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Comments on Friday 10 September 2004:
A handy tip for anyone whose work patterns are like mine (which probably means nobody except me). If you find that after your pre-work ritual of coffee, toast and a bad TV show from the eighties, you sit down to work and find yourself suddenly very tired, then there's one of two things wrong. The first option is simply that your screen is too bright. My brightness resets to eye-searing when rebooted. If that's not the problem, then the other likely problem is actual tiredness; the solution to that is to reset your body clock.

How does one do that? By staying up through an entire extra day, then getting a nice long catch-up sleep at the end of it. For example, if you usually go to bed at midnight, instead stay up until about 8pm the following day. The extra twenty hours of awakeness is conveniently matched to a mere extra four hours of sleep, and leaves you feeling fully rested. This seems like an excellent deal - why not stay awake for thirty-four hours and sleep for fourteen all the time, you might think. The answer to that is that you unfortunately can't do anything requiring competence with the last half of the awake-time. It's a good thing to do during a holiday, perhaps, as you get better value for your time and everything's funnier when you've been awake for more than twenty hours, but you shouldn't be driving or operating heavy equipment such as knives and forks.

But Mr Internet, you might be thinking, staying awake for thirty-four hours when you're tired after eight is quite difficult. But Misters and Misses Reader Of The Internet, I reply, we have the solution to that difficulty. Simply play an engaging time-devouring game such as Nethack or my similar new friend Gearhead.. Playing a game for 30 hours nonstop will also make you feel much more like programming.

Also helpful is to not use War of the Worlds season two as your bad TV show from the eighties, because it's a bit rubbish, doesn't have an engaging theme-tune, and lacks a sense of closure on most episodes. Even A-Team episodes that end with "to be continued" feel more closed. Good shows for the purpose of inspiring creativity while coffee does its chemical goodness include Monkey, The A-Team, War of the Worlds season one, Blake's 7, The Prisoner, and Monk (which I realise isn't actually eighties, but it feels like it).

Does anyone have suggestions of other similar shows that I should add to the queue? I'm always in danger of running out, which would break my ritual and thus make it difficult for me to get things done. [00:55]

Anet
I am sorry, I can be of no help in finding you eighties show that will keep you awake... There are none.

AttackOfTheSpam
Dynasty? Dallas? I don't know; they sound old. I think they may be either seventies or nineties shows, but I'm not sure.

RavenBlack
They are probably eighties, but they're not the right genre. Coronation Street and Crossroads are also eighties (as well as other decades) and also completely inappropriate. Soap operas are not good.

sam
hmm...keep awake...law and order keeps me awake but...i dont think thats what your looking for...wish i could help...i get things done by...well...i dont get things done..
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