Funday Sunday: "Japanese Sauna"

This clip seems to be pretty popular on YouTube, so you may very well have seen it before. I, for one, can watch this time and time again and never be bored with it. I love this one!

Having spent some time in the sauna at gym today, it got me thinking about this one. There's one thing I'm curious about, however. Do those Japs really have leather seats in their saunas? That sounds disgusting to me. Imagine your sweat sticking to your skin on one of those... Never mind comfort - give me the classic wooden boards any day - at least they quickly soak up the sweat from the previous occupant of that seat quickly so I don't have to plant my naked butt in someone else's puddle of perspiration.

I love the fact, in this clip, that they are being tossed out into the freezing cold. Butt naked, straight from the heat of a sauna and into the freezing cold snow! The Japanese candid camera sure take things to the next level.

BTW. If you all got a little concerned about my well being yesterday - let me assure you that I am moving on toward my normal self again. Couple more good nights of sleep, and I'll be just fine. Thank You all for showing your support yesterday!

Irritable Ramblings

Rubicon Heart Update:
Did you ever feel like you were out jogging one beautiful morning, and everything was just perfect. Each step feeling light, and the scenery around you breathtakingly beautiful... and then suddenly you trip and fall face first into Poison Ivy?

Well... that's pretty much what's happened to me on the "Rubicon Heart" story. I'm trying really hard to finish that next installment for you all, and I promise to have it out there soon. I'm planning on posting Chapter One on Monday. Let's hope I can find the strength and energy to complete it by then.

The One Update:
I was convincing myself that things were better there for a while. That we were getting along just fine, and that maybe - somehow - I would be able to get close to her once again. The way things used to be before the big L-O-V-E issue came between us.

I think now I may have been fooling myself on that one. I'm starting to realize that I am the one who's doing everything for her, and not getting a damn thing in return. I'm starting to feel like she doesn't really give a rats ass about me, my needs or my feelings. I am only there for her whenever she needs me to be... and if I were to ask something of her - well, she'll probably have other things that require her attention.

Because I've started to think of our friendship like this, I've been very irritable the last few days. This is probably one of the reasons I'm having a hard time with the Rubicon Heart story, because it was aimed to address the whole thing between me and The One, which I am now beginning to realize is not a story which will either have a happy ending, nor an open ending which would allow for a sequel. I'm beginning to worry that me and The One is nothing more than a closed chapter.

Maybe I could come to terms with the fact that she doesn't love me like I love her, but I don't know if I can keep seeing her when I don't feel like she cares about me as a friend either. I need her to love me one way or the other - romantically or simply as a friend.

It took me fifteen years to truly fall in love again... how long before I'm ready to open myself to those feelings again?

Fuck My Job:
Irritable doesn't even begin to explain how I feel at work these days. I came very close to just walking out the door once again today. I was aimlessly wandering the warehouse all alone, looking at the mess around me and I thought:

What if I'd just walk out the door right now? What if I just went home, packed my belongings and bought a one-way ticket to Hollywood? I'm not a young dude anymore - this is what I should have done 15 years ago... but as you will find out in Rubicon Heart, other things were happening in my life back then. I simply cannot do this crap for much longer, or I'll end up in a padded cell at the Institution for the Savagely Insane.

Insomnia:
When you add the above negatives together, the end result is a severe case of insomnia. I've not slept well for at least two weeks now - so that part of my New Year's Resolutions is going straight to the frying pan.

It's even worse than I've experienced for a very long time. It's keeping me awake until 3AM at night, and I'm currently operating on 3 hours worth of sleep on average. That's no way to keep those creative brain cells in good condition.

Poker Annoyance:
Another result of all of this is that I'm now having a minor dispute with one of my best friends. One of my most dependable poker buddies, who will always show up when a game of Texas Hold'Em is on the table.

He sent me a text at work today, as we'd planned to play tonight - but we were a couple bodies short. So, he asks if I'd recruited any more players. I couldn't answer immediately, because I was working, right? So a couple of hours later he texts me again, letting me know that he is giving up on the idea of poker tonight because he's tired of waiting 'til the last minute every Saturday. I sent the following text back to him:

'I CANNOT FUCKING REPLY INSTANTLY SINCE I'M AT FUCKING WORK, YOU KNOW. NO ONE WANTS TO PLAY ANYWAY - SO FUCK IT!'

I've not heard a word from him since... no poker tonight - as you might've guessed.

Advice from the Subconscious:
I need to get some sleep and have some serious fun. Cheer up! Get your shit together! What good comes from sulking anyway?

