The guest writer for DD today is a fellow Virginian, subdismal. He has been a member here since October 2004, and has already earned 4 award icons from PR. In addition he has two project worklogs in progress: Project Fragbox and Project:eMachine V2. Not to mention his contributions to the forums in the form of help, humor and the occasional bit of misbehaviour

So please give a read to subdismal's DD post about reality.
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What exactly is reality? The line is so blurred for me that I canÂ’t even seem to comprehend the difference lately. Working the graveyard shift at a desolate hotel seems to bring out the worst in my personality. It seems odd when I analyze my thought processes and activities in retrospect, how much I daydream, fantasize, and plan for things that usually never happen.

The midnight shift, eleven at night to seven in the morning, is definitely throwing my life further off the ‘normal’ axis. When I get home and get ready for bed in the morning, most everyone’s day is just now beginning. Because of going to work, I miss out on the things most people do normally at night, social gatherings which I never really attended anyway, but now rarely even have the opportunity to do so. When I wake up in the evening, or even sometimes I sleep in until dark, my family is winding down after working, and getting ready to complete their day. I, however, am only just beginning. For instance, I went to sleep one morning at around eleven, and woke up at six in the evening. It was a dreary day outside, the sun cloaked in dark clouds begging to spew rain, and as I looked at the time on my cell phone and saw the faint light from the seams of the blinds on my window, I was certain I had missed my shift for the night. My mind telling me I was back on a normal sleeping schedule. I had completely lost all sense of time.

In a given week, I typically spend about twenty hours or more on PimpRig and other Web sites, just hanging outÂ…nothing special. For the rest of the time, I either watch movies IÂ’ve saw numerous times before or I zone out in some small piece of work, normally on paper. I will tear down and rebuild a computer in my head, or IÂ’ll draw out some designs and such for a possible next mod. Sometimes IÂ’ll even do the work for the mod in my head. These ideas fleshed out on paper are thrown out at the end of my shift usually.

ItÂ’s simply amazing how much I think about random stuff. IÂ’m talking RANDOM stuff. It can be a random movie quote I recite in my mind, or it can be a situation IÂ’m in at the time, and I play it out like a movie. For instance, me walking into or out of a room could lead to me analyzing what sort of music would be playing if this was a scene in a movie. IÂ’ve directed a lot of movies in my head. As I type this, I can imagine a soft medley of classical tunes, playing at about half-volume, just enough to set the mood of intent and concentration.

In conclusion, I guess you could say that everyone is detached from reality to some extent. I would generalize and assume that we all dream of something better, we all dream of possibilities of something more than whatÂ’s happening at this moment, and sometimes beg to be somewhere else. This sets our minds into the wandering gear, and is perfectly natural, I suppose. I donÂ’t guess that itÂ’s a really bad thing for this to happen. ItÂ’s all a part of a discontent with a current situation.
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Thank you subdismal!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

nice subdismal. i could never work the night shift and sleep during the day, that would just throw me way the crap off

woo! I was expecting his post some how this week...Good write..

Sweeet little write up........... Graveyard been there done that.....Paying dues befor you get the big jobs.
It will be worth it in the end...............Keep up the great work

I worked nights when I first started out in Executive Protection, I was going to college at the time and it worked out great for studying and getting homework done. My last 4 months at Ft. Gordon down here I was working the graveyard shift as they wanted someone to manage security dealing with all the drunkin soldiers and such. The only thing about working nights is my metabolism was all wacked out.

Nice write up on "Nightlife" Subdismal

Quote: Originally Posted by 4rm4g3dd0n nice subdismal. i could never work the night shift and sleep during the day, that would just throw me way the crap off

It's not as easy as it seems. I mean, a lot of geeks stay up all night and stuff for days on end, but it's sort of a mind over matter thing when you're working. You can hardly seem to stay awake, because it's not something you're doing because you want to, you have to do it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Nerdz woo! I was expecting his post some how this week...Good write..

Thanks, Nerdz!

Quote: Originally Posted by Thrasher2 Sweeet little write up........... Graveyard been there done that.....Paying dues befor you get the big jobs. It will be worth it in the end...............Keep up the great work

Thanks, Thrashman. Yeah, it really will help out with the future, especially while I'm in college. All that free time to study and all. Plus, further employers will see I'm flexible? I don't know.

Quote: Originally Posted by Highperf15 I worked nights when I first started out in Executive Protection, I was going to college at the time and it worked out great for studying and getting homework done. My last 4 months at Ft. Gordon down here I was working the graveyard shift as they wanted someone to manage security dealing with all the drunkin soldiers and such. The only thing about working nights is my metabolism was all wacked out. Nice write up on "Nightlife" Subdismal

Yeah, man...with all the time I have now to be able to just tinker with stuff, or mess around on PR, I could be spending that time to study. Let's hope I do, but it's different when the time comes. Haha, you had to do security for drunken soldiers? That's pretty crazy...I never would've thought that would be a job. Thanks, man!

Nice write up. I think working graveyard hours would be something that would interest me. That way you would have the daytime to do other things....but, I could be wrong, I havent ever done it....

NIce write up though!

[QUOTE=subdismal]Haha, you had to do security for drunken soldiers? That's pretty crazy...I never would've thought that would be a job. QUOTE]

Hell, almost every weekend.........drunks ..........fights............pukin........sneakin whores and transvestites in their cars...........it was always interesting from friday night through sunday morning.......

Nice write up subdismal! At any age it is necessary to dream of better thing, but especially when you're young. Otherwise the future would be too boring, and you would have nothing to look forward to.

I had one job where I worked 2 days, 2 nights, 2 off. That was tough. Then I got a job where it was 3 days, 2 nights, 2 days, 3 nights, 3 off. That was even tougher. When I exited the military back in 84 there was a year and a half where I rarely saw daylight since I worked underground.

excellent write up, I think about things the same way.

Awesome write up subdismal! And big thanks to Foe for posting the guest writer article