A Few Days of Monophasic Later...

It has been a few days since I stopped polyphasic sleeping, and I am facing some consequences from suddenly changing back to monophasic when the adaption was significantly in progress.

I've been waking up late, and not staying up that late. Today I slept 12 hours, from 1am to 1pm. This must be the third day of not sleeping polyphasically and I am still sleeping hours longer than I should to make up for lack of sleep, which continuing the naps would have done.

There are 2 paths, one straight ahead to polyphasic, and one turning off to monophasic. I was forced to take the monophasic path. Both would do the same thing, make up for lack of sleep, however one would obviously bring you out on polyphasic and the other on monophasic.

So by taking the monophasic path, I've been sleeping 3-4.5 hours longer than I normally would to make up for lost sleep. Even now, I am still tired and had difficulty getting out of bed. Actually I always have difficulty getting out of bed, one of the reasons I wanted to sleep polyphasically.

Polyphasic sleep - End results

Overall on this sleep schedule I did okay. Other than 2 oversleeps and a few missed naps, I was going fine. Right now I am estimating it would have been another 2-3 days of flawless polyphasing until things got better. Actually, the night that I stopped I was like a zombie. Which means I had just entered the hardest part, and the part before becoming adapted.

Well it was coming up to my 2:30am nap and then I don't remember what happened. All I know was nearly an hour later I was sitting up at my computer. Did I fall asleep? Perhaps lightly, but I was still sitting in my chair, so it's also likely that I was just in a zombie like state staring at the ground.

After I snapped out of that I could have kept going but knowing that come morning my parents would say "You are tired go to sleep". They obviously don't know how it works and I can picture them saying something a few days later like, "See, 9 hours of sleep a day and you are totally better." They didn't actually say that though, so I won't make accusations just assuming what I think they would do based on what I've seen. That would really annoy me though.

Anyway, here are the results of my sleep on a poorly drawn table in paint.

That actually looks like a poor performance, but I'll explain some of the stuff. Day 1 we can just ignore, because I wasn't actually polyphasically sleeping there. Day 2 was good because The first nap was skipped because I was no where near tired enough(I later decided it is better to just lie there than completely skip).

Day 3 was the first day that I actually stuffed up. That was the day I slept from nap 2 through to nap 3. I had to skip nap 5 3 times in a row because at that time I was unable to nap, but that was okay, having overslept twice there wasn't really much lost from that.

It starts on day 2, I oversleep day 3. It picks up on day 4 and I oversleep day 5. It then picks back up on day 6... Do I oversleep on day 7? Maybe.. Maybe not. Day 6 went a lot better than day 4, and day 4 went a lot better than day 2, so chances are that I wouldn't have overslept. Even if I did, I'd make it through day 9. From my experience here, 6 hours oversleep = 2 days pushed back on the adaption.

There were also 2 things here that was changing. At the start I was bad at napping. At the end I was getting much better at napping, so that would definitely have had a significant effect on the increase in adaption, even though I overslept. It really can be a complicated thing and varies from person to person.

I think I was pretty close and I know that a lot of 15 year olds wouldn't be able to pull that off. I'll DEFINITELY try again as soon as I move out of home. I won't base my schedule around monophasic sleep then convert to polyphasic, instead I'll base my schedule around polyphasic and say "I can't do that, I have to nap then". Rather than "I can't nap then, I have to do that". It may take serious dedication and a lot of effort, but I think it is worth it.

That's it - It's over

All my effort towards this has gone to waste.

It was about 3am when I stopped caring. If I had kept going, tonight I'd face grumpy parents and be forced to go to bed at 11pm again. What's the big deal anyway? Why can't I just try it? Whatever, they got what they wanted. An unhappy son and their way.

I woke up at about midday to mum telling me to sleep at normal times. My back feels a bit stressed on the lower part, my eyes have twice the black around them as they did yesterday(returned to normal) and I don't feel like I've had a refreshing sleep. I can already feel the negative effects of monophasic sleep. Infact I felt exhausted when I woke up, probably because the sudden change in sleep patterns.

It's like a healthy vegetarian suddenly starts eating meat and junkfood.

It looks like I am going to return to the original sleep deprived, part time insomniac when school starts again. Why? Because seniors start at 8am for most of the days. I'll struggle to wake up every day, I'll struggle to get to sleep early enough every night.

I was pretty close. In a few days from now if I'd have kept going I'd be adapted enough that I wouldn't need to worry about oversleeping. In a few years when I don't live here anymore I'll be able to sleep when I want and then I'll show them that it is definitely possible. Right now the decision has been made for me and I've been forced to apply someone elses beliefs. It sounds like being forced to go to church.

Now, think about this question. Is it possible for teenagers to live up to their parents expectations?

Polyphasic sleep - Day 6 good/bad news

Well the good news is that I am sleeping well for most of my naps and some of them feel like they went for at least an hour. I had a nap, I think it was the 6:30am one, in which I'm sure I had a dream in. I don't remember the details, and it wasn't a strong dream but it was there. So, if I keep this up without anymore oversleeps/missed naps (that's the plan) then I should start dreaming soon. That means I'll be getting all of the sleep cycle in one nap, which is the intention on this, and as soon as that happens I am just about adapted. That must be the turning point, the part at which the sleep deprivation stops and tapers off instead of increases.

I took all of my naps successfully today except I didn't sleep for the last one, but lying there with the eyes closed almost sleeping is better than nothing like I've said before. I expect to make it through this night, which will be a break through for me as if I set a pattern, I'd be oversleeping tonight. I feel a bit better than I did the other nights, probably because I am getting better at napping, though tomorrow will probably be difficult.

This morning between 10:30am and about 12:30pm I had difficulty staying awake. I managed to get rid of that and keep going. Tomorrow will be like that but harder, and more frequent. The next day perhaps it will start getting easier, and soon after I can call myself an uberman.

Wait -- what was I saying about bad news?
Dad is trying to stop me again. This is what I have to say about it and other people who show their unsupport.

No, short term sleep deprivation is not serious and will not cause long term damage. Polyphasic sleep DOES work and people have done it. It is nothing like how people claim they can live off air and water with no food, saying that won't make me believe that everything on the internet is false. No I won't injure myself or end up with brain damage. We don't have to believe what we were brought up believing and there is no evidence to suggest long term damage from polyphasic sleep. All successful polyphasic bloggers aren't liars and there is no need to be so skeptical about polyphasic sleep. Let's not be pessimistic and let's not make up excuses to why polyphasic sleep is bad.

That said, I appreciate the concern but I am ready to make my own choice.


Also, I don't think I covered last night's naps. Wow, you really do lose track of the days when you sleep polyphasically. I'm sure it was last night we also went out so I had to skip the 6:30 nap, but I took the 10:30 nap okay. So I've done 7 naps In a row not too bad.

Day 5 of polyphasic sleep

Argh. I am an idiot(don't quote me saying that in the future). So, took my 2:30am nap perfectly. It was good but not really refreshing. Not enough to keep me up until 6:30 anyway. This is the hardest stretch. At about 4am I started feeling VERY tired. I couldn't sit down and play a game I'd just drop off. If I wanted to I'd have to stand up and move around. And yeah, I got sick of that fast but looks like next time I'll have to do it.

My stupid extremely tired brain decided it would be a good idea if I took an extra nap, just to keep me going. Actually that was a good idea, better than oversleeping, and the nap went fine. I think it kept me awake for 10 minutes after that. And, what? I decide to take a nap again.. about 20 minutes later. Sure I did but I don't remember waking up until 11:30am.

6 hours of oversleep every second day isn't going to help me adapt to this. I really need a second alarm but I don't have one. It looks like I am going to just have to keep trying until I can make it through the night. Luckily, I have plenty of time to do this and this seems to be the only thing standing in the way of my adaption.

As for further naps today, I'll try to sleep them and if I can, I am still a bit ahead of when I last overslept. If I just lie there for the nap then I've been damaged quite a bit from this.

Polyphasic sleep, Day 4

This would be the day that is the most tired and the worst day of the adaption. Not for me, I didn't nap the first day and overslept the third, so day 6 and 7 will probably be my bad days. If I make it through that, the chance of me failiing is very small(exciting thought, remember I'm only 15).


Dad found out this morning that I am doing polyphasic sleep. He asked why I am up at 3am and 8am. He doesn't like the idea but hasn't stopped me yet. I should get away with it.


Anyway the naps have all been similiar. I lie there semi concious, and remember waking up, but I don't remember really going to sleep. I haven't stuffed up again so I am doing well since yesterday. Surprisingly awake, but I did get the 6 hours oversleep yesterday. Though still surprising because with this amount of sleep I wouldn't usually be this awake - I must be adapted enough to gain something from naps(probably a small amount).


