The USS Quad Damage

Clocks

Lights go out and I can't be saved Tides that I tried to swim against You've put me down upon my knees Oh I beg, I beg and please, YAAR!

The buttons clicked a lot more re-assuringly, and I kept getting alarms I've had a long and interesting history with alarm clocks. Every new solution has caused bigger and worse problems. I am now like an old lady who originally swallowed a fly, and has now moved onto a horse. Back when I was in primary and high school, I had an infallible alarm clock. It was my mum. She'd wake me before I had to go to school every day. She'd even prepare breakfast, and I would often be woken up by the sound of sizzling and the smell of _pure deliciousness_ before the ear-splitting yelling of "Sunny... wake up!". The nicest thing about it was, no matter what I did, I'd eventually be out of bed, whether it was from the initial yelling, walking into my room (*bright*), and eventually by force. At uni, I used to have to go to uni at all hours, and I couldn't rely on my mum to wake me up. I bought an alarm clock for that reason. It was the cheapest, crappiest alarm clock on the planet. It wasn't long before the alarm on/off switch broke (at least, I assume it was what broke) and occasionally I wouldn't get woken up in the morning. I probably need to take an aside here to tell people I sleep _very_ deeply. I wasn't sure if it was me sleeping through the (one-hour) alarm or if it was the alarm clock not buzzing. It wasn't until I actually woke up around half an hour into when the alarm _should_ have been going on that I realised that something was broken. It took me a while to replace it. Needless to say I missed a couple of lectures. To make matters worse, it was fast. Really fast. It was so fast I wouldn't need to adjust it forward an hour for daylight savings, it would have already drifted that far (actually, it would drift further, but some time during the year I would shift it back again after a bad day caused by the alarm clock). Instead of fixing it constantly, I would usually sleep in a little more each day. I kind of got _used to_ the snooze button. Either late into uni or when I started working, I got sick of the old alarm clock and got a new one (more likely, one of the friends I've told this story to got sick of me being late for stuff and got me a fancy-arse alarm clock). It was a lot better. The buttons clicked a lot more re-assuringly, and I kept getting alarms. The only downside was that it was still fast. I later found out it was only fast under certain circumstances, like if I lost power and the battery had to take over, but I was kind of really angry at alarm clocks by this time. For this reason, and my fetish for technology, I dropped $300 (or more likely got a present) on a chumby. It had internet time, an alarm I could set over the internet. Basically this thing was most likely going to wake me up, and not screw over the time. All I needed was a wireless connection. Everyone's got a wireless connection, right? That was true, until I lost my internet to the Telstra saga (which I will have to regale you with some day). Weeks later (and no alarm clock during this time) I got my internet _back_, but as I turned on the modem, it _died_. This meant still no wireless. I had been using my mobile phone as a stop-gap solution in the meantime, and I thought I could keep using it (it actually worked pretty well. Kept time, and alarm rang, and it's loud). Until this Monday, when for no reason at all, it didn't work. I woke up at 10, so I thought "oh, maybe I slept through it" (rational, even though it's insanely loud, I sleep deeply). Checked that the alarm was still set and went off to work. Tuesday comes, and no alarm. After swearing at it a bit, I go to work. At work, I try and set the alarm (this is my mobile, remember) for 5 minutes from now . It tells me to stop snoozing (?), so I do, and re-set it for a little after _that_. It works, but no sound. I check that I'm not on silent, no dice. Shut down the phone, restart, and it starts working. So anyway, I'm basically like Captain hook.