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Note that there are no reindeer. My guess is that they met the same fate as Luke Skywalker’s tauntaun.
Nearly eight years ago, I started using a CPAP (pronounced “SEE-pap”) machine while sleeping. I have sleep apnea, which I wrote about in April 2008:
Sleep apnea is caused by the upper airway being closed off when the muscles relax during sleep. This cutting off the of the airway leads to a loss of oxygen, which triggers an automatic fight-or-flight response from the cardiovascular system and brain, which causes a waking response. This sort of thing, repeated over and over again, messes with your sleep and puts undue strain on the heart.
The difference between my pre- and post-CPAP life, if you’ll forgive the expression, is like night and day. I feel completely refreshed when I wake up, and I no longer have that mid-afternoon lull where I’m useless and just want a nap. I now use my CPAP every night, and I take it with me when traveling.
I’m wrapping up a week-long business trip to the corporate HQ of my workplace, GSG, in Concord, Massachusetts. When I unpacked my bag on Sunday night, I realized that I’d somehow left behind the straps for my CPAP mask. They’re a key part of the system, as they hold the mask to your face as shown in the picture below:
Luckily for me, I always carry a roll of duct tape in my laptop knapsack. Here’s what my quick-and-dirty test run looked like:
Version 2.0 incorporates a hotel face towel on the back of my head so I’m won’t rip out my hair when I remove the mask in the morning. As for the bacon images, it’s my belief that life’s too short for plain duct tape.
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The best 3D printer ever
About once a week, I work out of a cafe rather than at the home office. As you might already know, coffee is a tricky beast that sends you to the bathroom for a couple of reasons. If you’re at the cafe solo, you’re faced with the question “what can I leave at my table to hold it while I’m in the can?”
I could leave a coat or jacket on the chair, but I’m in Florida, where you often don’t have them handy because you don’t need them. That’s when accordion comes in handy: it marks your spot, and accordion thefts, as the joke goes*, are quite rare.
* The joke goes like this: I parked my car in a rough part of town and left my accordion on the back seat. When I got back, my window was smashed in, and I now had two accordions.