Lost Tyree, lost Hutch

Ah, a Star Wars quote for every occasion, although this one's a bit of a stretch (come now, let's tour my extended metaphor). But Hamish and I were talking Saturday night (actually, it was about 5am Sunday morning) about how we are always the only people left at the end of the party / night whatever, and not necessarily because we've had the most to drink either - more because we have staying awake powers of epic proportions (thank you Armourguard, although I must say that I did some damage on the occasion to this claim, by falling asleep in the chair during the conversation) and in addition to these powers, we are single, and have nothing much to do the next day, although this is not always relevant. Inevitably we watch in some amusement as everybody else chooses in favour of sleep (or bed anyway, nudge nudge, wink wink etc, a separate and perhaps more understandable reason) at some point in the evening, and they all disappear like so many exploding X-Wing pilots, leaving Hamish and I to make the trench run all by ourselves. God knows what will happen when he takes off for England (Pull out, Wedge! You can't do any more good back there...) because we all know that the last thing you need in a drunken state at 5:37am on a Sunday morning is Darth Vader blowing you away due to your lack of a wingman.

Now to turn my extended metaphor into a rant I just thought of.

I'm all for sleep, much in the way I've stated I'm all for mathematics - we need it, and that's that. But I don't think of it as an enjoyable activity. In fact actually going to sleep is probably the most unexciting thing you can do. Half-waking up and being in bed and going 'ahhh, I'm in bed with no need to get up and I'm all sleepy' is admittedly pretty good. But I say sleep itself (while inherently good) is just plain unexciting (possible dreams not withstanding), and people should be prepared to do without some of it once in a while, especially when there would seem to be something more interesting on offer. As many (who know who they are) are, but as some seem, to me, incredibly reluctant and almost fearful to do so.

Now admittedly I'm not one of these 'arrghhh, I simply can't function without sleep' people, but I think I've decided that these people should just damn well get hard. Presumably the symptoms of tiredness are much the same for everyone. I've had them,sometimes pretty severely (on one occasion last year for example due to the idiocy of the Armourguard roster system I had to do an 8 hour night shift, go home with no sleep, play cricket all day, get around an hour of sleep and then do another night shift for 8 hours) and while they can be unpleasant (as continual no sleep is obviously bad for you), they're not the worst thing in the world. The occasional yawn is not a particularly taxing event. I would rather be tired than sick, or hurt. Nor, I think, and feel free to correct me if you feel I'm wrong, does being tired affect my behaviour much. OK, so if you're really tired you perform below par in most things, (although again, the difference can't be that great if I can get a B and a B+ on the two essays I was up for 48 hours writing in 3rd year) but what's with all this 'grumpy when tired' bollocks? (I hasten to add that there is no particular recent example here, and everyone stayed up pretty late having a good time on Saturday. I have not been on the receiving end of grumpiness explained away as tiredness thing recently either. I'm just expatiating.) Don't give me that, grumpy is grumpy and tired is tired. Is it the fault of the world you're tired? Well, possibly. But that's not the point. The point is this: suck it up. Chances are you get to solve the problem within 14 hours, if not sooner. It's not that bad. (It's like 'The Phantom Menace.')

Now I'm not advocating we all start sleeping a mere 4 hours a night or anything. Nor do I suggest everybody stay up late for no particular reason at all. But I do think that 'I'm too tired' is a pretty lame excuse for almost anything, and although there are exceptions, it is beaten in the credibility stakes by such gems as 'I have no money', 'I can't be bothered', 'It's too far' and even 'I'm washing my pants'. Into a similar, but perhaps slightly less bad category, depending on context, falls: 'I have to get up in the morning'. If you have to get up in the morning, you will get up in the morning. What this really says often is: 'despite the fact I'm having fun here, the very thought of feeling tired tomorrow, combined with the great importance I currently place in performing whatever essentially trivial task it is that I have to do during the day to the utmost of my ability, means that I must flee to my bed '. Now as I say, this is not always the case, and it's just silly to get not enough sleep every night of the week. But it might just be worth it every once in a while. Think it over. Assess the risks. People have survived being tired and will continue to do so. Sleep when you're dead.

I guess we can safely assume I'm not a morning person. Well, nobody refers to a city's amazing 'morninglife', do they?
I think morning people should stay up later, chill out a bit more, and drink more caffiene. Which is possibly oxymoronical.
But you get this, it's a rant.

And now to the Bridge of Khazad-Dum! (Or failing that, the coke machine).