Blood Donor Restrictions (Or why people should quit being homophobic dicks)

A blood drive truck has been parked on campus the past few days.  That's fine, I approve of blood donation, and sometimes you can even make a bit of cash for it, even better.  But as I was driving home tonight I found myself so freaking angry.

Why?

Because gay men can't give blood.  People are freaking dying and in need of blood and transplants, and a whole subset of the population is excluded!  Excluded on the basis that being a gay man puts you at a higher risk for HIV.  Because only gay men get HIV.  Right.

This homophobia continues, and people that have had what I call "second-degree gay sex" (have had sex with a man that has had sex with a man) are limited!  I think it might be now that the limit is 1 or 2 years, so I might be in the clear, now.  The specifics on that are kind of vague on all the websites.  I have O- blood, the universal donor!  And I have gone to give blood before and been rejected.

And it isn't like they don't test everyone's blood for diseases, anyway!  What is the freaking point?  None.  There is no point.  The world is run by homophobic morons.  It would serve them right if someday they needed a transfusion/transplant and there was nothing to give them because they excluded homosexual men for no legitimate reason.

/end rant

Sleep Experiment--Week One

It's been about a week on my new sleep schedule, and I'm still really liking it.  It only gets difficult on days when I can't get my nap on time, then I feel tired, but it's just about the same level of tired I was experiencing regularly.  I am hoping once my schedule settles down  (I keep having random appointments I need to do during my  scheduled naptime!), then I can make use of some of the comfy chairs and take naaaaps.  :)

My productivity is up a bajillion percent.  Feel free to quote me on that scientific number.

I signed the lease on my new apartment today. :)  All that's left to do now is pay my processing fee (which I get waived, hooray!) and have my parents fill out their guarantor's forms ON TIME.  I'm trying not to stress about that last part.  Really.

Unless someone moves out of an apartment early I'll be homeless for three days.  I'm not really worried about where I'm going to go, as where all of my stuff is going to go. @.@  Chances are decent that an apartment will open up early, or that my current complex will rent my apartment out to me for an additional month, so I'll leave worrying about that until June and July.

I spent all freaking weekend doing 133 modules of chemistry work, only to get to chemistry class today and have the professor tell the class that the deadline was extended until THIS COMING FRIDAY.  ::headdesk::
I'm glad to have it all done, but really, I have lots of things I could have been doing.  Like my chemistry homework.  I have around 200 problems due this week.  Boooooo.

All in all, things are going quite well for me. :)

Sleep Experiment--Day Four

I'm really liking this new sleep schedule.  I haven't had any problems with adjusting to it, probably because my sleep was so terrible anyway.  I've noticed something interesting: whenever I wake up at the end of a sleep cycle, my body is super warm and toasty, but if I wake up in the middle of one I'm sooooo cold.

I sat through my first lecture of chem II, and knew there was no way in hell I was going to be able to do well in that class, especially since some of the things the professor said I needed to know already we didn't even cover in chem I at UNT.  Thankfully, I called the chem office and got permission to take chem I again, even though I have transfer credit for it already. Whew!  What a load off my mind!

I had to re-arrange my schedule to fit the new class though, because it was at the same time as one of my other classes, no big deal since UT is a flat-rate university, and I didn't really like the professor for the class I needed to change anyway.  I now have: general chem I, differential/integral calculus, genetics, pseudoscience, and language and thought.  I'm way more excited about this class schedule. :)

Sleep Experiment---Day Three

My experiment has been confounded by my extremely inconsiderate upstairs neighbour.  He was up all night playing guitar/other instruments with the amp cranked.  It was vibrating my desk.  He was STILL AWAKE when I got up at six.  He went to ed soon after that.  I was tempted to crank MY music, but I'm better than that.  Plus, I wouldn't want to disturb my next door neighbours and their two small children.

I don't know how I feel about my Mediterranean class, the professor seems to be teaching it in the style of an AP high school class, just with more difficult exams and assignments.  However, rules like no gum chewing, no food/beverage, and the use of group punishments smacks of high school.  One of the students in the class is deaf and there are two interpreters for her.  That's cool and all, but it'll be difficult to not be distracted. :-\

Chemistry is in a couple of minutes.

Biphasic Sleep Experiment--Day Two/First day of class

Day two of getting up really really early.  More tired this morning than last morning, but I think that has more to do with the "OMG FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!!!" jitters that I always get than anything else. Not entirely certain how I'll work in my nap this afternoon, but I'll do my best.  I'm really swollen all over today, I'm uncertain on if that's related.  Some of the blogs of people that I've checked out have mentioned problems with water retention and skin dryness the first week or so.  I guess I'll find out.

I'm still sleeping about the same amount, but I'm so much more productive.  Really really nice.

I was nervous about being late/getting lost this morning on my way to class, so I got here way early.  I've been sitting outside the classroom for 40 minutes already.  I knew I shoulda brought my knitting.  Curses.

Giggling at all of the really nervous freshmen is amusing.  They all look so terrified.
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Edit: 20.00

My calves are super sore.  Not really from all the walking, but definitely from all the walking with my bag banging the back of my knees, throwing me off kilter. :-\

My nap was later than I'd wanted it to be, because while I do have a break between calculus and genetics, it isn't enough time to eat and sleep for 2 hours, and I'd rather eat.  I'll have to adjust for that TTh.  I tried to shorten my nap to 90 minutes, felt like poo when my alarm went off, and went back to sleep and woke up at 2 hours.  Good to know: leave sleep cycle at 2 hours.

I'm thinking of being the leader of one of the university-facilitated study groups for my genetics class.  It'd be a good way to learn the material and give me a gold star.  We'll see how my schedule looks after I get my syllabi for my MWF classes tomorrow. Plus, my parents are REALLY hounding me about trying to get a job.  Working seems scary to try and cram into my schedule when so much of my time is eaten by being in transit. Around 40 hours a month will get sucked into travel-time, and that's just for school, and if I only travel to and from school ONCE a day.

I'm still trying to convince my parents to spring for an apartment within walking distance of campus, to no avail.  It'd be around 300 dollars cheaper, even though the rent is double what I have now, just because of all the gas I'm going to burn through.  For people that should be reasonable, scientific-minded people, my parents sure are unreasonable.

Biphasic sleep experiment--Day One

My sleep quality has always been exceptionally poor.  I sleepwalk, talk, and go through weird phases of insomnia and hypersomnia.  It really, really sucks.  So!  I'm trying a different sleep schedule to try and maximize my sleep efficiency.  My proposed schedule is to sleep for 6 hours per night and take a 2 hour siesta in the afternoon.  (Most people attempting this should sleep in multiples of 90 minutes, but my sleep cycle is around 2 hours, not 1.5).

This is day one.  I went to sleep last night at 23 and got up today at 5.  Me, up at 5am, for real. It's now around 9 (normally I still wouldn't be awake) and I have gotten SO MUCH DONE.  I've accomplished 11 things on my to-do list, including exercising (which I NEVER do in the morning), and dyeing my hair (I love this colour, I finally clued in to using 2 bottles for 3 feet of hair).

So far I'm maintaining a pretty good energy level, I don't feel quite as peppy as when I got up (four hours ago!), but still at least 50 percent more energetic than on the average morning, and I haven't even had my nap.

If I can keep this schedule up, I will have so much free time.