Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Tyranexx I was always told that once I get into the habit of getting up at the same time every morning, it gets better. That's a load of crap! At best, the only thing that's changed over the last 4ish years is that it's a habit now to get up tired. I've got a routine that's helped a lot, I actually go to bed a little earlier and wake up earlier so I have time to actually drink coffee and either play something or watch something before going in to work. So I get to work properly awake. But it doesn't change the fact that, no matter when I get up, if I have to use an alarm or am woken up - I feel lousy for the first hour to 90 minutes I'm awake.

I just find it, idk ironic? There's a bunch of things I was told as a kid or a uni student that have proved true as I've grown up and entered the work force. This one, the idea that one can just "get used to" being a morning person - is still a load of crap.

@Tyranexx Well, like I said, even if setting up a VPN doesn't work, for whatever reason, then at least you'll know the name and presenter of the program, so perhaps you could find it on BBC World or YouTube, or whatever other kind of media you use.

Fair point on NSO/Animal Crossing. Personally, I just haven't found enough of an incentive yet, to go for a full NSO subscription, and just this one game isn't going to be the tipping point either, but we'll see what happens with the service in the coming year(s). They REALLY do need to work on their incentives, though...

@Heavyarms55 If by "getting used to" they mean "able to deal with it to some extent so you can have some semblance of normal functioning", then I'd agree, because I myself can just switch on the auto-pilot and be all chatty with the co-workers and what not from the get-go, but much like you, I'm still not a morning person.

But at night, I truly come alive, and therein also lies the problem, because I usually can't go to sleep before 0.30am - 1am, unless I'm REALLY tired, so it's a bit of a vicious circle for me.

@Heavyarms55 @ThanosReXXX Ahh, that explains much, fellow evening chromotypes (or delayed sleep cyclers, or whatever insane language the medical world loves slapping on people's normal biology to declare them disordered based on societal economic design...)

Yeah, it's miserable. When those people tell you you get used to it, they're telling you from a perspective of someone who's own biology already made them a "morning person". They're fine, so you're fine!

Doesn't work that way. Doesn't get better. If your body's natural cycle isn't the average one you just spend your whole life dragging yourself through it, and there's no fix for that. Not even magic drugs and cutting through your brain fixes that one. More like Thanos than Heavy probably, I'm the same. Midnight to 3:00 seems to be my "natural" sleep time, or maybe I'm the "delayed cycle" outcome which means it really pushes an hour or two forward daily (allegedly in that one instead of the normal 24h +/- :30 you have a 25-28 hour cycle so your days are actually naturally longer, but it means sleep needs to rotate deeper and deeper into the day as a result.) Yeah, it's miserable. The world is built on mornings so you really get two choices of dragging yourself like you've been slipped Rufees (or however that's spelled) every single day of your existence, fighting through the fog, or just work as a DJ or bartender or something... I generally "wake up" for real at like 7:00PM. The rest of the day I'm just method acting to look alive.

The only "light in the tunnel" is that supposedly that does get better as you age as the sleep cycle naturally gets earlier. So when we're 60+ we can attempt at functioning in society. Assuming there's a society left by then (spolier: There won't be.)

I dunno about that, I definitely got used to being a morning person over the years. When I was a young adult 18-22, the earliest I ever had to be up was 11AM. Just the thought of getting up earlier was repulsive lol. As I got a "real" career, family, and kids and all that, I'm fully awake by 5AM at the latest off usually 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Now the thought of "sleeping in" seems just utterly wasteful. Can definitely get used to being a morning person or changing virtually anything else if you have a compelling enough reason to.

@redd214 lol, I also use to cringe at the thought of being up before 11. Every weekend id sleep til 11 or 12. Sometimes more. This was all throughout late grade school til my early twenties.

Once I started dating my wife (then gf) I kind of started the whole up at 8 on the weekends thing, and it took alot of getting used to.

