Things I've been trying to consistently do in order to improve my sleep:
It's a work in progress.
I don’t often remember the details of my dreams. When I do, the dreams are so vivid and clear that I sometimes terrify myself with my inability to distinguish between what’s real and what’s conjured up.
Last night, the dream centred on a family member’s memorial that is to be held this weekend. Kind words and gifts a plenty; celebrations will be had. That part felt grounded— real.
But, having the deceased present at their own memorial, in full human form and not dead like in Beetlejuice— I didn’t see that coming.
I was completely unprepared. There weren’t enough chairs. One short. The gifts, instead of being abundant, were lacking. One short. I had no clue whether the eulogy would automatically turn into a roast with the guest of honor sitting right there, or if I’d have to add in some over-the-top sarcasm just to balance things out. One short.
Of course, the dead don’t rise, and conjuring someone through a Sheldon-like Beetlejuice call is unfortunately not a reality. But the clarity of the dream has left me wondering:
What’s stirring in my mind?
What is to come this weekend that I’m not ready for? That I could never prepare for?
What unresolved conversations still need to happen with the dead that I’m unwilling to be a present participant in?
Tonight we spent some time baking banana bread and other sweets based on the recipes from, and in honour of, The Timekeeper.
To help with the process, we found this ideal playlist for the activity:
My favorite app, Huffduffer, seems to be on its way out. Recently, it stopped working with YouTube and it looks like this is a known issue due to YouTube cracking down on similar services with little chance of a fix.
Following the creator's own suggestion, I’m giving PodQueue a try to see if it can fill the gap.
I don’t use Huffduffer daily, but it serves a unique purpose and does it so well. It brings me real joy to easily convert video audio into a podcast stream, perfect for my walks to and from work.
Once you remove all of the bloat, Windows 11 turns out to be not that bad of an operating system. It's still annoying when it comes to unnecessary notifications etc., but it looks better than Windows 10 and has some good revisions of settings panels and the overall interface.