Hallo. How’ve you been??

It’s a nice day today, been relaxing at home all day. Admittedly maybe a bit too much relaxing, but the week was pretty exhausting so I’ll get back up on my feet properly tomorrow. Hope you all are doing alright too.

Let’s talk about the week then. Foundation year started properly a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve been taking classes for each subject as scheduled. I have to admit, they aren’t at all hard but ive been having a hard time keeping up. My sleep is all over the place, with the chili I made being a prime example. Dunno if I said this last week, but it took 4 hours to simmer, and I started simmering at 1 am. I didn’t sleep until past 5 and took the day off, and even though I haven’t missed any more than 3 classes since we started and took self certifications on the days that I did, I’m still not happy with my sleep regularity. Its not good for me, im sleeping so sporadically. Sometimes twice a day, sometimes staying up all night, its wack. Ive sort have been blaming the center for this, since on some days class starts 9 and others it starts 11, and although it’s true that if it were a bit more rigid in timing it would be easier to attend in the long run, I don’t want to have to be confined to whenever the center decides I should wake up, I SHOULD HAVE IT COVERED MYSELF. Besides, the increased flexibility is nice, its dumb to blame it on the center when the only caveat to the schedule is that I have to wake up early consistently, which in and of itself isnt a bad thing (I doubt im a night owl and i dunno if it even matters im not at all educated on that front). Its only really a problem since I tend to stay up late and not get any sleep. That being said, i’ve started making a conscious effort to wake up at the same time everyday, both for academics but also just for my health . This crazy ass sleep schedule is NOT doing the job. Right now i’m easing into waking up at 5 :30 – 6 am since its the best time to wake up and have time for school, so ill give it a week and see how it goes. Though that leaves one question left I wanna answer, even if it seems a bit silly to be asking :p.

What app should I use?

I know, sounds dumb as hell, it kind of is. Let me explain myself though.

Ive been using sleep cycle for nearly 2 years now, it’s been great. the way it works is that you choose a time frame (in this case half an hour) and wake up in between the allotted time instead of a harsh wake up at whatever time you decide to put on a regular alarm. The app tries to figure out when in that half hour your in the lightest phase of sleep to wake you up then. I think it’s great, and I’ve recommended it to others with varying rates of success. Ill probably continue to use it, but im looking for alternatives. Reason being, the app runs on a subscription model.

In all honestly, and coming as a shocker to nobody, I hate subscription models that aren’t necessary. Streaming TV shows and movies through HBO, netflix and the like being a subscription? Sure, they need to pay the license for the media. Music streaming? Fair game, hosting it and paying the artists and labels to keep the music on can be costly (btw im more than aware spotify and im sure other companies dont pay artists well enough, but that doesnt really have to do with the fundamental problem im getting at here, still sucks tho). But software that has no good reason to be a subscription, something that could run locally on my phone without needing any extra updates needing a subscription? It’s really annoying. It’s not like it needs anymore updating, the service is great as it is and i’d be more than willing to pay for it one time and leave it at that, but I can ONLY subscribe to sleep cycle to get all the features. I cant even put my own ringtone on the app, it’s annoying :\.

So i’m looking for alternatives. Sleep as android seems like I good bet, so i’ve been using it for a couple of days. Still don’t know how to feel about it though so i’ll probably give a more detailed explaination of my thoughts sometime later. WHAT I CAN say though is that the lucid dream feature is janky as hell if your phone is on the desk (I make the distinction “on the desk” because I’ve only tried it using sonar so far). Maybe it’s just something to do with me, but twice now it just wakes me up from sleep instead of playing when your dreaming. Its only been 2 or 3 days though, ill keep messing around with it =). If your reading this and are interested go try it out yourself, the app’s free features and the 5 day trial are just enough to tinker with things and get a good feel for it (though I wish there were more time). Let me know how it goes and if its just me or not :_).

O also did I mention it has both monthy and yearly payments, but also a one time purchase? I really shouldve said that earlier but yea im really hoping I end up liking and sticking to it just for that reason. Sort of ruined the flow of things by not mentioning that, AND THEN talking about the lucid dream stuff, but also im overthinking this too much and should probably move on to the next subject.

Anywho MINDWAVE. Yea im still obsessed, this game it lodged in my cerebellum and I love every second of it. I introduced it to a classmate and that was quite fun, got a new high score inbetween classes. Im tempted on an idea I though up recently, what if I tried hosting a competition in the center? Basically I’d make a race to see who could beat my high score on endless the fastest and whoever won would get a prize. I want to get more people on the game and have more people to talk to about the game, even if it is just a demo right now. TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING ON IT, and also I just want more people who are interested in indie games like mindwave to talk to. Might be fun, but god knows if it’d work out. I’ll keep that somewhere in my memory bank for further thought.

Anyways, thats all I have to say about the week for now. Do keep in mind though, the site is gonna be down for maybe half a day once it hits 12 since I won’t be able to pay for it today. I have the money, and no im not telling you why I cant today it’s really dumb >:(, but yea anyways itll be back up tomorrow. Just need some time to sort things out.

Anyhow, thanks for reading till the end of the first year, potentially even having gone and finished all the other posts. If so I appreciate it<3. These posts, since day one have been quite nice to make whenever I sit down to write them. Not only do they serve as a sort of internet diary, but it also makes it BLARINGLY obvious where im lacking and might need to be working on things. As an example, I started drawing again, and have been trying to stay as consistent with it as id like to be moving forward. Things like that and learning the piano become really hard to let go of knowing how much ive written down about wanting to do them, and so it’s always in the back of my mind that I need to be getting off of my ass and doing them like I promised myself, and that I cant be as lazy as I can often let myself get. That and it’s just fun to gush about dumb stuff at the end of the week :p. I MEAN IMAGINE going back 2 or 3 years from now reading up on how I got started playing mindwave once the game comes out, or looking back on ultrakill. I’m genuinely excited for it.

So yea, hope to continue making posts soon, for myself and anyone else here for it too. See you again soon, bye 🙂