Un blog n'est pas une blague

The Night Shift

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:46:24 GMT

There was a "night shifts cause cancer" news meme being pushed today.

When I first told my mother that I was going to be working the night shift, babysitting computers as part of a 24x7 department, her reaction was "oh, you're one of THOSE types now, are you?" Her experience with the night shift was when she was a nurse, before I was born. They had it much worse than I do. Sometimes they'd be on days, and sometimes on nights. My work schedule is all nights, completely predictable and compact: three or four 12-hour night shifts in a row, then the rest of the week off. There's not much I can get done between shifts, but the rest of the week is great for traveling.

A recent NY Times article quoted a night auditor for a hotel as saying

If you had told me when I was a teenager that I would be working through the night for 30 years, I would have laughed at you. But I love my job because nighttime is generally quiet and peaceful, and I’m the one in charge. At this point, I am 48 years old and I can’t see myself being happy doing anything else.

The night shift is in my blood.

I understand, although I don't plan on doing this forever. It's so much quieter here at night. No annoying users calling up with trivial problems like during the day. Sometimes there's a serious problem, and I'm paid to handle it efficiently. Between emergencies, there's always *something* I could be doing, but usually nothing terribly urgent. It's just me and the computers, a group mailbox full of email to answer, a pile of service requests to handle, problem tickets to close out, and a turnover note to update to pass along information to the next shift. Fairly routine stuff normally, but there are a few chances per month to Google something new about Unix system administration to solve a problem. There are a lot worse ways to pay the bills.

After nearly four years of this, I feel like I've completely adjusted, as much as one can. The thing I found strangest about it in the beginning was the back-and-forth with our counterparts on the day shift. I come in as they leave, and just twelve hours later, we switch. With an hour for commuting, a half-hour for turnover, and a best-case scenario of eight hours of sleep, that would leave us 2.5 hours to cook food, shower, dress, listen to voice mail, and run errands. Needless to say, I don't get eight hours in-between shifts unless I'm in extreme sleep deficit.

During an unemployment spell, before I'd ever worked nights but with no outside pressure to stick to days, I would see my sleep cycle roll over completely every few weeks because I wasn't living on a 24-hour day. I was doing stuff when inspired to, and sleeping when I needed to. That was the first time you'd see me waking up naturally at dawn, but then the cycle would continue shifting up to late afternoon and then flip back. I love the idea of a 28-hour day, six-day week--some day I'll probably try it.

Now, I do a "12-hour timezone shift" twice a week, once in each direction. On Wednesdays, I normally stay up all day before my first 7pm to 7am shift of the week. I don't necessarily sleep extra on Wednesday mornings. Often on Wednesdays (especially in the last year) I'm driving home from wherever I've just spent the last few days. I switch over to sleeping days on Thursday and Friday before those night shifts. If I can get 6 hours of sleep those days, I'm doing well, but sometimes I get sucked into the computer or have some event to attend and get less sleep than I should. I don't break up my sleep blocks between shifts, though. If I wake up before I need to--as long as I've gotten at least four hours and feel awake, I'll stay up.

Every other week, I work Saturday night as well, so I'm done either Saturday morning or Sunday morning at 7am. I may end up napping a bit after that last shift, waking up for a while from late afternoon to evening, and then getting a good night's sleep that night--but just as often, I stay up all day after that last shift and then start a 16- to 24-hour catch-up period, with maybe six hours of waking time in there before I return to bed to finish repaying the sleep debt.

Serotonin and Melatonin

So, there's my night-shift experience...now about the "carcinogenic effect" of working the night shift. Just a few months ago, a Swedish study said exactly the opposite, but this new WHO study finds a connection, speculating that it's due to decreased melatonin production. Serotonin, a major neurotransmitter in our brain, is a precursor to melatonin. Melatonin lowers alertness and increases the desire for sleep. Serotonin is synthesized in the body from tryptophan. Some modern anti-depressants, SSRIs, work by inhibiting serotonin re-uptake, leaving more in your bloodstream to keep you happy and unstressed.

I've known about melatonin supplements for a long time, thanks to Dana Beal. He also promotes Ibogaine, which is an analogue of melatonin and stimulates very intense "waking dreams." That's a very powerful drug, though. For everyday use, some of the lucid dreaming crowd are interested in melatonin, because decreased serotonin leads to less dreaming, and the melatonin helps restore dreaming. Taking melatonin supplements helps preserve serotonin in the bloodstream by removing the need to use it to make melatonin (in the pineal gland). Which means that keeping up your tryptomine levels is even more important, because otherwise there won't be any serotonin there in the first place.