This morning I took my nap at 6:30am like planned but I ended up getting up later somehow. I don't remember what happened, probably overslept but barely, maybe 10 minutes. Now that I think about it I took the nap a little later maybe about 15 minutes late, 25 minutes napping then lying there for a bit. I remember setting my alarm just incase I went back to sleep. That's what happens when you nap with a blanket on, but only a minor oversleep anyway, I just ignored it.


So later this evening I couldn't take my 6:30pm nap (again) we went out (again). Third time lucky tomorrow? Aslong as I get atleast 3 days full uberman with no missing naps or oversleep I should be fine. After that well I guess I'll find out how my body takes to skipping naps... it really varies on the person. If I can't skip a nap, it may create problems in the future as it is unlikely that doing stuff will accomodate for such sleep pattern.

10:30pm - I could say this is my best nap since the 2:30am one I had before I overslept. I must have recovered from that oversleep now or even further than I was before it. That nap was great though I was a bit confused as to whether or not I had actually napped when I woke up, but I soon remembered. Not particularly restoring, but I slept well.

Today definitely made progression. Though I skipped a nap, I didn't go backwards. Soon I'll be full uberman.

Day 3

My 2:30am nap has been my best nap so far. Though it was really weird when I woke up. I thought I had overslept. There was a strange beeping noise and I didn't know what to do. I turned off the xbox 360 and the tv (which I left running so it was good to go when I woke up) but the noise didn't stop. I hardly remember doing this I was barely conscious. I then woke up more and realised it was the alarm clock and I kept pressing buttons to find the turn off button. After that when I remembered when I had napped I worked out I didn't oversleep, and I felt awake enough. For the next hour anyway...

Then came the 6:30am nap. Actually it was more like 5:30am nap. I told myself I can nap twice, because I was really tired. So I set my alarm, put it on the bed right next to me and went to sleep. Then I felt like hitting myself... 12pm. I slept through 2 naps, and one alarm clock. Big red crosses on the table I have.

It is almost 5pm while I am writing this and I expect that by the end of tonight I'll be back up to where I was before I overslept -- no big deal. 2:30pm went smoothly except I barely got to sleep, just lie there and get lost in my thoughts then realise it is time to get up. That is okay, I lied there the whole time and at the right time. It would have been better than ignoring it completely.

Unfortunately at 6:30pm I'll have to skip a nap as mum decided to tell me about 15 minutes ago we are going for a barbecue. Perhaps I should let them know I am sleeping polyphasic? Well they will find out soon enough anyway.

I'll be back on track at 10:30pm and I feel I have learnt something today and it better happened earlier than later. I was blaming my alarm clock for not being loud enough to wake me up. It is, but I set it too far away. I think I set it for 30 minutes, that would have given me time to fall in to a deep sleep and be difficult to wake up. Even if I did wake up, I wouldn't remember, which is also possible. So from now on, even if I think I'll take 5 minutes to get to sleep, I am always setting my alarm clock to 24 minutes. Also, I'll place it right beside my head to make sure it wakes me up, and I'll nap on my bed so I know where I am when I wake up(I slept on the mattress at 2:30am, woke up confused).

Day 2 - Actual start

Nap 1 - skipped



Nap 2
This morning I napped successfully at 6:30am. I skipped the 2:30am nap, but I probably could have taken it if I'd wanted to(unnecessary risk involved). I was eager to take a nap, and already I am doing far better than I did last time I tried. It was interesting, I am lying there unable to get the thoughts to stop in my head and the next thing I know I am wondering what that beeping noise is and time has moved forward 20 minutes suddenly. I almost went back to sleep, but I had my alarm nice and close to make sure I don't.


Before the nap I opened paint and drew up a table with 6 naps, and about 12 days to put crosses and ticks in successful and unsuccessful naps. For day 1 I already put red crosses on the naps because Day 1 was yesterday. I believe this is a form of motivation. The green ticks look nice. It's like a strike in bowling, boosts your confidence and makes you happier. Though the strike in this case is actually a fail and the tick is the pass.

Nap 3
Later on, I napped for the second time today. I now have 2 successive ticks on the table. I've worked out the trick here - place the alarm clock as close to you as possible so you won't sleep past it. I used to go putting the alarm clock around the room so I'd have to get up and find it. I usually just slept through it. For this nap I slept on a mattress on the floor, and awoke with the same mild sleep deprivation I've had all day.

I don't believe I have mentioned yet but it is summer in Australia right now and last time I tried it was winter. Seriously, it makes a big difference. Back then I'd wake up '"ohh my bed is so nice and warm and its cold and boring and tired out there I know I'll just relax for a few minutes crap its midday instead of 7". Not happening here.


I am also writing this post as I go. After each nap I am writing a few paragraphs. I think it's a good way to do it and gives me something to do. Well, let's see how I go on future napping.





Nap 4
I shouldn't have eaten that icecream, but I have been hungry today. I felt slightly sick before but I think that's because of the orange I ate(wasn't the best) and then a few glasses of water(sometimes gives off the weird feeling). So about an hour after that, I microwaved some 2 minute noodles and ate a small amount of icecream. That was at around 1pm. I didn't realise that I napped so close to that until I was writing this just now but I napped a bit early at 2pm instead of 2:30pm. Well, meditate. I think the icecream didn't let me sleep but I've felt surprisingly awake in the last few hours.


Apparently we are having dinner a bit earlier tonight so I have to be prepared to nap early which is why I tried to nap earlier here to make it more even. I think I'll nap at 5:50pm instead of 6:30pm. Not too bad to do once while adapting.


Anyway, even though I didn't actually get to sleep for this nap, I still put in a green tick. It wasn't an oversleep or a complete fail. Lying down for a nap and not sleeping is better than ignoring it completely. So, 3 in a row. I slept on the mattress again because it is easier to wake up from. I believe I will sleep on the mattress again at 2:30am otherwise I'd say there is a good chance I'd just decide to stay in bed and ruin my day. It is so frustrating when you over sleep.


Imagine it as whenever you nap successfully, you gain a small percentage towards being adapted. When you oversleep a large percentage is deducted like you'll go from 40% adapted to 10% in 6 hours oversleep. I am just guessing those numbers, but it sounds like the reason why most fail.






Nap 5
I napped right after I ate dinner. Generally you aren't supposed to nap right after eating, but the other option was just to skip, which wouldn't have been as good. It was about 6:35pm when I set the alarm for 7:03pm. I was just lying there then like usual I fell in to a light sleep. Maybe only for a few minutes, and I woke up about 9 minutes before the alarm went off. I still marked this off as a tick in my sleep table, which I will post later, but I suspect that tomorrow napping will contain better quality sleep, and that I'll be more tired during the day.



Nap 6
This is the final nap of the day at 10:30pm. It was really weird actually. I was probably nearly asleep for the most of it but I still couldn't get completely asleep. At one point my body felt numb and tingling and I felt like something really weird was happening. First thing that popped in to my mind was astral projection, but nope, that wasn't it.

Tomorrow hopefully my post won't be so long and I expect to see a further increase in my adaption and I doubt I'll oversleep. I think that for the first day of actually sleeping like this, I've done pretty well.

Polyphasic sleep - Day 1

I am going to have to make this clear. It is not day 1 of the sleep schedule - merely day 1 of actually trying to start it. Preparation I suppose.

So like I had planned I would completely circumvent sleeping for one night. I did. Well it was morning when I went to sleep. Not what I had planned. It started getting light at 4:30am. It is really quite satisfying being awake while it slowly grows lighter. Unfortunately my mind at this point told me to go lie down for a while. I suppose I felt guilty.

Guilty of what? Well I have a doubt in my mind as to whether my parents will agree with letting me try this sleep schedule. I only slept for about 6 hours. Surprisingly I managed to lie on my bed for over an hour before I went to sleep. Now imagine if my alarm had gone off 3 hours in to sleeping. Would I have gotten up? I somehow doubt it. Can I really wake up after sleeping for only 3 hours? Perhaps not while adapting, but after that sure. Trouble is adapting.

Especially at 3am. If I had 3 hours of sleep and woke at 10am sure. That just isn't going to happen though. I am starting to think that I should circumvent sleeping again for tonight, but tomorrow I'll start uberman. It definitely won't work for school - but let's not get carried away. Will I really still be on this schedule in 2 months? Nope. I am going to switch back to everyman towards the end of the holidays.

So my new plan is to take most of the naps without anyone noticing(Read on for nap times). This will slow any suspicion as it may take them several days to catch on I am doing this. That's exactly what I need. At least a few days to say "I am going fine, don't stop me now".

