Open Letter To My Neck: COULD YOU PLEASE STOP HURTING SO MUCH?

Kthx,

Bobby Lang

But seriously, neck.  This is just not cool.  Yes,I know I was up to 4 in the morning last night reading webcomics, but YOU kept me up an extra hour with all of your aching and whining!  And it’s not the kind of neck pain where you can’t move your head to one side without it hurting, it just HURTS.  Constantly.

And really, neck, you should know this as well as I do – tomorrow’s a big day for us.  Basically, tomorrow NEEDS to be the day we start our epic quest, seeing as the next Wednesday is the last real day of class, and the knowledge that there’s at least a few people watching as I make questionable decisions involving bears makes it that much more bearable.

So, please, neck, could you stop hurting?  Come tomorrow morning, I’ll need everything to be in top working condition, the better for three long sleepless nights of listening to techno whilst reading webcomics and watching documentaries.

Also, neck, as you are probably well aware, I recently popped a few Advil, so you probably noticed as they traveled down the gullet which you so ably encase.  So now I’m all hopped up un Ibuprofen, and thinking weird thoughts, most of which either fall into the category of “Depressing Thoughts”, or “Humorous Thoughts About My Future Life Path”, and sometimes both.  For example:

I dunno, maybe Walter Whitman had some special ability that I don’t, but I must ask the wounded man where he is hurt, for I cannot become the wounded man.  The only wounded man I can become is myself.

I’d like to make a living coming up with bad business plans.  Like a business plan that revolves entirely around selling people something they’ve never had before – FREE fanfiction!

I think I may quit school, run off, and become the Makeout Hobo’s sidekick – the Awkward Glances Street Peddler.

Well, the other affects of the Advil (i.e. the pain relieving ones) are starting to kick in, but you still most own up to the fact that you haven’t made this easy, neck.  You’ve been pretty resilient in the past, but recently, simple activities like reading webcomics for 6 hours straight or being in the front row seats of a play that was four hours long have caused you to act up.  I’m not saying anything for certain, but maybe we should go visit a therapist of some sort.  Together.  No, not right now.  First, we need to get through 3 full days without sleep.  Let’s do that, then we can have a good discussion, or talk about our future together.

And could you really try not to hinder my sleep tonight?  I’m going to try and get a full 8 hours of sleep tonight, possibly more, so that will hopefully make tomorrow go better than last week’s attempt did.

Love and heating pads,
Bobby Lang

…

See you on the flip side.

I can’t make a post about the history of insomnia…

DUE TO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE POLICE COMING TO MY HOUSE.

Da Rules: Music: Addendum

Here’s some music that has come into my possession after I posted the previous list of music on the Insomnia playlist!

“Bad Guy” by The Basilisk In Your Pasta
The normally acoustic French wizard rock band rocks out with the electric guitar in this ode to Snape.

Treestylin’ by Big Whompy
The debut EP of the rap spin-off band from The Whomping Willows is probably the best rap from the point of view of a magical tree that you will ever hear.

“Power of Love” by The Cruciatus Curse feat. The Curse Breakers
When you take the dark techno/hip-hop vibe of TCC, and infuse it with the stellar vocals of TCB, you not only get the chance for ironic naming, you get the first really great collab track of the year.

“Dark Lord”, “Gato’s Revolution”, “Gato’s Song” by Dawlish and the Archies
Oops, my band’s here again.  The first song’s backing track was on the previous list, and even my vocals can’t completely mar its catchiness.  The other two tracks are remixes of a great theme from the game Chrono Trigger DS, which I may have mentioned once or twice on the blog…

What Witches Want by Gred and Forge
Jarrod so completely captures the spirit and energy of the twins that for a long time I actually thought it was two people!  Their EP features guest vocals from some of the “headliners” of wizard rock, and is just a very fun album to listen to.

“21st Century Breakdown [Demo]” by Green Day
The first new song from Green Day since American Idiot is a tad disappointing, but only in that you realize that it really has been, like, 5 to 6 years!  The actual song is fine enough, and has enough guitars to keep me awake.

“Before OWLs” by Gryffindor Common Room Rejects
GCR2 really surprised me in their debut EP.  I had previously heard only one of their songs, and it was a wonderful piece of overlapping vocals and acoustic guitar work.  However, most of their music is of a synthpop bent.  This song is very bouncy and fun.

“It’s Too Hot”, “Accio Deathly Hallows”, “Obama Llama Song” by Hank Green
The musical half of the internet superstar duo the Vlogbrothers, Hank Green has made nerdy music with such sheer enthusiasm that you can’t help but grinning.
“The Economics of the Wizarding World Don’t Make Sense” by Harry and the Potters
The punkest of songs from their punkest of albums makes nitpicking fun again.

“On Thestral, We Ride”, “So This Is It (Taking Off That Locket)” by the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
“On Thestral, We Ride” recounts a relatively scary and sad event, but somehow makes it upbeat and hopeful, with soaring melodies and masterful composition.  The second song is basically a power ballad sung by Hermione, and thusly wins at life.  If, you know, songs were living organisms.

“Krum”, “Dumbledore Is Gay (And That’s Ok)” by Justin Finch-Fletchley And The Sugar Quills
The lyrics and music are both simple and catchy, a potent combination.

“I Wish You’d Be My Witch” by The Mudbloods
The Mudbloods are often great, but often very lyrical and retrospective.  This song manages to get just poppy enough to get on this playlist.

“The Copywrong Song” by Song by Mike Corb. Produced by Luke Rowell/Disasteradio
Yes, that is what is in the Artist field in iTunes, and I hadn’t noticed that until just now, and I am keeping the alphabetical order.  Anywho, the opening synth theme of this protest song is very catchy, and the makers of this song have released free remixing packs, to fit in with the message, so props to them.

