Don't worry, I won't be doing this forever. I just thought I'd log the experience, if only so I have a record to tell the technician.
Playing spaceman with my full-face mask was fun, but when the time came I learned lesson 1: you have to adjust the mask while you're lying down. Because doing it while you're upright and playing spaceman doesn't really get it adjusted correctly.
Took longer to get to sleep than I expected, even longer than usual, but I don't know why. Should have read for a while, although the mask means I have to hold things a little further from my face than I usually would, and seeing at that distance turns out to not involve so much binocular vision. In other words, I have to work at getting a unified field of vision in the middle. Next time, may do the reading and such without the mask, and then put the mask on at lights out. But I was still playing spacemand.
Woke up several times, with the mask puffing air all over my face. Pressure had zoomed up to at least 15 (cmH2O) and was blowing the mask off. I don' t know what woke me up--it was probably the apnea actually, since with all the leaking I'm not sure the machine was doing its job (which is to pump enough pressure into my airway to keep it from collapsing closed while I sleep). Reset the machine, tightened down the mask, and tried to go back to sleep.
Woke up, eventually, on my right side, which is par for the course, machine going at 13.5, mouth dry as a bone (although the nasal passages and throat seem okay) and actually sort of refreshed. I don't know how much of that is psychological, but there it is. I have a silicon pad-shaped dent in my forehead and I think I should start using the toner-clarifier in the morning, to sooth the 'mask-face'. We'll see tomorrow.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd say 5. As usual. Woke up sort of refreshed and certainly more alert than usual, but now, an hour or so later, I'm not sure I'm not going for a nap later. Had the usual trouble getting to sleep, and woke up several times during the night, and didn't exactly have an easy time getting back to sleep. Best sleep late in the morning as usual. So 5.
I'm not expecting 10s anytime soon, but I'm hoping in the 3 weeks or so before I see the specialist again (and head off to TO) I hope to be up to 7 fairly consistently.
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Friday, 31 July 2009
Things I learned at the Sleep Disorders Centre (2)
- I actually have 'severe' Obstructive Sleep Apnea (apparently averaging 80 episodes/hour).
- Constant sleep/arousal as a result of OSA is implicated in insulin sensitivity (i.e. diabetes), high cholesterol, appetite control, depression/anxiety.
- Not only does obesity contribute to OSA, but so does a history of (especially childhood) mouth breathing especially due to nasal congestion (read: childhood environmental allergies)
- IT'S ALL RELATED--the sleep problems, the concentration/memory, the depression, the anxiety, the weight, the blood pressure, the diabetes.
Unrelated note to the crazy people: When one is born in the USA, unless one (or one's family) takes steps to prevent it, one is by definition a US citizen. It is not relevant where his father was born, or where his father was or was not a citizen. This isn't even a question like my father's, who was born in Alaska, when Alaska wasn't even a state. 1961 people. Statehood. Hawai'i. Born. End of story. Suck it up, and start worrying about something real.
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Things I learned at the Sleep Disorders Centre
- Misericordia Hospital is actually kind of spooky at night.
- As hard as it is to sleep in a strange bed, it's even harder when you're supposed to sleep
- I don't really mind being wired up to all kinds of gizmos, although I really need my night-time-audio-distraction to make it all comfortable
- The full face mask is much more comfortable than the nose cup with or without the chin strap
- I'm going to have to have a long talk with the sleep specialist about sleep apnea
- "Lemon Prep" isn't nearly as pleasant as it sounds
Friday, 3 July 2009
FUTURAMA SLOTS
FUTURAMA SLOTS - INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER Waste precious Time with addictive sounds and lights!
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Happiness and contentment are the inverse of the glycemic index
Note to my endocrinologist:
I was a very bad boy this morning. Fasting, as ordered, I went to the hospital for my bloodwork, as ordered, in anticipation of our appointment next week.
In keeping with my usual practice, I celebrated the breaking of the fast (as I often do the appointment itself) by taking myself out to brunch afterward. Usually not the best choice, foodwise, but better than skipping, and better, usually, than many of the options. For instance, usually there is some kind of omelet involved, or something along those lines, rather than a big stack of pancakes or something.
