TheDoozer

I'll second a sleep study. I've used a CPAP for 15 years, and after a few weeks I couldn't sleep without it.

I try to describe the difference to people by referencing the matrix. You know the weird, green-tinged, fake quality of the world prior to Neo waking up in his little pod? And then on the ship everything was just more real? That's what the transition was like after a week of CPAP. I realized it wasn't a normal thing to start nodding off at long stop lights, or have my mind uncontrollably drift away even during one-on-one, face-to-face conversations.

I should say, though, I'm a moderate-to-severe case, and when I asked about surgery, the sleep doctor looked at me and said, "maxillo-mandibular advancement (shatter jaw and move it forward), septoplasty (nose surgery for deviated septum), and tonsillectomy. So surgeries." Probably will do that, while I'm still in the military, but that I'm willing to suffer all that should tell you how not-fun CPAP is. But it's considerably better than nothing.

And as it relates to this article, when I was initially trying nasal pillows (cpap mask that just attaches to the nostrils), my mouth kept being forced open, even with a strap holding my jaw closed. My sleep doctor suggested taping my mouth shut, and that was a hard no from me. With the deviated septum, I only ever have one nostril open, and if I got a cold, I'd rather not wake up unable to breathe from ANY opening until I could get the tape off.

Does anybody know what this said?! I'm having the same problem!

Edit: nevermind, I figured it out.

I imagine Sales(tm) would not manage to clear that bar, and Pulaski would have no idea either way (unless maybe she were thoroughly briefed).

But he was a LCDR in Starfleet, on board the most prestigious ship in the fleet, and clearly had the respect of the crew he worked with. She had to completely ignore all of that to display the prejudice she showed. I think it's perfectly correct to take issue with it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is that distracting you?"

What? No they don't (not that that's relevant, as we're talking about embryos).

Baby boys get part of their genitalia cut off without consent. Baby girls get their ears pierced without consent (though, granted, not as significant or permanent). Parents make body choices for their kids outside of what is medically necessary. Babies have very little bodily autonomy.

Your gay uncle can get married for now. That's still potentially on the chopping block with the current Supreme Court.

Niche crossover?

I think you're missing the point. Bringing in difficult to obtain weapons as part of the conversation muddies the conversation about controlling the currently ubiquitous weapons being used.

As an analogy, let's say someone blows something up and hurts people, using dynamite or homemade explosive using gun powder:

"Anyone who has access to the dynamite and RPGs and C-4 should be held responsible for what's done with it!"

"Wait, there was an RPG or C4? I'm pretty sure outside the military it's pretty difficult to get ahold of either of those. They're already heavily regulated."

"What difference does it make? They're explosives used to blow things up and kill people."

"Right, but, again, those are heavily regulated, while what happened was with dynamite, which is not."

"OH! So it's OKAY since the dynamite is not as regulated!"

"No, it's just a different conversation about RPGs and C4."

"Only if you have an agenda!"

Vs.

"Anyone who purchases dynamite should be responsible for what happens to it, unless they can show they've properly secured it and didn't give access to it to someone they shouldn't."

"Agreed, dynamite and gunpowder explosives are common and not as regulated as they should be."

"God makes an exception for you and your group, specifically."

Yeah, high school is some of the worst times in my life. If my kid complained, I wouldn't say "it only gets worse," I'd say "this is a rough time, but remember, none of the stuff that is hard is real. It's all just training. The school stuff is training you for deadlines and heavy workloads. The social stuff is training for personal and professional relationships. Try to think of this as the tutorial for life, where you must do X action to proceed, and maybe it's hard because it's new, and it's frustrating because you don't realize it's a tutorial and think "this is the game." It's not. It becomes an open-world game after this. It's harder, but it can be WAY better, and you have a lot more control."

I once had a female coworker who was complaining about how she had walked in on a male coworker using the single-occupancy bathroom (peeing, his back was turned to the door), that him not locking the door was somehow inappropriate of him.

Somebody put a poll up on a white board with the scenario, with question "who behaved inappropriately" with the choices "the person entering the bathroom without knocking" "the person using the bathroom without locking it" "they are both wrong" and "we're all adults here, get the fuck over it."

The tallies were overwhelmingly in the "get the fuck over it" column. But I feel the poll was missing something important: the door had a tendency when locked to stick and leave the person locked inside. We were in a quick-response duty status (as in running to the aircraft), so the person already in should absolutely not have locked it (he was the runner).

You see a closed door to a room (of relative privacy) that might be occupied, you knock. Simple as.

George Bernard Shaw, nice. That used to be my favorite quote.