The Sleeped

I finally had a decent nights sleep. As is usual when I've been up as long as I was, it took me a fair while to get my body used to the idea of sleeping again, so I guess it was around 8:00 pm when I finally drifted off to sleep.

12 hours wasn't really enough sleep, but its a good start. I should be able to get some things done, like shopping. Its also a plus that its a bright sunny day today, as going out in the sun is bound to help reset my body clock to a day/night schedule. With any luck I'll be heading off to sleep early today as I'm supposed to be up at 5:00 am on Tuesday for networking, so I still need to cycle my hours a bit.

Hmmm. I just remembered a strange dream. I was talking to my Mom and she told me that Dad had decided to go back to University to get his degree. He was taking a double major, although I have no idea in what subjects. He was doing it because he had decided he didn't want to retire after all. This seems highly unlikely in the light of day, and I have to wonder what prompted the dream.

Maintenance.

Got to do some more maintenance on the Server. There are a few 'sector not found' errors showing up in the logs. Doesn't seem major, but I'll need to drop into single user mode to run some file checks.

Somehow life's vissitudes seem easier to handle when one has had enough sleep.

Long Day.

Today was the first day since I got sick over two weeks ago that I was awake during the day, and had actually slept the previous night. So, there was a large backlog of things that I did. I pretty much concentrated on stuff that should not be put off any longer... which reminds me. I forgot something. One sec... okay done.

So, as you can see, its been non-stop.

It started when I checked my mail this morning. There was an automated message from the server saying that there was something wrong with the lpr logs. Now, the server doesn't HAVE a printer attached, so it seemed unlikely there should be a problem with printer logs. I checked the directory in question, as root, and was informed that I didn't have permission to see the permissions of some of the files. WTF?

To make a long story short it turned out to be file system corruption, and I spent the next three hours or so fixing it.

Then I headed out to do some much needed grocery shopping. I completely failed to go back onto Atkins when I got over being sick, because there was no low-carb food left in the house. I ended up having to eat various emergency foods like frozen tourtierre, frozen dinner rolls and the like. At least I managed to get some food today before I opened up the pasta.

Then, once home, I finally responded to Google's request for some information and my resume. I talked to the lady from Google something like 5 hours before my flu descended upon me, and today was the first time since that I was lucid. So, we'll see how they handle a 2-week delay in sending them info. :-/

After that, I cooked supper, because Linda is still super busy (and will be for another month or so) and some of the groceries I bought today need cooking if they're gonna be edible as snacks later (ie sausages).

By the time supper was cooked it was already time that I was thinking of bed, if I want to BOTH catch up on sleep tonight AND be up for 5:00 am. The problem was, I wasn't done.

I had to make an important call to my bank (at least the help line is open 24/7) and then I helped diagnose some TV problems that Linda was having in the Basement. (Results: Both of our VCRs, Her colour TV, AND its external tuner box are all dead in varoius ways. No wonder her TV reception has been dodgy.)

I then hauled a bunch of trash out to the curb (including a bunch of the aforesaid fried electronics), emptied the dishwasher from the afternoon load, reloaded and started it up again, and finally came up here.

I started this missive and then remembered I had promised my Mom an email today. So, there was a pause while that got writ, and then I finished this.

So, now I am done for the day, and quite pooped. Its also an hour or so past my planned bedtime. All that's left is to spend some time destressing and relaxing so that I can fall asleep when I crawl into bed. From the way I'm starting to feel right now, I don't suspect there will be any difficulty.

1.25 Million?

I was just struck by an idle thought: if we wanted to power a person electrically, what would it take? The reason I ask this is that one major problem facing the builders of ultra-micro robotics (fly-sized spycams, smart dust, etc) is how to power it. I wondered if nature was so much more efficient in power usage, or if it was because we have a denser power supply in food than that available in batteries.

A quick check on the Net shows that 1 'D' Cell battery holds about 1200 mAh (milliamp-hours) or 1.6 Calories. Now, thats a physics Calories, which equates to 0.0016 food Calories. Per entire D-Cell. Now someone of my rough size and weight needs about 2000 food calories per day for maintenance. That works out to a whopping 1.25 MILLION D-Cells per day. Pricey!

If we do the calculation the other way we see that the 1.5 million amp-hours of energy I need in a day works out to about 96.9 watts of continuous power consuption, or about one decent light-bulb's worth.

So, I don't actually need all that much power, its just that current battery technology sucks big ones when compared to something like food energy, and THAT's why we need fuel cells.

Now that I've worked that all out, I should be able to sleep.