Like I said earlier, I can't wake up from sleeping less than half of what I'd usually do, especially at 3am. I'd be a fool to even try. Uberman may be more intensive, but I won't have a high chance of oversleeping every night. I've experienced before that naps are far easier to wake up from than core sleep. I even felt more refreshed after naps and really tired after core. That is probably due to bad timing as I may have been in a deep phase of sleep but not REM or light phase whenever I woke up from a 3 hour sleep.

Core = bad.
Nap = good.

So what are my new nap times?
2:30am
6:30am
10:30am
2:30pm
6:30pm
10:30pm

Except for the weekend, 5/6 of those times no one will even know I am napping. If I go to sleep at 6:30am, I'll wake up just before 7 and that sometimes happens to me anyway, so that won't generate much suspicion. The only real problem is 6:30pm, however there is a good chance that no one will even walk past my room. My siblings won't care, but as long as my parents don't walk past my room at this time I'll be fine.

Following this, a week later they might decide "Hey is he napping". I can then say "Yep, 2 hours a day and I feel better than before". Once I've actually shown it can be done, there should be a lot less problem with me being able to do this.

Only one thing really stands in the way. Adapting.

Video games are a great way to keep yourself awake for the night. Seriously, get hooked on one you could skip sleeping for 2 nights no problem. Just this morning I was sitting here, doing nothing in particular. Starting feeling the need to sleep. That was about 2am right. It carried on for a while, but eventually I just logged on to World of Warcraft and for the next few hours I was awake.

As nerdy as you might think it is, it is definitely a good method. I can nap at my computer if I wanted and wake up good to go.

Actually I created a new character to level just to keep myself occupied. There is easily over a week of in game time before reaching the highest level. This will sound extremely nerdy - but I'll probably be on for over 16 hours a day. Just while adapting. I'll do more productive things when I've adapted but I am counting on this to keep me awake.

I've been constantly spewing out this blog post for a while now so I am going to draw it to a conclusion. I still feel there is a lot more I can write about though. Like how I may add in a nap at 4:30am for a few days.

This uberman sleep schedule is the master of all polyphasic sleep. It is a larger accomplishment than everyman. Not just because many seem to think its harder(maybe, I don't think it is), but because most can't juggle their schedules around this sleep pattern.

I think I've done a good job at planning, but now to prove I am not all talk and actually do it. Goodluck.

Refining polyphasic sleep plans

Well I've realised that no way am I going to bed at 10:30pm. Well, at first. That is too early for me currently so I'll have to work it back to 10:30pm if I did want any chance to be able to do this over school. At first I am going to have to sleep a bit later. Let's see if I can work this out...

3 hours at 12:00am-3:00am

25 minutes at 8:30am

25 minutes at 2:00pm

25 minutes at 6:30pm

It is not quite exactly spaced out and the gaps are up to 1hour different. That would be a problem if this were uberman, but fortunately it is everyman. Everyman is far more flexible than uberman and allows for things such as these.

From Monday to Friday for the next 2 weeks the first 2 naps are very unlikely anyone will disturb me or know I am napping. I got off school 2 weeks early so most my family are out during the day. This will give me an opportunity to adapt while showing it as little as possible. I want that because when people are around my room and I am almost asleep I can just hear them talking.

As for the core, it may be difficult to wake up at 3am. I only have one alarm so I have to figure out a way to assist me to get up. Perhaps I can just pull out a mattress in the room I am in now, not my bedroom. That way I can bring my alarm clock in here and I shouldn't be quite as relaxed as in my bed so I'll be able to get up easily and use my computer to keep me occupied. Also, I'll get water and place it close to where I am sleeping so when I get up I have something to do straight away.

I'll get a few movies that I can put on as well as using my computer. That way I can keep myself occupied more than just sitting here passing time. I can also grab myself a bag of nuts too, so I have something to eat which should give me some energy to stay awake.

My Strategy

All that is well and good but I need an exact strategy. I am supposed to be starting tonight -- but I am not REALLY starting polyphasic sleep. Before I do that I have to make myself able to sleep polyphasically. I learnt from last time that I can't just wake up from a 3 hour sleep and start napping. I need to deprive myself of sleep enough so that I can nap.

Step 1)Get sleep deprived so I can nap

Step 2)Start the actual sleep schedule

What I need to do is skip my core sleep tonight, so I MAY be able to nap during the day tomorrow. If I slept for 3 hours tonight, I wouldn't feel like napping and I probably couldn't if I tried. I probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep successfully for my core anyway, until I am tired enough.

Compared to last time I tried, I think I have a far better chance this time. Hopefully my parents will remember that one of them said I can try it during the holidays...

Exact Polyphasic Plans

3 hours at 10:30pm-1:30am
25 minutes at 7:00am
25 minutes at 12:30pm
25 minutes at 5:30pm

If you subtract the core from the 24 hours in one day, you are left with 21 hours. In that 21 hours, I need to nap 3 times. So from the end of the core to the start of the core(21 hours), there will be 4 times I am awake.

1:30am-7:00am (5 and a half hours)
7:00am-12:30pm (5 and a half hours)
12:30pm-5:30pm (5 hours)
5:30pm-10:30pm (5 hours)

The times between naps are approximately even, worked out from the end of the core to the start of the core because the core takes a lot longer. So instead of going from the start like you would with naps, this is a better estimation. If that makes sense.

I know I told everyone I was going to do 4 and a half hours with 2 naps. That was to try to stretch it over school. The truth is I have no idea if it would work, and if it could stretch over school, traditional everyman probably could too(maybe a slight drop in consciousness in the afternoon, but I get that now anyway).

Right now I am not even considering how I can nap during school. It's not important - I don't have to go back for 2 months. The first step is adapting. That's the hardest part. I can work out school when it comes, rather than attempting a difficult sleep pattern now when I don't need to.

As for my parents... well I strongly recall one of them saying "I don't mind you trying it during the holidays..." last time they got up me for doing it. They let me do it for 2 weeks then there was one week left they made me stop, so this time I'll have 7 weeks I suppose. Plenty.

Learning from last time, I couldn't nap for about a week because I was just too awake. I was tired but couldn't sleep during the day. I'll have to take some more time off sleeping to ensure I am tired enough to at least sleep a bit during naps.

Polyphasic sleep plans

In about a week, I'll be starting my polyphasic sleep again. This will be my second attempt at it and hopefully I won't oversleep this time.

Monophasic sleep - 1 block of sleep
Biphasic sleep - 2 blocks of sleep
Polyphasic sleep - generally more than 2 blocks of sleep per day, though 3 can be referred to as triphasic sleep.

Description of Polyphasic Sleep
Polyphasic sleep generally refers to scheduled napping to achieve more wake time. This means to replace some or all of your normal sleep time with naps, 20-30 minutes long(about 25 is best). After a few days, you start to become tired which means you want to sleep. Unfortunately at this point we start to enjoy sleeping, same as how if we suffer mild sleep deprivation over a period of time we start to enjoy sleeping, because we feel the need for it. Days later, the sleep deprived feelings start to wear off. Schedules with a core sleep as well as naps take longer to adapt to, often even a month to become fully adapted.

Sleeping polyphasically causes your naps to contain the full sleep cycle, not just the first 20-30 minutes. At first you will only get the light phases of sleep, but as the conversion to polyphasic goes on, you will start getting deeper naps, into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Commonly it is thought that the naps contain only REM sleep. This isn't true, but they probably contain a significant portion of it relative to a normal sleep cycle. The naps are actually just condensed sleep cycles, from 90 minutes in to one short nap.

For example, if you sleep for 3 hours at night, say from midnight to 3am, then had 3 naps each equal to 20 minutes spaced out in the remaining 21 hours, you would still get 5 sleep cycles. A human adult monophasically is required to sleep 7 and a half hours in one single block. 5 lots of 90 minutes, which is how long each sleep cycle takes. It can be quite difficult for the body to adapt to having short sleep cycles, especially if mixed in with longer ones. But, with a bit of hope and strong mental power, overcoming the temporary physical weakness is merely a hard task to accomplish.


Now I've decided on a few things.

1) I have to sleep long enough that my parents won't worry about me and should at least let me try it for a while (at which point I can convince them to let me continue, if I succeed).

2) I don't want to sleep during school.
People often won't respect each other at high school. If people caught me napping, which is definite, they'll come and abuse me while I'm sleeping. Also, if it is a rainy day I cannot sleep in many places, only those which have people swarming around.

3) I am not going to let my parents stop me. Last time I tried, my parents stopped me because they were concerned about it. They obviously don't think a bunch of naps can replace normal sleep.

