>>>>>New Zealand and Cuba are two other countries which IMO are not part of any of the seven continents.
>>>
>>>NZ is part of the Zealandia continent that is mostly under water. This was done to isolate NZ from the all the crazies out there, especially the nearby continent of Australia that is full of vile inhabitants, most of whom are venomous.
>>
>>But I had heard the kiwis have a lot of nasty Hobbits.
>
>I like a pun that rings true.
>
>What are you doing up at this ungodly hour? I am an insomniac. It would be terrific to sleep from 11 to 7 every night, or even 10 to 6. As it is I go to sleep early and am then wide awake in the wee hours.

Hey, I posted that about 10 pm. Finished watching my recording of the NFC game and being convinced once and for all Shanahan should be fired, then of to sleep.

I am usually up at 5 am. I used to stay up at night to read and then realized if I slept instead and woke early I was much clearer to read first thing in the morning and it helped me to wake up.

I got into the habit of listening to books on my mp3 player a lot and now I always go to sleep while being read to. (early childhood imprinting)

Really helps shut my brain off and not spin on stuff that would keep me awake.

The trick is to find a book with a reader with a terrific voice. My recommendation is Will Patton reading any of the James Lee Burke books or the brits who read the George MacDonald Fraser Flashman series or any of the John LeCarre stuff. Very relaxing. Also interesting to see how quickly I fall asleep by starting the recording the next day where I started it the previous night and seeing how much I actually find familiar and remember hearing. Sometimes it is literally "Once upon a ..." :-) You might try it though. It has the beautiful distraction factor of reading but you have your eyes closed.

Most good library systems now have a great collection of ebooks in their lending libraries or you can get their CD books and rip them to MP3.