Sorry that this blog has been so quiet lately.  I've been working hard and playing hard.  The bad cold I caught was a result of that, and exacerbated my exhaustion by taking away that which I already was not getting enough of: sleep.  Though I managed to get through the cold, finally, the whacked out sleep cycles came to a head yesterday...

I've been working very hard on a problem at work.  It took me a lot longer to code up the solution than I thought it would, and I've just finished it but another baddie is right on its heels.  *sigh* No rest for the wicked.

When not working my balls off, I've been playing with my new toy, The Sims 2.  Sims 2 is a lot like the original Sims, with better graphics.  Mostly just that.  I'd say that gameplay had improved (if it had) or that the annoying problems from the original Sims were gone (if they were).  It's basically the same game with new items, new interactions, and so forth.  In that sense... it is a lot like buying another expansion pack.  That said, it is an incredibly fun game, despite its problems (incredibly slow load times, painfully stupid movement-pathing, and retarded Sim behavior when silly conflicts arise.)

Anyway, each night I was staying up later and later and later and feeling it harder the next day.  When I sat down at the computer at 11:30 PM on Wednesday, I was wide awake.  My sleeping schedule was so messed up my body was in its most active period right when I should be sleeping.  When I finally started feeling tired, it was 6 AM Thursday morning.

So I hit the sack with the intention of catching a few hours shuteye and going in a little late (and subsequently working a little late).  Instead my body basically shut down, and the next thing that happened was my wife shook me awake at 3:30 PM.  My body had essentially said "enough is enough", and took the time it needed to recuperate, the time I was denying it to pursue work and interests.

While Pat made dinner I worked from home on my work laptop.  I would need to work until 11:30 PM to put in my 8 hours.  Then, I promised myself, BED.

With a good meal in me, and a decent amount of sleep, I found myself incredibly productive and much better able to do my work (surprise, surprise) and I managed to complete what I was coding and solve some thorny problems in the process.  Yay!

I went to bed at 11:30 as planned.  Then I woke at 12:30 AM, 1:30 AM, 2:30 AM, and 3:30 AM.  At 3:40 AM I decided to get up as I couldn't seem to fall back to sleep.  At 6 AM I had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and baked beans, and I am feeling great right now.

Tonight I'm going to try for bedtime at 11:30 PM again.  I think last night was a step in the right direction.  Got to retrain my body's sleep cycles and get back into a good rhythm.  Prolonged colds often shake up my sleep cycles if they make sleep so uncomfortable that I end up sitting up doing other things.

Anyway, all those things together have been keeping me from the blog.  We apologize for the inconvenience.  I'm cooking up a new idea for content here, stay tuned...