This time, I must try a different sleep pattern. Last time I was stuck between 5 naps of 24 minutes, or 3 hours and 3 lots of 20 minute naps (everyman). I'll not choose either of those, but instead I'll choose a variant of everyman sleep. 4 and a half hour core, plus 2 naps of 25 minutes. I can nap before school, after school, and sleep somewhere in between.

Perhaps it won't grant all the benefits uberman or full everyman would, but it is certainly better than monophasic or biphasic.


I deleted my past blogs about polyphasic sleep. They were repeated "I overslept a bit this morning, slept less than I would on monophasic still, and I'm okay". I'd say at the most I got to about 25% adapted. I think my greatest time successfully on the sleep schedule must have been about 3 consecutive days, then comes the hard bit. Which undoubtedly leads to failure (except this time).

I also tried biphasic sleep. It didn't work because I had not enough time in between the main sleep and the shorter sleep. That was a miserable blog, biphasic isn't majorly impressive.

Future Blogging

So I haven't written for a while, but thats okay, because no one will find out because not many people read this. I think a few people do so I may as well take the time to say that I haven't written anything lately because I have lost motivation for a few reasons. One of them pretty obvious, not many people read this. Simple, no one reads and my writing doesn't do much. I've also not a lot to write about any more. I'm done ranting about school and being the restricting age I am, 15, it is hard to do anything new and useful without the ideas being rejected by parents(such as polyphasic sleep). Without having full freedom it can be more difficult to unleash ideas if you know what I'm trying to say.

However, that doesn't mean the end of this blog. In just under 4 weeks I start 8 weeks off school. Perfect time to try polyphasic sleep again, keeping it as secret as possible from parents until I am close to adapted. I'll do everyman, and try to stretch my naps out so I don't have to nap during school. Having a small amount of experience with it before, and the determination to reduce my tiredness and gain extra waking hours, I should have a good chance at passing, if my parents let me. Perhaps after that I will start a bit of body building, to prove it is possible to body build and polyphasic sleep at the same time, though I'm sure I wouldn't be the first.

So this blog isn't much. I wasn't expecting it to be much so it's not like I failed. In the future I intend on building my own website, perhaps with the aid of a product like "Site build it!". When I am old enough to be able to engage in creative ideas. Those which parents don't seem to believe in. Polyphasic sleep is just one of them(others include personal development topics, such as health, and other experiments) and I am still not even sure if I can do that. We'll see.

Complete school based homeschool program

Buried in another post, I have written about this before. I would however like to take some time to discuss it in detail as to make it clear what the program would involve if it did exist. Unfortunately I don't believe it does.

What the program is about and how it works
The basics are that an intelligent student who believes he/she would benefit from such program, probably only for the last 2 or so years of high school, will be able to take the material home to complete instead. When the material is completed and studied to what the student finds satisfactory, the student will return to the school for a few days and complete assessment tasks.

As to simulate the student actually attending the school, the curriculum will be exactly the same. Just all material will be outsourced as homework. This is for students who don't believe they need a teacher telling them what they have to learn if the curriculum is given to them.

Students will have to attend school once a week, perhaps a dozen of them on the same program in a designated classroom, to catch up on missed school activities. Such as if their class had watched a movie that was important to the subject or if there was information vital to their success. A staff member, perhaps a year coordinator, will check what they have been studying to ensure they are in the right place and so the student may request assistance if necessary. They might not have to attend for a full day, only a few hours.

So students are still enrolled in the school, and they still learn but intelligently in their own way. It would be just like attending school, but not physically.


Benefits
Obviously, the most important benefit is time saving. I believe if I were on such program, each term would be completed in a few weeks, not ten. Because of the inefficiency and wasted time during school, the same amount could be done much faster without having to sit in class wasting time. It is not necessarily the schools fault. They can't really make a better system then having 70 minute lessons because sometimes that time is needed. Often it is not in which case it won't be used effectively. Learning at home as an individual obviously does not enforce this time block system.

Secondly, students will greatly exercise time management skills. I believe time management is one key to personal development and as such, being able to train time management at a young age will greatly benefit students on the program.

They will enjoy learning more. Students on this program are on it because they don't like learning at school. Not because they don't like school(well they don't), but because they don't like the ineffective methods used. If they don't like learning at school, they don't like going to school. By not learning at school, they should enjoy it more. I would.

It will increase their out of school social life. At first they might feel deprived of being socially active. They won't have school to rely on to make friends anymore(this is why it should be last few years of high school only). It will just mean they have to go and be social in a way which does not involve school, like they would have in a few years anyway.

Increase free time. Having the unit done so quickly will mean there is a long time before the next one, holidays will each be 2 months in length at least. This will give the student plenty of time to do extra curriculum activities, learn other things, get a job or just use at their leisure.


Complications
Not compatible with all classes. This can easily be solved by having the student attend school while those classes are on. Such as, HPE(playing sport, not theory), woodwork and metalwork, and possibly a few other specific classes. Not all students take these classes. I know that my classes could easily be completed at home on this program.

Does not fit in with bus schedule. Students who would have to catch a bus which only leaves at the end of school, and have classes which must be completed at school as mentioned above, would have to remain at school for the entire day. "The intervention room" could come into use, as the student could just remain there to complete what they would have at home, so they wouldn't have to do quite as much at home. Lowers the benefits slightly, but it's no major deal really.


Personally, I would want to do this. I thought of it while I was ranting about school and I can't see any reason why it should not happen. The only thing is, not many students from each school would want to do it. That's not really a problem though, but they would not really bother if just a few were going to do it. I am sure I could do it, particularly if I slept polyphasically.



EDIT - further complications and solutions
I received a comment which pointed out a few flaws with this design, so I would like to work out a solution for them.

So I believe the main point of concern is that at a public school, much is taught orally. This isn't always the case. Not with the school I go to as teachers usually hand out the information they are reading from anyway. However it does happen. I will agree that teachers will often teach orally. Perhaps more so to the students who do not quite understand, such as in maths. Subjects like maths are fairly simple to learn from the textbook. Making use of the given examples and looking at some of the answers usually helps understand the concepts, not just the formulas.

Some other subjects however, given exactly what the students who attended the class normally were given, but without actually attending class may not be sufficient to learn the requirements. The obvious solution to this is give students on this program more resources. Textbooks, Internet(which we all have), and their research skills should be enough.

Some subjects will require the student to actually attend like I already mentioned when I wrote this. Like I also said, just attend those, not the rest. Some students will end up going to school an hour on Monday, 2 hours on Wednesday and maybe a bit longer on Friday. Does not majorly reduce the benefits of this program.

Another issue was that many people are homeschooled because they want to choose what they learn and have their own curriculum. That is true but this is designed for people who are okay with the public high school curriculum and only have a major issue with the wasted time. This ties in with people who are homeschooling for religious reasons. If they aren't okay with the curriculum, it is not for them.

Another flaw I realised is that, unless the education department, and the school both accepted the idea and managed to incorporate it into their system, it unfortunately just wont happen. Too bad, but I still like and support the idea.

Wordsearches know how to teach!

Note that the title isn't serious. Wordsearches can also be known as "find-a-words", "word finds", "find words", and so on. The grid puzzle with jumbled words hidden in other letters that you have to find a list of.

Our science teacher favours them. Classifies them as "theory work". It seems the best way she can teach us a list of words related to the subject. If you think about how many wordsearches you have done during school, and how long that would have taken you, that is how long you have wasted. Wordsearches are probably the best example of busywork. Especially when given as homework.

So we finished our science experiment, wasn't too exciting and didn't teach much but that is another story, then she decided to give us a wordsearch to keep us busy. COUGHBUSYWORKCOUGH. That exactly defines busywork. Then she decided we had to have it finished to go to lunch not that she really checked, I just find that hilarious. "You must complete all busywork before I can let you go." What a laugh hey.

You learn nothing from wordsearches, they pass time slightly, they are only because you have a substitute teacher or the teacher failed to give you material which actually had meaning, and you could be doing more worthwhile tasks instead.

Do you see why I don't like school? Things like these are very common. Most poeple seem to take it, they just live with it and tell me that if its easy it shouldn't take long. If it is easy and pointless, why bother?

I have just recently closely observed how so many people of authority at the school seem blind to the presence of pointless activities, busywork. Wordsearches, crosswords, fill in the blanks, random comprehension activities which I could have done in grade 4 and so on.

Left hand training update

So It hasn't been long since I started using my left hand but I do have more information to add since then.

