April 21, 2010
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The Daily News
1 Ah, Wednesday!2 Got a feed from AOL yesterday that the Donner Party might NOT have engaged in cannibalism.
3 As a loyal Sannozayin, I’m not troubled by that at all. In fact, it’s sorta nice, in so many ways.
4 Many members of the Donner Party are buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
5 How strange though.
6 One of my best college profs, George Keithley, wrote and published an award-winning epic poem about the Donner Party. It’s called quite simply, The Donner Party. I was in a class of eight or nine when I took his course, so I worked for six months directly with an award-winning poet. The Donner Party was subsequently turned into a musical, strangely enough.
7 Here’s a piece about one of my best teacher’s ever:http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=681626
8 From what I can see, George is still writing and contributing his art to the world of poetry. I thought he was awesome.9 I’m quite sure he wouldn’t remember me, because as a poet, I wasn’t up there at the time, even though our class size ratio was eight to one. I’m pretty sure we had only eight. I’ve gotten better, and have a whole backlog of poetry that I re-visit and edit to this minute. It’s on my bucket list to get it published, but it isn’t hugely important.
10 AnywayZ…I wonder what George is thinking tonight.
11 Moving on, Part 1: I kept trying to keep my Bose playing Grateful Dead music last night as I cooked dinner, watched the Giants/Pads, and listened to the Sharks, who were blasting off a teevee in the other room. I would occasionally go down the hall to watch. A LOT of back and forth, what with Sanchez’s one-hitter going on as well.
12 Too much, too much.
13 At one point, I switched stations on the radio and the Grateful Dead’s classic tune Truckin’ was playing on the Bose AND on the radio, one piggy-backing on the other. Of course it worked!
14 Too much stimulation, but the chaos made it absolutely engaging.
15 Having an overload on technology works well with ideas, and the DN.
16 I laughed at the stimulus overload.
17 And in the sunroom, American Idol blasted loudly, creating a virtual wall of sound throughout the house.
18 Too much, too much. Just like the Elvis song, I swear to you.
19 This edition of the DN actually began somewhere around 6 p.m. last night.
20 This happens frequently these days. I work, if time, hit the gym, get exhausted, go home, cook, do papers, and then throw in the first few verses of the DN.
21 By 8:30 or 9:00, I’m usually collapsing, knowing that if I get five hours under me belt, that I could safely wake up at around 3 a.m. refreshed and ready to finish up the DN.
22 It’s actually sorta cool, because I still get in another hour or so of sleep, which works perfectly. It’s fun to work outside the box.
23 Plus I know that there are other insomniacs who are amazing friends, and who sorta “get it”.
24 Last night, for example, I waited out the Giants’ game (which they LOST! How do you LOSE a one-hitter???), fell asleep, awakened to screams about the Sharks, watched Pavelski work a miracle, and conked out again.
25 I then fell asleep for around four hours, and awakened to a gentle rainfall.
26 To be honest, I was almost TOO tired to resume this DN, but shook it off, and started right in.
27 I glanced at the clock, and it was 2:13 a.m.
28 A large part of me almost enjoys my insomnia now, since I get a decent idea of the 24-hour day. I’m rarely as exhausted as one might think, because I’m still getting five to six hours of sleep each night, which to me is enough. Any less will often result in depression. But five works, and six works amazingly well.
29 I would wake up in the middle of the night anyway, because I’ve been doing that for years. Just worry, and life, you know. And a dog who barks every morning at 4:20. Regardless, I always realized, however, that one can’t solve life’s challenges in the middle of the night, not through worry.
30 Sometimes I could ponder ideas to take care of challenges, but really? I stopped trying to solve them a long time ago. Instead, I now write the second half of DN’s, finishing them up in the morning early.
31 Once done, I have a mantra. A mantra is a word that one can repeat and repeat until one reaches a second stage of consciousness. I learned this years ago, and it has always worked. The word “Om”, for example, is a mainstream mantra.
32 My mantra is this: “sleeeeeep”. When something that really bothers me enters my head in the middle of the night, I combat it with the word, “sleeeeeep”. I make it powerful, and it hits life’s challenges out of the ballpark.
33 I usually say a quick prayer, lie in a meditating postion, say the prayer, think of people who need good thoughts, and then move to a sort of transcendental state. Every once in a while I get frisky and astral project.
34 <finger snaps>
35 Well, it works for me. If anything attacks me once I’m there, I think, “sleeeeeep”. It’s an offshoot of a few world religions and philosophies, and for me, it works well. I first started messing with it in my early Hesseian days of Siddhartha and Demian.
36 Anyway, I just tacked away about fifteen minutes, so I think I’m going to put this edition of the DN to bed, along with myself. Remember, even though this is written about yesterday, it is still being written at all different hours. Pretty slick, huh?
; )<———-sideways winky guy37 Pretty easy day today, pretty productive day yesterday. Yesterday afternoon at 4:20 I mowed my grass, and with a vengeance took down my weeds. Does that count as smoking weeds?
38 Yeah, I’d better get out while the gettin’s good.
39 If you’re bored studying working today, you might try using my mantra. Just be sure you train yourself to sleep when no one’s around.
40 I haven’t been able to work that one yet, but it is definitely in its infant stage.
41 Aight then.
42 You have an awesome day.
43 Peace.
~H~
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