Even now, I still don't like It, and would gladly sleep til 11 every so often if I had the opportunity lol

@NintendoByNature yeah I can't even go back 8f I wanted to, my body is too used to it now lol. Even occasions where I'm by myself no wife/kids and it wouldn't be a big deal I still automatically get up by then, no alarm needed.

Definitely wasn't easy at first but the amount of stuff I can get done with 2-3 undistracted hours in the morning before everyone else is up is invaluable to me now. By far one of the best lifestyle adjustments I've ever made!

@redd214 I can understand that. And I'll probabaly get there in a few years when my kids don't rely on me so heavily. Because they're younger and need help every step of the way, I find myself exhausted and can barely open my eyes in the a.m. haha. The ONLY thing i spring up from bed on these days, is a bomb breakfast, or fishing lol

@NintendoByNature Haha, I've been getting my boys into fishing lately. One loves it the other would rather throw rocks in the pond lol. Always fun though!

I have this weird thing where I normally wake up between 8-10 am depending on how well I sleep, so relatively late.

But if I need to wake up earlier, for whatever reason, if It’s absolutely important to be up at, say 5 or 6, my brain will make sure wake up and I’ll be fine and good until nap time.

Is there a difference between the Switch Suggestions Thread and the What Game Should I Buy Next Thread?

@ogo79 You're very welcome, ogo. Here, have a complimentary cocktail on me:

@NEStalgia I always thought it was spelled "roofies", because of them going to your head or something.

Either way, I'm not that zombie-like during the day, or I interpreted you incorrectly, and/or you're actually a VERY good actor in front of co-workers and the like. I can operate at a normal level, be energetic and socially engaged at work, but I do feel tired when I go home, and basically, I feel the level going up again when I've had my dinner and my evening cup of Joe, so the timing is about the same as yours, anywhere between 7 and 8pm.

As for it getting better time schedule-wise when you're older: unfortunately, there's a niggle there that you overlooked: once you're 60+, and you're FINALLY in tune with "regular" people's (can't say normal anymore these days, can we?) biological clock, you've become too slow to keep up with them during the day, meaning you'll STILL be out of sync...

On a side note: and personally, I couldn't even imagine getting up earlier all by myself, but we'll see what happens when I reach that age. I do know my grandpa always got up around 6 or 7am, all of his own accord, but then again, he also went to bed before 11pm. For me, that's an evening still in progress, so I'll usually add at least another 1,5 hours to that, if not more. Even on a week day. Maybe I need some kids to wear me down and get me into a more socially accepted rhythm...

@NintendoByNature I have no problems whatsoever with getting up at whatever hour is necessary, but reading all the replies/reactions, I think that all of us also have a slightly different view on what a "morning person" (or evening person, for that matter) is. To me, it's not a person that can manage, function and be okay with whatever time they need to get out of bed, because I can do that as well, and VERY easily, mind you.

No, to me, a morning/evening person is the person that feels best and happiest at that particular time of the day, with the important underline that you need to feel as such without being influenced by any outside factors, so if for example, you come out of bed kinda grumpy, but subsequently start feeling happy/happier, because you get to do something for your kids, or get to spend time with them, then you're still not a morning person in my book, or in any correct understanding of the word's book, far as I'm concerned.

When you already come out of bed smiling, singing (a certain Al Jarreau song comes to mind) or generally feeling great and fully awake and/or completely rested, THEN you are an actual morning person. Otherwise, people are just accustomed to/used to a certain schedule or regime. Which, as mentioned, is perfectly possible, even if you're not a cheerful, chatty morning person...

Personally and in general, I just need my 5 hours of sleep minimum, preferably 7, but during week days, I usually never get to 7, because of the obligatory starting hours, and me still not being an early sleeper. But in the weekends, I do allow myself to sleep for whatever time is needed, and that of course also depends on how late I go to bed, which especially on a Saturday, may well be by the time the birds start singing their morning song, so add 7 hours to that, and you'll get the picture of how short my Sundays sometimes are...