As for progress, probably not much. I can write a bit better, brush my teeth good enough, and even straighten my hair without burning myself. Though it has not been long, and constantly doing these activities with my left hand will eventually lead to much more control, and will make me a more powerful being or so I would hope(hehe). Though it is very easy to forget to use the left hand, so I continually use my right hand without thinking.

Perhaps I should start lifting a fairly light weight, 5kg perhaps, with my left arm only as to build it up a bit to be equal in strength to the right arm. Accuracy is the harder part(writing, throwing objects, completing one handed tasks and such with the left hand).

Response to all new comments

It is supposed to send me out an email when I receive a comment but it never has. I fixed that though so I should know from now on and I will try to comment you back if necessary. Sorry to anyone who has commented previously that I have "ignored" because of not realising I had received it.

It's good that most people are right handed

It's good that most people are right handed

Apparently being right handed is caused by the left side of the brain being dominant. So, what would happen if neither side were dominant? We would probably develop a preference naturally for one hand. Half the people would go with left, half with right. Or even if it was a 50 50 chance that your right side of the brain was dominant in the first place, making half the people left handed from the start.

It's true that most things are designed for right handed people. Left handed people can learn to use them well, and won't have any problems. If it was half and half, there would be much more conflict about standards. A left handed and right handed model would have to be created for most things.

Because the number of left handed people is small compared to right handed people, left handed people just accept right hand made things. Obviously it is not always any more difficult to use them, but imagine now if most people were left handed. Would the clock go around the other way? The hot and cold tap? Would we read from right to left? Reading from right to left might sound silly right now but unless there is another logical explanation for that I'm sure it would have been possible if most people were left handed.

So what if it was half and half? It would cause problems from left handed people wanting it one way and right the other. We're not just talking about in a well civilised time like now, I mean from the start. I highly doubt we would be advanced as we are today.

But because right handed people have been the majority, left handed people have been brought up with the way right handed people saw best. Now a lot of left handed people can use their right hand better than right handed people can use their left hand, so in a way left handed people are advantaged.

The main point is that if it were half and half it would not be as easy to advance as humans.

Train the left hand to become similiar to the right hand

Why do you and why do I want to train my left hand to become nearly as efficient as the right?
If you were able to use both your hands equally, or as close as you can for everything, you would be far more efficient in general. Imagine it as this, Your left hand(or right if you are left handed) is half as good as your right. Not exactly, but that seems fair enough to base it on. So your right hand will be 100% and your left hand will be 50%. So overall 75% effective. If you managed to train your left hand, obviously not as good as your right, it may end up 80% instead of 50%. That would make a 90% overall instead of 75%. Obviously not exactly as that is just an estimate, but still shows the point.

Plus, to add to that, your right hand will be better assisted by the left, increasing productivity even more. So your right hand will do better just by having your left hand doing better so your right hand will be less taxed by everyday activities meaning it will have less to do. That would mean your right hand will exceed the 100% you had before, possibly even to 110% of what you had. Isn't it a great feeling, exceeding 100%.

Pretty much you would just have more control.

So, why exactly did I want to start using my left hand?
There are times during school where you would randomly start to write with your opposite hand. No reason really, you just wanted to see how well you could do. That happened today. At first it was barely readable but then it got a little better as I slowed down and better gripped the pen. Just within the last hour, I google searched the possibility to learn with the left hand and I discovered that others had done this to varying levels of success.

Now, it is possible to train the left hand, but the right hand is because most peoples left side of the brain is dominant. For some reason, the right hand is linked with the left side of the brain and the left with right. This means the left side of my body will never be as strong as the right. Limited not only to hands but legs are another good example.

So from now, I will start doing a lot of things with my left hand that I would generally have done with the right. Varied examples include washing myself with the sponge being equipped in the left hand, opening doors, turning on taps, holding things in general and so on. Of course, writing, one of the hardest things with the off hand but definitely worth doing to train fine motor skills. Wherever appropriate I will try to use my left hand instead of the right hand.

We will see how this goes, if it is possible for my left hand to become stronger. Others have done it, let's see if I can.

Even more about busywork

Believe it or not, I managed to think of more I can write about busywork.

When you were at school, did you have to copy information off a board or projector and into a book? Probably, some teachers see it as the number 1 way to teach. It is generally a boring activity which involves writing out someone Else's work, a bit of time, and can often take longer as you have to wait for others to catch up or for the teacher to finish writing on the board.

Why is this done? It is so easy to photocopy or just print out multiple sheets of information, printed neatly rather than written or scribbled down on a lined piece of paper in an exercise book. This would make it simple for students to read and understand.

Students do not absorb information while they write out. Unless somewhat entertaining or interesting, students will not pay much attention to what they are writing, just copy. Also, because writing out is slower than just reading, it will longer to work out the meaning and to make anything of it. Rereading the writing after that, often going around the room with students reading out loud(which is also pointless, unless students are being graded on their reading ability), must happen to understand.

Once, not too long ago, in science we were forced to copy down something like 7 projector slides of information about aquaculture. That took up many pages in my book, and no one in the class made much of it. It was just do this or come back at lunch and do it. It also looked like it was just copied off the Internet, probably Wikipedia, but the teacher claimed she wrote it. We were then forced to read it out loud going around the room with different students reading each paragraph. There was enough that we read at least 3 times each. As the writing was uninteresting and my science class is mostly people who aren't so into school, we still did not absorb any information from it.

I did not understand, what was the point of all that? We learnt nothing and wasted 2 weeks. It is not always that extreme, but copying down notes happens quite often. Just imagine it as you go on the Internet to read about something, but as a future reference you decide you want a copy of the text. Instead of printing you write it out with a pen on a piece of paper.

It's not laziness. It's saving time while getting the same value for less work.

I-doser - anaesthesia SUCCESS

When I say success, I mean to the extent of how far it can go with me sitting in a moderately comfortable position with my headphones(not the greatest) instead of lying in a relaxed position with good headphones that wouldnt fall off. I also can never clear my mind and always have that voice telling me what to do.

So, at about 11PM last night, I decided I would use the anaesthesia dose to put me to bed. Interesting results. At first nothing really happened, I was getting bored and I was only 6 minutes in but I had a compulsion to continue.

At about 70%, my left leg started getting numb. No, it wasn't because I was sitting in a bad position but I started thinking it was actually working. Further on, numbing increased and started in the right side of my torso. These both continued for a short period, maybe a few minutes, after the dose.

That's one of the effects it's supposed to give, the other is drowsiness. I felt drowsy, it didn't put me to sleep but I felt tired. Not just because it was late. I was awake before it and I don't usually feel tired until the voice inside my head shuts up and lets me go to sleep. The funny thing is, the dose wears off shortly after it has finished. I couldn't get to sleep though I felt tired, but it had worn off, and I didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I managed to get to sleep well past 12.

So, as the dose concluded, I got up and walked to my bedroom. I felt heavier than usual and collapsed onto my bed. Whenever I listen to I-doser then go to bed, I turn off the light and the window glows and looks different. This may actually be because of having eyes shut for a while. But that night as I lay their attempting to go to sleep, I kept seeing a strange red colour in the bottom right corner of my peripheral vision. Just occasional, it wasn't a fixed object but wherever I looked sometimes it would be there. Random observation.

Other things to note are that I almost fell over in my bedroom, I started getting scared of nothing as I-doser causes me to get paranoid, and I felt easily relaxed while in bed. And like I said before, I wasn't in the optimal position for I-doser, so the effects were not complete, which is unfortunately why it didn't actually put me to sleep.

I-doser does work. It is just harder to do it than they tell you.

Improve Primary School Homework

The solution to primary school homework is simple -- don't just pile up tasks for them to complete. Instead they should be taught how they can effectively study for themselves and not have to slave over unrelated homework. Then, by the time they reach high school, they would have figured out that what the teacher gives them isn't important - it's what they actually learn that is related to the course.

Kids come home from school, often packed with homework to complete by the deadline. Not all, but definitely a considerable amount of children anyway. They do not need to be given a large amount of work to complete at home, especially those in the low grades. It would be a better idea to influence them to study the material themselves rather than given a preset homework sheet designed for everyone.

School's seem to overlook a lot. Students would spend a lot less time doing homework if they weren't given much, but knew that they had to study it for themselves. They would also learn the same amount in the process making homework much more efficient and effective. It would carry on through high school. Students, particularly smarter ones, won't have to be told what to do for homework. They will just know "learn this" but not to be bothered by busywork.

I-doser - Lucid Dream

Sometimes, you get up in the morning with the feeling you had a nice dream the night before. And sometimes, you might just remember it.

Now I don't always remember my dreams, maybe twice a week minorly, but last night I remember having 3 different dreams. No, unfortunately they weren't lucid though I do remember at least slightly what happened.