Today, I went to the Original Pancake House at the Forks. Which is not my favorite, the menu is sort of limited and they have breakfast fries rather than proper hash browns (for the record, the only places that seem to still have proper hash browns are Dennys and Perkins, neither in close proximity to the St Boniface Hospital, or on the way anywhere useful from there) (aside: anyone in Winnipeg who knows of a hole-in-the-wall kinda joint besides Falafel Place that has shredded hash browns, drop me a line) (and Falafel Place is great, but if I'm going that far, I might as well get the latkes and the falafel).
But I was in 'a mood', and so I decided to treat myself to the signature Giant Apple Pancake. I'd once, long ago, had the ham-and-cheese giant pancake, which was actually sort of bland and really greasy. But how bad could it be?
O. M. G.
While by the time it gets to the table it isn't 'fluffy' like in all the pictures, it was a thing of great beauty and deliciousness. Eggy, crepey batter covered in sliced, firm, tartish apples. Enough cinnamon sugar to eliminate any need for butter or syrup (which didn't stop a man across the way from me from slathering his with both). I do not want to think about the carbo load I placed myself under. I do not want to think about what I have done to my internal organs and peripheral nerves. I only want to think about about how unbelievably yummerific (let's put that in in bold caps:) YUMMERIFIC it was. Once again: O. M. G. I couldn't even finish it. And I tried.
I spent part of the afternoon in a PhD defense trying to devise ways to introduce more apple and cinnamon sugar into my diet, without screwing it up with anything too healthy, like oatmeal. Which wouldn't be too bad, now that I think about it. Hmmm.
I was a very bad boy this morning. Fasting, as ordered, I went to the hospital for my bloodwork, as ordered, in anticipation of our appointment next week.
In keeping with my usual practice, I celebrated the breaking of the fast (as I often do the appointment itself) by taking myself out to brunch afterward. Usually not the best choice, foodwise, but better than skipping, and better, usually, than many of the options. For instance, usually there is some kind of omelet involved, or something along those lines, rather than a big stack of pancakes or something.
Today, I went to the Original Pancake House at the Forks. Which is not my favorite, the menu is sort of limited and they have breakfast fries rather than proper hash browns (for the record, the only places that seem to still have proper hash browns are Dennys and Perkins, neither in close proximity to the St Boniface Hospital, or on the way anywhere useful from there) (aside: anyone in Winnipeg who knows of a hole-in-the-wall kinda joint besides Falafel Place that has shredded hash browns, drop me a line) (and Falafel Place is great, but if I'm going that far, I might as well get the latkes and the falafel).
But I was in 'a mood', and so I decided to treat myself to the signature Giant Apple Pancake. I'd once, long ago, had the ham-and-cheese giant pancake, which was actually sort of bland and really greasy. But how bad could it be?
O. M. G.
While by the time it gets to the table it isn't 'fluffy' like in all the pictures, it was a thing of great beauty and deliciousness. Eggy, crepey batter covered in sliced, firm, tartish apples. Enough cinnamon sugar to eliminate any need for butter or syrup (which didn't stop a man across the way from me from slathering his with both). I do not want to think about the carbo load I placed myself under. I do not want to think about what I have done to my internal organs and peripheral nerves. I only want to think about about how unbelievably yummerific (let's put that in in bold caps:) YUMMERIFIC it was. Once again: O. M. G. I couldn't even finish it. And I tried.
I spent part of the afternoon in a PhD defense trying to devise ways to introduce more apple and cinnamon sugar into my diet, without screwing it up with anything too healthy, like oatmeal. Which wouldn't be too bad, now that I think about it. Hmmm.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Reading, eating, not working, cleaning
Okay, I've got three MA students all trying to finish this summer, a grad student in another program needing to finish a paper, and a PhD advisee (I'm not her advisor, but I'm on the committee) set to defend next week. So I've been reading and commenting (and occasionally rewriting) manuscripts like mad for the last several weeks, with at least several more to come.
I'm going on leave (meaning a 20% cut in salary, just in time to move to Toronto for 6 months or so in August) in a couple of weeks, and would really like to have a vaguely clean house before I go.
So what am I doing? Shopping for clothes and trying to come up with food that will cook in a single pot and be eaten out of a single dish.
I'm not proud of this, but it works. I do it one serving at a time, cuz I'll just keep eating it if I don't.
