The Myth of the Quiet Computer (satire)

Over the past five years, I have used a computer in my bedroom. Although the noise the CPU fan is making doesn't sound loud, I decided to test how loud that noise is.

This is not a professional test but suits me because I have enough data to get an average using the technology I have: three smartphones: the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Alcatel One Touch Idol X.

On all of my smartphones, I have installed the Sound Meter app from Smart Tools. Additionally, I also use the Sound Meter plugin in the All in One Tool app on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, just in case the phone's microphone is either poorly calibrated or not pointed the right way.

In this test, I have recorded the sound level from my Linux PC which ranges from 51 to 53 dB at 0.5 metre from the nearest fan using the Nexus 5, and ranging from 49 to 51 dB using the Nexus 4. The overall average is thus 51 dB using the Sound Meter app.

Additionally I use the All in One Tool Sensors plugin has a Sound Meter that gives additional sound level data.

At the same 0.5 metre distance, sound levels recorded using the Sound Meter plugin were as low as 46.48 dB or as high as 55.85 dB on the Nexus 5 - averaging to 51.17 dB. For the Nexus 4 using the same Sound Meter plugin, the sound levels ranged from 53.32 dB to 54.62 dB - averaging to 53.97 dB. Overall average is 52.57 dB.

Finally on the Alcatel One Touch Idol X, the sound level measured with the Sound Meter app ranges from 58 to 61 dB for an average of 59.5 dB. Given the high reading, they will be excluded from my brief assessment.

Overall my PC's CPU fan is noisy at a little over 50 dB, which is as noisy as a quiet office or street.

This explains why I don't sleep well after going to bed while forgetting to shut the computer off. Usually my well slept nights happen when my computer is shut off.

After 4 years of living like this, I finally realized my insomnia was because I spent the previous 4 yrs sleep deprived due to a so-called quiet computer.

So now I sleep without the computer on.

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Screen-shots of Sound Meter and All in One Tool Sensors plugin (sound sensor)

NEXUS 4


NEXUS 5


Alcatel Onetouch Idol X

Hello Insomnia My Old Friend (satire)

Hello Insomnia, my old friend. It's nice from beginning to end, to go shopping until I run short of money again and again. Afterward, I count all my purchases up only to find myself with less than fifty bucks in my bank account.

For I have survived insomnia over Wednesday into Thursday after Monday-Tuesday.

Earlier today I remember getting on the bus and traveling by Skytrain to Vancouver, snapping picture discretely.

After depositing my cheque in my account, I headed into downtown Vancouver finally to find myself talking to a lot of cellphone providers' sales staffs' ears off about my Nexus 4. It's stuck in reboot hell where it still works but likes to reboot when I am about to send a post to GooglePlus, or it will reboot after I take too many pictures with the camera app. Additionally, the wireless module in the phone is not properly heat sinked so that using wireless while charging it overheats it, be it by wall charger or wireless charger.

By late afternoon, I was tempted to smoke and had one cigarette. The nicotine buzz only last 10 minutes. Later, I gave away my $1 lighter to a homeless man after handing him a tooney. It felt great, him thanking me.

On reflection, it was due to having my impulse buying frustrated by realizing that I couldn't buy a Sony sports video camera for $99. No biggie now, but out of frustration, I convinced myself that having just one cigarette was safe.

Tomorrow, when I have had a long sleep, that craving will be gone once again. If I was truly addicted, then I would have obsessed about that cigarette for hours before.

Since I have to work Saturday there is NO way I am going to lose sleep Friday night. This is no good, for if I keep this up, I could end up without a job and that is not good. The good news is, I have padded all my bills to cover for these five days of insomnia.

So it is back to a regular sleep schedule once again, which is only achievable by calling it a night by 12 AM.

To Sleep (poem)

Soon to sleep I go
To dream of grand adventures,
And on waking, yawn
While forgetting many dreams
'Til to sleep I go again.

Update on my Medication: Sleep Deprivation versus Adequate Sleep

Psychiatry is the only profession where sometimes the doctors prescribing the drugs actually have never had any experience with them. My experience with mirtazapine is a good example of this: the psychiatrist described side effects of SSRI antidepressants which mirtazapine actually moderates due to its sedative effects.

As well, mirtazapine's sedation makes it possible to feel sociable because it's not a tranquilizer.

Though, my current usage of 200 mg of gabapentin and 10 mg of flexeril at bedtime is an improvement over the mirtazapine since even when I miss doses, it doesn't impact sleep quality. The only exception to this is when I do graveyard shifts.