The first one we were in maths and it had something about spoons, that's about all I remember of that one but I do remember it.

The second one I was blogging about leather working in World of Warcraft except walking around in the Dryad place from Dungeon Siege 2. I remember the numbers 3 and 4 for some reason. What a randomly weird dream but it happened.

Then I walked into a cave in a different dream, there was some people and they told me I had to kill the dragon or some such creature. That was pretty strange but it didn't happen then I woke up.

So I think this lucid dream dose works to an extent. I might try it again sometime as I believe it only increases the chances of a lucid dream -- not guarantees it.

I-doser - Orgasm Quickhit

If I've worked out one thing it's that I have to press my headphones up to my ears to hear all the beats properly. It must be intended for bud headphones. My headphones slip off my hears and especially if I tried to lie down they would just fall off.

This dose didn't work for me though it has before only slightly. All it did this time was increase breathing slightly. Although it doesn't really produce a real orgasm, so I'm not sure how much it is supposed to work. I couldn't resist trying it anyway.

I would be tempted to try a more strong dose but the stronger ones make me paranoid and take longer. They must work though if they make me paranoid.

I don't really want to take ones that give hallucinations as it is 12:25am and I am scared they might do something to me. I-doser is scary enough as it is :P

Just now I am going to work out what dose to take next and that's enough for one night.

I-doser - French Roast

If you don't know what i-doser is view one of my previous posts.

Nothing like a nice warm cup of coffee, I just finished my French Roast dose.

It goes for 5 minutes and is rated moderate a stimulant of course. I don't think the effects will last long due to the short time it takes for this dose (most are 30 minutes). I haven't really done i-doser much before, i tried it a bit but never properly. Mild effects here and there but now I feel surprisingly awake. I'm sure I'll feel normal again in a few minutes, we'll see ;)

Hm, what to try next.

My views on homework

In my own experience, I haven't always been bothered by homework.

During grade 1, we wouldn't get homework, unless we really wanted to do it. At the school I went to, grade 1/2 were together, same as 3/4 and 5/6, though there were several classes of each. So grade 2's would get homework, but were not expected to always complete it, and it was easy stuff. Then came grade 3/4, same as grade 2, but they expected us to complete it and it was slightly more involved.

Grade 5 got interesting, we actually were given proper homework to do but the only punishment would not be getting a sticker on the wall for our homework completed. I found that funny, so I quickly learnt I didn't need to complete it. I was fine without it.

I didn't go to grade 6 -- I moved states and here grade 7 is still in primary school so I was moved into that instead. However at this new school, grade 7 was far more challenging.

We would have our weekly homework which involved an english sheet which often didnt teach us that much and required a bit of time to complete. Why did they try to teach us latin roots? Then we would have 2 pages of homework to do. We had to write a few brief overviews of news stories, complete the repeated from class maths, write out our spelling words then fill in how much we have read of books that week.

That was every week

Oh - and we also had to complete any Japanese homework we were given, and some other.

Every second week, we would have to complete a few paragraphs on the topic (whatever they chose) and occasionally do a speech on it. It started adding up to a lot and there was always that fear of "Oh no, I think something is due today".

I think that specific school was too strict. They expected too much of us and pushed us hard. We weren't even allowed to write with pens, and we had to use cursive. I didn't like that school. Slip up once and your guaranteed 30 minutes off your lunch. Infact I was kept back in for a lunch and a half because my homework wasn't set out correctly... and that was in the second week of school.

They wouldn't realise it, I didn't back then, but a lot of the work they give is busywork. I didn't think there was a point at writing out all of my homework again just because I set it out incorrectly. But, right now I could probably give good reasons and get out of writing out an hours worth of homework. An 11 year old has great difficulty being able to make well thought reasons so of course I had to do it back then.

Finally, after that year I was out of primary school. Then came grade 8. If you thought grade 7 was bad, you should have seen grade 8.

It was very easy.

We could use pen, we didn't have to worry much with setting out, the teacher wouldn't go psycho because we didn't write completely perfect and our homework was atleast halved. Although we still had weekly homework, it was much easier and didn't require as much effort. I still count much of it as busywork but I still hadn't realised that back then. Now if you thought grade 8 was easier.... grade 9.

Homework slowed down completely in grade 9. I don't remember having it(or more than 10 minutes for the week) for atleast half the year. Our maths was no longer checked and we stopped having to complete it all. I wasn't forced to study japanese, so that cut out a nice deal of homework.

English still has weeklies, like it does now(infact, same class as back then) but they weren't always given or checked, and nothing really happened if you didn't do it. There was only one term where we were given an english textbook to complete for assessment. About 95% of it was busywork, irrelevant, or an ineffective method of teaching, and 100% of it was a pain.

Grade 10, I have already talked about it. It is similiar to grade 9 but often even less homework.



So, I have learnt that the best option is to have barely any homework. I don't count assignments as homework even if they have to be completed at home, only extra work given by teachers. Not work you didn't do in class that you feel important to catch up on either, but just work set by teachers specifically to do at home.

I think that smart students are capable of completing whatever they need to at home as their own study. Not be given work by teachers which are designed for the majority. Infact homework isn't even designed for the majority, they are just what teachers think students may benefit from. The best way to go is to choose what you need to do.

Even if homework is continued to be set, I believe that there should be no consequences for not completing it.

I've said some of this before I know, but I hope I explained what I actually think better now without just ranting about how I don't want to write out spelling words.

I've also said this before, work does not equal learning. Even if it appears to be a task which requires thinking (such as reading comprehensions, wordsearches, crosswords, filling in the blanks on text, etc).

Why are we humans?

What was the chance that we were actually born as humans, and that we individually control ourselves?

Let's think about it, you are a human. Why aren't you an animal? or an insect? There are so many more of those, you were very lucky to be born as a human.

There were billions of years of animals, insects, other life forms on Earth before us, what was the chance that we were born in this time frame? I wouldn't say it was very high.

So far, I think that recently would have been the best time to be born in. Before that, millions of years where living conditions weren't always that great. It all seems a little too much of a coincedence that we just happen to be living at the opportune time, when we are greatly at an advantage over people born several hundred years ago to millions of years before that.

Why? Do you see that it was a really REALLY low chance that we were born as a human, in this time which seems much greater than past times? Instead of being born as any other living creature we just happen to be born as a human in the best of times. (which seems like the choice we would have wanted to make anyway)

I am not complaining, I just thought it was an interesting observation and I have been beginning to think that there is something far greater than this universe and all that, unless we just happen to have been very lucky...

I am not religious, so I don't believe in going to heaven or hell once you die, but what I believe *COULD* happen is that something actually occurs after you die.

I wish I knew what happens after dying.

5 reasons why you shouldn't rely on school to teach you

1. The school's curriculum does not always provide sufficient material

Many times before, I've realised that a lot has been left missing by a few different subjects, and only a basic understanding has been given.

This year, in the computer class that I take, for 2 terms (that's half a year) we were working on this program called Gamemaker. That makes Games of course, and is a great, free, downloadable tool to assist beginners in creating games. The teacher we had at the time took us through the basic functions, and had us create a few of the example games. After some weeks, we had learnt the basic functions of the program and eventually given a piece of assessment.

If I remember correctly, the first piece of assessment was to create a game with a minimum of 4 different rooms. Now I wanted to get more technical so I decided I wanted to create a platform game. Using what we had learnt, the game turned out flawed, had dodgy controls, and I was just about the only person who could beat it. I still got a B.

The computers were down for a few weeks at the next term, but they decided instead of giving us a new topic they would give us another assessment for Gamemaker. This time, we had to create a game with a minimum of 7 rooms based on a movie. Since we had not covered any new material, and this game was a lot more restricted, I ended up creating an even worse game than I had in the first term. I still got a B, probably because we weren't expected to be able to do much better.

One day on the holidays, I got bored so I tried to create a game with Gamemaker. In not much time and a bit of Google searching, I ended up producing a far better game then we had ever created at school. It involved a rolling lemon with enemies to jump on, 45degree inclines, and a properly working system which allows the jumping and gravity to work(rather than being able to jump in mid air, like in previous games). The controls weren't dodgy and it functioned properly. They never bothered to teach us how to do more advanced things with the program.

This term, we have been studying HTML. After learning all the basic functions, we have been given our assessment. Now we must create an online magazine based on whatever we like as long as it contains the few pages that were requested, such as a profile and feature article. At first I thought that would be horrible, we had only learnt basic HTML. I tried to create the layout of the site, and it ended up very dodgy and looking like a complete beginner had made it.

