MSN Health, go fuck yourself!

7 Bedtime Habits Ruining Your Sleep

This article is full of shit.

1. Who says bedtime is just for kids? Take extra care to maintain your sleep schedule, especially on the weekends. The body responds to routine. If your bedtime is sporadic—11 p.m. some nights, 1 a.m. others—your mind won't be properly prepared to snooze on the weekdays.

Who says bedtimes are just for kids? I fucking do. Back in high school, my parents used to make me go to bed sometime between 12-1 AM and you know what happened? I usually ended up laying in my bed for 3-4 hours completely fucking awake. As soon as I no longer had follow a bedtime and went to bed when I'm tired instead, I started getting more sleep than I did before. Not a good amount of sleep, but it was definitely an improvement.

2. Reading before bed is a habit for many. Problem is, your body has likely adapted to that routine—it won't go to sleep until you've logged a couple chapters. Retreat to a comfy couch or window nook instead for your literary fix. The bed should be off limits for anything other than sleep or sex.

My uncle just now woke up because of insomnia problems. What did he do to combat it? Read a little, then turn out the lights. About ten minutes later, I heard him snoring really loudly.

3. The brightness of your computer screen stimulates the brain. Plus, it's difficult for your mind to stop fretting about your digital to-do list, even after you've logged off. Avoid late-night surfing and shut down your computer. Give yourself time to wind down without any electronics.

Give my time to wind down without any electronics? Could you give suggestions on what the hell I could possibly do? One of my biggest issues in trying to fall asleep is shutting off my mind. If I am bored, my mind will not shut up.

4. A good mattress will cost you anywhere from $500 to more than $3,000. Consider it money well spent. A decent mattress—do your homework!—will give you a more restful sleep. The same is true for quality bedding and pillows. Opt for a soft pillow if you're a back or stomach sleeper. Buy a firmer pillow if you sleep on your side.

Only good advice in the whole article.


5. The looming glare of your alarm clock can be distracting when trying to sleep. The goal is to have as dark a room as possible. Block the bright numbers with a book or consider buying a small travel clock. Your cell phone alarm may also do the trick.

I like knowing what time it is at night when I'm trying to sleep. Sometimes I could be lying down for quite a while and might need to modify when I wake up or I simply just want to know how much of my time has been wasted and if it's worth continuing trying to sleep. For example, I got out of bed less than an hour ago because I couldn't fucking sleep and knowing how much time had passed made it more obvious to me I needed to get up.

6. When you just can't fall asleep, it's useless to stay in bed. If you've been trying to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes, the National Sleep Foundation suggests doing something mundane, like balancing a checkbook, reading or watching TV. An activity that demands marginal brainpower will lull your mind. Before you know it, you'll be crawling back into bed genuinely tired.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COUNT MY SLEEP WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO LOOK AT AN ALARM CLOCK? My vision sucks and I cannot wear contacts while I sleep so it's important I'm able to see what fucking time it is. Also, it's very rare it takes me less than half an hour to go to sleep. Even on nights where I'm extremely tired and exhausted, it still usually takes me at least thirty minutes unless I'm insanely sleep deprived which I would be at a far more regular basis if I followed this shithole advice.

7. Daytime workouts will keep you invigorated for hours. That's why you don't want to exercise within three hours of hitting the sack. Intense physical activity raises your body temperature and pumps your energy level—both interrupt a calm transition into sleep.

 Probably not the best to try going to bed shortly after working out. At the same time, hard work can be very tiring and actually improve sleep. Not sure if this advice is good or bad since I can't think of anytime I'm gone to bed shortly after working out.

Well, there you go folks. Yet another horrible article by MSN. Who the fuck hires these writers?

Edit-

What Does Your Space Say About You?

While this article is nowhere near as a bad as the last one, I hate how it portrays introverts in a very extreme light. Not all introverts are anti-social, people hating assholes. While that wasn't the exact message, they certainly implied introverts in the most negative light they could get away with. :|

-William         

I don't think this blog will ever go anywhere, but who knows.

          Much of the time I think about typing up an entry about something really interesting, I feel it's too personal to put on here. Considering how I have a history of admitting stuff I shouldn't on forums, it's somewhat surprising. Perhaps the fact I have actual rl friends now is a major factor. Back in 2009 for example, if I posted something embarrassing online, there's no way in hell someone I know irl could find it. That's different now, but I just feel a lot of certain types of journals I would consider making to be too personal to just post on the web for everyone to see.

