I meant to post this after I saw it last night...

From rydra_wong:

08:06 pm - You are feeling very sleepy ...

Re-posting from playeatsleep, as it came up elsewhere and I thought more people might find it useful:

f.lux: Better lighting ... for your computer

As people with light boxes will know, it's thought that blue light in particular plays a key role in setting your circadian clock, which is why it's recommended for use in the morning.

But computer (and TV screen) emissions contain a lot of blue light -- even more than daylight does. Therefore, it's been suggested that sitting in front of your computer in the evening might not be the best possible thing for your sleep.

f.lux is a nifty little piece of freeware (available in Mac and Linux versions as well as PC) that aims to solve this. You put in your geographical location, and after sunset in your area, the program "warms" the colour display of your computer screen, reducing its blueness.

You can set it to change slowly over the course of an hour, and I find it very unobtrusive (there's an easy option to disable it temporarily if you want to do anything involving precision colour work).

It may be the placebo effect, but I started using it several weeks ago and have found myself getting sleepy at an ordinary time in the evening (which is unusual for me; normally I get exhausted but not sleepy, and often have trouble sleeping) and then sleeping like a log.

Anyway, if you have sleep problems or want to improve your sleep quality, and tend to use your computer in the evening, I'd definitely recommend experimenting with this. It might also be relevant to some people with mood disorders, given how strongly SAD and bipolar in particular seem to be affected by light and circadian issues (and given the number of us crazy people who have sleep problems).

I have ALL of the excitement about this \o/

From: Marla
To: Samuel; Pr. Lisa; Elizabeth
Sent: Thu, February 10, 2011 10:33:11 AM
Subject: FYI: Disability Committee (NEUMC)

This went out in the weekly e-news from the Conference:

 

News from the Disabilities Committee

 

Stories Wanted!

We at Annual Conference are always looking to hear about how our conference is working to help reach out to more people as we Open Doors and Open Hearts in order to Open Minds.  One way we do this is by making ourselves more open to the disabled populations and their families and caregivers.  Recently, I heard on The Light (A Christian Radio Station in Vermont) on Jonnie and Friends that many disabled people do not attend church due to their disability.

 

Yet, churches are doing more to make themselves more open all the time and we don't hear about it because we tend not to advertise ourselves.  Not this year!  We are looking to hear from you about what you have done over the past two years in overcoming barriers to the disabled.  We would like to hear from you about your story. If you have pictures, please include them.  You may mail stories to Michael McShane at [email address redacted] or Bonnie Marden at [email address redacted]

 

 

Help Needed!

Do you have a background that can help people with disabilities?  Would you like to be a resource the Disability Committee can use?  We are looking for people not only to help with helping churches adapt to the physical structure but also think of what people with disabilities need.  We are not looking at membership unless you have an interest in it.  We are looking for the occassional helping hand.  If you are willing to do so please contact Michael McShane at [email address redacted].  Thank you very much for your interest.

 

Submitted by: Michael McShane