best comment on Fark regarding the capture of Saddam...

props go out to Farker Purple_Jack, who said:

IT'S OFFICIAL:
Osama is now the undisputed 'World Hide and Seek Champion'.



now one thing i don't understand all the news reports trumpeting the fact that Saddam was captured without a shot being fired...errrr, well, okay, they captured him and didn't shoot anyone at that specific time, but i believe more than a few shots have been fired in this thing, and the friends and families of those killed in Iraq this year might take some offense to that thoughtless comment...

who the hell calls me at the ungodly hour of 9am?!?!?

...oh - the unemployment office. i guess that's okay then, particularly when they tell me i'm going to be getting benefits. woo hoo - guess i'll be getting my prescriptions filled this month!!! thanks santa!

sorry Rush, you can't have my extras. *8-P

yesterday was a day of doc appointments...

saw dr. wisler (internal medicine doc) in the morning - guess it's back to the hand surgeon next monday to see about this carpal tunnel crap, since it appears to be re-emerging....another cortisone shot? i dunno....also got my flu shot (finally!)

the afternoon schedule had an appt with the psychiatrist, over at gallahue on the east side...how convenient, that's right across the street from the neurologist's office at community hospital, and i needed to stop by there because i left my VNS magnet there at my appointment last week...so i head in to the hospital, and TRIP on the floor mat they have inside the door from the parking garage. not a silly little slip, noooooo - can't do it that way. i went BOOOOOOOOOM, down on my knees, down on my wrist, and actually hit my head, above my forehead. how fucking embarassing is that? next thing i know, there's a swarm of people around me - are you okay?!?!? embarrassed as hell is how i am, and i can feel the skin scraped off my knees and my wrist is killing me (it was already hurting from the carpal tunnel, but then of course i had to land on THAT HAND and make it hurt even more) i'm crying, but tell everyone i'm fine. one of the guys, who i think was a hospital employee, tells me i should go over to the emergency room and get checked out, and to fill out an incident report. naah, i'm fine, i tell him. so i go into the doc's office, get my magnet and head back to my car - walking back to the car made it very obvious that i wasn't fine, the pain in my wrist and knees was excruciating. so i head for the ER. so much for the shrink appointment across the street.

long story short, x-rays of my wrist were fine...i didn't lose nearly as much skin on my knees as i thought i had, just got some bruises and some major pain to go with em - i swear, when i fell it felt like i was running my bare knees over one of those cheap-ass green doormats with the daisy in the corner...i was surprised there was still skin there...gave me a new wrist splint and an rX for Vicodin and i was on my merry way. how fortunate that i'll be seeing the hand surgeon next week.

i tell ya, the vicodin is quite a pill - couldn't tell if i was in pain or not, and i really didn't care. felt like i was drunk off my ass...and that was from one pill. how limbaugh could gobble those things up, i haven't a clue...guess it all comes down to tolerance (ironic, Mr. Intolerance seems to have built up a tolerance for the painkillers)...

Igby Goes Down

Igby Goes Down - i got the DVD from the library and watched it last night.

igby's played by Kieran Culkin - yes, one of those Culkins (born on my 10th birthday, actually) - and was very interesting...i'll definitely keep an eye out for him in other roles...

yes, i confess - my susan sarandon obsession was what originally led me to this movie, but i was pleased to discover a purty good movie as well. jeff goldblum's character was rather interesting...hell, all the characters were interesting

if ever there was a time to judge a DVD by its cover, this is it - the blue wall igby's sitting against is the color of the movie...rich, intense, hard to take your eyes away from it...pix on the web don't do it justice...

i agree with ebert's review - 3 and a half stars.

maybe bill gates isn't all that bad...

...i mean, he IS giving 27 million bucks to combat Japanese encephalitis...

i've always wondered - how do gazillionaires decide how much $$ to give to various charities or activities? what made him say TWENTY-SEVEN MILLION instead of $28,000,000 or $26,395,291?

the weird thoughts that creep through my head sometimes....