          Admittedly, I've been more depressed in recent months and have been going through a lot of mental bullshit. I've been trying to figure out more aspects of myself and how to make myself happier as a person. Some of what goes on in my head is a bit pathetic and those aspects are probably the main reason I use my blog less. If I write an entry regarding stuff that goes through my head, I don't want to censor it just to make myself not sound as bad. At the same time, I don't want to sound extremely pathetic. As a solution, I just rarely write blog entries. Maybe I should start making private journal entries and only show specific entries to very few people. Somewhat did that to one entry I never finished.

-William         

Alcohol Part 3

6/22/2012 Update: Link removed. If you want the link, please message me.

I originally thought to make a blog entry but ended up posting a chatlog instead. For the few of you who haven't read how my first night attempting alcohol went, there's the link. Unfortunately, it's been 19 days since I last tried alcohol because I don't have a drinking buddy. :/ My social life is a real joke. >_<

-William         

Alcohol Part 2

          Remember my first entry about alcohol? I changed my mind. I want to try alcohol now. >_> As for the lack of blog updates, there's like three unfinished blog entries I made that are in draft form that may never be released.

-William         

Candlemass in the Gym = Epic Reaction

Note: This was originally put on my Facebook yesterday but since not everyone who looks at my blog uses Facebook, I'm putting it here as well.

Before I write about what happened, I want to give some backstory. The station played most of the time when I'm working out in the gym is the god awful The Beat. It plays the same exact shit everyday in such an extreme form that it replays many of the same songs every 60-90 minutes. To make matters worse, The Beat plays nothing but terrible pop and hip-hop songs. It's such a horrible radio station that it's practically unreal it exists.The person in charge of watching over the gym from 2:30 to 3:30 is Sal who hates a lot of the stuff that gets played but he likes giving students the freedom to play they want regardless of how much he hates the music. He pretty much encouraged me to bring whatever the hell I want so today, I did just that. The reactions to my Candlemass CD was priceless. Two minutes into Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, the music went completely silent because somebody turned it off. Since Sal is awesome, he thought that was an absolute bullshit moveo n some person's part and the album got started over. ^_^

When I went to put the CD back into the player (which someone took out shoddily), some person asked me "What is this?" and my response was "It's Candlemass's awesome debut album." During the first song, some really strong guy went up to me to say, "Does this music make you all depressed? It's all about death and misery." My response was that I think the lyrics are hilarious because every song is so over the top and that I absolutely loved the album. Then he asked if the CD could be taken out in 20 minutes. <_< I pointed out how nearly all of the music that gets played in the gym is music that I can barely tolerate but yet I hear the same songs everytime I go to the gym because it's always playing The Beat. Then he was all, "30 minutes?"  My answer was that my favorite song on the album is the closer and that the album was around 42 minutes long. This caused him to be all, "w/e okay" and later on, he stated that he thought the riffs had a very depressing tone.

During the third song which was Crystal Ball, someone apparently couldn't stand it anymore and switched it to the radio. >_> No idea who did it other than that it was someone from the football team. I was originally going to never bring the CD back, but since the second side was never even started, I'm bring it back on Monday and starting it on side 2. Once again, Sal pretty much encouraged me to do that. <_< He said he kinda liked the music and I know he likes "head banging music" so he's probably relieved at the idea of not having to hear nothing but complete shit on his Monday visit to the gym. I think it's hilarious how a lot of these really strong, totally pumped guys are really bothered by doom metal but enjoy listening to complete fucking shit. Most of these songs practically all sound the same, have no originality, and some of these football players sing the lyrics to these terrible tracks. "OH DONNA! OH DONNA! OH DONNA! OH DONNA!" "BUT YOU WON'T DO THE SAME!" "I WANT TO SEE YOU TONIGHT!" I hate The Beat so much and I'm looking forward to the reactions on Monday to Candlemass's second half.