In response to sleep deprivation in recent memory, I experienced a few pseudo-hallucinations, none of which actually were severe enough to warrant more than the usual rationalizations I use to treat them as exaggerations of explainable phenomena.

The pseudo-hallucination consisted of "seeing" the electric field of the power cord to my computer. Being well-rested now, I can explain this in two parts: when seen by the eyes, a black power cord could leave an after-image of lighter color. In my sleep-deprived state of mind, it is possible for the mind to add colorful detail that gives the impression of "seeing" the electric field of the power cord.

Though, I'd be happier to see a Buddha appear out of the blue. That's never happened to me ever. Most likely, this is because a Buddha is a metaphysical phenomenon while my pseudo-hallucination is the result of an overtired mind playing with a physical phenomenon.

Given the power of the mind when tired to conjure a hallucination I knew not to be real — which is what a pseudo-hallucination is — imagine what the mind could do when well-rested: analyze the recent experience of sleep deprivation and provide a rational explanation for it.

To explain how this has come about, I am going to attribute this to two causes: getting daily exercise during work shifts this week and getting regular sleep.

Scheduling The Four-Day Work Week

I hit escape & lost my train of thought!

GDF his early-onset Alzheimer's! Even today I had problems filling out a time sheet.

As for my memory, it was totally losing short-term mainly because when one is chronically fatigued, the brain shuts down unnecessary parts to the point where you have to fight off sleep.

(Mentally inhales more useless facts in brain)

High blood sugar definitely leads to lack of tolerance to insomnia. Thus insulin & insomnia may be related in inverse proportion to each other.

High insulin levels should result in insomnia, while low blood sugar in the blood stream lead to the wakeful hyper-vigilant as in fasting.

In actual fact, this is untrue. It is a moderate blood sugar level leads to less insomnia and better quality of sleep.

If you wish to benefit from dropping down to deep sleep, then try a 36-12 sleep wake cycle like our ancestor did during our species' prehistory.

For men and women with such a sleep schedule had a big advantage over humanoids who stuck to 8 hours of sleep, but slowly starved to death since their smarter co-descendants "stole" all their food.

It also appears that the First Nations people may have used a slash and burn method of agriculture which led later to famine and massive migration.

Indeed, that could have been what brought First Nations people to the Americas. As they slashed and burned across Eurasia (Central Asia), they left behind ecological devastation in their wake.

It is most likely that Homo sapiens neanderthalii slept their way to extinction, which their genomes to be added to the sapiens sapiens humanoid who are our direct ancestors.

IMO it probably was a short sleep period during rest which cause neanderthals to die out.

Quite possibly, the reason elderly people get insomnia is because both the pancreas and mild obesity worked together to cause hypoglycemia complete with anxiety (and depression when one crashes after being up 36 hours.

Consequently, it would be beneficial to go to bed at 8 PM the following day if one has been awake at or about 8 AM the previous day.

I.e. If one got up at 7:30 AM, then it's best to go to bed at 7:30 PM the following day.

This gives the individual an advantage over people who sleep eight hours a night; i.e. 36 hours of Go time versus 16 for the average person, and 12 hours of no-Go time versus 8 hours.

In four days, the fellow on a 36 hours on Go followed by 12 hours on no-Go will have amassed 40 more hours of productivity than the average person does.

That time is equivalent to a full-time work week in just 4 days!

What about the other 3 days? Well, rest and recreation to relax the body.

I wish for a job with those kinds of hours!!!

Musings on Anti-Oedipus

According to Anti-Oedipus authors Guattari and Deleuze, "schizophrenia is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself and capitalism keeps enforcing neurosis as a way of maintaining normality."

The suggestion here is that enforcing neurosis is the path to maintaining normality, and capitalism is the enforcer.

As welll, the unconscious undercurrent played out through forces of capitalism (jobs) may have a pseudo-schizophregenic component, of which schizophrenia is an extreme outcome.

My question is, why can't the root cause and effect of the anxiety-insomnia-hypomania-mania-psychoses pathway be properly managed?

I'm referring to stress, which initially causes insomnia due to the effect of anxiety but later evolves into the indirect cause of hypomania, mania and ultimately psychoses.

However, it is stress that activates schizotypies, which are originally benign eccentricities of personality, that may evolve into one of several different forms of schizophrenia, due to the effects of extreme stress and resultant anxiety.

Depression and mania are just expressions of the extreme spectrum of bathos and pathos which both plague and inspire creativity on anyone of suitable fortitude to live with their neuroses.