10 years?!?!?

postcard in the mail: "Mark your calendar for October 15-17, 2004!" - ugh, 10th reunion! well, 10th reunion of when i SHOULD'VE graduated from earlham...

damn, doesn't seem like it's been that long, but then again it seems like it's been much longer...

what in the hell have i gotten myself into?!?!?

greg asked me for some help on a little project. seems he's got some recipes from "Nanny" (his grandmother, i presume?) and other people and he'd like it all typed up and made into a cookbook. he wants to get them printed up for xmas presents for family members. okay, i tell him, get me the stuff ASAP. last weekend he tells me he'll drop it off monday - guess what, i didn't get stuff till tonight, THREE WEEKS till xmas!! and it's stuff clipped from newspapers and magazines, or recipes scribbled down on scraps of paper, some of it barely legible, some of it not legible at all. there are duplicates in there too - some index cards have the exact same ingredients and directions on them. i suppose what's scarier is when they ALMOST are exactly the same - there was one for some sort of jello salad...one called for Dream Whip, the other said Miracle Whip! Eeeeeek! Quite a difference there - we're talking Cool Whip vs. Mayo!

and of course my fucking carpal tunnel has been flaring up like a bitch - time for another cortisone shot, or time to look into surgery? dunno.

not sure if i'm gonna be able to get this thing done in time for him to send em out before xmas, but it'll be good to have for the portfolio (hopefully) when it's all done

VNS update update...

followed up yesterday's appointment with dr. mohan with a visit to him at the community hospital office today. since the computer at st. vincent's didn't appear to work properly, we met today so he could make sure my VNS was working and then increase the settings. so doc gets puter #2 set up - same shit happens...the screen says that the wand connected to the computer isn't making any connection with the implant. i know the implant's working - swiping the magnet over the vns makes it very obvious. thankfully, they had another computer in the office (apparently cyberonics is swapping out computers and limiting each office to only one machine - a bad thing to do, in my opinion) and on the 3rd try, things worked just fine. 3rd time's a charm, i guess. so now we've bumped up the stimulator from 1 to 1.25 and the magnet working at 1.5. no changes to the keppra i'm taking - dr. mohan wants to increase the vns more before doing that, since i'm apparently at medium as far as vns settings go...

1.25 is definitely causing some pain - seems like it may take longer to adjust to this than previous increases - the sharp pain in my left ear every time it goes off really sucks.

VNS update...

had a follow-up with Dr. Mohan today...

an example of words you don't want to be hearing out of your doctor's mouth? "What is this contraption? I have absolutely no clue how to use it." he'd asked the nurse for the VNS machine, to check my settings and increase the pulse strength. the nurse apparently misunderstood what he'd wanted and brought another machine, something looking about 87 years old. in tape on the case it said "nerve stimulator" and so i guess she assumed it was the vagus nerve stimulator - wrong! he later found out it was something they use in spinal cord surgeries or something that he doesn't deal with. eventually they rustled up the one machine they had at the office (in order to get an appointment asap after my seizure, i agreed to meet him at the office they have at the st. vincent's professional bldg - way up on the northwest side o' town) but it turned out that the machine was malfunctioning - however, they had 5 machines waiting at their office at community hospital, where i normally go. so, bright & early tomorrow morning i go over to the eastside and get reprogrammed.

the one benefit to going to going to dr. m's office up at st. vincent's is that it makes a terrific excuse to go to dunkin' donuts - there's only one shop in indy now, far far away from where i live...i suppose i'm glad i don't have to face the irony of having the endocrinologist that oversees my diabetes having her office way up there. *8-) ummmm, chocolate creme filled....

thanksgiving was cool...

went to my aunt's house for the big family gathering on turkey day - it was great...my huge selection of family photos inspired me to create a few presents for the kids - my cousin's little kids got tshirts with their pix on them, the bigger kids got other presents - one a snow globe, one a jigsaw puzzle with her pic on it...

