You know you need to take a break when...

With the next school year approaching, I figured it's best to adjust my sleeping schedule in advance rather than making a sudden change when I have to get back into the swing of things. My plan is to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier while allowing myself the same amount of sleep each night as I get during the school year. So yesterday I dug up an old alarm clock in my room. My regular clock is pretty cool, but the alarm is loud enough to wake the dead, and though its position at the foot of the bed is convenient for reading the time, having to lurch forward to turn off the alarm is not fun.

I figured it would be good to get 7 hours and 50 minutes of sleep, which is how much I try to get during the school year, but that's pretty hard to specify on this alarm clock I'm using. I found that out the hard way this morning when the alarm woke me a few minutes early. I had gotten almost 7 hours and 50 minutes of sleep, which happens to be just enough to make you feel somewhat rested but inescapably groggy. And that's what I deal with during the school year. I don't know how I ever get used to it. Anyway, for the sake of setting the alarm (and for getting some more precious sleep), I decided to make it 8 hours. Nice and simple. So here's the plan:

• July 30 - Aug. 3: 12:00-8:00
• Aug. 4 - Aug. 8: 11:00-7:00
• Aug. 9 - Aug. 13: 10:00-6:00
• Aug. 14 - forever: 9:40-5:30

(I'm allowing myself to stay up through midnight until Thursday so I can catch just one more week of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Yay for making one's own rules!)

Maybe during the school year I could try to go to bed a few minutes earlier, because I really can't wake up much later. Actually, I can. I reserve some time in the morning to check my e-mail and do important stuff like that. OCD, you say? Yeah, probably. But at least I don't drink in the morning.

Also continuing from yesterday: How would you go about improving your self-esteem? Any input is welcomed. That's why we have comments.

Hey wapanese kids, here's a Japanese cartoon from 1933. It's pretty trippy to watch when you have no more than a basic understanding of what's going on.

Wikipedia has a list of historical elephants.

One year ago: "I now know that when it comes to blogging, it's about what you say, not how often you say it."
Three years ago: "Okay, I got exactly 0 e-mails regarding the blog thing (somewhat more than I expected, actually), but I've decided I'm going to go ahead with it anyway."