-William          

Alcohol

          I really don't understand the appeal of alcohol. Some person told me the other day that it's because I've never given it a try. While the lack of experience of trying it definitely affects my view of alcohol, there's three major reasons why I flat out don't want to drink with the most major reason probably being bad experiences with my mom's alcoholism. Thankfully, while she has been sober for I think around four months, my dealings with her alcoholism in '09 and '10 was a heartbreaking, depressing nightmare. I was looking at some of my chatlogs the one day and was amazed that I once told snake that she made me want to punch her in the face. I know I've said this a million times but when she's sober, she's a wonderful, dedicated, loving person who's a joy to be around. But when she's drinking, she's a horrible, selfish, mean bitch. Anyways, enough of that. Most of you have heard enough rantings about what alcohol does to my mother.

          Another major reason I lack interest in booze is the idea of lacking control of my actions. I went to a bar recently as part of _________'s birthday and sadly, the bar was nothing like what I used to see on Cheers. >_> The people at that place were some of the loudest people I've ever been near. I absolutely hate the way a lot of people act like when they're drunk and generally hate the idea of being around people in that state. 5/20/2011 Update: I decided to take out most of this paragraph out due to various reasons.

          As for the third reason, the concept of not being able to remember events that occurred the night before scares the fucking shit out of me. I have a great memory of my life to where I can think of a lot of moments from when I was five years old. My memory of my childhood in general is excellent and it amazes me how so many people lack memories of their early grade school years. In all honesty, since I'm a very curious person, the idea of getting drunk once in my life doesn't sound like a horrible idea...except the fact there's a risk of not being able to remember much of what happened which ruins the purpose of trying something once. If I got shitfaced drunk to where couldn't remember my night at all, my main memories of getting drunk would be a hangover. Fucking lame. :/ That's not to say I'm stupid enough to think getting drunk automatically = won't remember a fucking thing, but the idea of lacking a memory of a recent event really bothers me.

          Those who are reading this are most likely surprised to see a new blog entry from me. My blog was originally going to be updated regularly but creating a Facebook killed my original plans for it. Despite my neglect toward this blog, I'm glad I made both a Facebook and a blog. I originally intended Twitter to be my place to bitch about things that could fit in a 140 character limit and my blog to be where I talk about stuff that could never fit in that ridiculously small limit. So, whether you guys like it or not, I'm going to start using my blog more often but with a different approach. It'll have a much smaller emphasis on funny, angry rants and be mostly about serious stuff along with things that have been on my mind a lot lately. The name WACHROO is a keeper though.

-W.A.C.

My top ten most listened to artists in 2010 for overall song plays.

1. King Crimson (981 plays)
2. Black Sabbath (848 plays)
3. Neil Young (742 plays)
4. Queen (531 plays)
5. Yes (496 plays)
6. Gorillaz (452 plays)
7. Reverend Bizarre (442 plays)
8. Jethro Tull (399 plays)
9. Arthur Brown (307 plays)
10. The Velvet Underground (300 plays)

Unfortunately, most of these bands have either disbanded, they're lacking people who were key members in past lineups, they barely tour at all, or they're way, way past their prime and now play a lot of music at shows that I flat out don't care for.

1. King Crimson won't tour for a while but they have had many drastic lineup changes over the years with my two favorite lineups having no chance of ever getting back together. They rarely ever play their pre-'80s stuff except for 4 songs. :(
2. Dio died last year, Tony Martin is almost guaranteed to never rejoin Black Sabbath, and Ozzy made it very clear that he has no interest in touring.
3. Neil Young tours regularly but his concerts cost a fortunate. I think my aunt said she paid $200 to see him live earlier this year.
4. Queen plans to announce some live plans but without Freddie Mercury, it isn't the same.
5. Yes no longer has their original vocalist who has played on almost all of their albums plus their original drummer Bill Ward who's my favorite drummer ever is no longer in the band. He was also in King Crimson for a long time. ^_^
6. Gorillaz is no where near as good live as they are in the studio and I don't care for a lot of their songs.
7. Reverend Bizzare is dead and released their final album as "So Long Suckers" for a reason. >_>
8. Jethro Tull is the only band on this list to have not lost one of their two most important members from any era of their band and they tour often. However, none of their concerts are anywhere close to here. <_<
9. Arthur Brown still does some live stuff but he's no longer with his best lineups plus I don't think he tours in America anymore.
10. The Velvet Underground died in the early '70s and is never coming back unless a miracle happens.

Well, that was depressing. >_>

-William