Tomorrow is "Funday Sunday":
That concludes my depressive ramblings for today... tomorrow I'll be funny again - because I've scheduled Sunday's to be funny... Hardy-har!

Verry Christmas Bushed...

I am bushed!

Christmas shopping today... everything taken care of in terms of gifts and food items required. There's one more gift I need to buy, and as horrible as that sounds, I am taking care of that little business at my job.

My mother's been wanting this computer desk we sell, and I've decided it would make a good Christmas gift for her. I had been hoping to get her out of her apartment, so I could sneak in there on Christmas Eve and assemble it for her as well... that way she wouldn't have to suffer through my cussing and violent pounding with various tools on the floor and the walls. I have little tolerance for things going wrong when I assemble furniture.

Anyway... I'm keeping it short today. As you can see on that picture I am pretty darn exhausted - and tomorrow is going to be yet another tough day at work. I still have a ton of stuff to do at home (I've hardly begun decorating for Christmas). I will have to work on that after work on Saturday and Sunday.

I thought Christmas would be over by now, seeing as I've been surrounded by Santa Clauses and reindeer since late October. But, I guess it's time for me to wake up and smell the eggnog. I am working hard (pun intended) on finding that Christmas spirit inside...

If you will, please sing me "Silent Night, Holy Night"... that'll help me fall asleep and hopefully give me sweet, sweet dreams of Santa bringing me beautiful girls with a bow 'round their waists for me to unwrap...

Sorry, I'm Closed... For The Day

CLOSED FOR THE DAY

As was indicated in my post yesterday, fatique is really getting the best of me lately, and today all I feel like doing is lie down in front of the television for a while, and then hit the sack bright and early. Catch up a little on those hours of sleep lost.

I'll be back to entertain you tomorrow, on Funday Sunday.

Sleep Is Overrated

Sleep is Overrated.

This is my favorite leisure sweater. You know, the kind of sweater you pull over your head to wear on cold winter nights at home, when other people are spared the luxury of seeing you dressed improperly, comfortably and (yes!) leisurely.

I am wearing it now... sitting here in front of the computer writing this blog.

It is representative of me, which is why I like it so much. It isn't necessarily the comfiest sweater I have, but it is comfy enough, and it spells out what I would like to be true, but have proven over and over again is (in fact) not true...

SLEEP IS OVERRATED

Yeah right!

I get to bed at around 1AM on workdays. Now, I don't have a job where I need to be at work at 6AM or anything... I usually don't start until 9:30, so I can sleep in the mornings a bit. Sometimes I have to be in at 8AM, so that takes another 1 and a half hours off my nightly Z's. I also like to have plenty of time in the morning to get ready.

First off, I want to spend about 45 minutes half asleep in the bed listening to the radio. That is the only time I ever listen to the radio to keep me somewhat updated on what modern music sounds like, and to be able to at least every once in a while butt in on musical conversations my friends and co-workers indulge in.

After that, I want to take a shower. I simply am not awake until I have had my shower in the morning. Any day I oversleep, and have to skip the shower in order to be on time, the whole day is a complete disaster.

After the shower, of course, I get dressed. This is done quickly. I am not a person who will go through my wardrobe umpteen times to figure out what to wear on any given day. I'll just stick my hand into the closet, grab something and wear whatever follows my arm out of it.

Then, I want some breakfast... on work-days. If I have the day off... screw breakfast - I'm going straight for the coffee pot.

This all sums up to the fact that I need to set the alarm at least one and a half hours before I need to be at work. Just to be safe I like to add another half hour, in case I am really tired in the morning and as a result move more slowly, and lie in bed listening to the radio a little longer than 45 minutes... you know - like an hour fifteen.

Ok... so I start working at 9:30, I need to set the alarm 2 hours before that... that's 7:30, and I get to bed at 1AM (at best)... that's six and a half hours worth of sleep.

Uh, Uh! No it's not... we forgot one important variable in the equation.

It always takes me 1-2 hours to fall asleep after my head hits the pillow. This is my day-dreaming time (night-dreaming?). This is when I concoct amazing fantasies and live in a perfect world - this is where I ponder the events of the day - this is where I try to figure out how to make The One fall in love with me - this is where I become frustrated at my inability to sleep - and this is where I lie thinking I should see a doctor about my insomnia because my life is getting screwed up because of a lack of shut-eye.

So, what did we have? Yes, six and a half hours worth of sleep - take that minus, on average, 1 and a half hours (the time I lie and ponder, fantasize and curse myself). We are now down to 5 hours of sleep at night. 3 and a half hours on those days when I start working at 8AM.

Sleep is overrated, huh?

