Author Archive for krisandro

When You Want To Take The Lift, Press The Button!

I left the office at 6 yesterday and since I wasn’t meeting anyone, I strolled out to the lift lobby. Usually, I would maximise my full 1.77 metre frame and stride my way out as though my ass is on fire and the nearest water source is at the MRT. There was already two men waiting at the lobby, right in front of the lift buttons, talking animatedly with their arms flailing around and showing that they were deep in conversation.

Using my great ability of ASSumption, I ASSumed that these men were heading down and I mentally tuned the sounds of their non-stop talking down to a little buzz while I whip out my handphone and do what I always do when waiting. Surf pR0n the Internet. Now, there are 3 passenger lifts that service my office building and they go ‘DING!’ whenever they stop at any floor and the sound of that will be heard even if the lift stops a few floors up or below the level I am at, albeit a little muted. So as I stood there while getting my hourly dose of pR0n the Internet, I realized that I am hearing one too many “DING!”s and the lift hasn’t stopped at where we were at. I pried my eyes away from my handphone and looked at the LCDs on the lift doors and then at the buttons and realized…

THOSE IDIOTS DIDN’T EVEN PRESS THE BUTTON!

I calmly reached past the two men and pressed the button with the grace of person who is sitting down after being sodomised and the chatter of the two men IMMEDIATELY stopped as the button lit up upon being pressed.

A few more “DING!”s passed in total silence before the lift arrived and I bet it was one of the longest minutes of their lives waiting for a lift and a long ride in silence down the 5 floors.


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You Can Survive With 2 Hours of Sleep a Day!

Ask anyone on the streets on how much sleep they need per day and how much they actually get, you won’t be surprised if many people reply that they need at least 7-8 hrs of sleep and get only 4-6 on average. Of course the figures vary with age as studies have shown that people tend to sleep lesser as one age.

Why do most think that they need 7-8 hours of sleep in the first place? Most health experts advocate on sleeping 7-8 hours a day and some studies like the ‘Wehr Study’ had his subjects sleep for 12 hours each day but his subjects soon reverted back to an average of 8 and 1/4 hrs per night after a few days. Studies like these reveal that the natural sleep cycle dictates that we are best rested at 8 hrs of sleep on average depending on age.

A sizable group of people do not get 7-8 hrs of sleep per day and wake up feeling lethargic and cranky. Those who manage to drag themselves off the bed, end up calculating how much time and got to sleep and feeling lousy because they lost out on X hours sleep. The thing is, are these people really lethargic or is it because the mentality of needing 7-8 hours of sleep makes the brain feel so?

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While I was researching on the subject of sleeping (Sleeping hours, not sleeping around), I came across interesting sleep schedules called the “Uberman” and the “Everyman” which is an adaptation of “polynapping” or “polyphasic sleep”. The “Uberman” and the “Everyman” sleep schedules were coined by Puredoxyk and basically it involves a person sleeping as little as 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs every 24 hours for the “Uberman Sleep Schedule” and 3 to 4 hrs of sleep for the “Everyman Sleep Schedule”. Both concepts work on the fact that the human body falls into a stage of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep about 20% of our daily sleeping time which translates to about 1.5 to 2 hrs of REM sleep every 24 hrs. What happens during the REM sleep stage is that the eye darts around rapidly (duh) and we fall into deep sleep and it is usually the time when dreams are remembered most vividly. As this REM stage is believed to be the time when we get quality rest, the normal 7-8 hr cycle that we try to follow is inefficient as the REM happens sporadically about 4-5 times during the 7-8 hr period to only achieve 1.5-2 hrs worth of it.

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“Uberman Sleep Schedule”

This schedule will have a person take 15-20 min naps every 4 hrs which totals to about 1.5 to 2 hrs of sleep every 24 hrs. A long list of people have tried it and it generally takes about 1 to 2 weeks to be accustomed to it. The schedule must be followed strictly as one must not oversleep during those nap times and must not skip a nap or else the cycle can be disrupted and it takes a few days to recover. What happens is that the body learns to fall into quality REM sleep each time you take those naps and the total amount of REM sleep every 24 hrs is equivalent to what one will get if they sleep 7-8 hrs a day. What it translates to is having 22 hrs a day AWAKE AND RESTED which leaves you more time to do more things within the same 24 hrs a day that everyone has.

