spugbrap’s blog

I’m not going to go into detail about last night’s episode. Just going to post a few observations and make fun of a couple people. :)

What was up with Simon having his hand up by his head like 1 moose antler all night? Lacey and I kept seeing it and cracking up, and both kept thinking “Nanu, nanu”. We realize that the hand sign was different, seeing Simon Cowell doing that over and over reminded us of Robin Williams’ quirky behavior on Mork and Mindy.

Next we come to the boy that Jena and Lacey have been referring to as “Vampire Boy” all season: Jason Yeager. I didn’t understand why, so Lacey tried to show me last night. She said he had very pointy canine teeth, but I kept watching and could not see what she was talking about–until she paused it at just the right time:

Don’t see the sharp, pointy fang? How about a closeup?

I was sold at this point. That tooth is a bit pointier and sharper than normal, and the one next to it (towards the back) looks a bit fang-like as well. But Lacey is good with the remote. Real good. She managed to pause it at just the right time again, a minute or so later, so we could check out the other side of his mouth:

…and another closeup, if you’re not convinced:

Okay, enough about Vampire Boy. If I remember correctly, his performance was “just aiight for me, dawg.” Most of them have been that way, so far this season, and last night was no different.

Our next victim is the boy who Lacey and Jena have nicknamed “Man Cuddy” (or something like that), after Lisa Cuddy on House, M.D. (one of our favorite TV shows). I have to agree, there is some resemblance.

I was going to link to a picture of Cuddy to prove this point, but when I looked at their pictures side-by-side I didn’t really see it. But from memory, if you’re a fan of House, you may see a younger, more masculine version of Cuddy in the following 4 pics of Jason Castro:

Lacey thinks Cuddy’s much cuter as a guy. She liked his performance last night, too. I was fine with it, but not blown away.

The kid at the end, though (David Archuleta)–the one who sang John Lennon’s Imagine–he was definitely the best of the night and maybe even the season so far. If I wasn’t confident that he’ll get a TON of votes, I would have voted for him (haven’t voted yet this season, probably won’t for a while still).

… and I don’t mean potholes.

As I was sitting at a traffic light with 2 left turn lanes, in the right left turn lane, I noticed a pickup truck to my left pull up closer to the car in front of it, so that it was directly next to me. I looked up and saw the passenger (and possibly even the driver) in the truck making faces at me. I thought to myself, “Wow, you don’t see that every day. What is this, high school? Or a college campus on a Saturday night?” I avoided making any more eye contact with them, because I didn’t want to react and give them any more satisfaction.

When the light turned green, and I was turning left (making an appropriately wide turn, so the people next to me had room to turn, and the people turning the opposite direction had room, as well), I heard some honking. I had no idea why, but assumed it was directed at the people turning from the opposite direction.

I soon noticed that the black SUV in front of me, in the right lane, had a middle finger sticking out of it, towards a white SUV in the left lane. I looked over at the people in the truck next to me, and they were clearly entertained by this display. I decided to back off a little bit, because I feared something stupid might happen between these people.

The truck next to me decided to get up closer to the white SUV, and then moved over in front of me, and pulled up next to the white SUV. They lingered there, for a minute, presumably to make their own immature gestures at the people in the white SUV. Then, the truck swerved over towards them a little bit, making them swerve a little bit towards the median. This was exactly why I had backed off, because I wanted to be prepared in case some idiot caused an accident.

Thankfully, the truck then sped up and passed the white suv, and shortly after that, they turned. The rest of my commute was uneventful. That was more drama than I’m used to during my morning commutes, and am just glad none of these idiots took it any further.

Accidents suck, and it just seemed like someone was begging for one. I should also point out that most of this took place near an elementary school, at a speed of around 40mph, while the shool zone 25mph speed limit sign’s lights were flashing. I’m glad the kids were already in school, so they were not put at risk by these immature drivers.

I woke up this morning, turned off my alarm, took my morning wake-up medicines, and got in the shower. About half-way through my shower, I noticed that it was still dark outside. This was odd, because I’ve been noticing sunlight peeking through the edges of the miniblinds during my showers, lately.

Then, it dawned on me–the alarm I had turned off was not my “morning-wake-up” alarm; it was my “middle-of-the-night” (take second Xyrem dose and go back to sleep) alarm.

So, I finished my shower, then puzzled over what to do next. One option was to go back to bed, but I had already taken my wake-up medicines, and did not have any spare doses to take upon reawakening. The other option was to proceed as usual, getting to work freakishly early, but only having had about two hours of sleep. If necessary, I could always take a nap in my car, at some point during the day.

I decided to head to work. When I got there, I realized that if I was going to take a nap in my car, I needed to do it early, because it would be too hot later in the day. So, I found a nice, quiet, shady corner of the parking lot, cracked the windows, set alarms on my cell phone, and attempted to get comfortable.

