: Delayed Sleep-Phase Syndrome

I see there are some hits on my blog from searches for "forskjøvet døgnfase syndrom", Norwegian for "delayed sleep-phase syndrome", which is the sleep disorder I have. Unfortunately, the post I had about that doesn't exist anymore, it was one of the old posts that I deleted when I started blogging again. But if anyone wants to talk to me about DSPS, then feel free to contact me, or just reply to this post. I'm no expert on the subject, though, but I'll help in any way I can.

I've also written a bit about what DSPS is to me in the middle of this post.

: Slow

The last few days have been really slow. Mainly because Wenche got sick with whatever I had as well, and has been slightly knocked out because of it, although not as bad as I was, but also because I'm still not 100% myself again either.

I have been trying to work on my other two blogs a bit during the last few days, though.

I wrote a (rather poorly written) "review" of Klaypex on Eqamusic. It turns out that even though I'm very interested in music in many ways, I really suck at writing about it. I'm gonna keep writing, but I think Eqamusic will be my least active blog.

I'm also working on a three-part "review" for Eqagames, on the Dungeon Siege series, that requires that I play through the first two games again (not that I've actually ever played through any of them, I think, but I've gotten pretty far), and start playing the third game. So that's what I'm currently doing.

And that's about it for the last few days.

: Pulled over.

So... We got pulled over today. They had set up some sort of traffic control point just south of Gran, we were going to Grua, I think it was, with Wenche's mom, and apparently they saw that Wenche wasn't using her seat belt... I say "apparently", because they never said that they actually saw it. And that's what annoys me about this...

Why can't they just be honest about it when they pull you over? Why can't they just tell you why they stopped you? Why do they have to play the "authority/intimidation-game" and have you tell them why you got pulled over? Because they want you to admit to things they might -not- have seen, of course. They might have been looking for something completely different than what was most obvious, and will leave it up to you to tell them the obvious things. 'Cause who's gonna risk lying to the authorities?

For all we know, none of them noticed that Wenche wasn't using her seat belt. For all we know, we originally got pulled over because they were checking the bumper thingy on the front of the car that Wenche's mom got a "warning" about. That might have been the real reason they stopped us. Not very likely, but we don't know. They never told us.

What can you say in a situation like this to avoid telling them stuff they don't know?

And should people be fined for not wearing seat belts?

: Sick.

The last few days has been... Not good. I've been more or less bed-ridden since I got to Wenche's place on Thursday. It started off on Thursday by just feeling very tired. So I slept most of the day, then was awake a few hours during the day, then slept a few more hours. 

When I woke up Friday morning I knew something was wrong. My muscles, particularly my neck-muscles, hurt. I knew I was heading for at least a massive headache, so I took a painkiller. It didn't work, unfortunately, so I decided to go back to bed. Slept for several hours, and when I woke up again my headache was worse, and I was burning up. Without sweating. Which is really weird. 'Cause I usually sweat a lot, unless I'm frozen.

I can't really remember the rest of Friday.

I can't really remember much of Saturday either. I think I was awake most of the day, but I'm not sure. Wenche says I slept during the day, so... I don't know. I really don't remember. Heh.

Feeling a lot better today, at least. I'm still feeling a bit warmer than usual, there's still a weird headache-y feeling in my head when I move it too fast and stuff like that, and I feel... Weak. But compared to the last couple of days I'm feeling fantastic. So, yay.

: Gotta stretch...

Went to the physiotherapist today because of my foot. Well, mostly because of my foot, but it turns out both of my legs are in bad shape from the knees down. Apparently I've been a bit too enthusiastic with my walks the past three months. Particularly considering how bad I've been at stretching after my walks, and how suddenly and intensely I started walking.

The muscles in the back of my calves are way too tight, and if I keep this up for too much longer, without loosening them up, I might reach a point where my legs will break down completely for a while. So he showed me a couple of simple stretching exercises that I should do once a day, even if I don't walk every day.

As for my right foot; There are some additional problems, but nothing too bad. It probably just didn't heal completely after I miss-stepped several years ago, so the foot is kind of loose because the muscles aren't strong enough, and I just have to concentrate about walking correctly. He also showed me an additional simple exercise that I could do when doing the stretching exercises, that might help fix things.

I'm going back there in two weeks for a follow-up. I don't expect it to be a lot better by then, but hopefully there will be a bit of a difference.