The main advantages of the schedule from people who succeeded in the program are: 22 hrs of time per day to do your tasks and high amounts of energy between the naps. The main disadvantages are: difficulty to maintain the strict schedule if work or lifestyle doesn’t allow the frequent naps, affected social life as the rest of the world is still sleeping at the regular hours.

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I will not go much into the “Everyman” schedule as it is basically a modification of the “Uberman” schedule that consists of a 3 hr ‘core nap’ + 3 naps or a 1.5 hr core + 4-5 naps that Puredoxyk herself was using. This modification was concieved because the “Uberman” schedule requires a more strict schedule and the ‘core nap’ of the “Everyman” provides some flexibility to suit to a person schedule and bring it closer to the sleep cycles of normal people.

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How does both the methods translate to you people? Both methods are tried and tested by many and extreme cases of failures and successions were found. Those who fail are usually those who do not have the discipline to limit their naps and take them periodically. Those who succeed with the program for months enjoy the benefits of enormous time on their hands and energy in their waking hours. As these methods have only been adopted around 1990, there is no clear evidence to the long term effects to health. For those that adopted the methods for months reported no ill health at all except for the tough initial adaptation period where one will feel sleep deprived.

It is also clear that if you hold a full time job, there is no way that you can adopt either of the methods as both of them require you to take naps within 4 to 5 hr intervals. I wish I can try out the method for myself but I can’t. So if you work from home like a pro-blogger or a writer, why not experiment on the project and tell us of your findings? I will love to hear from a local guy/girl who has tried out the sleep schedules for an extended period of time.

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Some related reads

Official Uberman Sleep Schedule

Official Everyman Sleep Schedule

Steve Pavlina - His experiences on the Polyphasic sleep schedule for 90 days

List of Bloggers who have tried or are on the schedule

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For the rest who cannot suit the schedule to our lifestyles like me, note that the conventional studies have shown that the optimal amount of hours of sleep for a person is 7. A person who sleeps 8 or more hours a day face a higher mortality rate than those who sleep for 4 to 6 hours. Those who sleep lesser than 4 hrs a day will of course face adverse health effects. Do note that the above are not conclusive and do not blame me if you fall ill with 7 hrs of sleep a day.

=P

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Having Fun With Names While Watching The Olympics

I was at KuKuNehNeh’s (KKNN) place yesterday evening and plonked down on her couch after a hearty meal. The TV was already on and it was showing Channel 5 which was broadcasting the heats for some of the swimming events.

Somewhere amongst the discussions between KKNN and I on the boob sizes of the female swimmers and why some of the swimmers have buldges in their tummies, we noticed that one of the swimmers from China finished 3rd in a race.

KKNN in excitement went, “WoooOOOOOOOOO!!”

I turned to her and said, “Why did you make fun of him? Hahahaaa!”

“Huh? Where got?”

(I pointed to the screen showing the name of the swimmer.)

“His surname is Wu.”

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WuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUU!!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

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Which reminds me of this scene from Rush Hour 3.

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I know I am chinese but it is still darn funny when our surnames are made fun of!

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Plans for Anniversary - FAIL!!!

I wanted to do something meaningful for KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) as it is our 1st Anniversary together. Some might ask,

“Need to celebrate one meh?”

NEED LAR! I think it is an important date to celebrate our undying Love for each other.

Mushy? Okay, you all can go for a 5 minute break to puke your guts out before coming back to read the rest of this entry.

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Back?

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I decided to put my shitty marvelous Flash skills to good use and started to work on a 3 to 4 minute video for KKNN. Selecting the appropriate songs were HARD! I like haunting/sad love songs that has lyrics about breaking up, people hating each other, love that is not reciprocated. HAHA!

If I had more time, I would have opted to write song for her but it would take about 2 years for me to write one song. Which means I had to write the song 1 year before I met KKNN.

