Alphabetical Order

When I can't sleep, I have a few techniques that I dazzle myself with in order to doze off. The first trick consists of a healthy dose of diphenhydramine. If that fails me, or if I manage to resist the urge to consume medication, I do the alphabet thing. It's simple, much like counting sheep.

The problem with counting sheep is that it requires too little thought and therefore my brain begins to wander again as the sheep roam about doing their own thing. So I have to do something more complex. [Once I wrote equations in my head, but I found I got so consumed with trying to remember complex ideas that I wanted to get up and write things down rather than sleep. So, I go to my good old alphabet thing.]

For ages (or since junior high school), I said the 50 States in alphabetical order. Then, when I got too used to that, I'd count how many states had A's, or double letters, or ending in vowels, etc. I rarely bore of this; however, on occasion, I like to mix things up for my brain. In these cases I list items in alphabetical order, based on theme, and repeat them until I eventually fall asleep. It never fails that eventually I just doze off with little recollection of where I even left off. For example, last night was animals...

armadillo
armadillo bear
armadillo bear crocodile
armadillo bear crocodile donkey
...you get the idea...this is my list...or as far as I got...
armadillo bear crocodile donkey elephant ferret giraffe horse impala jaguar kangaroo llama moose n..n...n...

Places That Are Not Other

Ever used bit.ly to shorten your links? If you have, you might ponder where the location "other" may refer to; and if you haven't, I wonder what the hell you do to pass the time!

bit.ly refuses thus far to tell me where "Other" could consist of, therefore, I have created a list of places it could be, and places it probably is not. [In bit.ly's defense, I haven't really bugged them about this issue]

I'll be updating this every time I find a new place that is not other...please let me know if you have any leads. Thanks.

Maybe Other?	Probably Not
China	Slovenia
Principality of Sealand	US
Pentagon "Basement"	Ireland
My Brother Dusty's secret lair	Netherlands
Outer Space	Romania
Canada	Canada
Mauritius***	Peru*
	Ukraine*
	Philippines**
	Republic of Korea**
	Mauritius***
	Malta****
	Bolivia****

[* added October 1 2009]
[** added July 22 2010]
[*** added July 27 2010]
[**** added October 7 2010]

Send me ideas by commenting, or by emailing me!

[post script] Further study shows that there is not only "Other", but "Other Countries" listed in bit.ly results, as seen in this screen shot...