Category: Tech

Sleep Apnea Thoughts

I was tested for Sleep Apnea because I couldn’t get a good nights sleep to save my life and I was snoring so loud that I couldn’t stay in the room with Jen anymore.

When I started looking into Gastric Bypass I was told that the surgery would result in enough weight loss to cure my apnea. That sounded good to me.

101 pounds later I’m trying to decide how I’ll know when my apnea is cured if I never stop using the CPAP machine. It seems the only course of action is to just stop using it and see what happens.

But when? I asked Jen what she thought, given that my snoring keeps her awake even more than it keeps me awake. We were both on the same page. If I lose 30 more pounds I’ll do an experiment where I don’t use the machine for a night and see what happens. I’ll be curious how it affects Jen’s sleep, and what the sleep numbers my AppleWatch records look like.

At this rate that will be 4-5 weeks from now. Until then I’ll keep sticking that mask over my face.

That’s Interesting

Turns out my little Nikon point and shoot has a built in Wi-Fi. You can connect it to your phone and use a Nikon app to transfer images from the memory card to the phone’s camera roll.

I just took this and uploaded it to my phone while sitting up in bed watching The Sandman (episode one) on my iPad.

We live in a thoroughly groovy world.

Another Film Photography App

I heard about a new app that is supposed to be an alternative to Instagram (no video, no tic-tok-ish bullshit) but it is only for images shot on film.

Sure, I’ll check it out.

Or I would if I could find it in the iOS app store. It’s called Grainery and it looks and feels and smells exactly like Instagram, except that when you post an image you have to include the camera, lens, and film used. Good thing I started taking notes!

I created an account on the web version of the app. The article I first read was written in June and it said the mobile apps were imminent. So maybe there is an app in the app store somewhere, maybe there isn’t. My account is RobJ_1971 (just like Flickr).

The only question left is will images from the site embed into posts here? I am guessing no, but let’s paste a link and see what happens….

https://grainery.app/p/3f3nWOWnwcxkvc05JKhM

Nope, doesn’t seem like it works… yet. Let’s get on that, Mr WordPress.com.

A Trend(?) That I Hate

Begin rant.

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work. I have seen a thing happen a few times on a handful of different pods and I think it’s becoming a trend and if it is a trend I friggin hate it.

The podcast runs for an hour or so. Good content, decent content, okay content, whatever. That part is irrelevant. The podcast comes to an end and they play some music to mark that the episode is over. That’s okay, in theory, but they don’t fade out. They just play an entire piece of music all the way through.

STOP DOING THAT. When the podcast is over, I want to listen to the next podcast in the queue and I can’t effing do that if you are going to play some random Tommy Friggin’ James and the Friggin’ Shondells song for five minutes.

STOP DOING THAT. I REALLY HATE THAT.

End rant.

Workout Streak

I think it was June 1st. That was the day I went nuts on my walking in place exercise and did the full 30 minutes in one shot. Every day since then I did the same. On 3-4 days I even pushed it to 45 minutes, but prior to today I was on a streak of 59 days doing a single workout of at least 30 minutes.

Today the streak was in jeopardy. I closed my 30 minute exercise ring without doing any specific workout at all. Most of it came from walking around Boston, but there were a few minutes from walking up and down the cellar stairs and from following my mother around the nursing home while wearing a mask.

The exercise ring was closed. I didn’t need to do any more. I could call it a day and consider it a win, right?

Wrong. Jen fell asleep around 10:00pm tonight. Harry got home from work at about the same time and camped himself in front of the tele to come down after a stressed out shift. I took the opportunity to go down to the cellar, pop on this week’s episode of That Pedal Show, and do my 30 minutes of walking in place.

Sure my 30 minute exercise ring is at 60 minutes. That’s cool and all, but the important thing is that the single 30 minute workout streak continues. 60 days down, effectively infinity to go! WOOHOO!

Friday at Last

It wasn’t really a long week, but now that we’re up to Friday it suddenly feels like a long week. Eight hours and 11 minutes to go until the weekend. Who’s ready?

I was hoping for some car music today but I didn’t get a chance to write any lyrics last night. Maybe tomorrow. The plan as it stands now is to go to see a matinee of the new Thor movie tomorrow. That is both exciting and nervy. It will be our first visit to a movie theater since the pandemic started. That’s why we’re going to the first showing of the day. We’re hoping the place will be empty. We’ll see.

I thought about asking the bariatric surgery facebook group about the pros and cons of small amounts of popcorn, but then I re-declared the facebook boycott so… yeah. I’ll stick to water, thanks. Wicked smaht there, Robert.

I am going to visit my mother tonight. Hopefully I’ll get there once or twice more over the weekend. I need to stop by Dad’s too. We’ll see how things shake out.

I want to do some music, preferably car music and guitar playing and some lyric/melody/riff writing. The faux 50/90 is still happening, but I am about an astronomical unit* behind schedule. There are only six songs in the pipeline right now and none are even remotely close to finished. Also, July ends next week. I should have 13 songs complete by the end of the month. Not happening. Not even close. Still, it’s fun. I just need to get into the groove somehow. I was feeling pretty good on Wednesday. Let’s channel that and do some more.

Photography… I don’t know. Downtown Andover? Downtown Lowell? Boston and Cambridge? We’ll see. I want to have one or two more rolls finished (I have two finished now and one in progress) before I ship off to a lab somewhere, but that could take ages at this point. We’ll have to see.

Okay. Let’s get through the work day before we worry about any of this stuff. Happy Friday, folks!

*An astronomical unit is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. That is a perfectly accurate description of how far off the pace I am at the moment.

The Ban Begins Again

I ended my personal facebook ban when the psychologist I talked to at the weight loss clinic suggested I join a bariatric surgery support group. I didn’t want to but I did.

I haven’t opened the app for a few days. A few minutes ago, on the spur of the moment, I deleted the app from my iPhone. Later on I’ll delete it from my iPad too.

The facebook ban has officially recommenced. If for some reason I decide I need that bariatric surgery group again I will end the ban again.

Until then?

Patches approves.

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Complaining About Being Here

I don’t like to complain about going into the office out loud, but I am okay with doing it here.

The main complaint is always the same. I miss the gigantic 10,000 inch monitor on my desk at home. I have the laptop’s monitor and a little tiny second monitor here, but even combined they aren’t even close to as big as the 1,000,000 inch monitor at home.

The AirPods Max I brought in with me are wonderful headphones. Still, I greatly prefer listening to music or podcasts during the work day on the HomePod we have in the cellar. I just prefer a little space in my audio, you know what I mean? And I don’t mean the horrible, awful spatial audio garbage Apple came up with for their headphones. No thank you. That shit is the worst. I mean actual space. I want to have air moving. You know, sound. That’s not a knock against the AirPods Max (other than the crappy spatial audio thing), it’s just a personal preference.

When I work in the office I have to make my lunch ahead of time. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just like the idea of being able to change my mind about what I want to eat at the last minute. You know, after a lifetime of being a pathological picky eater, sometimes you just can’t see that far ahead. It’s a thing. Trust me.

I miss my keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse I have at home are both swanky and awesome gamer level stuff. The keyboard is mechanical and makes tons of clickity clack noise. Here in the office? Simple and straightforward. No bells and whistles. I typo like crazy, and sometimes my right mouse button just ignores me.

I mean, let’s be honest, there is nothing here in the office that makes my life difficult at all. It’s just that after 2+ years of working from home… I’ve gotten a little spoiled by the goodness.

The biggest complaint of all though: No Jen. Sad face. These days we can include no Harry and no Bellana as well. Sad face times three.