43 thoughts on “May 15, 2018: Out of my Brain on a Train”
Sleep update: 6 hours 40 minutes last night. Yay! Fourth night in a row over 6 hours. I can feel the improvement.
Is this a goal you've set, or a new device for monitoring? I must have missed this story.
I have a fitbit, which tracks sleep. I have long been sleep deprived, but I didn't know how much I was sleep deprived. The fitbit has given me some sobering information. Anyway, yesterday I mentioned that I had three consecutive days of 6+ hours of sleep for the first time in two plus months. And now a fourth in a row and almost seven hours. I feel relatively refreshed.
Other than tracking, have you changed anything?
I tried to take melatonin, but I stopped that because I found that I would wake up in the middle of the night WIDE AWAKE. I've tried to see if exercise helps, but I'm not seeing a correlation there, either. Which is not to say exercise = bad. It just doesn't seem like it helps or at least not immediately. I've tried stay up later in an effort to stop the middle of the night awakenings. Didn't really help. This week I've tried just going to bed earlier this week and I think that has actually helped.
One thing I've noticed is that when I am traveling, the night before is often poor sleep. Friday I drove home from Fargo. That night was terrible. I'm traveling tomorrow, and I'm going to go to bed early and see what happens.
My belt-clip fitbit requires I hit a button to tell it when I'm sleeping. As a fall-asleep-on-the-coucher, that doesn't work for me.
Do you have a wrist-worn one that can read your heartbeat or something?
Wrist worn.
R.I.P. Frank Quilici. I can sincerely say that I thought he passed a number of years ago.
I always enjoyed Quilici on Twins broadcasts. Not that he was the greatest broadcaster ever, but he and Herb got along really well, he seemed to enjoy the game, and he was very easy to listen to.
I seem to remember that not all his broadcasts were of the sober variety at times, but that may have been reflected by the team on the field.
And every year I ask myself, "Which Who song is that again?....Oh, right..."
Author Tom Wolfe has died. Big fan of The Right Stuff (book and movie)
This review has me entirely sold on Courtney Barnett's next album.
Don't tell Philo.
Oh come now, I have my songs of hers that I don't like, but Pepper also got me to find plenty that I did.
I actually think the review linked here does a pretty good job describing Barnett (while not mentioning her music at all... we could talk about that, I suppose). One line from the review, in particular, stood out to me:
Her work lacks the cynicism of more sardonic writers, like Stephen Malkmus or Frank Black. Instead, she’s witty and confiding. It often feels as if she’s leaning over, conspiratorially, and whispering something just to you: “Dude, can you believe how ridiculous it is to be alive?”
Largely, for me, the songs of hers that fall on that side of the line are the ones with appeal for me, but some fall on the other side of the line. All in all, I find Barnett to be really interesting. Wholesale subscription to her catalog, however, doesn't have appeal.
I'm very excited to hear it. Busy week this week with that, Big Ups, Parquet Courts, Frog Eyes, and an out of nowhere album from MC Paul Barman?
I'm also excited to see her this summer!
My dad's neighbor in Iowa has gotten some great bird photos the last week or two. Two kinds of Orioles, three kinds of Warbler, Indigo Bunting, etc.
I hope they are on the way up here.
AMR, you should "friend" him on The Facebook. He takes all kinds of pictures and looks for help on identification.
I saw some cattle egrets a couple days ago, which was a first for me. With all the extra rain and cool temps, seems like there's a few bird species around here that we wouldn't usually see.
speaking of species that we don't usually see...
Heh, I'm usually hovering in the background.
So, you're not rare but seldom seen? A long-eared owl?
Ooh!
Applied learning!
good on you!
Robinson Cano gets popped for juicin'. 80 games (and he just went on DL, which does not count towards a suspension).
He's basically Sano's mentor. I hope Sano is learning what not to do from this.
I've not seen much evidence Sano is good at learning those things.
MLB Trade Rumors is making it sound like he can start the suspension now even though he's on the DL.
Actually, yeah, I'm seeing that now too.
Lasix. Huh. I guess my dad is juicin' too!
Yep, not for juicing. He was suspended for using a diuretic that’s in the prohibited list, but has legitimate medical use for treating hypertension, which Canó says was the case here. Assuming that’s true, it’s still pretty dumb of him to not run it by his agent first. Apparently the league didn’t buy it, as it’s not an automatic suspension.
Sorry, I was just being glib. Also, yeah, apparently this has been on appeal for awhile.
Timing makes me think he knew he would lose and now he minimizes impact on team by serving on the DL. Not exactly the spirit of the rule.
Yeah, apparently the league has to prove it masked something and they did.
IMPORTANT ON CANO: players are NOT automatically suspended for using diuretics. The suspension means MLB was able to prove he was using it to mask a drug. Cano tested positive before the season, appealed and dropped the appeal. https://t.co/3l47Mkya46
Not sure how you do that unless the masking agent wasn’t very good at masking.
Also, my understanding is that they can suspend the guy if they "have reason to believe" he was using it as a masking agent, not necessarily able to "prove" it. And as far as the appeal, he dropped it because he got hurt and was going to miss time anyways.
Probably learned it in the Bronx.
He has 2 teammates in Seattle that have been suspended as well.
At lunchtime today I was thinking, hey I want some refried beans for dinner tonight. Got out the instant pot. They are all done and delicious.
NBA Draft Lottery is tonight. It's the first time since 2004 Wolves won't be a part of it. It hit me how long that is when I realized Trey wasn't born yet and Junior was 2 1/2 years old. Trey is in 7th grade and Junior is a sophomore in high school.
