Cyborg, Sleeping

At least, that was the plan.

Here is my morning coffee.

Lovely.
And much appreciated.

I was recommended for a sleep study recently, just to check some things.
I’d never had one before and as far as I knew they were done in a clinic where you stayed overnight, wired up and monitored.
These are the days of outsourcing – in other words – home testing! Yay!
I picked up a kit with leads, sticky dot things, and devices to read and store the data. Also – a manual to explain how to work everything.

I was on a Zoom call last night.
The whole rigmarole had to be set up and running for at least eight hours, and I thought I would have tons of time after the call to put it all together.
The call ran way past time…

I turned my camera off, pulled the headphones out so I could still hear the call, and attached wires to my face. No mirror to help the process, so I just had to “feel” where to attach it all.

Not impressed.

There are leads you can’t see. And I somehow managed to stick down more hair than I’d planned, which made the de-sticking this morning a bit more painful than I’d anticipated.

I slept surprisingly well.
Not at any length.
And of undetermined quality.
But I was more comfortable than I expected to be, and didn’t notice it too much.
Still – it’s done, and everything’s returned. I will get the results in a few weeks, apparently.

Until then, I will feel renewed appreciation for my disconnection from the Borg collective, and enjoy unencumbered sleep.

Published in: on June 10, 2026 at 10:58 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Into The Stars

Another memorial post…
This one is for Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura on the original series of Star Trek.

(It was very difficult to get an image that wasn’t copyrighted – this is the best that I could find…)

A trailblazer, an inspiration to many and, it seems, a lovely person as well.
I watched the original Star Trek as a child, and remember her as elegant, professional, unflappable – when the men were flailing about across the bridge of the Enterprise (60s special effects 😆 ), I remember her as being cool and calm.

Farewell, Ms Nichols.
May your onward journey be one of peace.

Published in: on August 2, 2022 at 5:34 pm  Leave a Comment  
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The Tribble With Biochemistry

I recently read a book on the medicinal effects of cannabis, and came across a family of mammalian homologs (to do with genes) called Tribbles, so called because they enter mitosis early and proliferate rapidly. Yes, they are named after these little creatures…

There appear to be other biological discoveries named after pop culture references – there’s a sonic hedgehog protein that can be found in humans. It belongs to a family of hedgehog proteins, so called because they have prickly looking protrusions. There’s also a pikachuran protein, with “lightning-fast moves and shocking electric effects” like Pikachu, and a “Conan the Bacterium“, that survives radiation and is known to be extremely hardy.

It can be fun to be a scientist….

Published in: on April 23, 2016 at 3:52 pm  Leave a Comment  
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