm pissed. Let's hope the removal and replacement goes more smoothly. *please*

my late night thoughts
 

did i turn the back air conditioner off what time is it did i remember to send that letter to that one student and why is everyone so damn demanding should i be different what was that one song that show was so funny tonight chuckle my head hurts what's that noise outside did the ambulance come for the old man next door again do i have to go to work tomorrow is there a way to get out of it like malaria or something i wonder what ever happened to the muscovy duck i really like him remember that neighbor who called him a good old duck tomorrow i really start dieting and working out or maybe i better hit the club the drawing is up to almost 5 grand why am i who i am wouldn't it be nice to be well adjusted and not lonely but then again i like being alone and doing what i want when i want it sure would be nice to win the lottery so i could do volunteer work that i liked if i felt like it or go fishing or swimming but first i would hit a fat farm in a resort so i feel better and what car would i buy did i pay the gas bill i can't believe they haven't shut it off one time i got the prettiest pink roses did that bitch really say that today how come i can't sleep i'm really trying to sleep i'll count backwards from a hundred really slow one hundred ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-damn that heartburn shouldn't have made tacos and i should give up the coffee wonder if it will rain i hope so i love rain i'm a strange girl perhaps i should change what am i going to wear tomorrow did i do laundry remember when jughead told archie he was a knob no that never happened ...

Something like that. Free association.

Usually, but if go to sleep to late I be waken up before 11:00 no matter what. Seven hours is catching up for me by the way.

I rarely take naps but I think I may take one today or tomorrow because studying for midterms have been keeping me up lately.

college sleep is godly for me. i sleep 2-10 am everyweekday and weekends its whatever time 3,4,5 am until whenever iwake up, mabye 12 or 1 or 2.

shawnee i think like that too before i go to sleep :)

Left side is drivers side in the US. There is no other left.

I'm trying to think less, so I'm spending a lot of time talking. I talked to my cousin for an hour last night, and I talked with a friend* from about 10:30 until 2:30 am...I woke up at 6 am like I always do. 4 hours is a full nights sleep for me, and I'm practically an old man compared to fresh and pierce.

* Yes, the same one I recently mentioned elsewhere, in case you're curious.

Last night was one was those nights when my brain just wouldn't switch off. I thought about my friend Linda and how alone she must be feeling right now after losing her husband last week. I thought about Alan and how terrified he must have felt in those last seconds alone in his house, unable to catch his breath, his heart pounding in his chest; and I thought about the conversation we'd had when I had a coffee with him a couple of days before he died. I thought about my dad, inevitably, as he has the same illness.

I thought about the election campaign, worried about whether or not I'd put enough stuff in place, was everything going to schedule, would that schedule work? I thought about possible ideas for my dissertation in two years. I wondered what the noise I'd just heard was, before deciding it was the dog. I thought about Dave laughing at something devastatingly funny that I wish I'd said. I realised it was probably not actually that funny.

I considered getting up and eating something. I spent a little time berating myself for even considering that after I had difficulty fastening my jeans earlier. I thought maybe the three budweisers i'd drunk was probably also quite a bad idea.

I worried about the essay I'd put in the day before.

Deep stuff Dana. Sorry about the loss that was suffered. My condolences, was it a heart attack?

Thanks. Yes it was, he had a lung disease and related heart condition. Too many funerals lately.

12:07 AM
I really hope my girlfriend can go to U of I. I'm in the middle of a Skype conversation but she is being lectured by her mom right now. Her mom and dad were just arguing about her decision on picking U of I...and now her mom is talking to her about something...probably to persuade her not to go here...even though they told her initially she can go wherever she wants... and now that she decided on U of I...they are like shit....they really don't like me...I hope it doesn't cost her attending here though...some parents man...

12:27 AM
Found out what they said....told her not to do engineering at U of I (one of the top engineering schools in the NATION!) because engineers are in high demand. She probably won't get a job. And they don't get paid well (her PARENTS! are engineers!) and that civil engineering is a bad option, they told her America is pretty much developed, no need for new buildings. -__- And the worse thing is she said "eh, it's kind of true." Now I didn't refute anything her parents told her because if I did she would get all quiet and moody and then angry on me so I just chose to keep my feelings of "YOUR PARENTS ARE RIDICULOUS AND FULL OF BULLSHIT TO THE BRIM". But seriously. Everything they told her is complete bullshit, and it's all cause of me... :(

I've brought our kids to the enginreeng/agriculture open house for the last two years. Both of my sisters kids are in engineering at the U of I., and yes there are jobs waiting for them. I highly recommend the open house, lots of cool stuff geared towards our kids ages 9, 11, and 13. They are really excited about school, and some day going to college, because of our visits. Given your girlfriend's parents mental capacity, perhaps you should invite them.

