having trouble keeping my eyes open and yet cannot actually fall asleep. I just got out of bed after over an hour of not falling asleep.

Oooh, I hate when that happens. Sometimes it seems like it is the act of reaching up and turning the light off that does the waking up.

Also maddening is when I fall asleep while reading and the book falls out of my hand, goes thump, and wakes me up again. Aaargh.

Sad. Headache now.

Sophia--that's so terrible. Please don't hesitate to get medical help.

Yes, Sophia, what everyone said. So sad and do get medical help.

Echoing all the condolences and stern warnings to get medical attention, Sophia.

I napped from 3pm to 8:30pm, so I at least put in a good effort toward the title. Somehow falling asleep with John Carpenter's "Cigarette Burns" playing resulted in me dreaming about a college observatory and Kelsey Grammer rather than lethal magical movies and Udo Kier.

Huh. Just read this blog entry on suicide: [link] . Talks about the high suicide rate in Japan and mentions the suicide of R. Budd Dwyer while he was giving a press conference. Also mentioned this case of public suicide which I've never heard of (I'm whitefonting just because it's morbid and depressing - it's not particularly gross).

Another chilling incident is that of Christine Chubbuck, who was a news reporter who shot herself during a broadcast. She went on the air and gave this reading...

"In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living color, we bring you another first, an attempted suicide."

...At which point she pulled out a .38 and shot herself in the back of the head.

Freaky. I mean, suicide is freaky enough, but it's sorta' understandable in cases of, say, severe depression. Public suicide is... I just don't get it... the ultimate in passive-aggressiveness?

Man, tommy, that is depressing. I'm not sure it's passive-aggresive so much as it's one last bid to be noticed in a world that seems to be passing them by. In her case, her job just happened to provide a perfect platform. How sad.

Um, OK, I ended up at this Wikepedia article on "unusual deaths" - this one made me laugh:

456 BC: Aeschylus, Greek dramatist, according to legend, died when a vulture, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it.

If "comedy equals tragedy plus time," I think enough time has passed on this one....

[link]

I can't ever label suicide as passive-aggressive. It's pretty much the opposite of passive, you know?

I'd heard about Chubbuck, but I have some odd books. Actually, if it's the one I'm thinking of, the author was friends with Sylvia Plath.

Slipping in under the wire to wish Sean a Happy Birthday!!! (It's still his b'day where he lives, right??)

Also, {{Sophia}}. I am so sorry.

I can't ever label suicide as passive-aggressive. It's pretty much the opposite of passive, you know?

Well, it's the, "You'll be sorry when I'm dead / and all this guilt will be on your head," thing. (Quote from The Police.)

I'm also thinking of a friend's uncle, who killed himself in his wife's kitchen in a way calculated to cause the most distress to her, after leaving her a suicide note blaming her for the suicide.

Or is that just not passive-aggressive?