i didn't do the Black Friday shopping thing - just didn't have the energy (let alone the money) for it. so i slept in, had a relaxing day...i wasn't able to adhere to adbusters "Buy Nothing Day" because of my need for prescriptions and food, but i restricted the amount of crass consumerism that is so typical the day after thanksgiving.

this is the time of year that i always seem to be a bit more introspective about stuff - thinking about what i'm thankful for and such...i'm thankful that i can be unemployed and still have a roof over my head...thankful for my wonderful mother and all she's done for me...thankful for friends that have stuck by me, even when i'm not such a good friend...

Pez Lez!

i now have in my possession all three of the pez dispensers that i'd featured on my Pez Lez halloween shirt - Peppermint Patty, Wonder Woman, and Policewoman! Dyke cop was, by far, the hardest to find - had to win her in an auction on ebay. the seller has a whole site of pezzes, so i made some additional purchases - got the dyke cop a girlfriend - the nurse. mom agreed that they both looked very butch - they're a cute couple.

unemployed life...

...ain't so bad - yet. went to orientation on monday to find out all the services offered at WorkOne - apparently, the image that most people have of "the unemployment office" is a big misconception...i figured i'd go in, fill out paperwork, and wait for a check - but there's a lot more to the office...a big chunk of services is provided by Goodwill ("we do more than just sell used clothes" the orientation chick told us) - training, job search assistance, computers to do your resumes, help with resumes, all sorts of things...

i'm wondering if the trader's gonna attempt to contest my unemployment claim...guess we'll find out soon enough...

paging Amanda Hugenkiss...

seems Bart Simpson's infiltrated Heathrow airport...

names of people paged include:

Arheddis Varkenjaab - I hate this fucking job
Aywellbe Fayed - I will be fired
Arjevbin Fayed - I've just been fired
Bybeiev Rhibodie - Bye-bye everybody
Aynayda Pizaqvick - I need a piss quick
Malexa Krost - My legs are crossed
Nowaynayda Zheet - Now I need a shit
Makollig Jezvahted and Levdaroum DeBahzted - My colleague just farted and left the room, the bastard.

recordings are at www.ourpointlesslives.com/announcements

and the subsequent fark discussion has more suggestions...

an apology from the guy that coined the word "metrosexual"...

the story on yahoo tells of British writer Mark Simpson's use of the word and how it took off when a story he wrote for Salon introduced it to the US...

Here is Simpson's pithy definition from that article: 'The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere.'

Which Princess Bride Character are You?

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

unemployment.

went to the unemployment office today...although their hours are supposedly 8am to 4:30pm, at 2pm they weren't processing any new applications. so come back tomorrow, they tell me. they did let me know how much i can look to receive on unemployment tho - about $225/wk after taxes. i figure COBRA and my car payment will eat most of that up, and we'll slowly drain the savings account paying the other bills. $400ish a month for health insurance is gonna SUCK ASS, but it'd suck more ass to be uninsured.

shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather...

ya know, "like the weather" was really never a fave song by 10,000 maniacs, but that's what popped into my head trying to think of a title for this entry...

warm weather (in the 60's) for the rest of the week, but they're saying we're looking at a possibility of some snow on monday...in preparation for that, i present Make Yer Own Snowflake.

What Kind of Hipster Are You?

You are the Consummate Hipster. Newbies bow to
you, everyone else just stares, as you swagger
down the street with "Little Green
Bag" stuck in your head.


What Kind of Hipster Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

woo hoo - i'm fired!

just got off the phone with the so-called "human resources" person and i've been terminated.

ugh

had a seizure friday night, after sitting around all day waiting for "human resources" to call. and apparently this isn't the time of year to be getting sick - generally, when i call the neurologist's office and tell them i've had a seizure they usually get me in on the same day - this time i've gotta wait two weeks. dr. mohan's definitely worth it though.