How helpful that we cook up 30 pound turkeys (lots of leftovers) a month before the darkest part of the year! Brown rice, dairy and peanuts are also good sources of tryptophan, they say. That article also has information about the tryptophan supplement ban, which seems to have been lifted. Shrimp and meats have more tryptophan than vegetarian sources, but the other amino acids in a high-protein meal interfere with tryptophan absorption, so it may be better to eat carbs with tryptophan.

I sometime notice the effect on my dreams when I take a melatonin pill before sleeping. I feel like I'm getting a deeper sleep when I take a melatonin, but I don't take it regularly. After reading the articles about these studies and doing some fact-checking to write this post (I had thought that melatonin was the precursor to serotonin rather than the other way around), I think I should start either taking melatonin or boosting my tryptophan intake somehow. An article from earlier this month on Circadian disorders suggests that "Melatonin administered at the appropriate time reduces symptoms of jet lag and improves sleep following travel across multiple time zones." and "Melatonin promotes daytime sleep among night shift workers. Modafinil enhances alertness during the night shift for a shift work sleep disorder." (I just read up on Modafinil a bit. Sounds like fun, but I don't really need it.)

Sunshine and Daydreams

Anyway, the idea behind the recent studies is that being exposed to (blue) light while you are sleeping leads to decreased melatonin production.

The presence or absence of light has a strong effect on your sleep cycle, but I can attest that even in the middle of a building, not in sight of any windows, the 2:30am to 5am period is still the toughest, and I start to wake up again a bit after 5 am. This study confirms an independent mechanism: the persistence of normal cycling during constant darkness depends on a protein (called PDF) secreted by the ventral lateral cells.

For those who have a hard time getting to sleep when they get home, wear sunglasses on the way home from the night shift, which tricks your body into thinking it's night, and then make sure your bedroom is dark, so you can make melatonin and go into deep sleep cycles, which are necessary for keeping your sanity and for processing things learned during while awake.
You could also wear blue-blocking glasses to be able to fall asleep or get a blue light to stay awake.

There is debate about whether covering your eyes is sufficient, or whether light on the back of your knees matters. (Knees were debunked.) I don't actually keep my bedroom pitch-black, but there's certainly no direct light, and barely any blue light. Sometimes I keep NPR on in the next room during the day, so it's not always quiet, either.

I like to joke that I have no circadian rhythm anymore. Not quite true, but I have good control over alertness when I need to. I can stay awake all night without caffeine if I'm not too sleep-deprived, but I have an unfortunate addiction to Mt. Dew Code Red that I justify because I work the night shift. (I quit caffeinated sodas for three weeks in October! Once I gave them up for about two years, but then I started the night job.) The greater my sleep debt, the harder it is to pull myself out of bed, but the prospect of going right into the shower helps.

I was always a bit of an insomniac, in that there's so many more interesting things for me to do instead of sleep. It's hard to drag myself to bed until I'm really exhausted. Life is so short, why waste it sleeping! But then once I do go to bed, I can fall asleep nearly immediately. I love the coziness of blankets, lots of pillows and a warm cat, and I can stay there quite a while if there isn't something I *have* to do.

If you don't sleep

Our bodies are controlled by an internal daily body clock, situated in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus. The SCN spontaneously generates the circadian rhythms that regulate many physiological and behavioural processes in our bodies, such as temperature control, hormone production, alertness and sleep.

from: Working the Night Shift (PDF) a guide for doctors in England

I do notice impaired thermoregulation when I'm overtired. Other symptoms when I miss significant sleep over many days include irritation under my eyelids and (after *very* long stretches of insufficient sleep) a white haze obscuring some of my peripheral vision. Eventually, my joints feel weak and loose, as if I no longer have the energy to keep my body together. That's when I know I *have* to collapse and catch up on sleep. Food even tastes better when you're not serotonin-depleted. Serotonin depletion will cause carb craving.

Staying awake

Jumping jacks at work. Singing in the car. Those work the best for me. Keeping the car window open doesn't work well enough. Hitting my leg repeatedly like Dad did on late night car trips just hurts too much. I'd rather get a sore throat singing along to Bob Dylan or Amy Winehouse, plus that works better for me.

I have iTunes configured to give me a nearly-constant news stream (a smartlist picking up fresh news summaries hourly from multiple sources). Mental stimulation matters as much, if not more, than physical. Like the hotel auditor, I surf the web a bit to stay awake. In the last year, I've started chatting with friends sometimes who are also up late.

