Today is the first day of the next part of my life.

or, equivalently, "I've been replaced by another me who does research AND work, not just work."

Today I started as a Visiting Researcher with the Ubicomp Lab at the University of Washington.  As I arrived, Prof. Shwetak Patel was explaining to some students how to use this flying styrofoam hovercraft (powered by 4 big fans).  Neat.

If you browse the lab's site, you'll notice that they do a lot of incredible magic.  I'm going to be working on the "help you sleep better" magic.  I will probably play with some EEGs to help you sleep, and if that doesn't work, resort to more prosaic means.

My ultimate goal is "help you live a better life."  I think the best way to do this is to increase your ability to pay attention, be mindful, and concentrate.  However, there are a lot of other things that go into it, and sleeping well is one of them.  Furthermore, I'm not going to solve mindfulness in the 6 months I have to work with these guys, but maybe together we can make some headway on the sleep question.  So hey, seems good as any.  Also, maybe dreams will work their way into this.

At any rate, I'm excited.  The group seems really cool, both brilliant and fun.  And my job half the time is becoming "read about, and do, cool things." I ordered a NeuroSky MindSet today; can't wait till it comes in.