well, now that Gary Coleman's gotten a key endorsement, i think it's OBVIOUS that he's gonna whoop Arnold Schwarzenegger's ass in the California recall election - Nellie Oleson from Little House On The Prairie thinks Coleman is qualified...

The Unabomber Wants His Stuff Back - one of the things he mentioned wanting returned to him is his copy of "On Being Sane in Insane Places"...hmmm...

jeezus - scrape yer forty bucks together, so that you can get your very own dubya military action figure!

For those of you that like to forward email to everyone, in the hopes of curing cancer or getting a $953 gift certificate: CHECK THIS OUT!

interesting blog: Medical Rants

totalfark's lit up with articles about flash mobs - hell, maybe something like this could work here in Indy...hrmm...

flashmob

A Website and Weblog about Topics and Issues discussed in the book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold

Stunts involving 'mob' silliness latest e-mail craze

SFBA Mob #2 - Instructions @ robzazueta.com

In a flash, `mobs' gather in a gaggle, then are gone

hrm, perhaps i should just BUY one...

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.

argh, building the VNS website is gonna kill me, or i'm gonna kill a machine or four in the process...wish i could jump into the time machine and go back to college and go into comp sci...

VNS Update - It's been a really muggy day out there. High temps and high humidity. Those two factors collide to give me some difficulties breathing (aka dyspnea). I've not had breathing problems before the VNS surgery, which is a bit surprising considering the difficulties my mom and brother have had with asthma (although mom's may also be related to her cystic fibrosis as well) but after the surgery I had complications, including atelectasis that made breathing very difficult. That cleared up, but when the heat and humidity get to be overbearing, I find myself getting out of breath very easily.

Otherwise, things seem to be going well - no seizures. Still slightly paranoid cuz i don't notice the pulsing as much, but at my appointment to see the neurologist on Friday we'll check everything out to make sure all's still good - if that's the case, it's back to work Monday!

pics of adam in australia (beware, they're high res) - http://www.squarenine.com.au/adamjay/

time to return books to the library and pick up a new batch...

returning:

The Clinton Wars - by Sidney Blumenthal - didn't get around to reading it and it's apparently on hold for someone else, so i couldn't renew it - maybe some other time...

Skin flutes & velvet gloves : a collection of facts and fancies, legends and oddities about the body's private parts - by Terri Hamilton - this was such an interesting book I bought two copies of it on amazon - one for me, one for greg. i knew greg would love this book of weird trivia about penises and vaginas (definitely more penis-centric, but interesting nonetheless.)

The wisdom of the enneagram : the complete guide to psychological and spiritual growth for the nine personality types - Don Richard Riso - gonna hafta buy this one so i can write in the margins - very cool book.

Leaving reality behind : etoy vs eToys.com & other battles to control cyberspace - by Adam Wishart - definitely a case of you can't judge a book by it's cover. very interesting, but really it's two separate books, one about etoy and one about etoys.com, then a bit at the end about the fight over the domain name. don't know where the "other battles" portion of the book is - i was expecting stuff about things like the fight over nissan.com - the computer guy with the last name of Nissan vs. Nissan motors. i'm very interested in etoy.com tho - weird guys, dunno if i like em or not.

Arch - book of photos of Andy Goldsworthy's art. after seeing Rivers and Tides, i've found myself very interested in Goldsworthy's stuff.

Google hacks : [100 industrial-strength tips & tools] - too industrial strength for me, tho i did learn a few interesting things.

101 survival secrets : how to make $1,000,000, lose 100 pounds, and just plain live happily - by Rich Hatch, winner of Survivor. i was amazed and how intelligent this guy is - a surprisingly interesting read.

Kill duck before serving : red faces at The New York Times : a collection of the newspaper's most interesting, embarrassing and off-beat corrections - by Tom Bloom - funny, but it's more of an article than a book: there's lots of filler in this one.

No logo : taking aim at the brand bullies - by Naomi Klein - found this in doing a search for culture jamming, didn't get to read the whole thing, maybe another time...

Second acts : creating the life you really want, building the career you truly desire - Stephen M. Pollan - no time to read this one, maybe another time...

Your own worst enemy : breaking the habit of adult underachievement - Kenneth Christian - no time to read this one either, maybe another time...