Category: Just Because

REPORT FROM GALACTIC SURVEY VESSEL ABRAXAS

Stardate 56998714.6

We recently completed survey of system G6701-1478-9 in the Belos quadrant. It has been approximately 7000 standard since this system was last surveyed. As expected, the neolithic, bronze-age culture existing at the time on planet 3 of the system has progressed considerably.

Upon entering the system we detected the signals of multiple small, unmanned planetary reconnaissance vessels and per standard procedure ship immediately went into cloak mode.

Upon arrival at planet 3, we noted extensive early atomic civilization had arisen since last survey and had spread across the surface. Attendant atmospheric and environmental pollution was widespread.

Monitoring audio and video signals arising from the planet revealed increasingly violent territorial disagreements among nation-states over god-myths and resources. Societal norms are splintering, causing widespread civil unrest. Currently limited to chemical-based explosive weaponry, biologic and atomic-based weapons are held at the ready and are at the stage where the dominant species possesses the ability to destroy entire planetary ecosystem should more widespread conflict break out.

Without outside intervention, we estimate species' chances of survival and progression to interstellar travel within the next hundred standard at less than 5%.

For that reason we recommend a bio survey ship be dispatched immediately to begin covert acquisition of DNA for preservation and study pending Survey Oversight Committee decision whether or not to assist overtly.

END REPORT.

Last Friday. Leaving work I noticed it was different: the quality of light, the temperature, that hazy-overcast so indicative of autumn in Phoenix. It was like someone flipped a switch and summer was finally gone. It's one of the things I've always liked about this time of year in Arizona. One day it's summer, the next it's not.

5-1/2 hours sleep, 42% sleep quality. I simply could NOT fall asleep last night. I finally got up at 12:30 and took a Benadryl. That knocked me out, but I'm comatose this morning.

I have an app on my phone that tracks my sleep. After the initial novelty wore off years ago I deleted it, but lately I've been wondering if my sleep patterns have become truly as awful as I've suspected from the way I've been feeling upon getting up in the morning, so I reloaded the latest version.

The old version required that the phone be placed under the pillow on the mattress itself to track motion. I can only surmise there were some overheating incidents, so now it's designed to sit on the nightstand and instead of tracking motion it listens to your breathing.

While I can understand how the previous version of this software would track your sleep stages via mattress movement, how this works now simply by listening escapes me (especially with more than just me in bed, the ceiling fan, the gurgling aquarium, and the humidifier whirring in the background.)

Even not understanding how this works, seeing this data has been—pardon the expression—eye opening. It verifies that I do often wake up—and remain awake for some amount of time before falling back to sleep—anywhere from 3 to 5 am almost every night. The fact that I almost immediately fall into deep sleep after going to bed explains why I'm almost never aware of Ben coming in later. It also shows the times I get up to use the bathroom.

What's less clear is how "Sleep quality" is computed, because it seems the higher the score on that, the less rested I feel upon waking. Of the data I've posted here, the 67% night was subjectively the best night's sleep I've had in weeks, while the 91% night was among the worst.