Not being glib this time: the way Sarah Shook's voice "shakes" is kind of annoying.
To be fair, you were warned by her name.
Finally seeing Avengers. Only one small spoiler, so I did pretty well avoiding any talk ahead of time
Sleep update: 6 hours 40 minutes last night. Yay! Fourth night in a row over 6 hours. I can feel the improvement.
Is this a goal you've set, or a new device for monitoring? I must have missed this story.
I have a fitbit, which tracks sleep. I have long been sleep deprived, but I didn't know how much I was sleep deprived. The fitbit has given me some sobering information. Anyway, yesterday I mentioned that I had three consecutive days of 6+ hours of sleep for the first time in two plus months. And now a fourth in a row and almost seven hours. I feel relatively refreshed.
Other than tracking, have you changed anything?
I tried to take melatonin, but I stopped that because I found that I would wake up in the middle of the night WIDE AWAKE. I've tried to see if exercise helps, but I'm not seeing a correlation there, either. Which is not to say exercise = bad. It just doesn't seem like it helps or at least not immediately. I've tried stay up later in an effort to stop the middle of the night awakenings. Didn't really help. This week I've tried just going to bed earlier this week and I think that has actually helped.
One thing I've noticed is that when I am traveling, the night before is often poor sleep. Friday I drove home from Fargo. That night was terrible. I'm traveling tomorrow, and I'm going to go to bed early and see what happens.
My belt-clip fitbit requires I hit a button to tell it when I'm sleeping. As a fall-asleep-on-the-coucher, that doesn't work for me.
Do you have a wrist-worn one that can read your heartbeat or something?
Wrist worn.
R.I.P. Frank Quilici. I can sincerely say that I thought he passed a number of years ago.
http://www.startribune.com/frank-quilici-former-twins-player-manager-broadcaster-dead-at-79/482616621/
I always enjoyed Quilici on Twins broadcasts. Not that he was the greatest broadcaster ever, but he and Herb got along really well, he seemed to enjoy the game, and he was very easy to listen to.
I seem to remember that not all his broadcasts were of the sober variety at times, but that may have been reflected by the team on the field.
And every year I ask myself, "Which Who song is that again?....Oh, right..."
Author Tom Wolfe has died. Big fan of The Right Stuff (book and movie)
This review has me entirely sold on Courtney Barnett's next album.
Don't tell Philo.
Oh come now, I have my songs of hers that I don't like, but Pepper also got me to find plenty that I did.
I actually think the review linked here does a pretty good job describing Barnett (while not mentioning her music at all... we could talk about that, I suppose). One line from the review, in particular, stood out to me:
Largely, for me, the songs of hers that fall on that side of the line are the ones with appeal for me, but some fall on the other side of the line. All in all, I find Barnett to be really interesting. Wholesale subscription to her catalog, however, doesn't have appeal.
I'm very excited to hear it. Busy week this week with that, Big Ups, Parquet Courts, Frog Eyes, and an out of nowhere album from MC Paul Barman?
I'm also excited to see her this summer!
My dad's neighbor in Iowa has gotten some great bird photos the last week or two. Two kinds of Orioles, three kinds of Warbler, Indigo Bunting, etc.
I hope they are on the way up here.
AMR, you should "friend" him on The Facebook. He takes all kinds of pictures and looks for help on identification.
I saw some cattle egrets a couple days ago, which was a first for me. With all the extra rain and cool temps, seems like there's a few bird species around here that we wouldn't usually see.
speaking of species that we don't usually see...
Heh, I'm usually hovering in the background.
So, you're not rare but seldom seen? A long-eared owl?
Ooh!
Applied learning!
good on you!
Robinson Cano gets popped for juicin'. 80 games (and he just went on DL, which does not count towards a suspension).
He's basically Sano's mentor. I hope Sano is learning what not to do from this.
I've not seen much evidence Sano is good at learning those things.
MLB Trade Rumors is making it sound like he can start the suspension now even though he's on the DL.
Actually, yeah, I'm seeing that now too.
Lasix. Huh. I guess my dad is juicin' too!
Yep, not for juicing. He was suspended for using a diuretic that’s in the prohibited list, but has legitimate medical use for treating hypertension, which Canó says was the case here. Assuming that’s true, it’s still pretty dumb of him to not run it by his agent first. Apparently the league didn’t buy it, as it’s not an automatic suspension.
Sorry, I was just being glib. Also, yeah, apparently this has been on appeal for awhile.
Timing makes me think he knew he would lose and now he minimizes impact on team by serving on the DL. Not exactly the spirit of the rule.
Yeah, apparently the league has to prove it masked something and they did.
Not sure how you do that unless the masking agent wasn’t very good at masking.
Also, my understanding is that they can suspend the guy if they "have reason to believe" he was using it as a masking agent, not necessarily able to "prove" it. And as far as the appeal, he dropped it because he got hurt and was going to miss time anyways.
Probably learned it in the Bronx.
He has 2 teammates in Seattle that have been suspended as well.
At lunchtime today I was thinking, hey I want some refried beans for dinner tonight. Got out the instant pot. They are all done and delicious.
NBA Draft Lottery is tonight. It's the first time since 2004 Wolves won't be a part of it. It hit me how long that is when I realized Trey wasn't born yet and Junior was 2 1/2 years old. Trey is in 7th grade and Junior is a sophomore in high school.
Not being glib this time: the way Sarah Shook's voice "shakes" is kind of annoying.
To be fair, you were warned by her name.
Finally seeing Avengers. Only one small spoiler, so I did pretty well avoiding any talk ahead of time
Also, hats