head yer ass on down to Fountain Square tonite!!

K-A-T-R-I-N-A, Laura, it's Hurricane Katrina

apparently Laura Bush thinks it's Hurricane Corrina's aftermath that we're dealing with now - this link goes to video of her mispronunciating it...

i'm going to have to FORCE myself to stop thinking "things can't get any more surreal" as far as this shit goes, cuz as soon as that thought enters my head, shit gets more surreal...

attention Pastafarians!

It's time to play the Flying Spaghetti Monster game

Hurricaine Katrina benefit in Indy on Friday nite...

THIS FRIDAY September 9th - Synthesis Entertainment Benefit For Hurricaine Katrina Victims @ Radio Radio - 1119 E. Prospect Street (Fountain Square)

Synthesis Entertainment and Evolving Records DJs Adam Jay, TFA, Seth Nichols, John Mack, Dave Owen, and Johnny Utah will mix tunes as attendees raise funds. Numerous prizes and gift certificates, donated to the event by local companies, will be given away in a drawing. For every $5 donation, attendees will have their name added to the drawing for the prizes that are donated. Starts at 9 p.m.

Matching funds: KB Homes will match, dollar for dollar, all the money raised.

info here

oh yeah, and my brother takes the stage at midnight - another reason i'm required to attend. *8-)

Katrina and other bitches...

har har har, that was entirely too easy a joke to make...somebody slap me.

anyhoo, the Bassett Waddle that i posted about to hit people up for funds on August 6 has decided to work even harder to collect funds, to help make sure that their sister organization down in Louisiana has money to help doggies affected by the hurricane, so just a reminder to PLEASE send your spare change to my niece's favorite charity!

click here for donation info

oh crap...

codi, my sister-out-law (kinda like a sister-in-law, 'cept she and my brother aren't married) has put me in her blog under the "blogs i like" category - eeeek, what kind of scary freaky weirdos will she have perusing my musings?!?!?

tho i must say, i don't think any people reading her blog could be scarier or freakier than her...

;-)

missed Lori Beth's birthday!

going thru some old boxes, i found a journal from 1995. i forgot about an important anniversary - it was june 12, 1995 that i went to court and had my name legally changed - goodbye lori southerland, hello lori beth! yeah, on occasion it's been a pain in the ass - people ask my last name, i reply "beth" and they say "no, your LAST name"...otherwise, no regrets whatsoever. it was very empowering, particularly because i went to the library, researched the information and drafted the papers myself - no lawyer necessary.

Donate to Katrina relief via Fark.com

cute username...

from The Huffington Post:

Club Seals, Not Sandwiches

depression sucks...

had an appointment with the endocrinologist today - had to face up to her and show her that i didn't lose much on the Weight Watchers program that she financed for me. seems as though it doesn't matter one way or another - losing weight is VERY difficult for me. she gave me a referral to call St. Francis Hospital's weight loss services - maybe they'll have the magic recipe.

it's just sooooo fucking frustrating - all the IF ONLY's are swirling around in my brain - IF ONLY i woulda had this brain surgery a couple of years ago when the doc first suggested it instead of wussing out and going for the VNS surgery. IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY IF ONLY...

$1723.36

One thousand seven hundred twenty three dollars and thirty six cents. That's the sum total of all the prescriptions i filled at the pharmacy over the weekend - 11 of those had my $3.00 copay, 3 others had no copay.

sheesh.

cute little saying...

when i was at Out Word Bound on Friday before games night, i saw a cute little notebook...on the cover, it read:

Sex is the new Love

heh heh heh...

Roger Ebert gives us a Thumbs Up...

sheesh, here i just dogged Ebert for his review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and now he compliments some people in Naptown. from last Sunday's "Answer Man" column:

Q. Re "Deuce Bigalow": You guys always seem puzzled how stuff like that gets made. Ya' know, there's a huge audience for this crap in America. That's why it keeps getting made. And yes, I'll admit that even these crap movies can have their funny moments. I live in Indianapolis and I know there's a bunch of Deuce Bigalow fans in this town. They're beer-guzzlin', dope-smokin', truck-drivin', pit-bull-ownin', head-shavin', ball-cap-wearin', crime-committin', jackass psychopaths whose parents (if there were any) didn't want to bother with the job of teaching and controlling them. Garbage in, garbage out, so the parents are probably just like their offspring. The United States is rife with them. It's ugly and it's increasingly one of the causes for the ruination of a once civilized, safe nation.
Tom McCullough, Indianapolis

A. Indianapolis also harbors many heroic, civilized and cultured citizens, as befits the home office of Steak n Shake.

in the midst of an interesting weekend...

after a near nervous breakdown on thursday (inflicted by "mental health care professionals", no less) i hit the pause button on that crap and decided to get out and do some things.

first off, i had kat re-color my hair - instead of adding purple to some of the blonde highlights that were already there, it's all purple. a deep and intense purple - i really like it.

friday night was girls games night - 'cept steph, stephanie and i were the only girls that showed up. was still fun, we played a game called Zobmondo - it's a game full of would you rather-type questions...examples from the website:

Would you rather drink a glass of your own day-old spit or your own sweat?