85 g (dry) whole-wheat spaghetti or spaghettini (or I suppose angelhair or whatever)
1 Tbls smooth organic peanut butter (drained of as much oil as you can manage)
1 Tbls fake balsamic vinegar (not the good aged stuff, but the supermarket kind)
1 Tbls lite soy sauce
dash Tabasco(r) sauce (to taste)
dash toasted sesame oil (to taste)
dash garlic powder (I'd use fresh, but this is easier for a single-serving)
dash ginger powder (ditto)
add-ins if you want and as available: bell pepper slivers, pickled ginger slices, green onion slices, diced or julienned chicken breast, diced tofu, etc.
So start the pasta cooking in plenty of salted water. In a largish pasta bowl whisk together the rest of the ingredients until emulsified (this isn't complicated, folks). When cooked, drain the pasta quickly and add it to the pasta bowl. Toss until pasta is thoroughly and uniformly coated in the dressing. Add garnishes. Shove in face.
I've also used the basic dressing (a little less than the 3 Tbls I use in the pasta, but you see how it goes--equal parts of the big three and then a dash of everything else--and added into chicken flavor ramen noodles for a kind of peanut-satay soup thing. Really good with grilled chicken sliced up and heated in the broth....
I'm going on leave (meaning a 20% cut in salary, just in time to move to Toronto for 6 months or so in August) in a couple of weeks, and would really like to have a vaguely clean house before I go.
So what am I doing? Shopping for clothes and trying to come up with food that will cook in a single pot and be eaten out of a single dish.
I'm not proud of this, but it works. I do it one serving at a time, cuz I'll just keep eating it if I don't.
85 g (dry) whole-wheat spaghetti or spaghettini (or I suppose angelhair or whatever)
1 Tbls smooth organic peanut butter (drained of as much oil as you can manage)
1 Tbls fake balsamic vinegar (not the good aged stuff, but the supermarket kind)
1 Tbls lite soy sauce
dash Tabasco(r) sauce (to taste)
dash toasted sesame oil (to taste)
dash garlic powder (I'd use fresh, but this is easier for a single-serving)
dash ginger powder (ditto)
add-ins if you want and as available: bell pepper slivers, pickled ginger slices, green onion slices, diced or julienned chicken breast, diced tofu, etc.
So start the pasta cooking in plenty of salted water. In a largish pasta bowl whisk together the rest of the ingredients until emulsified (this isn't complicated, folks). When cooked, drain the pasta quickly and add it to the pasta bowl. Toss until pasta is thoroughly and uniformly coated in the dressing. Add garnishes. Shove in face.
I've also used the basic dressing (a little less than the 3 Tbls I use in the pasta, but you see how it goes--equal parts of the big three and then a dash of everything else--and added into chicken flavor ramen noodles for a kind of peanut-satay soup thing. Really good with grilled chicken sliced up and heated in the broth....
Saturday, 9 May 2009
How I would fix "The Boys in the Photograph"
Not that anyone is asking me to.
FYI: "The Boys in the Photograph" is an Andrew Lloyd Webber/Ben Elton Musical, a re-working of 2001(?)'s "The Beautiful Game", which is currently premiering, oddly enough, if Winnipeg. At MTC. Not a bad show, but not flawless.
Act I starts in 1969 at a Catholic boy's school and follows the football (soccer) team from the day of their team photo to the day of the big championship game, all at the beginning, sort of, of the Troubles. Act II starts a couple years later with the wedding of the lead characters and, well, later.
Among the changes made in adapting the show to a post-Occupation audience was a more uplifting ending and a couple more songs. The problems, as I see them, are that the uplifting ending is sort of tacked on, and act II features, towards the end, a couple of long preachy speeches and a long stop-the-show-dead preachy song, all by the same character. Not only is this poor character saddled with these speeches and this song, but for at least one of these speeches and the song, she's all alone on stage. Also, there's no applause break between the John-goes-to-jail song and the visiting day scene, and there needs to be.
Okay, so, here's how I'd fix it.
1) The John goes to jail song will end with John getting seriously brutalized. This will ratchet up the tension between John and the eventual 'choices' he makes and will make the cold, 'I'm a soldier now' John later more resonant.
2) This means we can feature the very pregnant Mary and her almost-due baby with an observation about how much he seems to be healing up from his wounds, as an important moment in John's transition(s).