From past experience, I know that instead of relying on what the school has taught us, why not just look it up on Google? I now have used CSS also in the website, for the basic layout. Now I didn't just go and copy a bunch of code and paste it into the notepad file for the layout, I actually wrote it myself. I can tell you now that the layout I created in about a lesson and a half is far better than what I would have struggled with using just the HTML we had learnt.

This all proves, that in this class, the best option is not to rely on the material they give and proves that it is much more effective if you look it up yourself.

2. Not enough sources

The way the school teaches you is not the only way. Unlike in reason 1, they can provide sufficient information, but only in one view. For example, if you read the history textbook given to you for the subject, it will provide you with the information you need... but it is only one source. Generally with history you have research assignments, but you may often be learning by the book, the one source you are given to learn from.

The same goes for maths, you don't need as many sources because it does not have many different views on it, and they are generally all correct. But it can greatly help you understand if you can find it on the Internet explained simply.

So, if you can find more, often more relevant sources it can prove useful. Because they weren't given to you by the school, you aren't relying on the school's resources to teach you.

Sick of reading the science textbook? I find it often best explained on wikipedia.

3. Much of the time in class is wasted

I know I wrote a bit about it before, but it is here again. When you go to a class, a lot of the time you won't learn anything relevant or useful, or you just won't learn anything at all. Often pointless worksheets are given, or the methods used just aren't efficient.

In my health and physical education(HPE) class, for several lessons we watched movies. Sure that's okay, a nice easy lesson, but I didn't really learn anything. Other than that, we copy notes off the projector about illegal drugs and how to avoid drugs(including the basics about confidence and self esteem -- I barely bothered to copy most of it).

This goes back to what I said in a previous blog entry Here where I explained about a non existent program where some students who thought they were too good to attend school normally can just be given the material, study it, complete the assessment then sit the exams and be done for the term in less than 2 weeks. That's 1 year of school in 2 months. That is how inefficiently class time is spent.

4. You don't learn it all at school

This reason isn't just school, it goes on to university.

I am looking at computer game programming. When I leave school after senior, I definitely will not have what I need, I won't have the qualifications, or the skills.

So then I would go to university for that, study Maths and IT. That will get me the qualifications, but from who I've talked to, and from what I know, it won't always get the skills. I don't see a university course teaching all the major programming languages to students. I see that as more of a thing they would expect students to do in their own time. I most likely will learn programming before I go to university anyway, and I am definitely not going to rely on university to teach me the skills I need.

As I've read before, the degree gets you in the door and your skills and experience do the job.

However in saying that, some courses may give you all you need for the job, but like I said from what I know, not this one.

5. School is designed for the majority

The system is not best fit for you, it is best fit for everyone. Top of the class, you are doing well but you can't rely on school to take you much further because the slower people have to catch up. Just like how I wrote about our spelling, a few people in the class struggle with some of those words, and, because it is designed for the majority, I was stuck with them. Actually it was decided that we don't HAVE to do them anymore, but it still stands as a good example of what they tried to give us.

Same in math, you might have worked out the stuff last year and don't want to repeat it with slight more difficulty added to it this year. However again the slower people in the class won't have done it as well and will need it again. I am only getting a B in math, but that is because I don't need to spend the time to get an A until next year.

---

I personally don't rely on school to teach me. I don't come home with 4 hours and 40 minutes worth of learning(time spent in class). I don't even get 2 hours worth of learning, maybe 1 hour on a one off occasion.

It will be nice when I am finally out of it.

What do you see yourself as in the future?

Like I said an a past post, subject selections have happened for senior. People are starting to think seriously about what they see themselves as in the future. What they want to do when they leave school.

I personally don't think, to maximise your life, you need to look that far in the future.

No, that's not good enough, you need to look much further.

After I have read blog posts by other more successful bloggers, I have seen that it is clearly possible to develop a talent in blogging so far, that you don't need to go for a 9 to 5 job.

The school has been stressing that our primary concern should be that of choosing a pathway to follow with a (usually) 9 to 5 job, and studying for that. That's what I am doing, I think I will do some sort of IT work. But, that's only so I am not broke while developing this talent(particularly in blogging, but not necessarily) as to replace the need to devote over a third of my day to work.

Now, in the future I want to be an energetic, healthy person. Similiar to what I've also said in a past post about optimism, that is one of my plans for maximising life. I want to make money in a smart way, not by running a busy business which requires me to work a lot, or by being employed for 8 hours a day.

OK, that may eventually start working some years into adulthood, I couldn't be certain of the future, but that's what I see myself doing.

Now, while the school is encouraging the general system, I am encouraging myself to make my life better than that. To the majority, you get educated from school, college, courses and whatever else. Then you get to work, yay.

Your average work day would be something like this;
First you wake yourself up at about 7am. You eat some breakfast, shower, and get ready for work. You then drive to work to start at about 9am. At 5pm, a third of a day later, you head home. It could take you a bit of time to get home, depending on how far you live, but you get home early evening.

6 hours, 6 hours of your day you have left before you should sleep again. Sure you had the bit of time in the morning but that was mostly devoted to getting ready for work, or reading the news paper or some such quick activity.

So that is a quarter of your day when you can relax, watch tv or do something to keep you entertained or busy.

Now don't you think it would be much better if you could wake up in the morning, having your finances under control while you are barely working, to enjoy and make the most of your day? I certainly know which lifestyle I will be aiming for.

So most likely you will end up on the 9 to 5 job, unfortunately. Then for atleast another 40 years you save for your retirement. Then you retire, grow older and die. That is the system. Fairly simple when you think about it, education > work > retire > die. I still like the idea of forced education > retire(at 25, not 75) > die. See how it is missing the work? well, it might contain a small amount, maybe 5 years, I believe I said previously.

Sure, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a job. It will just be something you are bound to.

By the way, I don't see blogging as a job, more of a hobby, and I don't think it is much work, in comparison with having a regular job anyway.

Looking even further into the future, this should just continue up until it is obsolete (say in the future if people get less bothered about blogs and there are new things). I don't know, I am not psychic but the general idea still continues.

More Romeo and Juliet and school

Well just in the last week or so, we were given our assessment for English. Two tasks; one is to write an essay on whether or not we think Romeo and Juliet is suitable for Grade 10 and write a scene from Romeo and Juliet but in a different time setting, I believe I mentioned that one in a previous entry.

So I find that funny, half the assessment on Romeo and Juliet is writing whether we think it is a good idea for grade 10 students or not. I'm sure you know what I'll be writing about.

Also, last lesson in science we had a substitute teacher. Instead of doing completely boring and obvious tests which may amuse (or completely bore) a grade 3 student he showed us a bit of basic chemistry with some household products. That's what we have been supposed to be doing this term, but turns out so far we really have failed to be taught much. Sure a half hour to work out Australian bar codes start with "93" but you just learnt that by reading it(much easier).

Well, I had this idea, an idea the school will never accept. Both from legal issues and their views on school which are obviously different to mine.



How about a special program.

One which certain students could do instead of attending school. I know this sounds silly, and most will think its a bad idea, but I think I could complete each 10 week term in less than 2 weeks, if I was given the material and assessment. Once finished, return to school for a day or two, complete the exams and move on. Possibly visit the school for a short period once a week for any school updates, class updates and changes.

Trouble is some subjects cannot do this, such as HPE. Well one solution would be to have a blank timetable except for that class, or just not do HPE, I'm not.

It would be more like a TAFE course. (not sure if it is called TAFE in other countries such as America, Google it)

It is just that SO much time is wasted during school, and I agree with the opinion that one side of it is to keep young people busy while their parents are at work.

But that's why this option would only be for a small number of people, those who can actually accommodate it, and It should only be for seniors.

Now you might think that it just sounds like home school or actually leaving school and attending TAFE, those are options but they cost money. I don't necessarily think that the school is incapable of teaching that I would have to go for another option, I just think that the system doesn't work for me, and I'm not liking it. So this would just be a school based program, nice and simple, saves time.

I-doser, simulation drugs and feelings

Wouldn't it be cool to try different drugs, without actually having them? It has quite a fair few drugs, like cocaine, heroin, alcohol or you can even take a french roast. It also has different feelings like it can make you happy. And it is all just a simulation -- you don't actually have illegal drugs. Infact, all it does is simulates some of the positive effects of the drugs, cocaine is basically just a stimulant, alcohol makes you walk funny and trip(i think they are magic mushrooms) just makes you hallucinate a bit. Best of all it is safe, fun, and isn't bad for you.

Don't worry, you aren't actually taking drugs. It's called I-doser, you can download it and it comes with a few free doses. It sends binaural beats which adjust the frequency of the brain to simulate the effect of the drug or the feeling. You just have to listen to the sounds, most of which go for about 30 minutes.