@redd214 Nah, if you can get used to it like that you're definitely not able to understand what the people that biologically can't experience. It's not about getting used to it. Literally, physically, it isn't possible, and it's effectively like feeling drugged the first half of every day. People who "get used to it" didn't actually have a problem to begin with, they were just adapted to a different schedule and could adapt to any other schedule as their clocks work on roughly 24h cycles.

None of us talking about it have been, or would ever seek to be "diagnosed" for it, especially since there's no such thing as a "cure" (for simply having a body clock different than the most common clock?) but it is an actual thing they actually do diagnose - a body clock that doesn't run in 24h intervals just doesn't...no way around it. And it's estimated to be 20-30% of the population so it's not exactly rare. It's just not acknowledged much, and always passed off by people that aren't actually experiencing it that confuse it with just adjusting to new times and can't actually experience the actual feeling of it. The trouble is you can't actually "go to bed early" - your body doesn't drop it's temperatures and rhythms into the sleep cycle until it's ready, and you can't "wake up early" and that "early sleep" time is generally your highest alert levels of the day. The more difficult cases is that "delayed sleep cycle" condition (actual medical condition, not many diagnosed specifically, not many seek to be "diagnosed" and even those that are are basically told "well, that sucks...now you know!" ) I wouldn't bother with medical diagnoses but I find it interesting that that's likely the case as the details match up.

Effectively, most people have a 23:30-24:30 hour natural clock. You can set your sleep whenever you want. But some people have a short or long one. 20-22h, 25-28h. meaning their natural cycle is to have shorter longer days/periods of awake, with the same amount of sleep between. that actually sounds like an advantage if you're on the long side....and it would be - more awake time, less sleep time over your life time required. But since the world functions on solar days it puts you out of sync with life around you. If you wake up at 8:00 today, your natural sleep time might be 12:00 midnight. Then tomorrow if you get 8h sleep you'd get up at 8, but your sleep cycle will be 1:30. Sleep another 8 hours, sleep cycle is 9:30....and your new bed time will be 3:00.....sleep till 11:00 etc. Over a week or two you get back to that "normal" time for one day.

It would be awesome, actually, were it not for having to force your body against its rhythm on a natural basis to function with everyone else. But yeah, if you can just force yourself into a new sleep cycle like that, you're the average for sure....but you definitely don't know what the experience is like. It's like fighting horse tranquilizers every morning for a few hours and made to play pretend as best you can (usually giving stupid answers to any questions...You're not actually thinking, your just acting the motions.) and then at "bed time" you're wired and raring to start a dozen projects. Which you do, because sleep isn't an option. Then you set the alarms because you have to, and in addition to having that deferred sleep you're running on 2-5 hours sleep most of your life.

Honestly if I ever had to get up at something like 5:00AM I'd do better to simply not sleep at all prior.....but then that creates whole new problems.

@BabyYoshi12 I suppose the "what game should I buy next" thread can be for any console or handheld, and is more dependent on what kind of game(s) people like, and the Switch suggestion thread is obviously console-specific, and you can also simply suggest any Switch game you've played and liked without it being based upon someone else's taste or opinion, whereas in the "what game should I buy next" thread, it is more focused, as mentioned, on what people like and want.

Hm I tried making meringues on the new dehydrator instead of the oven, and it works, though it’s considerably slower.

I also made them too sweet. Half a cup was too much for two whites!

I am leaving now and will return on Friday. I will miss the community and return soon!

Did you know you can daisy-chain 3DO controllers up to 8 in total for local multiplayer? It does sound kind of fun.

@NEStalgia OK man, whatever you say

@Vinny if you have a gamecube broadband adaptor for a gamecube you can hook up 2 gamecube to play Mario kart double dash with 8 players.

@Ninfan You can do something similar with some older PS2 models with iLink/Firewire ports, you can link two systems to play Gran Turismo 3 with two different TVs!