No, these topics do not normally go together, nor do they have anything in common in this post really.

They’re just the things that are on my mind at the moment. And the things that are keeping me from writing anything here that is actually interesting. Not that anyone cares any more. (Warning - in case you hadn’t picked up on it already - I’m not in my normal “chipper” mood right now. Blah.)

I’ve started working on a consulting/project management sort of thing. You might have noticed the link over on the side that proclaims me a geek. (As though this wasn’t already common knowledge…) While I have no intention of giving up my day job, I do need to try and find a way to make more money, as my constant state of being broke is starting to wear thin. The schedule for my job leaves me with little opportunity to seek part time employment elsewhere, and even most legitimate work at home things require you to have a set schedule. When I realized that I was spending a decent amount of time helping friends set up blogs or websites of their own because I’m known as the go to person for this sort of thing, I started thinking I should be getting paid for it, and it’s something that can fit into my schedule, since I can work during whatever hours I have spare (which are usually the hours between midnight and 5 AM.)

And so, The Project Geek was born. Spread the word. Yeah.

Believe it or not, I’ve already had a couple of clients (not counting the ones I’d done work for before I started the site) and it’s already starting to pay off. At the very least, I’ve recouped the cost for registering the domain and setting up the site. Profit is still a bit off, but I think I’m off to a good start.

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I’ve always been something of a hypochondriac to be fair. This is a condition I seem to have inherited from my mother. Mind you, she’s a walking time bomb of medical conditions for real, and lucky me, I seem to have inherited a number of those conditions as well.

Lately I seem to be having a few issues. (I’ll spare you the details… and I can hear that collective sigh of relief.) Since I don’t have medical insurance or cash - and getting an appointment at the free clinic here is next to impossible - I have to rely on Internet research, self diagnosis, and over the counter treatments. So far, they’re not working. Yay. I haven’t figured out if this is because I’m not treating the right thing, because I don’t have access to prescriptions, or if I’m really just being a hypochondriac. Time will tell I suppose.

One of the issues - don’t worry, this isn’t gross or anything - is just a general sense of fatigue, but only during the day. Midnight rolls around and I’m raring to go. I’ve been this way my entire life honestly, I’ve just been noticing it more lately. This is one of the myriad reasons corporate life and I didn’t get along well - the regular workday schedule does not mesh with my body’s schedule at all.

Healthy eating made a lot of difference in my energy level. I can’t even begin to tell you the difference in how I feel when I’m eating junk as compared to when I eat lots of veggies. But I still have this night owl thing happening. So I started doing some research and came across a diagnosis… Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. From the Wikipedia entry:

Sufferers – sometimes termed “night owls” – have an identifiable sleep pattern where the majority fall asleep in the pre-dawn hours and wake in the (early) afternoon. If people with DSPS are allowed to live by their body clocks, there are generally no sleep problems. Sleepiness, melatonin-secretion, the core body temperature minimum and spontaneous awakening are all delayed by the same number of hours.

Yes! This is it! This is what I’ve been dealing with as long as I can remember. Seriously, when I was 10 years old, I was usually awake until the wee hours of the morning, reading by lamplight and listening for footsteps in the hall so I could quickly turn out the light lest my mother find out I was still awake. I would nap in the afternoons to make up sleep. When I was 21, I found myself unemployed for about 6 months. During that time, my bedtime tended to be about 9 AM, and my “morning” began around 5 PM… it just felt natural to me. For a while I worked at a company doing technical support where my shift was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10 PM - 10 AM. Except for the weeks where they called me in to work the day shift to fill in (which was often), I was very happy working this shift. I had no social life to speak of, but I was happy.

The bad news is that there’s really no definite treatment for this syndrome, though given that the earliest I ever have to be in the store is noon, it’s not that big of an issue for me right now. Light therapy is the one treatment that some research suggests is helpful… interestingly (to me anyway), when I went into the corporate workday world, I usually slept with the light on at night. I have no idea why that helped, but for some reason I slept much better if I had a light on. Weird.

