Day 1 - Endured it!

What was I thinking? Just three hours of sleep a day? Definitely, I was out of my mind! In the last 36 hours, I had two hours of cumulative sleep. I decided to sleep for 30 minutes every 31/2 hours and so my sleep times were 11:00 p.m., 3:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. for a 24 hour period. I chose these times because they kind of fit my daily schedule. especially the 8:30 a.m. lab meetings, and 4:30 p.m. squash games. However, it was difficult to find a sleeping place during day time. I tried sleeping on chair in my lab. It was pretty uncomfortable. I must find some other place. I am pinning on Vetmed library once it opens in the new year. They have very good leather recliners.

30 minutes is really short. I mean it literally flew away in no time. Efficient wise, I must have slept for ~10 minutes. And I did get a dream in that short time. I usually get a lot of dreams. However, I do not remember most of them. I wake up from sleep once the dream is finished or broken. May be with this new sleep schedule, I will remember them. And may be, I will compile them to publish a novel or something like that.

In contrast, 3 and 1/2 hours between sleep times is really long. I mean if you are pretty laid back person and do not have lot of stuff on the table, its difficult to kill time. For me, I am working on my preliminary examination so its actually coming pretty handy. And between study times, I get to log for this blog!

On the whole, it was a good day. Or should I say an 'Uberday'!

Uberman's Sleep Schedule

Who am I? I am Uberman! Nevermind! Today, I have decided to give a try to the so called Uberman's Sleep Schedule which is a kind of polyphasic sleep. Most humans on planet Earth are monophasic that is, they get all stages of their sleep (REM, non-REM, etc.) in one long shot usually at night. It is a known fact that a good night's sleep (~8 hours) is required to recuperate both brain and body. However, it is the REM for Rapid Eye Movement stage of sleep that is very critical. It is the stage where one get dreams while the brain reboots. It usually lasts for about 20-30 minutes and recurrs 5-6 times. So in polyphasic sleep one bypasses all other stages and directly enters the REM stage for 20-30 minutes every 31/2 -4 hours.
I decided to start this new 'pursuit' begining at 11:00 p.m. tonight. The research (non-scientific) states that it takes about 2 weeks to adapt to this new schedule and is very difficult to do so. Lets see how it goes. The apparent advantage from this 'maniacal' sleep schedule is 21 hours a day to knock my socks off! Keep reading my blog as I log how my day went!

Loans That Change Lives

My new business partner is a 25 year old mother of two girls from Uganda and is into Construction Supplies business. And guess what? There are 24 more business partners with her each of whom have loaned (no invested!) to alleviate poverty from her life!

The concept of micro finance or micro credit was pioneered by the 2006 Peace Nobel Laureate, Dr. Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh and is taken a step further by the founders of kiva.org. Since its inception last year this website has financed or in the midst of financing ~14,000 poor entrepreneurs around the world and giving them an opportunity to start a new and better life and in the process making the world a better place.

Nonetheless, it has given me an opportunity as well, to serve the poor. Here is a scenario in perspective. I have decided on lending $25 each t0 two businesses every month for the next five years. The loan repayment term is mostly 6 months and so assuming that I get back my first months' investment at the end of 6 months (which I don't doubt a bit given the startling default rate of about 0.21%), and I recycle it into a new business every month thereafter, I would have helped 660 businesses to kick start at the end of 5 years. What else could be more gratifying than this? I mean, whats $50 per month to me or anyone for that matter? Its' skipping 4 Little Apple Brewery sittings or, 3 outings for lunch or, 2 nights of restaurant dinners or, even 1 "impulsive" shopping for groceries at Walmart! Well, I did my math.

Kiva

This ante meridiem, I turned a businessman. Yes, an entrepreneur! After quite a perusal for sometime of the ins and outs of different markets, I have invested my monies in a small company in Food Market sector. I am assured great returns by the company that is acting as my agent and financial advisor and will henceforth handle all my future dealings. And they don't charge a dime for all the great things they do. This is the best thing happened to me in some time. I am at loss for words in praise of my agent. Who are these people? and why are they doing it? I have someone to quote here: "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do".