It boiled down to two choices between Adam Sandler’s “Grow Old With You” and Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero”. I ended up choosing “Hero” because the former was too short for the video and besides, Enrique looks and sounds more hotter than Adam. I can imagine KKNN watching the video as she hears his voice and then associating his hotness with me.

enrique-iglesias

*cough cough*

Anyway, it took me about a week to complete the video and I took half the day off on Friday to tidy the loose ends up and to spring a surprise on her.

By the way, have I ever introduced you guys to my friend called Murphy? He is quite the famous guy. If he had a facebook account, he will definitely have the highest amount of friends in the world. Murphy also wrote an interesting law and shamelessly named it after himself.

Murphy’s Law - “if anything can go wrong, it will.”

MY FLASH FILE GOT CORRUPTED! BLOODY CHEESPIE SON OF A CHICKENEDA!

Using Adobe Flash - FAIL!

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I don’t know what happened to the original file and it corrupted my compiled flash video as well! I had no backup, no time and was almost tearing my pubic hair out. I had no choice but to create a PDF document hurriedly to store it in my thumbdrive before I rushed out to collect the flowers I ordered.

flowers-for-ruifang

I reached KKNN’s place at Ang Mo Kio and managed to get in her house as her parents were around. An email was sent to her using my company’s email address to dupe her into thinking that I was still at the office. In the email, I told her to go home after work to get changed and wait for me as I will be late.

I set up my laptop with the PDF document I created earlier. The laptop was then hid underneath her blanket and I took the flowers and went to her lift lobby to hide.

krisandro-staircase

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KKNN called me soon after.

“WHERE ARE YOU? Why is my computer on?”

(Turns out that I turned on her computer and forgot to shut it down)

Removal of Evidence - FAIL!!

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I went to her doorstep and surprised her with the flowers.

She looked at me in glee and said, “Actually, my Mum told me you were here just now~~~”

Surprise - FAIL!!!

ruifang-flowers
Flowers cannot be eaten my dear…

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I Love KKNN but Murphy Loves Me~~~

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i-love-you



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I Had a Hand On Jack Neo And He Had His On My GF!

I have always been skeptical of locally produced shows. The predictability of the script, the cheesy visuals, horrendous camera skills, half-baked acting & amateurish sound effects, just to name a few. And in some cases, especially in TV serials, I see ALL the bad elements I mentioned come together. It’s no surprise that I have not been watching any local TV show consistently and I seldom ‘risk’ buying tickets to a local show in the cinemas.

All thanks to molemole for telling me that Sheylara was giving out free tickets on behalf of Blog Aloud, I quickly emailed her and msn-ed her almost concurrently to enquire on the availability of two shows, ‘Money No Enough 2′ and ‘12 Lotus’.

sheylara-krisandro-email

Luckily, there are still tickets available for ‘Money No Enough 2′ and I asked for a pair for the show at Vivocity on the 7th Aug. FREE tickets! Although I am skeptical of local productions, the lure of a free movie, the good impression of the first installment of ‘Money No Enough’ and Jack Neo were good enough reasons for me to go for it.

money-no-enough-2

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I brought KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) along for the movie and boy, did we enjoy it! I wont reveal the story here as I HATE people who review movies and reveal the plots which totally spoils the movie experience. The script was predictable, the CG was cheesy although commendable for a local production and the advertising was too blatant for my liking. But Jack Neo did magic with the way he told the story. The issues he showcased were close to the Singaporean heart and channeled through incredible acting by the cast, especially through the malaysian actress, Lai Ming, who played the role of a mother in the movie. She was funny, she was believable, she made me tear. Credits to Mark Lee as well for he was the best performing local lad in the movie for me.

money-no-enough-2-jack-neo
Jack Neo

money-no-enough-2-mark-lee
Mark Lee

money-no-enough-2-lai-ming
Lai Ming

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Jack Neo appeared in the theater after the credits rolled and his presence made the event even more worthwhile. He answered questions to the best of his ability and tried as much as he could to answer them in English. Molemole helped me and KKNN take a picture with him together at the end of the show.

ruifang-jack-neo-krisandro
I Had a Hand On Jack Neo And He Had His On My GF

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I know that the critics have been harsh on the movie but I think it is definitely worth the money for a movie that will tug at your heartstrings. Thanks again to Sheylara and Blog Aloud for the tickets.



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