I muchly prefer total darkness for sleeping. If I get up in the middle of the night, I don't turn the light on but just feel my way to the bathroom. Once I broke a toe because a roommate had left a chair in the middle of the kitchen and I stubbed my toe on it. You think that'd learn me, but no.

Damn, Vortex, pretty!

I went to the source for that MI6 semen thing.

[link]

Another downside:

In addition, at least one agent had to be reminded to use only fresh supplies of the 'ink' when correspondents began noticing an unusual smell.

I'm a delicate flower now and keep dark as much as possible (I have to remember that is not normal when I have guests over--oops) in case I feel sleepy so I don't have to get up and turn lights off. I hate my great big glowy front door. But I keep my bedroom pretty dark. It's lit by the computer LEDs only, mostly.

I have no prob not watching TV for two hours before going to bed, but cutting off the net is nigh impossible. I try to limit it, and I have never spontaneously fallen asleep in my life -- in front of TV, computer, etc. I've only once fallen asleep reading, and that was after taking my Ambien.

I have to be in bed, in the dark (usually with a pillow over my eyes), not too warm or cold, and quiet, or else some kind of ambient noise like an AC. Oh, and with as empty a bladder as possible.

Timelies!

Another GRONKTASTIC morning. I went to bed at 3am. At 8:15am the local junior high school band marched down our street. I guess everyone feels like it would be churlish to complain about those adorable little scamps using our block to practice on so no one has. Me? I'm looking up rifles with appropriate sights and silencers... Tried to go back to sleep but then repairmen arrived. Honestly, I never thought this neighborhood would be noisier than my last one but it kinda is. Every morning someone's yardeners are using power tools.

I want to turn my hours around. I really do. But it hasn't happened and I'm feeling like death on toast due to mornings like these.

I do think the laptop use right up to bedtime isn't helping much.

Oh, and there's no media in the bedroom. Sometimes I'll read a book on my touch, but that's it. I also have max two cups of tea or one cup of coffee in the morning, and that's it for caffiene.

And no intentional exercise after 7 pm, unless I'm going out dancing and drinking. And that happens so rarely, it is to laugh.

US millionaire leaves estate to Wombat Awareness Organisation

IN a real-life fairytale, an American millionaire has bequeathed $8 million to the Mannum-based Wombat Awareness Organisation.

"We are still in shock, we're still waiting for someone to say the money's not coming," director Brigitte Stevens said yesterday.

"It's unbelievable really, we're just blown away."

The millionaire, whose family has requested anonymity, unexpectedly visited the team of volunteers about two years ago to see the southern hairy-nosed wombats in the wild.

"I took him out into the wild population and showed him wombats with mange, wombats that were starving to death and wombats with burrows from motorbike tyres," she said.

The millionaire, who worked in the horse-racing industry, was captivated by the volunteers' tireless efforts to save what may be becoming an endangered icon.

I learned to use a sleep mask years ago when I had to get good rest in the daytime. It makes a big difference because I have a lot of ambient light.

We go to sleep with the radio on, usually BBC. Soothing voices are very nice (and kinda mask the DH's varied and NON-soothing snoring). The flickering lights of a TV would not be sleepy-making for me at all, but the DH prefers to nap in front of the TV.