Probation

My medical license may have to be revoked, or at least put in a probationary state.  I said Star Trek Voyager was the cure for insomnia.  Now, I'm not backing off of that completely, but the notion bears some scrutiny.  Naturally, I've turned to Voyager to help with my sleep issue.  Maybe I just went to the well too many times.  But I am kinda liking the show.  I'm almost getting into it.  That captain Janeway is closer to Kirk than Picard ever was.

Just so we're clear, and to prevent the immediate suspension of my medical license, I still fall asleep part way through the episodes.  But that could be because I'm tired.  Or, it could be the case that Voyager is an entirely likeable show that still puts people to sleep.  It is not logically contradictory for a show to be at the same time likable and sleep inducing.

The faulty assumption is that bad shows put you to sleep and good shows engross to the point of keeping one from sleep.  This isn't necessarily true.  I like Beethoven.  While he doesn't put me to sleep, it's possible that I could go to sleep while listening to him.  In the same way, I could watch a show like Voyager, enjoy it, and fall asleep while watching.  In fact, it's likely since it has been my go to program.  And the one that I watch when in bed.  In my stateroom.

The DVD players on the boat don't have comprehensive controls-like menu buttons or arrows-but only play and stop, so when watching a series on DVD, I have a better time in my room where there is a PS3 and a controller for it.  Hence my watching the series in there.  By extension, when I am watching the show it is from bed, where I fully intend to sleep.  With this in mind, it is the case that when I do fall asleep, it is with Voyager on as background.

Does Voyager make you fall asleep?  Or is it simply a function of it being on when I do fall asleep?  I think it helps.  But I realized that it's slumber inducing effects are becoming a bit of a liability since I kinda do want to watch the episodes.  One thing I can say about the sleep situation is that I don't fall asleep every time I hit the rack.  I don't avoid sleep by staying up.  Much of the frustration comes from trying to sleep in the rack and being unable to do so. 

Totally pointless, I know.  Just a roundabout and slightly concealed compliment to the show.  I am a Trekkie.  I loved Kirk and Spock and the rest of the gang.  I never got into the next generation (and never tried).  I'm not quite into Voyager, but it is acceptable. 

Today was the first totally sunny day in Seattle since I've been here.  Not a cloud in the sky.  The sun is always, or at least usually out at some point in the day and even when raining is never far away,, but today is like a spring day in Sacramento.  I think people from California hear about how much it rains in Seattle and get put off by comparing California rain to Seattle rain.  It's totally different.  Seattle rain is more like Hawaii in terms of the sky's appearance.  It's not horizon to horizon gray for days on end like a California storm.  It's more like a perpetual sun shower, or a misty variably cloudy pattern.  I'll take the Seattle rain.  It doesn't come down like cats and dogs and the streets don't flood.  It just feels perpetually clean and cleansing. 

Ok, party is over.  I'm talking about the weather.