What are at least some slightly unique things about you?

swbluto

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May 30, 2008
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Since this about "Unique" things, it'd be hard for me to poll-ify this so it's officially a survey! So, go on, put your uniqueness on display! :mrgreen:

A not so common thing that I do is that I sleep in a box. It's a soundproof one made with the thickest gypsum board I could locally find, a wooden internal frame and "green glue" sandwiched between the boards and it holds my bed inside. I created it in the hopes it'd reduce the frequency at which I awake to noises(which is quite often in my current environment), which I think are directly detrimental to my studies. If you search online research, you'll see that sleep deprivation is linked to obesity, lower working IQ and lower grades. For me, in particular, it really makes it hard for me to pay attention in class and class just doesn't even feel like it's worth it as there's no chance I'm learning anything, which is quite unfortunate since I have a tendency to skip when I have that feeling, and most teachers seem to grade on attendance. It's also an attempt to maximize my overall efficiency and productivity, as my thoughts are noticeably distorted and made more incoherent and regaining that coherency requires sleeping at a later time such that I waste an extra 3-5 hours of my day! Can you imagine someone robbing you 3-5 of your time on a daily basis? At $30/hour, that's $90-$150 a day and I just simply can't afford such an opportunity cost.

Anyways, it's somewhat effective, but it's not perfect like so many of our electric vehicles, and I know now what not to do next time I build one(And, ideally, what I want to build. Double-boxed, ventilated, modular and with some wonderful generated masking noise. I shouldn't be able to hear anything for upto 120-130 decibels: I.e., a rock band rehearsing right outside my box. Currently, it's only effective for 70-80 dB sounds. But I wonder about what will come of this sleeping box in the event I were to have co-residential "relations" with someone. Should I build it such that it could be expanded? :lol: Or should we sleep in our separate quarters?)
 
swbluto said:
At $30/hour, that's $90-$150 a day and I just simply can't afford such an opportunity cost.

Don't complain. My time is only worth $10/hr. :(

swbluto said:
Anyways, it's somewhat effective, but it's not perfect like so many of our electric vehicles

Ha ha, you're funny! :p

swbluto said:
But I wonder about what will come of this sleeping box in the event I were to have co-residential "relations" with someone. Should I build it such that it could be expanded? :lol: Or should we sleep in our separate quarters?)

Uh...using her bed would probably be the best solution. Otherwise no comment.

Weird about me? Just a bunch of random small things, mostly. Um...I haven't worn anything but pants and a tee shirt in about three years...
 
What happens if you have chili for dinner? :shock:

About me? Born and raised in a dutch, catholic, farming family, yet I listen to death metal.
 
I actually know what the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis means.
 
TPA said:
I actually know what the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis means.

I figured it out when I was like 13 based on its etymological structure. :wink:
 
Link said:
TPA said:
I actually know what the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis means.

I figured it out when I was like 13 based on its etymological structure. :wink:
oh well, so much for unique :cry:

it was my only hope.
 
Um...you can be unique in your lack of uniqueness? A paradox? I think so. :?
 
A-HA!! Redemption!!! :D
 
I frequently dream in cyrillic text or hieroglyphics. Sometimes scrolling, sometimes flash cards but have never considered it unique.
Maybe it is?
Not having a belly button would be almost unique but I've got one. My grandfather had two.
 
Dreaming in foreign script is pretty unique methinks. I've never done it as far as I remember and I've never heard of it until now.

I think my dreams are weird. And I don't me "normal" dream type of weirdness, but I mean weird even for dreams. They almost never include other people, unlike so many dreams I hear of, and they often involve... I don't seem to remember. :roll: Like monsters, bizarre twists, repeated episodes of strangling to fly(I never soar, I just struggle to gain an inch of altitude), the ability to jump great distances into the sky, and being chased by things I've antagonized somehow. But, somehow, that seems kind of characteristic of dreams.
 
I haven't had a dream (that is to say, haven't retained any) for years. :?
 
i like the sleeping in a box, but if the noise is a problem why not eliminate the noise? in grad school i had a friend who slept in a closet for basically the same reason, to get away from noise.
i still think it was a good idea, then he was able to use his room to live in and it wasn't wasted on sleeping paraphenalia. most of the world folds up their tatami and puts it in the cabinet, or puts their bedroll on the stack, and use the room. the dutch used to have sleeping cabinets like the box you described, to retain body heat. i think some monks do the same thing.

if you can find a woman who would sleep with you in what is basically a coffin, i cannot imagine one would be trying to sleep. too kinky, and who could keep the lid on either?

sharing quarters with noisy people is gotta be one of the bigger stressors in life though, having people rob you of sleep can turn a monk into a murderer. imho. dennis
 
dnmun said:
sharing quarters with noisy people is gotta be one of the bigger stressors in life though, having people rob you of sleep can turn a monk into a murderer. imho. dennis

People too deprive themselves of sleep by their lifestyle choice and make up for it with micro-sleeps while they're behind the wheel of their plushy rolling couches.

They get away with murder, IMO. They knew they were fatigued when they decided to drive.
"I didn't see him." too often means "I was asleep" but isn't recorded or prosecuted that way. The killer is usually stoked on adrenalin and wide awake by the time the cops show up.

Sleep deprivation ranks frighteningly high on the causes for collisions. Sleep apnea is cited as the leading cause of sleep deprivation.
 
Link said:
I haven't had a dream (that is to say, haven't retained any) for years. :?

I don't know that's unique but it seems weird.
Can you remember dreams that you had when you were younger?

