Jolt Country

Gonna try this for a couple months:

I'm taking piracetam in the hopes of increasing my mental activity and giving me a sharper brain. I've really been struggling trying to finish my work-in-progress text game, and I am hoping that this will aid in me getting down to work and completing it.

It's perfectly safe. To wit:

Piracetam (pronounced pih-rass-ih-tam) is a member of the class of drugs known as nootropics or 'smart drugs' which were first developed in Belgium and have been used in Europe since the 70's. It is a supplement which is claimed to enhance cognition and memory, slow down brain aging, and increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain.

Immediate effects include:

Mental stimulation and increased vividness to mental imagery.
Increased mental activity during sleep in many users.
Most people also report it much easier to wake up in the morning.

I must have gone a year without remembering a single dream before I started taking it. For my own purposes, I'm going to write down the dream I woke up to. I'm not going to try to vividly describe it or anything, just a quick reference for later. Rather than make this a failed thread, I'll put a cap on it of one month and re-evaluate from there.

So! Awaking June 25th, 2009:

* I had a dream where Roy Halladay was teaching me how to throw sinkerballs.

(Gay as a pink ballerina counting two-dollar bills next to a May Day pole, I know. I wonder if this is a theme.)

I'll also try to rate how easy it was for me to wake up. I know I haven't written anything to calibrate it, but I'll say that today was a 4/10, where 0/10 means I did not get out of bed, and 10/10 means I woke up in that very rare, ultra-refreshed state that I've only experienced twice in my life.

I predict that that will be every dream you have during the entire length of this experiment.

Sincerely,

Predictor Robot 5000.

Fair enough. I would literally chew off an arm to have a five minute conversation with Roy Halladay where - at the end of it - he did not think I was a douchebag.

June 26th, 2009

* I had a dream where my credit card company was mad at me for something. I asked to speak with the rep's manager and was on hold for 20 minutes before I hung up.

Went to bed at midnight, woke up at 6:30 AM completely refreshed. That never happens. I went back to bed for an hour and a half, waking up a couple times because I have asshole neighbors scattered throughout the neighborhood that let their fucking dogs bark outside while they get ready for whatever pointless and worthless day they have ahead of them, and was able to fall into vivid REM sleep in what had to be minutes.

Update on being able to focus for finishing my text game WIP: no help whatsoever, as of yet.

The other day, I dreamed I was being chased by some corporate thugs (The Man was after me for some reason or the other). I was running towards some giant plate glass windows where I could see the reflection of the guys running after me, so I stopped really quick and elbowed the guy running closest without looking. It was awesome- so awesome I did it AGAIN shortly thereafter (those corporate thugs never learn!)!

June 27th, 2009

* Gay Regret Theater involving a girl a I used to see

Went to bed at 2:43 AM, woke up at 6:30 AM, completely refreshed. Went back to bed till 9:30, falling quickly into REM sleep. I believe I woke up twice in that time due to the critical, urgent, and electricity-fueled gardening of my neighbors. Buzz buzz!

Sunday, June 28th

N/A: Fell into and out of sleep too many times to recall. Basically, my extended neighbors (meaning, not the people *right* next to me, but nearby) think it's perfectly fucking acceptable to have their dogs out and barking between 7:30 AM and 8 on a Sunday. Ha ha ha!

Update on being able to focus for finishing my text game WIP: no help whatsoever, as of yet. I didn't write a single line yesterday, but at the same time, spent most of the day asleep as I was not feeling well.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:spent most of the day asleep as I was not feeling well.

That's how Michael Jackson died.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:* Gay Regret Theater involving a girl a I used to see

Wouldn't Gay Regret Theater have to involve a guy you used to see?

No. I know it's crazy, but "gay" means "lame" to more people than it means "gay" these days.

Monday June 29th

Asleep from 1:45AM to 7:30AM, when Frobozz woke me up because I forgot to put enough food out to last the night. I think I had a dream where I was trying to mail some shit at the post office. I then quickly drifted in and out of sleep between 7:30 and 8:30, because I have worthless, asshole fucking neighbors regarding the dog thing.

Notes:

- I get to sleep at no time at all.
- I, again, seem to hit REM sleep very easily. Every time I wake up, I was dreaming.
- Every single use of a dream in fiction is complete bullshit. Lazy, lazy, laaaaazy. It now sickens me.

Update on being able to focus for finishing my text game WIP: I wrote for about four hours before going to bed last night. It was awesome and I had no trouble buckling down and concentrating.

Okay, I'm gonna mix things up a little, and try a dose right before I go to bed tonight. I fully expect to enter a proxy hell, the likes of which might haunt me till the day I cease existing.

Also, I recently completed the Burns Depression Index, and got a score that was seven times what I was a couple months ago, and that score was the worst I'd ever achieved in my life. This brings me to my next question:

We have some smart people here. Do you believe that your INCREASED INTELLIGENCE is at all responsible for you being unhappy? (No need to reply to this question if you're either stupid or not unhappy.)

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Do you believe that your INCREASED INTELLIGENCE is at all responsible for you being unhappy?

Well, duh.

Bruce

Tuesday, June 30

* Dreamt some nonsense about the NFL draft, who knows

I didn't have the supplement here at home, so I did not take any before bed. Blah blah blah

Argh, remembered this on the way into work - the main dream I had was that the bottom half of my house flooded, thus damning the arcade games to a watery grave.

(This was my big fear when the water heater went in real life.)

I had a funny dream the other night that one of my best friends and I were hanging out in the woods searching for Bigfoot. When I woke up I was amused but a little sad that we never actually did that.

And if you can't find him, it's best to fake it!

[youtube][/youtube]

(That is me in the suit, yes.)

July 2nd, 2009:

* Shaun Marcum, from the Blue Jays, was trying to buy an abandoned shed in some place out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I am not even sure if I, as a character, was in this dream?

July 4th

* I had an old black and white TV growing up, that would get the local Rochester stations from its aerial. I dreamt that it had been turned on for ages... that I was getting Youtube videos from it... and that I turned it off, and then turned it back on. When I turned it back on, that whole thing about how no stations are broadcasting over the air anymore kicked in, and I got only static.

July 5th, 2009

* Dreamt ... waitasec

"Dreamt" is a fucking word, right? Right? Someone tell me if I ought to be using "dreamed." Because Chrome is underlining "dreamt" as a misspelled word.

ANYWAY.

* Had a dream where it was my mission to figure out what professional wrestlers and football players had the same last name. Only could come up with the following:

Jim Hart, former QB, Cardinals / Bret the Hitman Hart
Kyle Orton, Broncs QB / Cowboy Bob Orton... "ACE"
Andre Ware / Koko B. Ware

For a dream it was a good list!

Huh.

I've had a lot of fucked up dreams, but never one about sports.

Last night, I was defending a cabin in the woods I was in from a swarm of flying robots. I was using a 'ray' gun of some sort that shot power that would disable the robots but not hurt people. The robots were after the clean water supply in the cabin with an elaborate filtration mechanism. Don't ask me why they wanted it?

Why did they-- oh, right.

No dreams tonight! Course, I could not fall asleep for some reason and was awake until at least 4:30 AM.