...Someone alone fell asleep by the phone, waiting like a dog for a bone

I've been in a tinkering mood. Every once in a while I get the urge to create. Usually I satisfy myself by taking pictures. Sometimes I write, though it is a rare occurrence these days. Other times I find myself getting crafty. I'll find a cute little project to do with my niece. I think I'll make some Halloween decorations with her soon.

The other day I performed an aperture modification on my Holga. In the next few days, I think I'll be building a speaker setup for my mp3 player. I've elicited a potato chip can for the housing. When I get a little money together to develop some film, I'll modify the Holga for 35mm and run some through.

It's all in an effort to add a bit of substance to the monotony of constantly doing nothing. Every little bit gives me a reason to get up and move around. Every little bit passes a little bit of time, as if some future event in my life--some enlightening moment--is there on the calendar, just waiting for me to catch up. It all plays into this destructive attitude I have that somehow things will come to be without my express intervention. But then, up until now, everything in life has been handed to me. And when all of a sudden I was asked to make something happen, I was understandably lost.

So maybe all of these little side projects are just practice. Maybe I'm just building up my confidence for the more demanding task. Perhaps the contentedness I feel when creating things stems from having accomplished some feat of my own volition. I become enthused with myself. If I can do this, I think to myself, what's to stop me from doing more?

I haven't found that out yet.

...Wake up, wake up, wake up, we are only a part of a dream

I still haven't been able to fix my sleep schedule. I set my alarm clock, but it's only as good as the GIANT SNOOZE BUTTON on the top of the contraption. I have no issues with hitting that button. Or downright ignoring the alarm. Not any more, though. I've become proactive.

Thanks to a little program mentioned over at Lifehacker, I now have a weapon to combat my slumbering ways. Courtesy of WakeUpOnStandBy, I have created a custom Dr. Dog alarm clock. Everyday at 12:35 pm, my computer will rise from its own sleep to trumpet me awake with a stimulating tune from what has already been a great source of motivation for this project.

Unlike my actual alarm clock, I will not be able to simply reach over and hit that exploitative snooze button. If I wish to stifle the psychedelic reveille, I will be forced to literally wake up and waddle to the other side of the room, where my computer is located.

My only limitation now will be the volume of my speakers, and boy do they go high.