Baloney. If I'm standing at the front of the car, with the hood up, looking at the engine compartment, the left side is the side closest to my left hand, period. I don't have one single absolute reference for left and right based on the drivers head. Which is the left side when you're working on the passenger door? The driver's door? Right and left should be relative to the working position in a case like this. The manual had a mistake in it, and now that the radiator is back in the car (Yay me!) the whole issue barely rises to the level of a cellar conversation.

But I missed you so much xoB that I'm happy to chew even this thin point back and forth with you. Glad you're back. Hope all is well.

Last night, it included "what did i say on the cellar about late night thoughts before going to sleep and not being able to sleep and i wonder if anyone read it i thought it was funny maybe i'm not funny did i answer that email i wonder what was on craig ferguson i'm too tired to try to watch but then why can't i sleep..." etc.

:blush:

I've just read it - I found it funny I promise :)

I must get the strange thoughts.

Last night was "Do those people at Wendy's PURPOSEFULLY put the mayonnaise on my sandwich even when I tell them not to? :3_eyes:

lol...that's just how my rambling thoughts roll! :p

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I'm going into civil engineering at also one of top engineering schools in the NATION. All I can say is what the fuck?

I thought this was funny. Then I thought, "what if Shawnee actually talks like this?" I'd have to hit her on the head with Maxwell's big greasy hammer.

Not to raise old hurts. Just to say again how people might have more to them than you first think.

And for me, my version of Late Night Thoughts was always called Two O'Clock in the Morning Thoughts. And went from being worrying and distressing when I was well, to panic and suicidal when I was ill. I have learned not to trust mine (because of my mindset I mean) but sometimes a laptop and time difference mean I express them in a less ephemeral way.

My Mum's mantra, when I was rigid with upset as a child, was always, "Shush, nothing you can do about it right now. Sort out it tomorrow." That and Susan Coolidge's "Morning brings counsel". Both comfort me still.

I'm siding with xoBruce on the "left side" thing - not that anyone asked, mind, but that there is a standard way to reference the right and left sides of a car. If it helps, substitute port and starboard: no matter which way you are facing on a ship or aircraft, those sides are labeled the consistently. Unless maybe it's a ferry, one of those pushmipullyou kinds. Ah well, exceptions and rules and all that.

My late night thoughts ramble and jump like drunk goats, punctuated by occasional "What's that? Did you hear that noise?" thoughts or "Guess I'll go read another chapter."

I never thought of that. I wonder if they have a port and starboard side that the crew knows. Some have the pilot house off center.

I should have mentioned: this thread brought back to you by the SDRTP.

Port and starboard do not change, as far as I know there are no exceptions.

huh. I really think the way Shawnee describes...I don't SAY it out loud (and I don't think she does, either), but my thoughts tend to run like that. I can read a profound, life-altering book and then be pissed off at some small thing two seconds later. I TRY to grasp the last gasp of serenity...but it always eludes me. Just like that brass bell you're supposed to ring when you get a big tip. I never get a big tip.

Yeah, but port and starboard are based on the locations of the bow and stern. What if the bow and stern are not fixed in location, like with a double-ended ferry?

Which side is starboard?

Here's my late night thought: Crap. I have to work tomorrow. I'd better log off.

But I know I'll probably lie awake surfing a stream of consciousness for a while yet. Damn that metaphor doesn't make a lick of sense does it? Wait a minute, what the hell do I mean "lick" of sense? Crazy talk. He's my brother. Go lick some sense into him. No, wait. Sense? that's a metaphor. I think. Hell. I'm lost now. Notice that even when I rant it has grammar. Freak. Sleep, coming soon?

The madness has begun.

Easy answer is on the right, but ???
I am familiar with the double ended ferries, but I do not know which is which. The terms port and starboard mean more than just the particular side of the boat, ferry or ship. The term also refers to the engines and other things on the vessel. They have to be designated one way or the other. Then again they may do it differently on these boats.