The business I am talking about is the business of lending, lending a helping hand to the needy. The agent is http://www.kiva.org/. So go check out the website. I need say no more!

Ginevra

Ginevra de' Benci, Leonardo da Vinci c. 1474/1478,
The National Art Gallery, Washington D.C

I could squeeze in half a day from the conference that I attended recently in DC to visit the National Art Gallery. So I decided upon viewing only select works of early renaissance painters that included the well known Ginevra de' Benci by da Vinci. This particular piece was infamous for being the most floppiest work ever by da Vinci according to art historians. So there is a thought of it not being produced by the great da Vinci. However, the National Art of Gallery claims that "it is now accepted by virtually all Leonardo scholars" as genuine. Anyway, Ginevra de' Benci is one of the high point of the gallery and for me this is the closest that I could get to Leonardo da Vinci.

Second Ammendment

This week began on a sad note. I woke up to the news of student killings by a madman. It was calamitous. The news sent shivers through my spine. A fellow student went on a killing rampage on a university campus ending 32 lives including his. Why on not-so-green earth would anyone do something like this? This guy was apparently premeditated. Intriguingly he does it in two installments. He kills two students with .22 caliber/9mm handgun then goes to his dorm room picks up a packet containing his 'message to the world', goes to a nearby postoffice, mails the packet to a media station, may be even makes a 911 call himself about the shooting incident on the campus. He then goes back to the school two hours later and creates havoc killing another 29 students and professors. Why did this have to happen? I may sound pessimistic here but I think its' the Second Ammendment act that is responsible for such an horrendous act by a human being. Guns are freely available in this society. Every resident has a 'RIGHT' to bear arms as a result of the Second Ammendment act. One can go to a local pawn shop and walk away with even semi-automatic guns. The staunch supporters/lobbyists of this act argue that if guns are made freely available then the urge to possess and use such guns will be minimized and that the world be a more safer place. Ironically, Virginia ranks second in the free availability of such lethal weapons in the US. Many universities in the US allow their students and faculty to carry guns with them to school to counter such kind of a situation, I believe. But wouldnt it be better to scrap the Second Ammendment in the first place and see that no one has guns except for the appropriate authorities? Why turn schools into a battlefield? Why doesnt common sense prevail in those law makers?

Why Bike?

I bike to school daily because:
I bought Schwinn varsity, a road bike ($150 savings from not buying the parking tag)
I will buy a fancy squash racket at the end of the year($300; savings from gas)
I will contribute 6000lbs less carbon dioxide to the environment
I will save roughly 50% of my time at gym
I will sketch/paint/read/or whatever more
You may very well ask, why not just walk to the school you moron? I will! Next year. That's me, semi-cynical.

Eat Local

If you are concerned about the environment then read on: Last week's issue of Time had an interesting article about a man's struggle to decide whether to eat food thats produced locally or to eat organic food that had 'fossil fuel mileage' on it. For most of you it may be 'why on the god's green earth should I be worrying about where I get my food from'? In the first place, the conventional food that we get in our local grocery stores is typically sprayed with loads of pesticides that of course, USDA says are within the permissible limits. Heck! who knows for sure? 10 years down the road they will come with new set of regulations that will make the present limits look ridiculous! Anyway the point is you dont want any god-damn chemicals in your food. And this is where the 'Organic Revolution' comes in. But how organic is 'Organic'? These days, the organic food producers have huge corporate style of working: big money, big farms, big distributors, and so on. I have switched to buying organic food for a while now. But I never paid attention to where that food was coming from. To my surprise, everything is produced outsided KS and they travel thousands of miles before reaching my freezer. On the other hand, you have the option of buying food at your local farmer's market that has everything fresh from the fields. But wouldn't they as well use chemicals to get a better yield and make more bucks? I dont know. But I prefer buying from local farmers than buying at the 'local-but-not-local-grocery-chain-stores'. And I decided to buy at 'Rythu Bazaar'!