Sleep Depravation

Is it possible to do some of your best work when you are deprived of sleep and you are virtually running on empty?  I am in that state currently.  I haven't sleep for more than 24 hours.  I've digested a lot of Red Bull and I am quite surprised that I am still on my feel at 4:35PM in the afternoon.  I am not feeling sleepy at all.  I'm shocked!

I am a type of person who does their best work under pressure.  The pressure of sleep depravation inspired me to write about it.  I feel it's worth it to interrogate this topic.  I'm sure there are many times when we all have stayed up all night trying to cramp for an examination.  This definitely feels like that even though I'm sated with Red Bull.  I'm just waiting for the moment when I will crash hard.  But until that time I'm inspired to make my regular post today and do some other paperwork that I need to mail off tomorrow.  

It's interesting what you can do when you are given a challenge.  Lack of sleep and tasking the brain to be creative are diametrically opposed.  While it's difficult to think your best it's possible to do something you would be proud of in the writing arena.  After all it's true that you can think better when you've had adequate rest.  However for me I think that with the desire to write something I can manage to overcome the challenge even though the best creative juices aren't flowing. 

What I enjoy is worth doing even when it's difficult.

I'll read this post again next week after I've had sufficient rest so that I can see if any of this makes any sense!

Writing In The Age of Technology

I've recently been on another trip overseas.  I did my usual duty of sending postcards to family members from my vacation trip.  It was amazing to me to discover that when I asked someone who was of a young age of approximately 20-30 for the location of the nearest post box or post office they responded that they didn't know.  I went through this on occasion for the 2 weeks I was there.  I sent postcards on at least 4 different occasions and it was amazing to me to find that the young adults didn't utilize the post office.  A few of them admitted that they used texting to get messages out and receive them and they never mail anything out from via postal services.  After coming across enough of them I finally laughed and thought to myself that perhaps I should look for someone older who still writes and uses the post office. 

I've been home for about 4 days and yesterday a news article online caught my eye.   A news report gave a lengthy assessment that the US Postal Service is almost insolvent.  People are simply not using the post office as they did in older times.  The statistics are staggering.  The Postal Service has been operating in the red for so long it's almost criminal.  They can no longer rely on first class mail which is where writing letters to people comes into play.  They have to now relay on junk mail as their main source of survival.  The majority of the people almost exclusively use online or telephone messaging as a way of communication on a regular basis.  It is not unique to our country.  This is happening all around the world. 

As one who enjoys getting a letter or two in the mail I'm frightened at what will happen in the near future with our postal services.  The current proposal is to cut mail delivery down to 5 days instead of 6 days.  There is also pressure to contract out services to private companies and cut down on the workforce at the postal facilities.  

All I wonder is how many people out there are concerned about this?  Will the Postal Service become extinct? 

Everyday writing in this age of technology has resulted in emailing, instant messaging, smsing, twittering, etc instead of taking the time and pleasure to put some ink on some paper.