: My weekend

Thursday: Sensation

On Thursday, Wenche and I went to Gjøvik to attend a Sensation-style party where a friend of mine, Yrjan, was one of the DJ's. We arrived at Gjøvik very early, so we decided to eat at Peppes. Tried to invite a couple of others to join us, but the only one we got in contact with in time was Yrjan, and he had already eaten. He still joined us, but didn't eat anything. =P

I originally thought the party started at 9pm, and I guess it sorta did, but the part we were interested in didn't start until 11pm. Until then we could only be in the bar downstairs, and seeing as neither of us really drink (I don't drink at all and Wenche drinks very little) there was really no point in going there as early as 9pm. So we went there at about 10:40. Which was lucky, 'cause we got in without problems, but just a few minutes later and there was a huge line outside. Another friend of mine, Rune, got there at about 11:05 and spent 20 minutes in line before he gave up. Apparently a lot of people kept sneaking into the queue without the guards/bouncers/whatevers noticing it, so when he left he was actually further back in line than when he got there...Yay? >.<

As for the party itself; We only stayed for Yrjan's set. Wasn't really interested in the other guy's set, and Wenche got sick (she had apparently been walking around all day with a headache without telling me, and the loud music, smoke-machine smoke and blinking lights didn't make it any better), so I got my brother-in-law to pick us up at about 1am. 

I will say this, though; Yrjan's set was fucking awesome! I don't dance or anything, but I was digging it all the way through. I even got up and attempted to headbang at the end when he played a Hardcore-track, but I got dizzy right away, so I had to stop. I guess I was a bit dehydrated, or something.

Unfortunately, the sound system wasn't calibrated correctly, so some of the more bass-heavy tracks towards the end got a bit screwed up. The bass kind of overpowered everything else. Wasn't too bad, though, but hopefully they'll fix that (or rather, not attempt to fix it while drunk) next time.

Here's a link to Yrjan's entire set. I think he recorded it while performing? Either way, it's awesome. I don't know how long he will be keeping it up, though, so download it now! ;)

Friday - Sunday: HusetLAN

Friday started pretty slow. My sisters kids woke us up at around 7:30am, I think, a bit earlier than I would've liked, but I guess that's partially my fault as I forgot to close the bedroom door when I went to bed. Oh well. Wenche was feeling better, but still had a headache. She was taking a bus back to Gran at 9am, so she got up when the kids woke us up. I tried to go back to sleep after she left, but without luck. Oh well. >.>

For some reason the LAN was originally supposed to start at 9pm, which is way too late in my opinion, but I guess they thought they needed time to clean up after the Sensation Party. So I spent the entire day doing basically nothing, until I got a message from Yrjan at about 5:30pm that they had opened the doors early.

I had initially planned to, in one way or the other, make sure that I had both Rune and Yrjan, if not necessarily next to me, then at least close to where I was, as they were the only ones I knew there, and I'm not too good at dealing with people I don't know alone. Unfortunately, that partially failed. When Rune showed up, he did sit down right next to me, but after a while he decided to move to another part of the room as several other people he knew was there. I followed him, though, so I wasn't too far away from him. Yrjan showed up before we moved, but there were no more room for him and his cousins, neither were we originally sat, nor where we moved to, so he was on the other side of the room from us.

As for the actual LAN part of the LAN, I did what I usually do, or what I've become known for doing the last few years at least; I played a few games by myself. I don't think I played with anyone at all while I was there. Still, it was fun. I guess I go to LAN's more because of the people than anything else. And I haven't really seen a lot of any of my friends the last year or so, as I've spent more time in Gran than anywhere else since I met Wenche, so it was really great to spend some time with a couple of them again.

The group of people Rune and me moved to were a really nice bunch of people, too. Not that I thought they wouldn't be, but... Eh. As I said, I'm not good with meeting new people, but I feel it went all right. I wouldn't mind LANing with them again. =)

And I really hope I'll get invited to more LAN's again. I haven't really been invited to any during the last year, and I haven't really thought about it because of Wenche. But I really do miss it, and even though I don't really play too much, it's a lot easier for me to get to LAN's now that I have a laptop that can run games that are newer than a decade old. It's actually better than my desktop computer, so... Yeah. =P

Meeting old friends

I got to meet even more people I know during the weekend, even though it was only for a short while. Johan, Petter and Kenneth suddenly showed up at the Sensation Party. Johan was the first one that came over to where we were, and it's been such a long time since I last saw him that I didn't recognize him at first. My first thought when he came over was "Oh no, another idiot who wants to shake hands", as there was some random dude who came over to us earlier, and I have no idea what he actually wanted but we both ended up shaking his hand, but then I recognized him and was like "Oh, hi!". =P

I also met Terje when I was on my way home to Dokka on Sunday. I had just bought some breakfast (two hotdogs, healthy, yay) and was just standing there waiting for the bus to Dokka to arrive, when he jumped out of another bus. He was on his way to band-practice, but I got to talk to him for a few minutes before his ride showed up. =)

So yeah, it's been a great weekend. =)

: Walking crooked.

Went for a walk again today, a real walk, not just because I had to go somewhere. It's been a while since I walked just to walk, and I don't really know why. I guess I've just been a busy with other things, which also means that I've walked a lot to different places, so I guess it evens out... Anyway, I've starting to notice something; As temperatures get colder, my legs start hurting from the strain a lot faster than they did during the summer. Particularly my right leg and foot, which I've had some problems with for several years now. 

