This morning, between getting myself up, and my son getting up I fell into a doze on the couch. I woke up with a brilliant marketing plan for the Province of British Columbia. “Pay only for the seasons you want, no more bundling packages!” I was going to contact the provincial marketing/tourism agency and rake in [Dr Evil voice] One Billion Dollars[/Dr Evil Voice]
Within two minutes it had lost some brilliance.
There was also the time I had a nap and woke up convinced that I had a surefire method to “beat the house” playing roulette.* I would cover 2/3rds of the board with chips! I would get 35 chips back every time! It would take a while, but with 11 chips (plus my original) for each play I could eventually make some money. More if I played with $100 dollar chips to start. My partner reminded me that I only had 24 numbers out of a possible 38. No matter how well I played eventually I would hit one of the 14 numbers not in play. He suggested I have a cup of coffee before I went out to the casino. Before I put the milk in my coffee I started doubting the brilliance. By about three sips I was convinced it was a terrible idea and I needed to stay home.
What are your dream ideas that were brilliant until about 2 minutes after waking?
*I hate casinos, btw. I only go if I am going as part of a group and there isn’t anything more enjoyable, like paying to get a headache available.
I used to have flashes of amazing brilliance in the night that were elusive in the morning, so I eventually put a pen and pad by the bed. I woke with a brilliant idea, wrote it down and went back to sleep, satisfied that I had finally captured a winning idea.
In the morning, I tried to read my notes, but it was complete nonsense. English words, with sort of valid grammar, but not making any sense at all.
I sleep naked, in part because – look, have you ever rolled over during the night while wearing a shirt collar around your neck? It STRANGLES you! And that’s AWFUL! And yet some people swear by it; must be nice, I guess; keeps you warm, I figure.
So I’m half-asleep, thinking, “I won’t forsake my anti-strangulation ways – but if I’m sleeping on my stomach, wouldn’t I get some extra warmth from a button-down shirt? Only, like, not buttoned? So, yeah: open at the throat, but covering the back!”
Except – and I can’t stress this enough – I don’t want even an open collar wrapping around my neck if I roll around as my arms pull the sleeves hither and yon. “But I’d still get some warmth after removing the sleeves and snipping off the collar, right?”
YES! Ha-HA! GENIUS! Come morning, I shall invent – the BLANKET!
Not when actually sleeping, but when part way between wakefulness and sleep.
I’d be pondering a complex problem, start to zero in on something (i.e., other parts of my brain are shutting down), it gets really interesting, then some other part of my brain goes “This is getting interesting!”. Bam. Snap out of it. Complete change of mindset. Sometimes I can’t even remember the problem I was working on, let alone the details of the idea. (And if I do, it’s usually nonsense.)
I had the single coolest idea for a ‘smoking accessory’ for people who smoke cigars with brandy/cognac/bourbon/whiskey.
It cut the perfect draw hole & filled tobacco around the mouth with your preferred spirit.
I was so psyched! I scoped it out, I planned it out, created blue prints, created 2-3 demos, and I’d even tried it myself. I thought it was Amazing…!
Until… I field tested it with some real cigar smokers. It was then that it got trashed like a bad fighting robot at MIT.
Too Bulky.
Too heavy.
PITA to carry around.
Has no built in cleaner for the ‘punch’.
You can’t re-dip it without feeding it back onto the punch.
Bouncers/Airlines won’t let it on; can be held like a ‘roll of dimes’ punch enhancer.
(Oh, like that’s a Bad thing…?)
Looks too much like a Silencer.
(cough So? What’s your point…?)
It isn’t an ashtray.
It has no place to hold a lit cigar while I’m [del]scratching my balls[/del] doing something else.