Unfortunately, my new car is not so good for sleeping in. No matter how I adjusted the seat, at least one part of my body was either cramped or unsupported. After about 45 minutes of trying to get reasonably cozy, I finally found the right combination of seat position, neck support, and foot placement. For neck support, I ended up using my owner’s manual package (it’s inside a zippered soft leather case) wrapped in a towel, with the seat’s headrest up a few notches. About 30 minutes later, my alarm went off, and I went into the office, feeling very much like a zombie. I bought an energy drink from the deli on the way in, which helped a little bit, but really I was pretty zombified all day.

This started out very similar to the last time I got up way too early, but I took a very wrong turn this time (in part due timing factors, like my current prescription wake-up meds running out next week). Last time, I went back to bed after the shower. If this ever happens again, I will be doing that.

It is also worth noting that last time, I woke up insanely early without any external cues, whereas this time I had an alarm go off. I’ve had that middle-of-the-night alarm go off every night for months, though, so why did I handle it wrong this time?

Perhaps it’s because I changed some variables last night, relating to alarms. I’ve been having trouble remembering to actually take my Xyrem when that alarm goes off, more and more lately. I’ve also been crawling back into bed after turning off my morning-wake-up alarm, on several recent occasions.

So, to combat both of these issues, I did two things differently last night:

1. I put my morning-wake-up alarm clock on the floor, on the other side of my nightstand, with the time facing away from the bed. This way, I would be forced to get up to turn it off, and would have to get conscious enough to figure out that it’s facing the wrong way, in order to successfully find the little tiny switch on one side that turns it off.
2. I put my middle-of-the-night alarm (an old cell phone) under a paper towel, inside an open box, with my Xyrem bottle on top of the paper towel, and a sheet of bubble wrap partially covering the top of the box. Really, there’s no way to adequately describe what this looked like, so here are some pictures:

If my alarm clock had been on my nightstand–facing towards the bed–I might have noticed what time it was, when I turned off my middle-of-the-night alarm. If my middle-of-the-night alarm had not been hidden inside the odd little box, the way it was, I might have simply turned it off and gone back to sleep. Even if I didn’t take my second Xyrem dose, at least I would have gotten more sleep.

Tonight, to be on the safe side, I’m going to put things back the way they were. Well, I might go ahead and hide my morning wake-up meds a little bit, so I might think twice before taking them. Really, the thing that would help most with my sleep/wake cycle would be to stop staying up late doing things like finishing blog entries! :)

As I continue to watch shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, I’m becoming increasingly aware of an interesting side effect. Music that I would otherwise hate — that would normally cause me to flip the radio station if it came on — is actually becoming tolerable. In fact, maybe tolerable is too weak of a word for it.

When a singer on American Idol covers a new song, that I’ve never heard, I immediately create a mental association between that song, that singer, and that TV show. This will happen whether I like the singer or not, and whether they do a great job or a horrible job. It doesn’t matter, the association is formed. Later in the show, when they recap the performances and tell everyone to vote, the song again gets associated with that singer, and that TV show. The next day, on the results show, they play a clip of each song that was performed, further strengthening this mental pathway. If the person gets voted off/sent home, they perform the song *again*! At that point, I will have seen their face, and heard them singing that song, at least 4 times!

Now, regardless of whether I would have ordinarily liked the song, I will remember American Idol every time I hear the actual original artist’s version on the radio, or in a TV commercial, or in a store at the mall. I am naturally curious to hear the original version of the song, to compare with the American Idol performance. So I’ll let it play. I like watching American Idol, so hearing the song automatically makes me think positive thoughts. Then, my brain associates the American Idol performance, the singer on that show, and the original artist’s version of the song, in a positive fashion, because I like watching the show. Now, not only did they make me associate an awful song with positive things, but they also strengthened the collection of mental pathways around the American Idol TV show, which helps to keep me looking forward to the next episode.

This also happens when a popular band performs a song on the show. Even if it’s not my favorite band or song, I will appreciate it more — every time I hear it — than I would have if I hadn’t seen the performance on Idol.

It’s incredible to me, how these shows are able to do this, but I am not bitter about it. I still enjoy the shows, even though I’ve discovered a new form of marketing that most people are probably not consciously aware of. I’m sure a lot of people have also noticed this effect, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. It’s pure marketing genius, if you ask me.

Recently, when taking one or more of my kids to the pediatrician, I used the bathroom, there. There was a sign above the sink, titled “Hand Hygiene”, which lists a series of bullet points for cleaning hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and another list of bullets for washing hands with soap and water. What struck me as interesting, and compelled me to take a picture of the sign, was the last bullet point under the soap-and-water section: “Use dry towel to turn off the faucet”. Click the thumbnail below to see the whole sign.

To me, someone with some degree of OCD (I wash my hands too much, flush toilets with my foot, open doors with paper towels/my sleeve, etc.), this sign sounds like it’s justifying my actions. I don’t always turn off faucets with a paper towel, but when it’s a particularly grungy-looking sink, I often do.

Most of the time I use one pinky finger to turn off faucets, when possible, because I don’t like to leave the water running the whole time that I’m getting paper towels, drying my hands, then finally turning off the faucet. But if the bathroom conditions warrant it (hmm.. now that I think of it, the bathroom at work probably does, since so many people don’t bother washing their hands (or even flushing!)), I will waste the water and use a paper towel.