You have to manage your sugar and caffeine intake carefully to make it through the night. Back in college, I was just an amateur. I did a few all nighters, but not regularly, and I'd end up getting sick for a week if I pushed it too far. Now I know that I shouldn't have caffeine before 11pm if I want to make it through the whole night awake, nor can I get on the sugar-fueled roller coaster, no matter how tempting the vending machine seems. Once you've overdone it with caffeine or sugar for the night, you might as well get a nap, because it won't matter how much more caffeine you drink until your system clears out a bit. You can last a long time on 1.5-hour naps. That's the length of going into a REM cycle and coming back out, they say, so your sleep should be in increments of 1.5 hours.

We keep the lights rather low in the office. I eat a full meal right when I come into the office. Sometimes that's my only meal of the day, in fact. That's too early to put me to sleep, as long as it's not too carb-heavy. You have to avoid an energy spike, because you can't recover from an energy crash too well without a nap or some sunlight.

So, does the night shift really cause cancer?

The latest articles don't do the subject justice. If you're chronically serotonin-deprived, that isn't good, we know that. Can people with adequate tryptophan, serotonin, and melatonin levels avoid the negative consequences found in this study? I would assume so, based on common sense, but let's see some data! Does this study tell us anything that this one, suggesting a fundamental connection among circadian timing, cell cycle progress, and potentially the origins of some cancers didn't?

Melatonin supplements are probably a good idea for nightshift workers and others with depleted serotonin. I would recommend them for anyone who's having problems getting deep sleep, as long as they can set aside time to sleep. Take them an hour before bed. Dana recomends letting the pill dissolve on the gumline for more rapid absorbtion. Why didn't the articles mention melatonin supplements at all?

Sorry if this is a bit rambling. I'll look at it again after I've had some sleep. ;-)

An Amusing Link:
Livelyhood: Nightshift from PBS

The One Laptop Per Child Program

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:46:34 GMT

I've done it! I've just ordered a really cool, electric-green, alternately-powered, network-finding, colloboratively-programmed, weather-resistent little laptop for myself, AND another one will be sent to the developing world at my expense. Not a bad little bit of holiday shopping, if I may say so myself.

I think that relying on the free market in the first world to pay for initial distribution in the third world can help get the price down if this is properly publicised. They need to have a big campaign for this Christmas. (Is Bono helping out with this? He should.)

I was in the airport two weeks ago and from across a gate lobby, I saw that CNN was doing a piece on these. Even though I'd never seen a picture of them before and couldn't even hear the sound on the TV, I could tell what they were talking about. I was like, "Oh, they are bright green? That's so cool. I REALLY want one now!" I pointed to the TV and told the couple behind me about the program. They were equally excited about it--that for a reasonable price for us, they could be helping kids in the third world in such a direct and useful way.

The software is reportedly completely innovative. Assuming that the collaborative features and network discovery/creation capability are working as described in the press, who needs a Microsoft operating sytem to run on it? I won't want one on mine. ("...recently, the firm announced that it was working on a version of Windows XP that would run on the pared down machines"...ugh.)

In case you haven't heard of the program:

One Laptop Per Child Twofer Program Extended -- today's news from FOX, which reminded me to order one

One Laptop Per Child topic index from CNN

One Laptop Per Child News both pro and con, from a variety of sources

See some pictures of it from Flickr

Then, go check out their site and order two yourself!

Laptop Giving

"The future is here, it's just not equally distributed." - William Gibson

How I got my first 2600 YouTube views for Ron Paul

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:11:44 GMT

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

The Fifth of November is Guy Fawkes day in England, but this year, it was also the planned date of the biggest "money bomb" so far for the Ron Paul presidential campaign in the U.S. After donating my $100, I got inspired to write something a little less violent for the day than the original Guy Fawkes rhyme. After sending my new version of the rhyme to a couple of mailing lists, I said to myself, "I should really make this into a video so I can post it on YouTube and see what kind of audience I can get."

I really needed to leave for Central NY (where I have some property), so the whole production had to be a quick little thing, no time for perfection. I searched the net for some pix to use for a cheesy slideshow to put to the poem, like 'everyone' does on YouTube. I tried not to take anything too obviously copyrighted, and the Ron Paul pix were all fine to use for this, of course. I mostly relied on http://Flickr.com to search for Ron Paul pix and rallies, but http://image.google.com for the rest.

The original rewriting of the poem took about a half hour (see the info box at YouTube for the words and a link to the original). The video, including the search for pix, multiple takes of an audio recording of the poem AND the blitzkrieg promotion, all took about 2 hours. It turned out the home computer has "Windows Movie Maker" on it -- not something I would have ever sought out, but perfectly sufficient for my needs, and rather simple to learn (assuming a basic level of computer knowledge).

