I and most people need 8 hours.  I rarely get this, often surviving on 6 hours sleep and occasional naps jolting awake suddenly on the train in the morning.  I guess I’m still functional enough, but if I could work off the sleep deficit and get a little more, I would be able to perform better.

2. What’s your favourite sleeping position?

Diagonal and rolled up in the cover.

3. What was the cause of your most recent difficulty sleeping?

Work, life, relationships, all of them worries that keep my brain active.

4. When you can’t seem to drift off to sleep right away, what are some things you do to bring about sleep?

Wait.  My head is never quiet, it’s always doing something – calculating a plan or thinking about how something works or building something.

There are only a few times where it’s quiet and I don’t get to experience them very often.  One way to quieten it is when pleasant physical sensation overpowers the mental background noise like an interrupt; so hugs and massage work.  Pain does not work as this focuses the mind more, so please don’t come and ‘hit me to help me’.

So to get to sleep, I just wait.  Sometimes I lie awake for hours.

5. When did you last doze off at an inappropriate time or in an inappropriate place?

I was at a conference yesterday, it was an exhausting day and I started drifting off in the audience.  I was sat at the front and was quite visible to the presenter.  It was about 5pm.

1. What colour is your parachute?

Fluorescent orange so aircraft and rescuers can see it.

2. Who moved your cheese?

Did you move my cheese?  You put it back!  Did you say please?

3. Where’s Waldo?

Here.

4. Are you my mother?

Nope.

5. What’s happening to your body?

It’s getting older and fatter.  I need to stop being ill so I can go exercise again.

1. What does it take to get you to grab the mic and sing in a karaoke room?

Alcohol

2. What does it take to get you to give up a whole Saturday to hang out with people you don’t like?

Love

3. What does it take to get you out of bed without your hitting the snooze button?

Fun

4. What does it take to get you to take someone else’s turn at a really unpleasant task at work or home?

Anger

5. What does it take to get you to eat something you really dislike?

Health

1. When did you last drink something out of a glass bottle?

Spa weekend where I had mini glass bottles of Coke.

2. Whose energy would you like to bottle for those future listless days?

Probably Josie or Liz when they’re excited.

3. How many plastic bottles are there in your shower, and what’s in them?

In my flat I had one or two for shampoo and shower gel.  At home there are loads, mainly gifts from Christmas :p

4. Who in your life could be described as lightning in a bottle?

I wouldn’t say, at risk of them exploding :p

5. You’re playing Spin-the-Bottle with your sixth-grade classmates. When it’s your turn, to whom do you want the bottle pointing?

Given that 6th Grade is Year 7 in the UK, no one.  I went to an all boys school.

1. What kind of out-of-school lessons did you take as a kid?

Hmm, I guess I took violin for a while at school, though was never very good at it.

2. What valuable lesson did you learn this past week?

Things don’t always turn out as bed as they seem.  Sometimes good things happen.

3. Who in your life really needs to be taught a lesson?

Don’t we all have something more to learn?

4. What kinds of lessons would you love to have a private teacher for right now?

Hmm, tricky…  Cantonese maybe?

5. What steps have you taken to lessen the impact of these rough economic times?

Paying attention to economics and my finances for a very long time.

Now, 30 minutes left of work then I’m off home to pack a suitcase for Prague tomorrow!  I’m going with someone special :)

For a number of years I’ve run a hosting company.  The products and services are exceptional, great value and I can take pride in what I’ve created.

However, hosting is not expensive (to the customer).  The cheapest we sell is £36/yr.  Yup, per YEAR.  I’ve spent more than that on a single night out.  If you want something a bit meatier, for your business maybe it’s £60/yr.

We charge in quarterly instalments and I’m sick of chasing payments of £9.

It gets even sillier when discounts become involved.  The margins on a £3/mo package are so ridiculously slim that I simply can’t offer a financial discount without losing money.  Why do I do this to myself?

Well.  When I started, it made sense.  The market was different back then and we had budget hosting cornered.  Smaller payments meant smaller losses if a customer left and had more financial stability overall.

I can tell you though that this model simply doesn’t scale.  Reseller hosting has always been my most profitable and most rewarding area.  I can focus on providing stable, high availability, high quality services to other businesses to help us both grow.

Time to rethink.

1. When did you last sleep in a tent?

Probably at Reading festival.  Before that, other festivals.

2. What comes to mind when you think about relieving yourself in the great outdoors?

Cold end?  :p

3. Where’s the best place you ever went camping?

Probably my first Download Festival.

4. What’s your favorite camp food?

Spaghetti hoops win every time.

5. What’s your sleeping bag like?

Blue, orange inside, three season.  It does struggle with the icy mornings sometimes but so far has kept hypothermia away :p

1. What is your favorite fizzy, bubbly drink?

Coke

2. What is your favorite deep-fried food?

Chips

3. What is your favorite hot beverage?

Hmm, not really a fan, Hot Chocolate maybe…

4. What is your favorite really messy food?

Squirty cream? :p

5. What is your favorite recipe for a blended or mixed beverage?

I had a chocolate orange milkshake once which was odd…  I think if I was into smoothies, the best one would be fruit based with lots of orange :)

It’s gonna be either pizza or chips :p  Probably chips.

2. How sensitive are you to cool temperatures?

Not too much.  I’ve got used to unusual temperatures since flying where your feet are icy but head is burnt by the sun :p

3. How many ice-cube trays are there in your freezer?

Not sure – it’s not my freezer any more.  We’re more fans of ice cube bags anyway.

4. What aspect of your life seems to be frozen in place?

I’m stuck for a while with a flat that I own but don’t live in while the economy crashes until I can sell it, grieve and make the next big jump.

5. What’s your favorite blanket like?

Don’t have so many blankets nowadays – I gues the duvet on my bed is warm and soft?  I did used to have an awesome blanket with tiger / zebra cross colouring, not sure where it is now…

1. On March 6, 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of the Elements to the Russian Chemical Society. What memories do you have of your high-school chemistry course?

Burning things…  Did we do much else?

2. On March 6, 1899, the Bayer company registered aspirin as a trademark. When did you last take medication for pain?

Headache a month or so ago I guess.  Or maybe Lidocaine for a minor procedure.

3. On March 6, 1853, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata premiered in Venice. How do you feel about opera?

This opera was mentioned on the QI episode I watched last night… An interesting thing about the flower, outrageous :p  Opera’s ok, though I’m not as big a fan unlike other more classical music.

4. On March 6, 1947, American film director Rob Reiner (Meathead!) was born. Which of these Reiner-directed films have you seen, and what do you think of them?

• The Bucket List (2007)
• Rumor Has It… (2005)
• Alex & Emma (2003)
• The Story of Us (1999)
• Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
• The American President (1995)
• North (1994)
• A Few Good Men (1992)
• Misery (1990)
• When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• The Sure Thing (1985)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

I’ve only seen This Is Spinal Tap, funny all the way up to 11 baby!

5. On March 6, 1972, American basketball-player Shaquille O’Neal was born. How do you feel about basketball?

It’s cool, I can’t play it very well though, at least in school being short doesn’t really help :p  I watched some footage of American basketball yesterday, it can be very skillful.