I can remember dreams from different stages of my life, including high school, going back 55 years.
Some have been recurring dreams. The text dreams, maybe three or four per year over the past 12 years, began around the time I got a computer and just after I had undergone a general anesthetic for the first time. Possibly it's related.
Being unable to decipher the text, it never tells the same story twice, AFAICT.

Some medications can impair your ability to recall dreams.
Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if a brainiac adolescent outlier were getting dosed on the recommendation of the school board just so they could "handle" you and get money from the govt. because you were "diagnosed" as a special needs student.
 
Zoot Katz said:
Sleep deprivation ranks frighteningly high on the causes for collisions. Sleep apnea is cited as the leading cause of sleep deprivation.

I don't have a hard time believing that. Almost ALL of my close calls(And all of the "close calls" that I was responsible for), while driving a car, happened while I was knowingly tired(Didn't really have an option due to temporal obligations. Kind of happens in our schedule-based society). Considering that the difference between a close call and an actual collision is a small one, I don't have a hard time imagining fatigue plays an exceptionally large part of most collisions. Considering that many Americans are sleep-deprived, it doesn't exactly make me feel comfortable sharing the road.

And... most of the "sources" of the noise aren't exactly under my control, and most efforts I've seen to remedy the situation, where it could potentially be, were... well... half-baked. Like, I live in my parent's house and they also have a profoundly retarded Downs-Syndrome child(Meaning, one step above a comatose state in terms of intellect.) they provide for that happens to be next to the only room they'll let me sleep in. Unfortunately, he awakes and starts making this moaning sound that I seem particularly sensitive to("Training him" is an on-going process.) which is understandable since the brain is probably evolutionarily developed to be sensitive to human-generated sounds(Those who weren't were probably eaten by the Saber-tooth tiger that the Australipithicus's(sp?) comrades tried to wake one about). Another source of awaking is the traffic(Mostly motorcycles, garbage trucks and particularly loud cars) that pass by on the sub-arterial I live right next to, but that's been severely diminished with the box. Some half-baked solutions were my Room-mate trying to tone down Counter-strike sounds but... somehow... an M16 Automatic rifle fire isn't silenced much by head-phones. Heh. Heh. And I think that experience, and other related incidences, are partially responsible for my academic failure in my first year of college.

So, all and all, I thought why not block the sounds themselves? A sufficiently well-designed and built box should allow me to live in the middle of a downtown city if I so chose/"be forced to", which is absolute freedom. I don't really care anything else about my choice of living somewhere besides the ability to sleep well, so the box opens up tremendous opportunities. Of course, it now needs to be refined to meet the desired specs. In its current form, it cost about $300 for what's been so far 1.5 years' worth of service and helpful learning lessons(Such as 4x4" wooden posts at the lumber are actually 3.5"x3.5". :evil: As you might imagine, I learned that AFTER I bought everything and the posts were cut.), and $2000 should get me a near lifetime worth of service and the ability to sleep "anywhere". Considering the health/intellectual/financial/etc. benefits it'd accrue over life, I definitely think it's worth it. And considering it'd be designed to be modular, I could expand as needed.
 
As long as you come out in the daytime sleep in a box if it works for you :D I thought I had some uniqueness but I can't even touch sleeping in a box or dreaming in cryllic. When I was younger I guess I was pretty unique, at least around here anyway, but now Im just another one of legions of old hippies. I may be the only one on the planet that has both electric bikes and hot air balloons as hobbies. One hobby uses 10 cents an hour in fuel, and the other 100 dollars an hour. Actually though the balloon hasn't flown since I got the bike, and most likely won't for another year. It just got too expensive.
 
swbluto said:
A not so common thing that I do is that I sleep in a box. It's a soundproof one made with the thickest gypsum board I could locally find, a wooden internal frame and "green glue" sandwiched between the boards and it holds my bed inside

Are you DareDevil? Superhuman hearing and senses keeps you from sleeping properly. LOL

Although i'm not OCD, i do notice weird quirks. I can't sleep on my back. Got to be to the right or the left. I do a lot of things in bilateral symmetry. They have to match on both side or close to it.
 
I sometimes dream that I am a killer, and go around in a calm state killing hundreds of people with swords and my hands. Normally they are all after me, so I kill to defend myself. One time I slammed a window onto a man's neck and proceeded to chop his legs off with a machete.


Otherwise I am the only person I know who is good at electronics, handy with tools, composes music, and is self employed (all at the same time). Heck, I am only one of two people in the Masters of Business school here that own a business. That is less than 1% of our small class.
 
Recurring nightmare of a large road grader machine in reverse coming after me on a dirt road.
How about running an active e-bike forum and I don't even have an e-bike?
 
Hmmm..... Let's see....

I grew up in a passive solar, underground home that my family built in the 70's.

During the from 75-79, my family ran a hostel during the summer in Encampment, Wyoming - which was along the main route for the Bikecentennial.

I gave up driving in 1999, so I haven't bought a drop of gasoline since then.

I speak three languages (English, Spanish, & Turkish).

I've worked/lived in eight foreign countries for a total of about 15 years. I will be moving to my ninth (Turkey) hopefully before the end of the year.

The hair on my ears grows unusually fast and is very wirey........ :shock:
 
I once knew a guy that had 3 nipples. I never saw them but I think he was telling the truth.
 
swbluto said:
So, all and all, I thought why not block the sounds themselves? A sufficiently well-designed and built box should allow me to live in the middle of a downtown city if I so chose/"be forced to", which is absolute freedom.
A soundproof box is not very easy to make. Check around for "announce booth" and such... the ones that really work are not cheap, even if you DIY.

Those soft earplugs work well. Combined with a blindfold or knit hat you might not need a box.
 
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