Part Deux

Well what do you know... I can stick at something. So long as it is essentially meaningless.

Things That Are Nice/Shit #2

At various times in my life I have told people one of my favourite activities is sleeping. This might seem a little odd but I shall try to explain my thinking. Sleep is the ultimate escape - it brings us dreams that allow us to explore scenarios far outside the normal human experience. You can't be depressed and asleep - it is impossible and obvious. All of our worries melt away while we are asleep. And waking up is a horrible feeling - like pushing weights off your chest after having just spent the past 4 days playing rugby with gorillas. Or it does for me anyway.

Here I have to say I am not a morning person and I have problems sleeping. Ever since I can remember I have had trouble getting to sleep. I distinctly remember asking family members "how to sleep" - which seems like asking someone the secret to breathing but I genuinely thought I was doing it wrong. Some people seem to be able to sleep as soon as their head hits the pillow - making a mockery of my tossing-and-turning, constantly-flipping-the-pillow, lying-in-the-dark-begging-my-body-to-fall-asleep style.

That is one of the problems, trying to get to sleep and waking up are a chore. Sleep itself is easy, and really quite nice.

There is a huge problem with sleep, however: the time it wastes. I have never done anything useful while sleeping (or useful to anything other than my continued existence). Think how much better our lives would be if we never got tired and we never needed to sleep. Each day we would have a full 24 hours to do everything that we require. You could work 9 to 5, and instead of going to sleep at 10:30pm so you have enough sleep and can get up early to leave for work, just do whatever you want for the rest of the day (and night) and go to work. If we could somehow negate the need for sleep - and employers promised not to extend working hours - we would have so much more spare time, we could get plenty more done in the day. So you see sleep is kind of shit - I always think about how much I could get done during the 9 (okay, usually way more than 9) hours I sleep.

Scientists of the world! Cure sleep! Let us be up around the clock with no ill effects!


Not much comedy there, but that's just because I really do think we are better off without sleep - despite how much I enjoy it.

So the script writing stuff is now not even on the back-burner - I have to give it up until I have some more time. You wouldn't think it takes that much to think about and write down some stories (that is sort of what I do here) but story formulation and trying to think of interesting ways of getting across the points you need to make can be a real challenge. I do have some story ideas but most of them aren't fully developed.

I can't remember if I linked to the videos I had to make for one of my university modules, they are on a Youtube channel here. They aren't great but that is what you get with no budget, little time and a two-or-three man crew. The direction, story, narration, acting, video editing, prop design, graphic design and sound design on both videos is my own. The camera was set up or held by other people. I am quite impressed with myself, given I had no prior experience and the videos were what got me interested in script writing in the first place.

I think I've said my piece, until next time, stay loose, jive turkeys.