Interesting ("disturbing" is more like it) facts via Harper's Index:

Amount of the $106,185 price of a Hummer H1 that businesses may deduct under the proposed Bush tax plan : $88,722

Number of Grateful Dead concerts attended by columnist Ann Coulter : 67

Bill Maher is blogging now.

My favorite fark headline of yesterday referred to this story on slate.com: "Liberian soldiers cross-dress to gain element of surprise. Eddie Izzard hired by pentagon as military advisor."

"Because we all know one of the main factors of war is the element of surprise. And what could be more surprising than the First Batallion Transvestite Brigade?" - Eddie Izzard, Dress To Kill

going through the list of Behavioral Care Providers, i see there's an alphabet soup of acronyms - MD's easy...since i have a LCSW i know it means licensed clinical social worker - but what's an ACSW? LP? LMHC? LMFT? this Acronym City page gives a few answers...

VNS Update - Saw Dr. Mohan today after a major anxiety attack before I was supposed to be going to work on Tuesday (didn't go). He's deferring to my family doc, who told me to take a couple more weeks off and find a new psychiatrist (the one I was seeing left the practice early this year) to make decisions on meds.

That stuff's not particularily VNS related, but when I saw Dr. Mohan today I asked him about the use of the VNS as a depression treatment. Since it's not FDA approved for that use in the US, he doesn't know have the info on how it works. So I don't know if just having the VNS in me to treat my seizures will provide an added benefit of treating my depression, or if they have different settings to use in the treatment of depression - something to look in to, certainly.

Death by caffeine! ever wonder how much pop ya'd hafta drink to die of a caffeine overdose? well now you can find out!

hoo doggie! i didn't know that Roscoe P. Coltrane was a Hoosier. not only a Hoosier, but a Sagamore of the Wabash - Indiana's highest honor!

VNS Update - Had a followup visit with the neurologist on Friday, 25 July...he asked me if i wanted more time off from work. As tempting as it was to say HELL YES, I refrained - so back to work I go on Monday! No seizures since I last saw him, so we made no adjustments to the settings - still 30 seconds at .75 every 5 minutes. I was half expecting him to tell me that something happened again with it not going off as much as it should, but it is going off (according to the computer) as it should - guess I've gotten used to it quickly. I'm sure that the relative ease in my getting used to the stimulation is from Dr. Mohan's philosophy of starting low and upping it if need be - sounds as tho the other patients on the Cyberonics website and such have side effects that are more intense because they're pulsing either stronger or more frequently right off the bat.

Work - eek! Part of me's ready to go back, part isn't. I just hope I'm not getting in over my head by going back full time.