A week later and I still haven't properly caught up on sleep. I haven't been in a "maths mood" for a while now so I started off by reading the Twilight Series (everyone's raving, I had to check them out. Only just started, but nothing can ever replace Harry Potter in my heart) during maths today but even that I couldn't manage doing without my eyelids drooping so I ended up sleeping away the period, taking advantage of the fact that we had a sub today.

On Wednesday however I happened to have my favourite day of the cycle which occurs every week B. English, Legal and a half, double "study", maths, and free (ie. go home early!). So a total of 3.5 lessons. This by itself is an awesome deal, however this Wednesday also happenned to be Photo Day. A day when every girl replaces her usual 2 inch think pancaked make-up for 3 inches of it. A day when the teachers take the opportunity to tell these girls that they should revert back to their usual 2 inch pancaked face because they apparently look "orange" (I spose some of them actually do, but those weren't the people given face wipes to remove their makeup...) and don't know how to match their foundation to their skin colour properly. A day when the teachers say there are no exceptions to the rules, BUT that if you're going to where makeup you should at least where the right colour. A day when the deputy says that too much makeup will affect our leadership skills. A day of stress over bad hair days and blotchy skin. A day of superficiality. (God, I hate my school). I had year group photo during period 1 (English) and consequently easily missed the whole lesson. Might I add, I was glad to have been in one of the middle rows, as opposed to 2nd top row last year, even though I really haven't shrunk. Those tears freak me out - I hate heights. We then had to vote for leaders for next year on the blue mats in the gym and after that I had Macquarie Cup photo. Next we headed off to College Hall for individual photos. Waiting in a line for half an hour without it moving an inch was perfectly fine by me, but some fat old cow made us move to the other line (it was meant to be alphabetical gosh) which was moving at a steady pace. I didn't want to go to the remainder of Legal so I frolicked around the courtyard but ended up making an appearance for the last 10 mins anyway. So of my 3.5 period day, I had avoided 2.5 periods already. During my double free I was totally alert but then in period 5 maths (my only period of the day), the tiredness kicked in and I couldnt stay awake so resigned to sleeping in maths AGAIN. I don't understand, of my 6 period usual day, I only had 1 period and the rest of the time I could have slept but I chose to sleep during my only lesson. I so should have stayed home that day.

So I really need to get into the maths mood sometime soon because I haven't done any maths in yonks and hav stacks to do as a result of it being an ideal period to sleep in.

*****

In other news, I discovered a phenomenon called "lucid dreams" otherwise dubbed LD. These are dreams in which one is aware that they are actually only in a dream. There are two types - one where you are concious of that stage between wakefulness and sleeping, and the other where you realise the situation is too bizarre to be true and come to the conclusion that it must be a dream. If I'm not mistaken, I have had a couple of the first type and one vivid one of the latter. I'm awesome :] I decided to google this concept (I discovered it in a book I was reading and although fictitious, the author's note said the idea was real) and found out that while most people will have an LD at random (and may not even remember it), one can train themselves to be able to have one at will. I also read that when in a LD one (after some training and perseverance) can learn to control the happenings of their dream. Overwhelmed by the coolness of these dreams and amazed that I had had a few, I decided to try to train my brain to have some more. First I was told by trusty wikipedia that I should try to recall my dreams more often and that the easiest way to do this is to lie completely still once waking up (activating muscles doesn't help dream recall) and... remember. I was also told that I should practice reality checks in real life (such as trying to put your finger through your hand) and then you may decide to do this in a dream (and when your finger goes through you will become aware you are in a dream). Equipped with lots of new information swimming in my mind, as well as being in the middle of a book all about LDs must have helped when I went to bed determined to try it all out. As I lay in bed I tried putting my finger through my hand several times. No success. Obviously I was still awake...

I woke up the next morning and thought "damn it, I didn't even have a dream I can remember" but as I brushed my teeth it started coming back and I realised I had tried putting my finger through my hand and it started squirming through and the shock scared me. Unfortunately I didn't become aware that I was only in a dream.

When I woke up this morning, I tried to stay still as I desperately searched for scraps of dreams I may have had throughout the night. It didn't help that my mother was standing ontop of me, threatening to pour water on my face if I didn't get up. *sigh* But I'm working on it, I so wanna fly in my dream, apparently it's a popular choice. There are other methods used to induce an LD, including going to bed really tired, sleeping for 5 hours, waking up and recalling your dream and then sleeping again, focusing on being concious that your in a dream once you return to it. Looks like I'm never gonna be able to stay awake in maths now...

*****

While the book was awesome in that it introduced me to this phenomenon and made me want to study psychology, philosophy and neuroscience again, it surprisingly turned out to be pretty crap. I've read two other books by the author and they were awesome, so I was expecting nothing less of this book. The funny thing was, it was good throughout the book, but the resolution just confused the hell out of me. I mean, was it in a dream? Was it real? Is he in a mental institute now? It's not just that it was confusing and ambiguous, it's just like, what was the point of the damn book? What was the ending? What was the climax even? Gosh, I hate books like that. I've read two in a row now, so these stupid Twilight books better be as good as everyone makes them out to be.