Erwaman's Personal Journal - January 2010

Well, as most of you know, I often sleep or take naps at odd hours. I often sleep on the bus or at a desk in the library. One of the requisites for me to sleep is darkness. And it's annoying to try and sleep when it's bright around you and there's nothing to cover your eyes with. It's also annoying to be woken up by someone turning on the lights or by sunlight coming into your room and striking you in the eyes.

To deal with this, if I am wearing something with a hood, I'll pull it over my head and over my eyes if possible. But often, as you shuffle around, the hood retracts and the light hits your eyes again. Sometimes, I'll pull out my blindfold that I use for blindfolded cubing and use that to cover my eyes. But it's pretty tight and puts quite a bit of pressure on my eyes and it even seems to still let some light through!

Recently, I had a new simple idea for a better solution. Before going to sleep, simply pull a T-shirt out of your closet, fold it length-wise a few times into a thin, scarf-like band, and wrap it around your head. The T-shirt will cover your eyes and the many times you folded it will do a very good job blocking out light. Also, you can use the T-shirt band to cover your ears a little and muffle out any sounds around you. Finally, on cold winter nights, having a T-shirt around your head helps keep your face warm.

When you wake up, you can then wear the T-shirt. The next time you sleep, just grab a new T-shirt. I think this one-time use is more hygienic than using a blindfold, which you probably wouldn't wash that often (speaking of which, I should probably wash my blindfold), and wrapping a T-shirt around your head also doesn't apply as much pressure on your eyes.

When you're not in your room or don't have access to a pile of T-shirts (like when you're in the library), a jacket or sweater can serve the same purpose. If you're feeling cold and don't want to take off your jacket/sweater, then look around for a discarded newspaper, which, when folded up, can be used the same way.

Well, it's almost time to sleep. Time to grab a T-shirt.

Recently, I was eating a meal with some friends, including Lairmate Erik Santoro. I don't recall what we were discussing that made me bring it up, but I mentioned a scene from this Pure Pwnage episode, where Dave, frustrated from losing to Jeremy so many times at Super Smash, ejects the CD from the Wii and snaps it in half. After describing the scene to Erik, he responded, "If someone did that with my game, I think I would just go apeshit."

What an intense word - apeshit. Somehow, it's such a fitting description for when you just completely lose it, when you're so ticked off or annoyed and you reach the breaking point and go berserk. When Erik used 'apeshit' to describe the emotion he thought he'd feel, that word just captivated my imagination.

I tried to imagine a scenario in which I might go apeshit. I know I have had those experiences when something flips in your brain and you just get so enraged and intense. Rationality just shuts off. You might call this going apeshit.

I was thinking I might also go apeshit if I was walking on the street and somebody tried to rob or assault me. In self-defense, I think I would lose it and go psycho. Apeshit. I'm not generally an aggressive or physical person, but I sorta feel that in the unlikely situation where I felt in serious danger, my animal instinct would just kick in and I would go apeshit defending myself, perhaps even seriously hurting the other person.