3) Move Mary's "John Kelly, killed by John Kelly" schene to earlier in the day. John should go straight home after being released. This makes the refusal to see the son and the "I'm a soldier now" moment more devastating. It also makes the 'remember who you were' issue something that happens over the rest of the act and not something that happens with John alone and silent on the docks.
4) Move the confrontation with Thomas to after the above scene. Thomas's revelation about motives and goals should come as something of a shock to John, and be part of the rediscovering of dead-and-gone footballer John.
5) Thomas's "it will never end" song and Mary's "if that's what we're fighting for" song should be reworked somehow to emphasize the parallelism of the dilemma--the impossibility of peace, the passing-the-hatred/hopelessness-to-the-next-generation. Either rework both songs (and give Mary someone to sing to, for heaven's sake--Bernie and the baby are right in the next room, after all), and maybe make it a duet--Mary on one side, Thomas/John on the other, big song, and ending with John's "big" choice. (Well, there's the choice to leave the family, and then the choice on the docks, but this one is the important one of the three.)
6) I'm not sure John needs a song on the docks, but I'd like to see him and Mary, in parallel, contemplating the 'boys in the photograph'. In the end, John shouldn't 'remember who he was' but should ask, no beg Mary to 'help him remember who he was'.
Okay, that's it. Somebody send this to Sir Andrew.
FYI: "The Boys in the Photograph" is an Andrew Lloyd Webber/Ben Elton Musical, a re-working of 2001(?)'s "The Beautiful Game", which is currently premiering, oddly enough, if Winnipeg. At MTC. Not a bad show, but not flawless.
Act I starts in 1969 at a Catholic boy's school and follows the football (soccer) team from the day of their team photo to the day of the big championship game, all at the beginning, sort of, of the Troubles. Act II starts a couple years later with the wedding of the lead characters and, well, later.
Among the changes made in adapting the show to a post-Occupation audience was a more uplifting ending and a couple more songs. The problems, as I see them, are that the uplifting ending is sort of tacked on, and act II features, towards the end, a couple of long preachy speeches and a long stop-the-show-dead preachy song, all by the same character. Not only is this poor character saddled with these speeches and this song, but for at least one of these speeches and the song, she's all alone on stage. Also, there's no applause break between the John-goes-to-jail song and the visiting day scene, and there needs to be.
Okay, so, here's how I'd fix it.
1) The John goes to jail song will end with John getting seriously brutalized. This will ratchet up the tension between John and the eventual 'choices' he makes and will make the cold, 'I'm a soldier now' John later more resonant.
2) This means we can feature the very pregnant Mary and her almost-due baby with an observation about how much he seems to be healing up from his wounds, as an important moment in John's transition(s).
3) Move Mary's "John Kelly, killed by John Kelly" schene to earlier in the day. John should go straight home after being released. This makes the refusal to see the son and the "I'm a soldier now" moment more devastating. It also makes the 'remember who you were' issue something that happens over the rest of the act and not something that happens with John alone and silent on the docks.
4) Move the confrontation with Thomas to after the above scene. Thomas's revelation about motives and goals should come as something of a shock to John, and be part of the rediscovering of dead-and-gone footballer John.
5) Thomas's "it will never end" song and Mary's "if that's what we're fighting for" song should be reworked somehow to emphasize the parallelism of the dilemma--the impossibility of peace, the passing-the-hatred/hopelessness-to-the-next-generation. Either rework both songs (and give Mary someone to sing to, for heaven's sake--Bernie and the baby are right in the next room, after all), and maybe make it a duet--Mary on one side, Thomas/John on the other, big song, and ending with John's "big" choice. (Well, there's the choice to leave the family, and then the choice on the docks, but this one is the important one of the three.)
6) I'm not sure John needs a song on the docks, but I'd like to see him and Mary, in parallel, contemplating the 'boys in the photograph'. In the end, John shouldn't 'remember who he was' but should ask, no beg Mary to 'help him remember who he was'.
Okay, that's it. Somebody send this to Sir Andrew.
