March 5, 2012
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Soothing Sounds of Friendship
Some time ago I found this free app from Ipnos Soft for my laptop. It plays relaxing sounds and I’ve been falling asleep a lot faster. I set it on a 30 minute timer and I have yet to hear it end. I pick a combination of water, waves, rain, waterfalls and heavy rain type sounds. At first I thought this was going to be corny. But now I’m hooked. I tried going without it the other night but it wasn’t the same. So every night, I bring my laptop to my bedroom and set it on a night stand. I’ll read a bit and have the sound of water / rain in the background. In less than half an hour, I’m asleep. Now I tried one time during the day while I was working and I started to nod off.
I thought maybe I should do something similar. I’ll record my voice – it’s very monotonous. Maybe I’ll read some of my old entries and some of your comments too. I’m sure some of my entries will have you guys snoring in no time. I always thought I had a decent voice until I heard myself. It was a recording I had done on my campus radio station. I think I was reading the news or some other announcement. It sounded choppy and tinged with an accent. Someone once told me he thought I had a touch of an English accent. Me? Maybe one of these days I’ll record an entry and let you guys hear what I sound like. But I’m sure that will identify me immediately through some voice print program.
Actually this rambling entry is not what it seems. I got a call yesterday from a long time friend. I haven’t seen him in years. He lived out west and I know he moved to the US. But he used to travel to Toronto on business and we would get together for dinner or for congee. The conversation was easy and I’ve always enjoyed our time together. We’re both very open about things in our lives. I found out he moved to the US last year. He told me yesterday that both he and his wife enjoy California a lot. I was glad he called and it brought a smile to my face when I heard his voice. He flew up here as part of Air Canada’s 75th anniversary and saw the Dreamliner (sigh… I would have slept with a oversexed elephant to get on that plane.) He was on his way out. I told him I had thought about him and figured after a long absence our friendship had finally faded away. It’s hard finding good friends and it’s even harder keeping good friends. He is back in town for a visit later on in the year. It’ll be good to share some congee with him after all these years.
/* correction on AC’s anniversary, thanks Franco!
Comments (22)
Your water sounds seem like they would make bathroom visits that much more urgent…
Wonderful to reconnect with an old friend.
And Jumbo says he’ll get you a visit to the plane as soon as you pay him a visit.
What a great call to have received – a blast from the past. Hope you two do hang out soon. I love the sounds of rain, too (I had written an entry about rain the other day, too). Well, nice to see you sleeping again – I recall in your previous entries how badly you wanted sleep.
Just a correction, it’s AC’s 75th, not 175th anniversary!
I too would do the same thing to get on that plane!! Even though I wasn’t invited for the AC event, I was able to go to the airport and see it fly off to Boston on Sunday morning! I’ll post the photos on xanga later but you can see them on my tumblr already~ it was very amazing seeing the Dreamliner take off!! =]
I am glad I am still not spoiled with all those expensive plane amenities…
Though you are physically far away from your friend, do you find it harder to talk to him each time you meet after a long time apart? I have really good friends and even though we don’t speak usually I still find it just as comfortable with them as the day I left them.
@Roadkill_Spatula - fortunately the sounds of water hasn’t woken me up in that way.
@stepaside_loser - I have a major problem sleeping. There are days when I get about 3 to 5 hours of sleep.
@tomatoboi - omg, thanks for the correction – how did I miss that? I did see your tumblr – nice pictures. How did you know which runway it would be taking off from?
@Wangium - oh Jason! I didn’t think I would see you here anymore. But it’s great that you’ve dropped in. I think the first few minutes are spent feeling each other out and after that, it’s pretty easy. I hope you’re doing well.
I am doing ok. Reading your blog I feel like you are just barely hanging on, but I know in blogs we usually represent a very selective side of ourselves and the reality may not be so.
I have no other way to connect to you since I stopped using MSN messenger altogether, so I had to check up on you here every now and then.
The sound of water always has been relaxing for me. Sound on rain on my roof. Even sitting quietly at the beach and listen to the waves break on the water relaxes me. Good friend are a rare and precious gift and only occur when both parties work at it. Meow Meow {2 meows for the post
]
Matt, hope you will fly a Dreamline someday soon and visit us and your friend in Southern California. We will bring you to visit the oversexed elephant in the LA zone, then we can go congee, and more.
Just out of curiousity, do you remember your dreams after using the new app? I wonder if you dream of rain or a waterfall since that’s the last thing you hear before drifting off to sleep. LOL at the voice recognition print program comment
… if you do end up recording your voice, im gonna use it on a Voice recognition program just to say I proved your point true.
You should visit your friend in Cal… and then visit me. I’m either in the bay, LA or SB, so it’s hard to miss me
@ElusiveWords – I was actually clueless about which runway it was going to use since I’m not nerdy enough to listen to ATC nor have a radio for that. I just went and saw planes taking off from one of the runways and there were other people there so they told me it should be the one. In the end, I was by myself watching it from where I was though. I think the other people were real YYZ watchers and got better access to restricted areas than I do. I still can’t believe it that I got to see it take off though! I’ve seen Dreamliners several times sitting on the ground In Seattle but never in flight! (actually, having just said that, I DID see one take off in Seattle! It wasn’t as spectacular as this one though)
@stevew918 – visit California! That sounds very good, especially the elephant part!
Good friends never go away. They are always right under the fringe of youreylashes. I am so happy you made contact with him.
Matt I would love to have that link for myself, where it puts you to sleep. I don’t have a laptop or smart phone or anything. But if I get the link, may be I can have saadia burn it on a disc and I can play it before I sleep.
AUDIO BLOG!!! :p
It is inordinately difficult to maintain any friendship; it breaks my heart sometimes to think just how difficult it is for us to stay in contact with those that we love.
I use to use that App, actually, or one very similar to it. I always set it to a soft rainstorm and clicks ticking. I don’t use it much these days, but perhaps i should…
aww, that’s great! i feel very lucky that whenever i go back to visit my parents, there are a lot of my old friends from high school that still get together to hang out; even though we only see each other once a year, we pick up like no time has past. it’s amazing how some friendshipsjust seem to endure.
@Wangium - you’re very perceptive Jason. We’ll have to figure out another way to keep in touch.
@Fatcat723 - you’re absolutely right, I echo your two meows!
@stevew918 - that sounds wonderful Steve. I’ll show you how to deal with oversexed elephants.
@Devilzgaysianboi - I seem to remember just the bad dreams. But I don’t wake up with memories of waterfalls or water… nor do I have this urge to pee.
@tomatoboi - I could spend hours watching planes take off and land. I can’t identify them except for 747 but not the different models of 747. I have yet to see that Airbus A380, I know it flies in weekly or something like that.
@ZSA_MD - it’s an application that you download to your laptop. I’m not sure if there is a way to tape it. I think they have it for mobile phones too. They even have urban noises (cars…) but I live in the heart of the city and I don’t need to hear more. Some people turn on an air filter / purifier on low and that sound seems to help.
@oxyGENE_08 - now I’m nervous (but I’m also technically challenged).
@secade - maybe I’m just cursed sometimes in losing friends. I felt a bit silly telling him that I thought I had lost a friend but I’m glad I did.
@kunhuo42 - I hope you find a way to maintain those bonds of friendships.
Yeah for good friends!
@ElusiveWords - Woooooooot!
What do you have?
Gmail?
dreamliner is sweet