Later today will be my personal history with sleep deprivation.  Happy Mardi Gras!

A question for the ages

Could a man addicted to dopamine ever find love?

Da Rules: Rules

Basically, here are all the little extra rules and things, as well as the basic groundwork for the epic quest.

1.  On Wednesday, I will wake up at 6:00 am, and put up a post confirming that I am awake.

2.  I will make a post every two hours, entitled “Hour 26: I can do this!” or “Hour 68: OH GOD MAKE IT STOP” or something like that.  I will try to post as close to the hour as I can, but classes and such will invariably get in the way.

3.  I can make posts at other times, but for those posts, the date and time must be in the title.  Thus, we will have two categories have posts – Official bi-hourly check-ins, and then others for whenever I feel like it.

4.  An additional rule about drinks – given how much bad press it has given, at some point, I must drink one (1) bottle of 5-hour Energy.

5.  At some point, I will watch the film “We Are Wizards”, and give a review of it.

6.  At some point, I will post a recording of myself lip-synching to the entire album Albatross: How We Failed to Save The Lone Star State with the Power of Rock and Roll.

7.  After 72 hours have passed, I must merely make a post confirming that I am still awake, and then I may sleep.  When I wake up, however, I must make a summatory post.

8.  The majority of the posts must be text, but some video and pictures will be allowed as well, to supplement the experience.

9.  I am not allowed to eat meat or meat by-products.

Next up, my personal history with insomnia!

ADDENDUM: I will get that history out to ya tomorrow.  Also, I have a new rule!

10.  Each day of my quest, I must do something to celebrate that day’s holiday (every day is some sort of holiday), as well as something to celebrate that week, and that month.  It’ll make since when we start.

Da Rules: Ninja

Misery loves company.  Also, misery is helped to become non-misery by company.  I am predicting that the upcoming event will be at time, misery for me.  Thus, I must limit the exposure of this event, and thusly, the amount of help I will receive.  Basically, for the first 42 hours, I can not tell anyone outside of this class what I am doing.  Afterwards, I can post links to the blog, but nothing more, until 48 hours have elapsed.  At that time, I can do what I will on Twitter, the micro-blogging site.  I’ll probably see if I can get a twitter feed in here as well.  Lastly, in the final 12 hours, I can tell whomever I wish.

So, I must be very-ninja like and seem to be alert and well rested for much of the sleepless sojourn.

Probably tomorrow, I will put up all the other extra rules and such, and then I will post my personal history with insomnia, and then I will post an hour-by-hour schedule, to help both you guys and myself with keeping track of when I get listen to what or drink this or tell people about that.  And then…

I WILL BEGIN!

That is, I am planning to begin this record-breaking (for me, at least) epic quest this coming Wednesday!

Let me repeat that:

I AM PLANNING TO BEGIN THIS WEDNESDAY!!!

So, start spreading the news!  I’m leaving today!  Well, on Wednesday.  And the only thing I will be leaving is the realm of sanity (which I only rarely vacationed in, anyways).

Da Rules: Incentives

So, does anyone remember back in the fall, when on MyPCC they were asking you to take a survey, and you might win a $150 in iTunes gift cards?  Well, guess who has three thumbs and did win the raffle – not this guy!  But guess who has TWO thumbs and won that raffle – THIS GUY!

OOOOOHHHHH, YEEEEAAAAAHHHH.

So, as an incentive, I haven’t spent much of that $150 yet (I only recieved it in late January), and for every 20 hours that I go, I will be allowed to spend $50 in iTunes.  That way, I’m pretty much guaranteeing that I go at least 60 hours, and then hopefully I will have ammassed enough good music to get me through the final 12.

Also, I have spent about $20 of the first $50 already, so, after the first 20 hours, I will only get to spend about 30 bucks.

Also, also, when I get music, I must listen to it, post a quick review of it, and, if any of the songs deserve to be put on my Insomnia playlist, they will be, and I will do a post about them, in the same style as the previous music-related posts.

Speaking of which, I have a few songs to add to the playlist… I’ll talk about those tomorrow.  Next, the importance of being NINJA!

Da Rules: Drinks

Finally, it’s here!  Sorry that it took so long.  For some reason, I was thinking of doing some history of drinks used to keep people awake sort of thing, when there was only one reason to: I wanted to work in this great song called “Surgerunner”, which is a song about the popular energy drink/soda hybrid.  It was, to quote YTCracker, “hocus pocus focus juice”.  It was discontinued, but there was a fight to bring it back, and it did, in a way.

Coke later introduced into the market “Vault”, another green energy drink/soda hybrid.  And that is the only energy-fueling beverage I will be allowing myself.  No Amps, Red Bull, Monstar, coffee, tea, caffeinated sodas, nada.  Also, I will be putting a limit on how much I can consume – I can drink only four 20 ounce bottles of Vault over the course of my escape from Mr. Sandman.  I will ration out the green elixir to my liking.

Wow, that was dissapointingly easy.  Sorry that it took so long.  Next, I believe, is ninjas?  Or possibly incentives.  Hopefully that will be up soon!

Brief Hiatus

Till, like, tomorrow. But I got the latest Percy Jackson book for 6 bucks, NEW! For some reason, Albertson’s had this random bin of books. Like, they were literally just thrown in there haphazardly, with a big sign above saying “CLEERENCE!”, I kid you not. Unfortunately, they were no longer selling February bus passes, but I got a cheap book out of it!

Also, I finally received my shipment of the 2008 Wizard Rock EP of the Month club, so I got 12 new albums (and actually 13 CD’s!) of wizard rock, so I will be reading and wrocking out today.

But tomorrow, if not later tonight, I will have the drinks post, and there will be two or three posts tomorrow! To tide you over here, I have included a photograph of myself during one of my trips to Scotland: