What’s really funny is that director James Cameron is being consulted because of his deep water experience.

h/t to the wonderful people at xkcd

A new air speed record has been matched.

Yesterday, the USAF launched an experimental aircraft, the X-51A, and it achieved Mach 6 for more than 3 minutes. It used scram-jet technologies, a stepping stone towards space-planes.

Now there is still a long way to go. Mach 6 is fast, but three minuets is not very long and to reach orbital speeds you need something on the order of Mach 16 or 17. Still is is very cool that the USAF is still in the record busting business.

Well Cawdor is doing nicely. I think I can safely say that I have less than 100 pages to go to reach the end of the novel. At 5 or more pages per day that less than twenty writing days or four weeks. So If I hang in there I should have the first draft done by the end of June. Maybe the third week of june as i tend to write faster as I get closer to the end of a story.

One thing I have certainly learned  is that I really don’t know what my novels are about until I write them. This book was going to be a simple retelling of MacBeth but with an SF setting and playing around with gender to explore the character dynamics in a new light.

It has become a book about human nature, cynicism, culture, and how much do you owe your culture?

So it seems that last week I was suffering from food poisoning. A friend of mine who had gone with us to JPL’s open house had the same symptoms over the same period of time. In some ways he had it worse because he was vomiting but my symptoms persisted longer. (Perhaps because on the ENbrel medication I am on for arthritis.)

Anyway yesterday was the first day I could eat without stomach cramps. (Though tonight I did have mild cramping after a dinner of fish.)

It has cost me a weeks writing, but I got back onto my horse today and Cawdor is moving forward again.

Well, my sweetie-wofe came down with a cold over the weekend and now it seems that I have it as well.

I came home early from the day-job yesterday and stayed home today. I’m dizzy with clogged sinuses and my throat is quite sore.

All in all it has not been much fun in Stalingrad.

So, Thursday night I checked into Alvarado Hospital for the second night of my sleep study. This time I was fitted with what are called nasal pillows, then wired up for anothe nights of data gathering.

Nasa pillows is an alternative to the nose and face masks used by many CPAP users. A small hose goes to your nose and sort of like oxygen in a hospital you has vents blowing directly into each nostril. I found this setup much more comfortable than either if the mask arrangements.

I had a splitting headache so I did not work in the hospital that night and instead watched TV until it was time to sleep. (I was so brain dead that I found myself actually watching Futurama.)

The numerous leads for the data bothered me again so I did not sleep through the night, but other then that I slept rather well and the next day I was actually refreshed. My coworkers were able to see a difference in my energy levels.

Sadly I am back to normal now. It’s been two nights without a CPAP machine and I am tried and groggy during the day. I won;t be seeing my sleep specialist until Mid-May so it’s going to be a long two weeks.

This morning I awoke with a mild headache. Unfortunately this is a frequent side-effect of sleep apnea. I was lucky in that the headache was not of Migraine levels, so I was able to go to work. However, the constant irritations of bad phones lines and other negative stimului has conspired to ensure I will continue to have this headache.

It’s slowed my writing, but I have no stopped. More scenes have been completed and I am still looking at finishing th loved.unloved novel by mid-june.

Sorry I’ve been off-libe for a few days, but this past weekend had quite a few headaches in it and they sort of slowed me down.

I did learn the key number from my sleep study and they very much concern me.

My AHI, which is the number of time I stop breathing  in an hour , on average, is 36.5. My Oxygen saturation levels apparently fall to 82%, in a normal health non-smoker they should not fall below 95% so I’m quite a way from here I should be. I also have leg spasms with an average number of spasms of 10/hour and they occur in conjunction with the apneas.

Put all together it means I have sever sleep apnea. Sleep Apnea is a risk factor for a number of heart disease issues and I was already a risk factor for heart disease as my father suffered from it. Though I will find sleeping with any kind of mask uncomfortable and difficult I will adjust because I know its best for my health.

Due to my frequent headaches — also a side effect of sleep apnea — I had no Sunday Night Movie this weekend and I missed work yesterday.

All in all I am looking forward to get this damn condition treated.

The hospital called today and the tests show that I do indeed have sleep apnea. I am scheduled to go back soon for another night of monitored sleeping and mask tests.

What joy.

No time for a big post, it’s late and I am tired.

But I have no completed 38,000 words on Cawdor and I hope to bring it in around 90,000. This book is just flying along.

At times I look at it and I just love it and think it my best work, but then I look at it and I still love it but I feel that no one is going to like it.

le sigh