Circadian what?
My internal schedule has been turned totally upside down, and kicked around in a circle. I woke up at about 11pm last night, after having stayed up all night the night before so I could drink champagne with Dennis and then take him to the airport. I don’t know if its morning, afternoon, or evening. I can look at the clock, but its just numbers, and I can’t seem to tell if I’m awake or tired. When I woke up last night, I thought it was Monday, not realizing that I was a day ahead of the rest of the world. Tonight I’m going to push for a real bedtime. I aim to be in bed around 8pm, so I can get up tomorrow morning at 7:30am and go to court. Then I will do some studying through the day, and go to my C final that evening. I will live the day like a sane and rational human being would. But until that point, I feel quite ragged around the edges. Its freaky living like an animal, just waking and sleeping whenever the mood strikes you, but being forced to alter it constantly to keep up with the various things you have to do. I wanted to go to Radio Shack to pick up some adapters for the new TV, but I was shocked to realize that what was mid-morning for me was actually 2am for everyone else, and that Radio Shack would not be open… Pizza ordering was also out of the question, as was renting a video. What do nocturnal people do? Wait until its very late at night (morning for everyone else) and then trek to the store bleary eyed and confused.
Me in Radio Shack around noon. I pick up a few BNC to RCA adapters, a couple of RCA cables, and a 6 dollar ‘budget’ TV antenna. I needed the adapters to hook the VCR up to the new TV, and I decided that with a new 27” TV, that it was finally time to upgrade our antenna. The old one has just rabbit ears, and it fits into a little hole on the top of the old TV. There was no such hole on this new TV, so I figured I should get one of the set-top style, that has a little weighted base to it. It also comes with a UHF loop, for improved Simpsons reception. They had ones costing up to 40$, but they were all essentially the same design, some had little ‘tuning’ knobs, others had dish-like protrusions mounted on swiveling joints, etc. Frankly, all that is crap, an antenna is pretty simple in design, and a simple antenna will do the job happily. So 6 dollar antenna it is.
Bleary Eyed Me: Ok, thats all, I’m ready to check out.
Radio Shack Guy: Could I interest you in a cell phone or a satellite dish TV system? We have some excellent specials right now!
Bleary Eyed Me: What, you mean this antenna doesn’t pick up the satellite channels?!?
Radio Shack Guy: Um, no. No it doesn’t.. But we have some excellent systems that do!
Bleary Eyed Me: Oh I know, I was just jerking you around. Do you honestly believe that filthy people who have been up all night who are buying 6 dollar rabbit-ears have any need for satellite TV?
Radio Shack Guy: Its only 10 bucks a month for 50 channels!
Bleary Eyed Me; This is 6 bucks for life, for around 5 channels, which is about 5 more channels than I really need, and 4 more than I even remotely care about.
Radio Shack Guy: Uh, ok… No cell phone for you then either, I guess?
Sunday 15 Dec 2002 | Sam | Personal