Grace at Dinner
At a recent dinner, Grace pulled her spoon back, as if to launch food at me, and announced, “Fire in the hole.”
Scouts attempt World Record
From The News and Observer:
For a brief moment Saturday afternoon, the bright blue Orange County sky was obscured by more than 1,500 pancakes.The Orange District of the Boy Scouts of America had just attempted to set the world record for most pancakes flipped at one time. And given that an unscientific search (we Googled) shows no one else has ever tried, the Scouts might have actually done it.
Why I Love YouTube
Here is REM’s national tv debut on the David Letterman Show in 1983. I remember when this aired.
The Aging Process
What sort of chemical reaction happens inside a male’s body once he passes 40 so that he thinks it is okay to wear black socks with shorts? I find myself doing this lately and catch myself thinking it doesn’t look so bad. At least I am doing it with gray shoes rather than white sneakers.
Another Blue-Striped Stranger
Vote for this photo to be included in JPG Magazine in the Dreamscape category.
Virginia Tech: A Self-Portrait
What is the face of Virginia Tech? Let the Hokies show you for themselves. AP photographer Evan Vucci set up a remote camera to give students and alumni an opportunity to capture their own emotions.
Virginia Tech: A Self-Portrait
Sleep Study Part 2
Last night I went back to the sleep lab for my follow up study. This is the one where I sleep with a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) mask, which is a device that covers my nose and blows a constant pressue of air into my nose. This keeps my airway open, so I can breathe all night.
Before I got hooked up, we reviewed the results from my previous study. The two most remarkable things were that I only slept half the time in the last study. After waking up in the middle of the night, I was awake for two and a half hours. The other is the average number of apnea and hypopnea events occuring every hour: 22. That means that my breathing is either reduced to 50% or 0 22 times every hour. No wonder I am so tired. With the apnea events, I wake up because I cannot breathe. Most of these wakeful events are so brief that I don’t remember them, but the result is the same. I do not get a good night’s sleep.
So the basic routine was the same as the last study. A series of electrodes were attached to my head, face, neck and legs. I was also fitted with a mask over my nose. It had a tube that ran to a compressor on the side of the bed. After I laid down in bed, the technician calibrated all the electrodes. It was very strange once he turned on the CPAP machine. I needed to keep my mouth closed and breathe in an out with my nose. I needed to establish a rhythm of breathing so it could become natural. I eventually fell asleep, even though I don’t normally sleep on my back.
I woke up in the middle of the night having trouble breathing. It was mainly due to some congestion. I used some saline nasal spray to clear the congestion, and fell back asleep pretty easily.
In the morning, when the tech woke me up, I felt more well rested than normal. I wasn’t sure if it was psychological, or if I really did sleep better. Next week I should get the report from my doctor, and the prescription to get my own CPAP machine.
Eagle Scout reacts with calm
from Washington Post coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. One of the students in the first classroom where the shootings occurred was concerned about the gunman coming back.
Whispering and trying to compose himself, [Trey] Perkins, [20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering, and] an Eagle Scout, said he told Derek and the female student to keep their feet on the door in case the gunman returned.
Perkins said he went around the room, tending to the wounded students. A student named Garrett was shot in both legs. Perkins wrapped his gray pullover sweater around Garrett’s right leg.
Perkins used Garrett’s tank top to wrap the other leg. Perkins saw a sweat shirt on a desk and covered the girl with the mouth wound.
“He knew exactly what he was doing,” Perkins said of the gunman. “I have no idea why he did what he decided to do. I just can’t say how lucky I am to have made it.”
MSNBC Video with Trey Perkins on the phone
Duke Lacrosse Case
Here’s a good 5-part series from the Raleigh News & Observer. The reporter has gone back and reviewed documents and conducted interviews to reconstruct the events at the beginning of the case. The N&O has a lot to atone for, due to their early indictment of the 3 players.
New Wilco Album
from Billboard:
Wilco: In The Comfort Zone
After Conquering Addiction And Label Drama, Jeff Tweedy Takes Solace In His Bandmates On An Intimate New Album
The Wilco loft takes up a full floor of a nondescript building in Chicago’s Irving Park. This expansive place could use a paint job and some new rugs, but it’s cozy in a way that makes you feel like you’re in a grown-up’s clubhouse.