I imported the pix I'd found, slapped the audio track for the poem down for my main timeline, and started dragging the pix onto to the timeline. I shuffled them around until it looked presentable, then uploaded it to YouTube.

URL: Fifth of November for Ron Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHatG6Kq5OU

For promotion, I posted the YouTube URL to
- my Facebook "wall" -- my page's visitors may see it there, but more importantly, all my friends who view the "what's new in your network" homepage will see it
- embedded in a MySpace "bulletin" that all my friends see if they log in within the next ten days
- embedded in my MySpace "comments" area -- all my page's visitors will see it
- embedded in the "comments" area of about 10 of my 16 "top friends" on MySpace whom I knew would be receptive to it, so all THEIR visitors see it
- the "HQNH" Ron Paul Meetup board (but then after not being able to post to my local RP Meetup b/c I'm not a moderator, I didn't try any other Meetups)
- and I emailed it via Facebook 'specially to Aaron B. to pass out to his contacts, an important part of any Ron Paul-related viral strategy. ;-)

I searched YouTube, and a search for "Ron Paul November Fifth" did not and still does not return my video in the first bunch of results. So, the only intra-YouTube promotion I got (not having an established audience or a big network there) was presumably the "being viewed now" highlight at the top of their home page. I never caught it up there myself, because there are SO many videos being watched there all the time, but I assume I got a few views that way.

A way to "cheat" and get more views would have been to upload my video as a "response" to a wildly popular, possibly-related video, but I didn't do that, because that felt too cheesy. (I'm not ruling it out in the future, though. ;-)

I left for Central NY, and when I came back a couple of days later, my first YouTube video had 2600 views and 58 nice comments. Granted, I picked an already "viral" topic, Ron Paul, and hooked into existing networks to communicate the message***, but that's an advantage we all have.

I'll be doing another one for the next 'RP money bomb' date...December 15-16. A Boston Tea Party theme, I read (plus Bill of Rights day). I have more time for planning and promotion for that, so I expect the second one to do even better.

***Obviously, I need to try to get the message out beyond the existing Ron Paul network next time. This one was mostly for practice. I assume that at least 95% of my views were from the 'already converted.' However, if you get enough YouTube views, you'll get bumped up and start getting some intra-YouTube promotion, not to mention word-of-mouth.

Stated bluntly, the consumer metaphor is "customer as eye, trainable neural system and wallet." That's the full text behind "eyeballs." - Esther Dyson

(We need to define our audience and add "voting" to the end of that chain.)

[This posting was originally written up to help and encourage my fellow Ron Paul supporters to do the same thing themselves.]

Choosing a new cell phone provider

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:55:41 GMT

So, my cell phone's battery has been pretty much dead for weeks now, just barely usable when I hold the cord in firmly to its body. I'm half-way through transcribing the numbers off it, and I'm trying to find a new cell phone provider.

I need/want, approximately in order:
- the ability to do digital stuff from the yurt: surf the web from the phone, and be able to use the phone to connect a laptop online, even if it's for a separate but reasonable fee and/or not too fast
- the ability to use the phone in Burlington, VT and good coverage elsewhere in the US for travel, without undue penalty for my location
- any kind of camera in the phone, and the ability to upload pictures...preferably not just via the company's website, like my last four years with SprintPCS
- to be able to keep my 914 area code number

I'd love to stay with my current provider, SprintPCS, just due to laziness/inertia, but I have to get a new phone now, those usually go with a contract renewal for the best deal, and there's a chance that I won't have ANY access via Sprint at my yurt come February, when they are rumored to be getting rid of their analog network, which is what I connect to now when there. I have a message in with "someone who might know" about future plans for my area, but I'm not counting on them giving me any guarantee that I might then rely on. The nearest digital Sprint tower I get is about 5 miles south of the yurt, so I don't expect that a stronger phone will help enough. (I liked their "Fusic" LX550 with GPS, expandable memory and the best reception, $79.99 after discount and rebate.)

I also went around the corner in Williston to the Unicell office and interrogated the salesguy there (he didn't seem to mind). They MIGHT be perfect for me, except that they can't port my 914 number to their service. What about Congress's portability act, you say? Glad you asked. That only applies to national carriers, and to regional carriers who offer service in that area code. THEIR INTER-REGIONAL PARTNERS DON'T COUNT.

Previously, I'd checked out "Cingular, the new AT&T" while I was in Central NY. They could do everything I wanted, EXCEPT that they would terminate my plan if I spent more than 50% of my calling minutes in Burlington, or otherwise off their network. Didn't matter how many minutes I spent on it, just not one more off it. Sigh. Unicell is their partner up here, so I can make calls on both their networks, but I have to sign the contract with the one that I spend the most time in, and that's not the one that can keep me my 914 number.

