This post takes the nerd all the way to 11. I'm in the midst of writing up a big report, and naturally, I'm using LaTeX and OpenOffice to make up the documents, so that in the event of catastrophic machine failure, I can go back into the stone age and use Linux if I get desperate. Contingency plans are where it's all at. Anyway, my boss likes reading stuff in Word format, so he can make changes to the document there, so I just really need to export from LaTeX to Word. That part isn't so much of a problem - but I'd also like to keep track of changes I'm making to the documents and the diagrams. Each word document I make for my boss should live on a branch, and then I can merge in changes from the trunk back onto the branch and so on. Thing is, I can't figure out how to get any OpenOffice document to play nicely with version control. First of all, OpenOffice uses a binary format for its data, so there is no way I can add svn keywords to the document. The second problem is that there's a long standing bug in OpenOffice draw which means that I can't insert arbitrary fields into OpenOffice.org draw documents. This means that my drawings can't have a versioning watermark on them - which is useful if I've got lots of hard copies flying around. Does anyone have any ideas how to deal with this?

21^st March, and it's snowing here. Someone needs to do something about this. Now.

Sleep - when not being used as a verb - can often be used as a noun. Being a greedy little human, I try to get as much of this noun as possible. This endeavour is becoming increasingly hard nowadays. In the evenings, you're either working late, in the gym, down the pub, or doing all the domestic things that you haven't had a chance to do (such as late night shopping at Rewe or the Penny - 10 O'Clock shopping!). Looking over my average day, I used to wonder exactly how I managed to maintain any kind of chemical balance in my body. I don't eat particularly healthily, exercise happens in bursts - three times a week, the pub is all about the alcohol and copious second-hand nicotine (damn you and your lax laws Germany), and I spend my day at work downing cups of coffee to cover the lack of sleep I get.

I've learned to stop worrying about it now, and just to embrace the dream of better living through chemistry. To that end, I ordered a massive pack of Penguin mints. My trips on the bus in the mornings usually are pretty short - or at the very least they feel short as I fall asleep when I get on the bus, and then wake up at work. I tried my first bus trip this morning with the caffeine mints, and the mints work absolute wonders. I can now cut out coffee as a drink and go back to tea, since coffee was only really a drug delivery mechanism for me.

This whole practical usage of chemicals thing got me thinking about which other chemicals I could use to improve my health. The benefits, of course, need to outweigh the detrimental effects to my health (both long and short term), but I'm sure there's a whole world of chemical hacks you can make to get the best performance out of your body. In that spirit, I happened to come across this quote from bash:

<PhoenixBourne> Ok, so a friend of mine had an AWESOME idea at school <PhoenixBourne> You know rohyphonol? (whatever the spelling is) <linforcer> Is he gontna make a trebuchet <linforcer> no <PhoenixBourne> You know date rape drugs? <linforcer> Sure <PhoenixBourne> Right, rhyphonol is one of these. It knocks you asleep after an hour or two. <PhoenixBourne> I should also mention, a side affect of rhyphonol is amnesia of events whilst under influence of the drug. <PhoenixBourne> Now, a friend of mine had this idea: 1) Prepare ingredients 2) Take rhyphonol 3) Bake cake 4) Fall asleep 5) ?????? 6) Wake up 7) CAKE?! CAKE! Where did this come from?! <linforcer> SURPRISE CAKE!!!!!!

In the comment section I'll add any new ideas I have for practical usages for controlled substances as I come up with them, with an aim to have a list of 20(ish) innovative drug hacks. I welcome any suggestions on the comments.

I wasn't the only person who thought the ban of an ad where a toddler is driving an SUV was stupid. Boy, do I have egg on my face.

This man, he is my hero.