On my walks today it got so bad that I considered taking a break and just sit down for a while, but I figured that would've made it worse when I started to walk again, particularly due to the cold weather. So I pushed through and finished my walk. When I got back home I did something I haven't done a lot of since I started taking walks in mid-July; I stretched out. I guess if I had done more of that during the past couple of months, the pain in my legs, at least the left leg, wouldn't have been so bad.

The pain in my right leg, however, is something I've been bothered by for several years now, it comes and goes at seemingly random times. I think my right foot is crooked somehow, it sometimes feels like I'm only putting weight on the outside of the foot. But attempting to correct this after it's already started hurting only makes things worse, so I'm not sure what to do. I have a doctor's appointment this Monday, though, so hopefully he'll have something useful to tell me.

I really don't want to stop talking walks, I prefer that over most other forms of exercise, perhaps with the exception of swimming, but I can't do that whenever I want to...

Oh, and; I've deleted all post from before I returned to blogging. Well, actually, I took a backup of the entire blog, deleted it and recreated it, imported the posts again, and -then- deleted all my old posts. Don't ask why, I just felt like it. =P

: Boredmageddon?

Ten days left until armageddon, apparently, according to Harold Camping. Or rather, it's been going on for about 5 months. It started May 21st, the day he said would be judgement day earlier this year, when absolutely nothing happened, and will end in ten days, on October 21. I never imagined armageddon would be this... Boring? I mean, sure, bad stuff have happened around the world. But other than a slightly rainier summer than usual, none of which consisted of fire or brimstone, I can't say I've noticed much.

It's amazing to me that this Harold Camping guy keeps coming out with these stories. I didn't know this until I read the Wikipedia-page about him, I only knew him from his doomsday-predictions earlier this year, but it seems he has predicted the end of the world two times before, once in 1988 and once in 1994. One would think that after two failed attempts at predicting the end of the world, he would take a good look at himself and shut the fuck up, but no. He's too addicted to the attention he gets to do that.

It's also amazing to me that people keeps listening to these kinds of claims. The end of the world have been predicted lots of times, and we're still here. And even if one of them were right, what does it matter? If the world ends, there's nothing we can do about it. At least not about the kind of end of the world scenarios that these people tell us about, anyway. So I say we just go about our lives as if there wont be an end of the world. 'Cause there most likely wont be.

: I can see better now...!

Got new glasses on Thursday. Took less than a week when I finally got around to scheduling a vision test. I initially asked NAV for help buying new glasses several months ago, and they actually approved it a couple of months ago. But it was put on hold because of several things, one of them because they were waiting for me to go around collecting pricing information from several opticians. Which for some reason took me a very long time..

So I had to send a new application, which was approved more or less automatically once I sent it. And even then it took me about a month, I think, to actually call one of them and schedule a vision test. So I called them last Saturday, got an appointment on Monday, and had new glasses on Thursday. Vewt. I could've had them already on Tuesday, but didn't plan on going down to Gran then

My vision seems to have gotten slightly better since I last got new glasses. My astigmatism (that's what Google Translate called it, at least) is the same as before. But my tiny bit of long-sightedness is a tiny bit better, at least on one eye. Before I had +1 on my left and +0,5 on my right. Now it's +0,5 on both. A very slight improvement, but still an improvement. It's amazing how much clearer everything is now, which I guess it also partially because my old glasses were getting kind of worn out.

: I return!

It's been almost 11 months since my last update on this blog. The irony is that the last 11 months have been the most eventful months in my life in years. Now, I'm not gonna go back and write about everything that has happened since then, as it would lead to a freaking massive blog post. But some of the highlights from the past 11 months are;

• The day after my last blog post I met my dear Wenche. <3 We've been together since, and I spend more of my time at her place in Gran than I do at home.
• I got into a new social services program, because of my Diabetes and Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder diagnoses, that allows me to focus on my health rather than worry about my economy, jobs, and stuff like that.
• I've turned my lifestyle around, eating healthier food, almost cutting out all candy and soda, and started exercising regularly (mainly walking) with the help of the Cardio Trainer app on my phone.
• Had a fucking awful experience with pulling a wisdom-tooth. Was in pain for almost a month.
• I've been in the Netherlands, twice. Once during the first week of June, and once in the middle of September (actually went there on my birthday, Sept 15th). We've been re-acquainted with some great relatives that mom lost contact with when they moved to Norway.
• I've started to learn Dutch. I understand a bit of it, but can't quite form any sentences yet, so I have still a long way to go. Fortunately, there's a Dutch woman here at Dokka who've agreed to teach me.
• I've started looking into the programming language C#. So far I've created a TicTacToe application that was quite successful, but I don't know what to attempt to create next.
• I've started a second blog dedicated to music stuff.

...And some more stuff that I can't remember at the moment.

Also, the day before yesterday it was a year since my grandmother, my mother's mother, passed away. It's still weird. I mean, I didn't really have that much contact with her after I moved out, but she's always been there, living in the jungle-house, and... Well, it's weird. It will be interesting to see what the new owners of the house will do with it, though. They've already removed some of the jungle. =P

Anyway, I'm gonna wrap this up now. Will try to keep updating this blog regularly again. =)