This article was originally posted on F Stop Lounge. ----- "Man, I suck." There. I said it. I've said something that's entered my mind hundreds or even thousands of times since I first picked up a camera. "I suck. I'm not as good as <insert other photographer>. I'll never be as popular as <another photographer>. I bet <yet another photographer> is way happier than I am because he/she has made it." As photographers in the digital age, we're able to jump online and check out potentially thousands of other photographers in just a few clicks. Sites like Flickr, 500px...


Continue Reading »

This article was originally posted on F Stop Lounge. ----- Ahh, the dreaded creative rut! How much we photographers hate you. You sap our energy, take away our motivation, destroy our will to press the shutter button and leave us feeling frustrated, angry, depressed and without hope. Before I threw myself into my 365 Project, I was in such a bad rut that I almost gave up photography entirely. But fear not, dear reader! Get ready to rock a smile on that dial, because we can pull ourselves out of any rut with a few simple ideas!   Keep a Notebook of Ideas and Inspiration A...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) I've decided to stop blogging about my polyphasic exploits, at least until I'm in a position where I can give this blog the attention it needs. Each and every day I'm posting the same thing, "I overslept by an hour or so, bit of a setback, hopefully I'll stop oversleeping", not to mention the huge gaps I'm leaving between posts. Adjusting to polyphasic sleep requires things in your life to be settled enough that you can make it your number one priority, and right now that just...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) Greetings Earthlings! I haven't updated the polyphasic log in a few days before I had a bit of a crisis. The company I worked for was bought out by a competitor, who promptly fired all the staff without any notice (despite our contracts requiring 14 days notice). I don't want to talk about it too much or I'll be here all day, but it has a happy ending: a third company heard what happened and swooped in and grabbed us all. Yay! I'll still be working from home, though the hours...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) Well the last two days have certainly been a bit more interesting, polyphasic-wise. I did a bit of research and checked out what other polyphasic sleepers were doing and came across an interesting piece of advice. One polyphasic sleeper said it's much easier to adapt if you have a regimental nap schedule with naps at predetermined times, then once you're adapted you can move naps around. This is what I did the first time I tried polyphasic and to be honest it worked rather well....


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) It's been an interesting 2 days! Yesterday (day 2) I stacked up on heaps of sleep before embarking on an all-day (5am-9pm) outdoor rockclimbing adventure (click for pics). Stacking up on naps was clearly the way to go; I got through an entire day of extremely-intense exercise, in the hot sun, without a lot of food (and certainly no caffeine). It's nice to know when I have no chance of a nap I can make a preemptive strike by nap-stacking. However, around 9pm I started getting...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) Bugger it. I know yesterday I said I'd start polyphasic sleep in a few days but I had the urge to just go for it today so I jumped right in and started. I had an interesting early morning (3am to 10am); I was tired as buggery and felt a little like a zombie, but I was able to push through it rather easily. Eating food (especially fruit) really helped, as did sitting outside in the cold every few minutes to wake myself up. I managed to get a lot of work done as well. The time...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) Alright. After my initial foray into polyphasic sleep went a little askew at the 1-month mark and my second attempt only lasted a few days, I've decided to go back to basics. I've read through all my old blog posts and it's clear to me the reason I was successful for a month during my first attempt was the fact I had a clear-cut plan of attack and I stuck to it. So that's what I'm going to do again. I've commented before that I'm technically already doing polyphasic sleep,...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) As you may have guessed from the lack of updates, my second attempt at Polyphasic sleep was a failure. I was plagued by oversleeping, which kept ruining any progress I made. No matter how much I told myself I wasn't going to oversleep, I kept doing it on an almost-daily basis. There's several reasons why, but it can mostly be summed up by saying I didn't follow the same strict regiment that brought me some success the first time around. My diet sucked. I had coffee every couple...


Continue Reading »

Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing) This morning I slept for 5 hours. Everything had been going perfect the day before; I'd woken up feeling amazing after the last 2 of my naps and I felt like some of the zombies were dying down a little bit. I had to work from 12am-4am this morning, and during the last half hour I started to feel really tired. I pushed through it, eventually laying down for a nap at 4am. I didn't wake up until 9.30am. What happened? I woke up from the 20minute nap at 4.20am, went to the toilet...


Continue Reading »