Alex Dunne

Off on another trip!

Alex Dunne — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:06:27 +0000

OMG, Palin is a moron

Alex Dunne — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:44:19 +0000

Just saw this interview of Sara Palin by Katie Couric. She makes Bush look like Einstein. Please America, consider the future.

This is why I don’t eat fast food

Alex Dunne — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:16:53 +0000

Check this out, a burger from McDonalds that’s 12 years old, and looks like it hasn’t aged a day:

Why anyone would want to eat this shit is beyond me. Eat chemicals much? Here’s the story behind it…

No more apnea?

Alex Dunne — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:06:56 +0000

I decided to cancel my overnight “sleep study” this week because for the past few weeks I’ve been sleeping better (including on my side, which I haven’t been able to do for almost 2 years). Linda has said she hasn’t heard me gasping for breath in the middle of the night. And after doing some Googling on the subject, I have been trying to avoid many of the apnea triggers, like drinking wine in the late evening. I’m not sure my precautions have made a difference, or if it’s just that sleeping less on my back (another trigger) is the key.

A Looney Tunes riff on apnea

Alex Dunne — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:25:25 +0000

Whenever I think about sleep apnea, this cartoon comes to mind.

“Breathe, stupid, breathe! You forgot to breathe again!”

Forgetting to breathe…

Alex Dunne — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:42:03 +0000

I am pretty nutso when it comes to to-do lists. I always have several going at work. One thing I didn’t think I’d have to remind myself to do was breathe. But apparently I’m not always remembering. At night Linda says she can hear me stop breathing for long stretches of time, and then I’ll suddenly gasp for air. It’s apparently worse when I sleep on my back (which I have to do most of the time, because of shoulder injuries), and worse when I’m at altitude in Tahoe. For the most part, I’m oblivious to my problem, which I am assuming is sleep apnea.

I know the problem is getting worse because the quality of sleep I’m getting is far worse than just 5 years ago. Over the weekend while we were in Tahoe I woke myself up, gasping for air. My heart was racing. It was unnerving.

So I’m off to see the doc on Friday. I’ve heard that common practice is to give people with sleep apnea an overnight test to measure blood oxygen levels, and based on the results, I might get a little box that pumps air into my nose or mouth all night. Yeah, I may need to wear a mask to bed for the rest of my life. Pretty depressing. But I guess the alternative is worse, as I’ve read that people with untreated apnea have far greater incidences of heart attacks, high blood pressure, and of course are more zonked out during the day because they don’t usually hit the REM sleep stage very much.

Back from the rowing national championships

Alex Dunne — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:44:31 +0000

My team had a really great showing at the Masters Nationals Rowing Championships down in Long Beach, CA last week. The MRA ended up winning the overall points trophy for the regatta, and I medaled in every event I was entered. (Which was payback of sorts — when I rowed at the World Championships two years ago, I got shut out of every event.) My final tally was a bronze, four silver medals, and a gold.

The weather was excellent, and the course was a mile-long strip of sandy beach that was purpose-built for rowing back in 1932 for the Olympics. It was a great spot to race in terms of weather, the beach, the calm wind conditions, parking, etc. We got a write-up in our local paper yesterday here.

What’s more, during breaks in our races we were able to watch the Olympic rowing events, including the eights’ finals, in which the US women took a gold and the US men took a bronze. That was inspirational.

With the conclusion of the summer 1k sprints, we’re now transitioning to 5k and 6k races this Fall. I won’t be making it to the Head of the Charles in Boston, unfortunately, but there are lots of local “head” races…

Off to the Masters Nationals Regatta

Alex Dunne — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:01:27 +0000

My rowing team (Marin) is getting ready for the Masters National Championships next week in Long Beach, CA. Hopefully we’ll do well; the competition should be fierce. I could be in up to 10 races over four days, which will be an endurance test. (Frankly I wanted to focus on just a few races, not this many, but our coach likes to go for the overall point trophy, which means entering as many events as possible and hoping for the best.)

On a different subject, here’s a vid (I just received) of the boat I was in that won the San Diego Crew Classic back in April. I’m the guy in the bow, black visor. We had a hell of a race!

In Zimbabwe, a banknote only Dr. Evil could love

Alex Dunne — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:16:03 +0000

You know inflation is skyrocketing in your country when you have to introduce the $100 Billion banknote. The poor residents of Zimbabwe (despite most of the country being billionaires, they are indeed dirt poor) such astronomical inflation that they literally bring wheelbarrows full of cash to market to purchase basic groceries. In fact, the new $100 billion note only gets you some fruit. Rather than address the root causes of its inflation, the government of Zimbabwe responds by issuing more currency, and at higher and higher denominations. I’m assuming that their government is readying the trillion dollar note, and eventually the Googol dollar note.

But hey, the new bill at least gets Earth off the hook easily with Dr. Evil, no?

Homegrown slideshow, showing stock Adobe Premiere transitions

Alex Dunne — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:15:14 +0000

For Cindee and Vicki’s benefit. Let me know if you guys like any of the transitions between photos.