Of course, part of the problem right now is that I recently discovered StumbleUpon and I find myself staying up later than normal. Hours and hours and hours of my life have just disappeared, thanks to this little toolbar. I will warn you now - if you don’t have spare time to squander, don’t even click that link.

And we’ll wrap up all this randomness with a link to Subnixus for an entry into his Vegas Giveaway contest. Though now I’m thinking if I win, I want the cash payout rather than the trip… David would die if he knew I turned down a trip to Las Vegas. The money would just be a lot more handy right now. Being broke sucks. A lot.

I should have known it would be easy for MXV. Damn music geeks! (And no, there’s no prize, other than the glory of getting it right.)

Indeed, the picture featured in the previous entry is none other than A Flock of Seagulls. You would have been able to figure it out if I had posted this pic instead…

Though Mike Score looks a tad different these days, and he’s the only original member still touring with the name, it’s still a really fun live show. They played Wednesday night here in Lakewood at the Winchester, confusing the mostly middle aged crowd with songs they’d never heard before, but getting them all riled up and on their feet with the hits. Of course, “I Ran” was the biggest crowd pleaser of them all, but the entire show was noteworthy.

I last saw them 10 years ago at the Baja in Charlotte. In 1995 and 1996, 80s retro was huge in Charlotte, and they had a big turnout for the show. Mind you, 10 years later, what I mostly remember from that show was that some relatively cute but very drunk guy with an English accent hit on me fairly aggressively, trying very hard to get me to make out with him while the band was playing. Cute guy or not - my interest was in seeing the band. That probably says more about my love for music than anything else I can share.

As a side note, I saw the same English guy fronting a local punk band at the Tremont Music Hall a few months later. Their oh-so-clever name? PEN15. Ha, ha, ha. (They kind of sucked too, as once again he appeared to be very sloppily drunk.)

There was no such hitting on going on at the Winchester Wednesday, but I did enjoy looking at the singer from the opening act, whitechapel. They weren’t too bad either… though compared to them, Interpol is nothing like Joy Division. (There is some sort of reference to them sounding like Joy Division buried in that very awkward description.) I have to give them credit though, it doesn’t seem as though comparison to Joy Division bothers them much, as covering “Transmission” was part of the show, and it sounded EERILY close to the original version.

I think I’m officially getting old. The greater majority of concerts I have attended in the last year or so have been artists that have been around for 15 years or more. The concert list is starting to look… dated. (Of course, that is limited by my budget as much as it is my taste.)

Here’s to hoping The Gossip makes an appearance soon, so I can tilt that toward more new stuff.

You know at least one song by this band, probably more. The one song I know you know was a huge hit. You have heard of them. You have seen pictures of them before.

Do you know who this is?

*Note: Any of the friends who were with me the other night or knew where I was going already are not allowed to answer. Or hint. Or anything of the sort. This means you Joe, Danny, and Marshall!!

And of course, I need to also link to Subnixus to enter the Vegas trip contest. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the topic at hand, but I’d really like to win that trip.

I just haven’t been feeling the inspiration lately… there’s been plenty that I’ve considered writing about, but, well, it just hasn’t happened.

Then tonight, inspiration struck. Ahem. In the form of a contest. A contest with a prize of a trip to Vegas. Which I would DEARLY love to win. And what is required to enter this contest? A link to Subnixus. That’s it. I love the simplicity of that.

Of course, now that I’ve told you about that, I’ve likely lowered my chances, as several of you will likely do the same thing.

While you’re there at his site though, poke around a bit. Not only does he have a number of really nice WordPress themes available (for those of you who might like such a thing), but he seems to be a smart cookie. Specifically, I dig his outlook on the idea of education vs. college. And if you’ve been with me a while, you’ll know why I dig that.

If I ever get back to reading blogs, his will be on the list of regular reads.

Along with all of yours, of course.