The other thing that comes into play is that the different sides of the vessel have different colored lights used to designate which way it is traveling and other important factors. I can see how this is easily overcome by having both colored lights on both sides of the ferry and changing them dependent upon which way its going.

I still believe that there is a designated port and starboard though.

I agree that the crew working the boat need to be able to use a common set of terms to describe certain parts of it, and designated one side as port and one side as starboard would be an easy way of doing that. They could say that the pilot house side will always be port, and the other side will always be starboard, but that means that an outsider won't be able to look at the boat and tell you which is which.

From WA State DOT, page 2:

81.2 INTRODUCTION
This Section contains the Contractor Design and Provide general requirements for the Vessel’s steering gear and deck machinery.
For WSF Fleet-wide Standardization purposes, End No. 1 of the Vessel shall always be considered the bow, and this designation shall delineate port and starboard, fore and aft wherever they are addressed in the Technical Specification.

So that's how WA state does it. That's good enough for me! And I'm not asking how they decide which is End No. 1 and why there is not a more creative name for it. [/end quest]

On schedule for tonight's Late Nite Thought parade: Why did I get 2 different answers to the same question from the same entity? This just in from Washington State Ferry Information Agent via email: Even on open-end Ferry boats have set standards to avoid confusion.... The right side of the vessel is always starboard, regardless of direction, as long as you are facing the same direction the vessel is traveling.

What happens when it stops? Then there is no starboard, I guess.

It's a quantum ferry!!

Most of the time my late night thoughts are fairly shallow. From time to time my thoughts become a little more troubling. Usually this is when going into or coming out of a bout of depression. This has become a lot less of a factor since Dad went into warden controlled accomodation. No need to lie awake wondering at what point I'll get a phone call to tell me he's been found, dead a week.

Funny thing. When I first joined the Cellar those more troubling nights were so much more a part of my life. I posted a prose-poem about it in here (4am Vigil and the Depressed Mind). I had forgotten how many of my nights were spent like that back then. Guess I am happier nowadays.

Here's a thought from last night. Deep or not, I cannot say. Doggerland.

What's Doggerland? I hear you ask. So I'll answer that with a question: how long has Britain been little? How long has this little island, been an island?

Not a long time. Not even in human terms. A mere eight thousand years. Doggerland was a stretch of fertile grasslands cut across with a vast river and tributary system. The tip of that land ended in a rough and rocky point. Twelve thousand years ago the White Cliffs of Dover looked out not onto the sea, but onto an ocean of waving grasses. The people who inhabited Denmark left their traces, as did those who lived along what re now the coastal waters of Britain. Their traces show a similar culture, their craftwork identical. Across three or four thousand years my Island was born. The final land connection lost eight thousand years ago. Towards the end, the loss of land would have been visible to those living along the ever encroaching coastline. A metre a day, or thereabouts. Those people on this side of that new sea were pushed further into what was becoming an Island. Within a very short time, the artefacts they left had diverged sharply from those being left on the mainland. No longer a shared culture.

Eight thousand years ago people hunted and gathered and lived in an area of land equivalent in size to a modern European nation, now wholly lost to the world. Doggerland.

That was what was occupying my mind last night. And the couple of nights prior to that. Saw a documentary about the current attempts to conduct archaelogical studies under water.

What also blew my mind was the fact that 6 thousand years before Doggerland was lost it was under water and ice. It was only above water as usable land for about six or seven thousand years. A small time in terms of land climate change, but vast to a culture with no written record to sustain knowledge. The idea that Britain could cease to be an island and then become one again across such a short time, and that this short time could feel like forever to the humans who exist through it made geography of my world seem suddenly very fluid, not fixed at all.

Doggerland. If I had a time machine, that's where and when I would go.

I usually read myself to sleep but one night I was singing the Beatles song Blackbird. Then I thought this one young female unsigned artist could pull it off perfectly.



Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Late at night, I tend to let my mind go where it wishes. Oftentimes, it goes places that I never get to go in reality.

I tend to worry a lot at night. About basically everything. I try to distract myself and calm myself down by making up stories and fantasies instead. I almost always find myself worrying again though. Its a fun cycle.

Recently my late night thoughts have been, "Why the hell am I not asleep, again?"