Friday, 24 April 2009
Thots on international (sort of) travel
In no particular order:
1)Getting back into Canada is easier if you have an unexpired PR card
2)It's definitely worth spending the money to sit in the private lounge if you have more than an hour or so before takeoff--especially if you plan to eat something and caffeinate anyway
3)You think you're going to have a lot of time to get stuff done, especially since *none* of your students forked over any manuscript to deal with while you're travelling, but you don't really
4)American dollar bills suck compared to loonies and toonies
5)American tens and twenties rock
6)Free wifi is just about everywhere one is likely to want to go anyway
7)It's sort of sad that your parents have to get old and doddery, but I suppose that is the way of it
8)Flying is way easier if you carefully select belts and shoes that don't set off the metal detector
1)Getting back into Canada is easier if you have an unexpired PR card
2)It's definitely worth spending the money to sit in the private lounge if you have more than an hour or so before takeoff--especially if you plan to eat something and caffeinate anyway
3)You think you're going to have a lot of time to get stuff done, especially since *none* of your students forked over any manuscript to deal with while you're travelling, but you don't really
4)American dollar bills suck compared to loonies and toonies
5)American tens and twenties rock
6)Free wifi is just about everywhere one is likely to want to go anyway
7)It's sort of sad that your parents have to get old and doddery, but I suppose that is the way of it
8)Flying is way easier if you carefully select belts and shoes that don't set off the metal detector
Monday, 9 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Rob falls apart
Actually, not really. I'm holding myself together. Things just got busy and I'm not sure how or when I'm going to dig myself out of things.
Still haven't done anything about the spectrogram. Although so far no one has e-mailed to complain. I'm starting to think no one is paying attention. Maybe I'll go to a quarterly schedule. Not that it'll make it any less late.
My father's 90th birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I'm not going to make it back. Part of the busy-ness on this end is that we have a job candidate coming in that week (and the week after) for interviews/job talks/etc. I was going to try to make it during mid-term break last week, but a) time got too short to plan anything and b) I was the only one around willing to do InfoDays, the two-day open-house thing for the high-schoolers. Argh.
At InfoDays, my computer started to die. It took until Sunday night to successfully run CHKDSK and locate the bad sectors and do something about them. Now all is fine. For the moment.
I have an event coming up at PTE that I'm sort of in charge of. It's a cold-read party (someone suggested Open Read and Group Yammer, but I couldn't put that acronym on a flyer), where we're going to put together some scenes and ask the actors to just cold read them. Fun for all.
I've got exams to mark (that's Canadian for 'grade') and enter into the computer, and a couple of homeworks to plan. Today I have to give a make up exam, meet with a student, and find my pictures of the skull, which I didn't have in class yesterday when I needed them. Argh.
I have a review of a resubmission to finish for a journal. Finished the paper the other night. Much, much improved (to the point that it's probably worth publishing, but I have lingering concerns, and I'm not sure this journal is quite the right one). But at least I've finished the paper.
I have a department meeting on Friday that I probably need to do some prep for.
And I still need to clean my house.
And my office.
So things continue. Hopefully I'll have something useful to say here soon.
Still haven't done anything about the spectrogram. Although so far no one has e-mailed to complain. I'm starting to think no one is paying attention. Maybe I'll go to a quarterly schedule. Not that it'll make it any less late.
My father's 90th birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I'm not going to make it back. Part of the busy-ness on this end is that we have a job candidate coming in that week (and the week after) for interviews/job talks/etc. I was going to try to make it during mid-term break last week, but a) time got too short to plan anything and b) I was the only one around willing to do InfoDays, the two-day open-house thing for the high-schoolers. Argh.
At InfoDays, my computer started to die. It took until Sunday night to successfully run CHKDSK and locate the bad sectors and do something about them. Now all is fine. For the moment.
I have an event coming up at PTE that I'm sort of in charge of. It's a cold-read party (someone suggested Open Read and Group Yammer, but I couldn't put that acronym on a flyer), where we're going to put together some scenes and ask the actors to just cold read them. Fun for all.
I've got exams to mark (that's Canadian for 'grade') and enter into the computer, and a couple of homeworks to plan. Today I have to give a make up exam, meet with a student, and find my pictures of the skull, which I didn't have in class yesterday when I needed them. Argh.
I have a review of a resubmission to finish for a journal. Finished the paper the other night. Much, much improved (to the point that it's probably worth publishing, but I have lingering concerns, and I'm not sure this journal is quite the right one). But at least I've finished the paper.
I have a department meeting on Friday that I probably need to do some prep for.
And I still need to clean my house.
And my office.
So things continue. Hopefully I'll have something useful to say here soon.
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