What’s Up?
So would you guys mind me changing my newsletter day to Tuesday? I am trying to actually have weekends off, or at least only work-lite, and so far that means that Mondays are a bit of a catch-up frenzy. I always mean to sit up in bed and finish my newsletter, but apparently I have lost the ability to stay awake.
Age sabotages us all, I guess! Although not sure my general body and health would agree, since they probably benefit from not pulling all-nighters and running on a sleep-debt that over-shadows the national debt.
Writing wise? I currently have two edits to get finished with this week, two covers to finalize, one fellow author to pester until they agree to do what I want. Well, they might not. That’s the plan, though!
I’m also working on a new project that I am kinda really into! You’ll hear about it soon.
The Weekly Pupdate
Jax is doing great. He’s got back the weight he lost when he was sick and a bit more, although he’s still all muscle and sass. It’s been a great week for him. He’s been to a couple of dog parks and played his little heart out with other dogs. It turns out that he’s really good with old dogs and little dogs too, very careful about not running into them and giving them space it rest. He really is the best-natured wee dote.
As you can see he is now 100% stitch and cone free, as well as very, very spoiled and allowed to sleep in the bed even though that was big role.
Book Recommendation of the Week
A fun short from the fantabulous C.S. Poe. No-one tell her I said a nice thing about her, she’ll be unbearable!
I wish I had an excuse to get one of these :D
Must Read of the Week
Lucid dreaming always intrigues me, but it scares me too. One too many Nightmare on Elm Street movies, maybe? To be honest, I feel like dream-me is probably better equipped to deal with some weird stuff than conscious-me is. I have a recurring dream where I’m responsible for hundreds of boneless hamsters, and it’s a very stressful but I cope. Conscious-me would definitely be hysterical if I had to deal with losing hamsters down drains (has happened, dream-me might cope but they aren’t well-suited to hamster husbandry and I think whoever gave me all those hamsters bears most of the responsibility.
Dr. Keith Hearne, a psychologist, defines lucid dreaming as becoming “fully aware of being in a dream.” This realization is instantly transformative: Rather than a dream being something that simply happens to you, suddenly you can influence the dream’s content and direction.
Aristotle documented the phenomenon, as did the Buddha Shakyamuni. Depictions of lucid dreaming appear in Egyptian hieroglyphics and in the oral traditions of Australian aborigines. In a conceit shared by many modern practitioners, the Upanishads from the sixth century B.C. equate lucid dreaming with godhood. “Up and down in his dream, the god makes manifold shapes for himself, either rejoicing together with women, or laughing, or seeing terrible sights.”
Among scientists, the concept was widely considered a myth until Hearne proved otherwise. At 8:07 a.m. on April 12, 1975, research subject Alan Worsley sent a message to Hearne from within a lucid dream. Our bodies are paralyzed during REM sleep, except our unseeing eyes, which still flit around behind sealed lids, like captive butterflies. While an EEG confirmed that Worsley slept, the dreamer performed a series of choreographed eye movements, akin to Morse code. “The signals were coming from another world—the world of dreams,” Hearne wrote, “and they were as exciting as if they were coming from another solar system.”
Blast from the past! Don’t ASK what made me think of this :D
Oh man, I would lose my entire mind. I get antsy enough if a spider moves in, an entire strange man would leave me in hysterics.