I have taken quite a few, you have to be in a dark distractionless quiet room, with stereo headphones. It does actually work. It is harder to do correctly than they say, but with a bit of practice at clearing the mind and focusing on the sounds, you can get it working quite well.

Just a bit of fun.

I may use the sleep dose to put me to sleep when i try polyphasic again, and I may use a stimulant to keep me awake. It is not actually drugs so it shouldn't negatively effect changing from monophasic to polyphasic but I guess I'll find out one day.

(not so)Relevance of School Work

Like I explained in a previous blog post, I had been having difficulty working out how writing sentences with words I already know will teach me anything. As an update on that, the teacher is going to check them in the near future and I have about 60 words to go, which I probably won't do.

Well other than that, we have been given our form to choose subjects for our senior years. That's all well and good but they have already worked out what times each of the classes are in before they worked out who wanted what class. Guess doing a poor job doesn't cut their paycheck, so it doesn't really matter to them if half the people aren't satisfied with the class options they have.

What I am talking about is that, there are 6 blocks, you have to choose one class for each. You have to do an English, and you have to do a Maths. So because they chose the classes for each times before knowing which students wanted what classes, you get a bunch of things you want in one block, and nothing you want in another block. You can't choose 2 from the same block. So, in one block you have to choose from Japanese, German, health education, physical education, agriculture, chemistry or ancient history. The only 2 I wouldn't cry if I was forced to do are chemistry an ancient history. That doesn't mean I want to do them.

So, for 2 years after this year I will be doing ancient history. I would rather ancient history because it is probably a lot easier, but either way neither subject will really help me. I'm not saying I don't want to learn chemistry, I just don't like the way science is done in school.

So, that means in another block there are 2 subjects I want, extension maths and one of the computer based subjects. There is another computer based subject, which I will do, but it is frustrating how they put a computer based subject and maths on at the same time. I guess they can never get it perfect, but it would have been a lot better if they worked out classes before times, then maybe *30% would be unhappy/don't care instead of *50% being unhappy/don't care.

The reason I say don't care is because it would be unfair to take a percentage of people who are happy with the subjects against those that aren't, because that's just it, a lot of people don't care that they have to do a few subjects they don't want. Therefore if they looked at it they would think its okay because only maybe *20% of people are actually unhappy, the rest just don't care. I do.

So now that I have one more subject that I don't want, and one less that I do want, if I want to get a good score for university(college) from grade 11 and 12, I have to do well at a subject I dislike. If I want a completely perfect score, I would now have a lot more work to do in ancient history to get it. Like with chemistry, I am not saying I dislike history, it is just one of those subjects I can do much better on my own.

So now that I have a burdened senior, what else involving school is there that I want to rant about?

Well we had to read Romeo and Juliet. I would be surprised if someone got through grade 10 without ever having to do it. A lot of people like Shakespeare and his works, and I am not going to argue that reading it is absolutely pointless. I just don't want to be forced into it.

It seems the only important reason we read it is because it was written 400 years ago. Sure you might say it depicts love but a lot of people my age I've talked to don't really think it is that important either. If you are an adult, you will probably say it is, and you were also probably bored of it when you were in high school. Why not wait until I am an adult to bother with it? because I was already forced to do it before I cared...

I also feel that with every generation people will become less and less interested in it.

Also with the early modern English, and that it is written like a poem, it doesn't particularly teach English. The older language is obsolete, and we shouldn't have to remotely learn it to get the gist of what the text means. I didn't have fun reading it, and I am glad it is over now all I have to do is the assignment. Writing a remake of a scene but in a different setting, a literary transformation.

Too bad I haven't thought of a good idea for that yet.

---

*Percentages are estimated based on who I have talked to

Optimism

Optimism is where someone usually expects a good outcome. Well Today I officially declare I am an optimist. I do expect the future to be "optimal"(I guess that is where they get optimist from).

I think everything is going to work out, once I leave school that is. Right now things are fairly still, I'm restricted with my age and money, so I am stuck at home or school most of the time.

But, when I am buying my own food, supplying myself with everything, I'll have a lot more choice and freedom. I seem to have one thing in mind all the time, maximising my life. I intend on living until I am at least 125, while sleeping polyphasically(see other blogs).

I also intend on living very healthily. Since I will be buying my own food, I can stop buying lots of junkfood. Right now I come home from school and eat stuff like cakes, icecream, biscuits or toasted sandwhiches, rarely do I come home and eat fruit or vegetables(who said you can't eat vegetables for an afternoon snack).

It sounds fairly simple to me, just don't buy all the stuff I shouldn't be eating, but I guess I am thinking a little far in the future, and I'll have to wait until it actually happens.

But basically I just want to make life the best it can be, and I'm sure it will be, so therefore I am an optimist, and I like that title.

Busywork

Recently, I have become increasingly aware of the population of schoolwork that we get which is busywork.

Busywork is work assigned which is intended to keep the person, in this case students, busy or it is work which is pointless and teaches nothing. This can also include homework. It is not limited to students and schoolwork but in this case it is.

So basically there are 4 terms at school, each about 10 weeks in length with time off seperating them. One term is generally used to focus on one part of the subject. Let's start off with English.

So close to the start of the term, term 3 it is now, we were given our spelling lists. Well I never thought one of the top grade 10 English classes would need spelling lists. Alright, that's not so bad, spelling lists.

It is when the majority of the words are no harder than "vault" or "balcony". Now that wouldn't be an issue, sure some easy spelling tests every week. But down the bottom of the page it says something like...

Each week students must write 10 different sentences for 10 spelling words on their list.

Now if at some stage at home, I have to stop what I'm doing, and write down 10 randomly generated sentences with words that I use every day I am not learning anything.

You may ask, "What's the big deal, its only 10 sentences once a week. You may aswell just do it." Let's say you are living with your parents, one comes to you while you are busy and says "Hey, go take the trash out to the bin, place it in the bin, get it back out of the bin and bring it back inside." It won't take you very long, go do it.

From taking the trash out and bringing it back in you learn nothing, it gets nothing done and it wastes time.

By writing 10 sentences with words I learnt how to spell at primary(elementary) school I learn nothing, it gets nothing done(well, except for some sentences, but what will that achieve) and it wastes time.

If it was an effective method of teaching they would make us write sentences at school, not at home, we have plenty of time in class.

Now you might say, well have the teacher give you harder words. Well giving me harder words won't help me pass the course because writing out 10 sentences a week, even if each has a new word, probably won't teach me new words very fast. As I just said before, it is not an effective method of teaching and that is so because it takes more than 1 sentence for a word to learn it, especially if attempting 10 words every week.

The best way to learn new words is to find synonyms for common words until you find ones you don't know, or to type in things that could sound like words into an online dictionary until it gives you words that are similiar that you don't yet know.

Of course trying to learn 10 at a time, by writing a sentence for each won't help much.


How about math

Well math isn't so pointless, appart from that more than half of the stuff we do we already completed in grade 8 and 9. We get a lot of work to do, many exercises. But when it gets to the point where you already know it and you don't need to keep writing out the same equation but with different numbers over and over, it does get pointless.

Some people need that bit of extra practice, so I can't really say that it is pointless to most people. But I would like to point out that all of this revision we do of previous years should not take aslong as it does and I really do not do much work in maths because I find it much more efficient to just revise a bit before the exam, rather than repeating exercises over and over for weeks in class.

Atleast our teacher doesn't get too annoyed if we don't do it.

I will conclude this saying that you do not need a lot of the work to get the top grades for the course and that more work does not equal more learning. Working hard at a pointless activity won't mean you do better at school.

The start of a new blog

This post marks the start of my new blog. Unlike past blogs this is not about polyphasic sleep. To view those visit my profile. This is a blog where I share my opinions, particularly to things which effect me.

Since I originally started my polyphasic sleep blog, I began liking blogging. Since then I have had many ideas so I wanted to create more of a general blog.

This is not so just a day recount of what happened. I am not going to come home from school and just plainly write what happened that day. I want to share my ideas, and write my own views on things.

The goal is to maintain a blog over an extended period of time, that, when I form a strong opinion about something which has happened to me, which is surprisingly a lot, I write about it. These will be mostly intelligent ideas, not just "Argh I hate x because its bad".

For example, something may occur one day which will cause me to think a lot about the topic, I may read about it on the internet, or someone may tell me about something, even a combination of those which will cause me to form my own view.

Other than just my opinions, I will also try to write about interesting stuff that has happened to me, when it happens. Without trying to give away personal details, that is, so of course I won't be able to write about some things.

Right now my monophasic sleep requires attention, so I shall come back probably tomorrow to add onto my blog.