EEG stands for excellent excuse for an afternoon snooze

OK, I couldn't find anything clever for the "G".

If you've never had an EEG before, it's an interesting experience. First, the technician measures your head front-to-back, side-to-side, front-to-side, and marks spots with a special crayon. Then, you get to lie down and each spot is smudged with a compound that helps the sensors read the brain waves (and also keeps the sensors in place). I'd say I had about twelve of them stuck to my head, two to my ears (points of references for the computer, i.e. this is NOT part of the brain), and a few others to my upper chest and my face.

Then, you go through a few tests: opening and closing your eyes with regular light, with a strobe light that's blinking faster and faster, breathing quicker and deeper than your normal breathing, counting both forwards and backwards... Finally, you get to lie down and relax. I was so relaxed (or tired) that I fell asleep, even with the technician typing on the computer a few feet away. She seemed surprised by how quickly I fell asleep! I, on the other had, was not ;)

I asked to see some of the readings afterwards, and for her to show me where she could tell that I was sleeping. It's pretty cool stuff. When you're awake, the waves have short ups and downs while billion of brain cells work away. When you're sleeping, it's the opposite, waves are spread apart and ups and downs are far apart.

Some recent news that made me feel sad... My closest colleague has decided to leave work and spend a few months taking care of his kids. I think this is a very noble decision. Work was really impacting his family life. It's too bad that some positions in the company don't really allow for a good balance between work and personal life. I think one of the big challenges is that we've had a high rate of attrition in the past year and people who leave are not always replaced. This means that people left behind absorb the additional work. Another challenge is working with teams divided across continents, more than twelve hours away. We often need to coordinate efforts and share information effectively, for which e-mail is not always an appropriate medium. This means either early morning or late night calls.

I'll really miss this colleague, we worked well together, and he always had lots of respect for my ideas and sometimes crazy projects. Having someone around who is always supportive makes such a difference. We also shared common values and expectations. I could tell this person about good and bad things happening in my life. It felt like having an older (and wiser) brother at work ;)

:-(