I'm checking out Verizon next, because my friends seem to have decent reception on Verizon while at my yurt.

Update

I'm now on a 30-day trial with Verizon. I'll be taking the new phone out to the yurt next week to test it there. Their map shows that I should have reception there, though not high speed. The plan pricing was competitive with the other guys--even better if my text messaging usage doesn't spike now that I have a phone that supports it decently. (Sprint's would take hours to arrive, and I'd have to go "online" with the phone to get the full message, in most cases.) I've got the LGVX8300 phone.

	Sprint	Unicell	Verizon
base plan price	$39.99	$35	$39.99
base plan minutes	450 peak minutes (? to 7pm), $.45/min if over or "roaming"	"Nationwide" base plan: 300 peak minutes, 500 off peak (starts at 9pm), free incoming, $.35/min if over, no roam charges, but you can't spend over 50% of minutes outside your network	450 peak minutes (6am to 9pm), unlimited outside of then or to other Verizon users, $.45/min if over, no roam charges
text/video/picture messaging	$15, includes web	$30 for unlimited, free incoming, $9/mo for basic 2MB package	$20 over base price for unlimited, $10 for 500 messages, $5 for 250 message
WAP (web access)	see above	$30 for unlimited	$5/month or $1/day
GPS service	$20 with text + web	??	$10/month or $2.50/day
Data	$39.99	$30/month for 20MB on-network, $60/month for unlimited data on and off network	$44.99
Activation Fee	--	$30	$35

Plus taxes, of course, about $15 worth. I think I've got that about right. I haven't purchased the data option yet, but I need it to be possible in order to be able to get online at the yurt.

My new iPod, plus some Web 2.0 links

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 06:39:48 GMT

I now have an iPod, one of the "50 Best Tech Products of All Time." It took me an hour or two to charge it up (I didn't notice when it finished), 45 minutes to upgrade all the iTunes software and reboot the computer a few times, then JUST SECONDS to transfer a full album plus two songs over to it. Wow! I'm getting psyched to rip all my CDs into MP3s and look online for all my favorite songs that I previously purchased on cassette. Because, face it -- most of the music I have is from the '80s and on cassette tape. The iPod is set for manual sync mode, because I'll mostly be transferring the music to it at home and the podcasts onto it while at work, where I'd already been using iTunes to listen to them.
* * *
The other thing I wanted to post here today is a short series of links about the social networking sites. I haven't read them all in full yet, but they look great and they come from a blog posting that was really interesting, about HOW libraries should use online outposts like those on Facebook and MySpace. A lot of that applies to political parties (why I got interested in these kinds of sites) or anyone trying to do outreach and engage an audience.

Summarizing Facebook Research
http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/04/summarizing-facebook-research.html

Intuitive Revelations: The Ubiquitous Reference Model
http://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/1853/8446/3/IntuitiveRevelations.pdf

Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?
http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html

Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace
http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html

Long overdue post about library marketing in online communities
http://librarymarketing.blogspot.com/2006/05/long-overdue-post-about-library.html

* * *
Early Sunday AM, I'll be embarking on my first roadtrip with the new iPod. I didn't buy the "car kit" for the iPod, but between my inverter and the headphones, I can get by for now.

LP Women 2.0

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 01:46:06 GMT

I've started applying some of my Web 2.0 "research" on behalf of the Libertarian Women's caucus. (I recently got added to their list.) I've put together a MySpace and a Facebook hub for us:

Libertarian Women on MySpace
http://groups.myspace.com/libertarianwomen

LP Women on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2257897787

and then--why not a map as well?

Libertarian Women on Platial
http://platial.com/infojunkie/map/21297

Web 2.0, the YouTube movie

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:45:56 GMT

Here's a brilliant video demonstrating the evolution of "fixed" communication from text into tagged, multimedia content streams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Where have you been?

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:18:12 GMT

I found this neat little mapping service at amanda42's LJ. These are the states I've actually visited something in, not just driven through. I didn't count it if I never got off the Interstate or only camped overnight on my way through. If I did, all the lower 48 would be highlighted, I think. Maybe I missed Arkansas in all the criss-crossing, but I bet I hit at least a corner of it once. I haven't been to Alaska or Hawaii yet.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Hello, world

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 04:03:19 GMT

I've been going around to all the Web 2.0 sites and updating my profiles, looking for friends who are on there, too. There are so many of these sites out there! One could waste a lot of time on them, as I'm sure you've found...