No, I cannot fully function on this kind of sleep. Used to be I would take one or two nights a week and get to bed at like 8PM and catch up a little. That doesn't work any more, as I've found every time I attempt that little stunt, my biological clock wakes me up at around 1AM and I'm unable to sleep for the next 3 to 4 hours. Then I end up falling asleep at around 5AM and my alarm goes off at 7:30, and I will feel like I've only slept those 2 and a half hours.

I still love that sweater though!

WWC / Another Birthday

Time again for the Weekly Words Challenge. I've started to realize just how challenging it really is. I keep thinking the whole week what kind of pictures I should take, and all of a sudden it's Tuesday and I no longer have the time to take the pictures I've thought of.

Well, I'll get the hang of this thing soon enough I hope. I find it quite fun to do, so I am certainly not planning on giving up on it.

In other news: Today was my boss's 30th birthday, and we bought her a bouquet of flowers and a birthday cake (seems a lot of birthdays are happening right now... my own coming up very soon). So, I managed to get two extra breaks at work today to have some coffee and cake - once with the birthday girl and once... hehe... all by myself.

Hey! Don't judge... there was still cake left, can't let it go to waste, can we?

Back to the WWC... this weeks words are OLD and BLUE, and it is brought to you by the ever charming Tink of Pickled Beef.

Well... on to this weeks pictures;

These are some OLD shoes...*****

This is my OLD Florida apartment*****

I'm so BLUE for The One*****

For some bonus sporks: My HALLOWEEN reading

Well, nothing else for today. Need to get some of that beauty sleep as I've fallen behind again, suffering from my usual sleep deprivation. Really need to find a way to get to bed at night, because things are spiralling out of control way too often these days. Can't really do anything right when I'm always tired.

By the way.

I've heard of something called Nablopomo, or something. Apparently November is Nablopomo month, which has got something to do with blogging, and updating your blog every day throughout the month of November... I'll be giving that a shot, so stay tuned for daily updates here for the next 24 days as well.

Good night, folks!

Funday Sunday: "Beer Ride"

Came across this video the other day. What a laugh! Seriously, this guy is absolutely nuts... what if he'd fall off of that thing (which seems very probable that one would do sooner or later), because it really seems he's riding that rather interesting vehicle at a reasonable speed. Apparently it is built from a beer crate, or something.

Now, if I claimed to be hung over last Funday Sunday... let me assure you today is ten times worse. But, it was definitely worth it... what a blast last night was. Got to bed at around 7:30 AM... and back up at 9:45 AM... you do the math.

Things went ok with The One also, so no more broken hearts this weekend (no mending of any broken hearts either). But, I guess I'll tell you some of that tomorrow - as I definitely can't write a long post today.

Enjoy the clip!

PS. Some seem to have experienced problems seeing the vid... try this link in that case:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cCvhXXlG-I

Insomnia = Rage

Haven't been sleeping well, and it showed at work today.

We have a morning meeting every day, going through what we are supposed to do during the day. This morning one of my co-workers took a long hard look at me.

"Are you tired today?"

It's not a question. It's a statement. I concur. "Yeah, a little. Some more coffee and I'm good to go though - no worries."

I wasn't good to go. Still ain't. Lack of sleep will do all kinds of strange things to a guy. Not only does one lose focus, the ability to be sharp and intelligent - and as I've proven over the last couple of blogs; It messes with your ability to write.

One more thing it does... I don't know if it's just me or if this is true for most of us. It causes me to become aggravated for nothing. And, less than an hour after opening the store today... the shit started hitting the fan.

I'm not going to bore you with the details of what set me off, but it all started when I wanted to grab a quick breakfast sandwich and drink some orange juice to get my day started. We communicate through walkie talkies (it's a big store, and I usually operate in the stock room), and my boss was at the cash register, nagging me constantly with questions about whether or not we had certain items in stock, whether certain customers had recieved what they ordered last week and what not.

I ate about two bites out of my sandwich, and then had to leave it behind and start running back and forth. After about half an hour I had finally found the time to finish eating it, and then the orange juice was gone. I had no idea where I had put it, and I was thirsty as hell... and that walkie talkie of mine simply would not shut up.

This - the missing juice, the constant barrage of questions for me to answer, the continuous running back and forth and then the final straw - a carton that was stuck and simply would not budge no matter how hard I pulled at it. By the time I had gotten it loose, I was absolutely rabid with rage.

That same co-worker who commented my tired look during the morning meeting came to my rescue... really she did. She stretched her hand out to me and asked for the walkie talkie.

"Go get yourself a cup of coffee, sit down for 5 minutes... and breathe."

I did. For 15 minutes. Didn't help one bit.