Of course, the cheap preventative and/or solution for mental illness is to get regular exercise, sleep the optimal 9 hours, and if need be, take the medication suited to a person's personality type to reduce anxiety and/or promote sleep.

If necessary, a few people will respond to something as safe as prescribed medication, provided that the patient BELIEVES that medication works. He also has FAITH that they do work, which strongly implies a placebo effect facilitated by his belief and faith.

Please note that the patient does need to believe in what his psychiatrist or family doctor says regarding medication, and must be positive toward medication using drugs which do the least harm to the patient.

Additionally, the prudent mental health consumer may substitute meditation for medication if the use of stronger medication is counterindicated, be it for ethical, financial, moral, political and/or religious reasons, provide that his belief that meditation works reinforces his faith in meditation and vice versa.

YMMV

References:
Wikipedia article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Oedipus

10 Solutions to Reduce Stress

1. Ask a friend or family member for a hug
   
2. Breathe deeply
   
3. Dance it out
   
4. Discuss what's stressing you out with a friend
   
5. Focus on what you can control
   
6. Go for a walk to freshen your mind
   
7. Go to bed earlier
   
8. Look for opportunities in life's challenges
   
9. Reminisce about good times
   
10. Smile
    

Quality time affected by Internet use

It has been noted that excessive online time cuts into time spent cultivating relationships with friends, family and loved ones. According to Comscore using US stats, the average time people spent online each month last year is between 20 and 40 hours, which amounts to an average 1 hour online a day. Though Nielson confounds this average with reports of almost 70 hours of daily online time, reported in 2009. Compare that to 160 hours in an 8-hour work day and 5-day work week, compared to 730 hours, the average total hours in a month. This leaves us with 7 hours of daily quality time, assuming 8 hours of sleep a day. Online use of more than 40 hours a month may be excessive. Why? Because it reduces the amount of time spent in quality time, time spent renewing relationships with friends and family, physical exercise, and other important social activities.

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Reference:
How Much Time People Spent Online in 2010 (US Statistics) | TechDasher: http://techdasher.com/average-time-people-spent-online-in-2010-u-s-statistics/

Average Internet User Now Spends 68 Hours Per Month Online | Masher:
http://mashable.com/2009/10/14/net-usage-nielsen/

Insomnia Inspires me

2/28/2011: Insomnia inspires me to post this blog. While I am grateful for this inspiration, my ego has also reached for a dangerous solution to the fatigue: mirtazapine to sedate me and caffeine-laced beverages to keep me hour going.

This is not my choice: sedatives are for bedtime, and caffeine does not replace lost sleep.

So once this blog is posted, I shall yet attempt to sleep.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

June 15, 2010: It's the middle of June now, and I'd like to be prepared for the onset of SAD now when I am at my highest.

That means for the month of September, I'll see if the mirtazapine makes a difference.

While on this med, I do not mistake the fatigue for depression.

Currently, the changes in sleep pattern appear to mimic the changes in sleep pattern I would undergo during the longer days of summer.

Tho I enjoy sleeping more than usual, both because of the medication and because it's a healthy hobby! :p YMMV

IMHO the best way to beat SAD is to make sure that I have plenty to do in the fall and winter. Being on-line 24/7 does not healthily preoccupy my time.

My plan during the summer is to study Vajrayana, and get involved in the Buddhist community outside Jodo Shinshu.

Hopefully by the fall I'll see how committed I am to this path because it would preoccupy my time during the winter.

Update: 20130124.1820

Over the course of two years since the original post, I veered back to Pure Land Buddhism, of the Chinese flavor mixed with True Pure Land school.

My medication also has been reduced to gabapentin and cyclobenzaprine with good results for sedation and sleep architecture.

For about six months I even tried out Baptist.

Yet I always return to Pure Land since I grew up on it. It's just like when I try to pray, I return to the Nembutsu.

Recently I have affirmed my commitment to Amida Buddha. Over the past month, Buddha Remembrance has resulted in focus, joy, and peace of mind.

As a result of these improvements I've noticed that meditation has resulted in one-pointedness of mind due to ease of focus. This has improved my mood, resulting in more experiences akin to pure joy. Due to ease of focus during meditation, I have also achieved peace of mind.

For focus is related to pure concentration in meditation; joy, the fruit of concentration; and peace of mind, the essence of clarity of mind. The improvement in my mood has allowed me to enjoy being outside, riding transit while on errands.

Overall, I have managed Seasonal Affective Disorder through the use of meditation and regular exercise.