Would you rather have to suck snakebite poison out of your dad’s hairy armpit or out of your mom’s belly button?

now, they're not all nasty like that, but they do make ya think, that's for sure...

friday night was also Fark party night - we all met up at the Old Point Tavern...i did better than at the previous Fark party that i attended at Maggiano's a couple of years ago - i actually talked to quite a few people and remembered their names afterwards! then saturday i attended a cookout that the organizer of Friday's party invited me to, where i met Drew Curtis, Fark's creator. it was very interesting to meet some of the people behind the scenes of fark.

not sure what's goin on for sunday, have a few options for plans, i just hafta decide what i wanna do...for now, sleep is on the agenda...

Which Famous Homosexual Are You?

Which Famous Homosexual Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

the philosophies of fellow Hoosiers...

so, the Indianapolis Star has a column called "Let It Out" that allows readers to call/fax/email "a comment about life, love, politics, whatever?" - some are really deep, some are really whiny, some are funny...i wonder if people from other states have columns like this in their newspapers and what they say...and what they would say about us Hoosiers if they read comments like:

You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't wipe your friends on the carpeting!

Walkin' the streets with Soldiers & Sailors...

kat said it was girls' nite out, so we went walkin around downtown - i came up with the fancier title: Walkin' the streets with Soldiers & Sailors...

in the past, we've made several walks around the canal...that gets a bit old, so we decided to change it around a bit. we ended up checking out the war memorial and university park, and soldiers & sailors monument it was very nice, i just wish it hadn't been so humid - tho i didn't feel excessively uncomfortable (the Indianapolis Star thermometer read 85 degrees at 8:30) i was sweating buckets - by the time our walk was over, it looked as if i'd dunked my head in one of the fountains at the park, and not just my feet (ahhhh, so refreshing!)

during the walk, it was very obvious that Gen Con is in town - gamers all over!!!

we'll definitely hafta go back downtown during daytime - i have a bad feeling about the pix she took, i think it was too dark for them to turn out halfway decent. we'll see...

website i've stumbled upon - celebatheists.com

celebatheists.com seems to be a wikipedia section dedicated to pointing out athiests, agnostics and such...you definitely have to take a look at the comments attributed to people to determine just how accurate the description is.

for instance, Kathy Griffin's listed as an atheist because of her quote “I’m sick to death of Jesus. I feel that Jesus and Paris Hilton are both overexposed. I’ve seen enough of both of them. And I think I’m getting more atheist because of the way the country is getting more into Bible-thumping.” - Actress Kathy Griffin (“Suddenly Susan”) to Sacramento’s gay Outword Magazine, Dec. 23 [2004].

now call me crazy, but i think this comedian was making a joke - more a joke about the crap that Dubya lovers have inflicted on this country rather than real, authentic Christianity (not to mention that whole overexposed aspect)

nonetheless, it's interesting to read the quotes...

brain surgery...

the brain surgery's still on hold for me until i lose enough weight for the neurosurgeon's liking (prolly about 25 lbs)...meanwhile, a co-worker of mom's has a nephew in california that had a very similar surgery, and there was an article in their paper that she sent the link to (gonna go ahead and copy/paste in case their links don't last too long)...

Surgery helps Alameda teenager eliminate epilepsy, medication
14-year-old enjoying normal life after recovery
By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER

ALAMEDA — Daniel Burlingame is a far different kid today than he was two years ago.
His eyes are brighter, and he's more animated. He isn't groggy or bloated from his epilepsy medications.

And he no longer takes handfuls of seizure medication or struggles with pounding headaches that left him drained.

Daniel can now swim and bike and do normal teen things without the fear of a seizure.

His grades have jumped up dramatically, and he even got a volunteer summer job at an Alameda preschool.

There, no one even noticed the scar on his head, where doctors sewed 21 stitches. It's barely visible.

It has been nearly two years since Daniel, now 14, had part of his brain removed in a last-ditch effort to stop the epileptic seizures that had plagued him nearly all his life. He hasn't had a seizure since the surgery and has been off his medications for a year now.

"This is how well Daniel should have done. There is a very high success rate for this surgery," said American pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Warf, a family friend of Daniel's parents, Bob and Esther Burlingame, who recommended the surgery three years ago.

Warf moved from the United States to Africa five years ago toperform neurosurgery on the poorest of the poor children at CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda. But when he met Daniel and his family while on a holiday in the states in 2002, Warf quickly recommended the surgery.

"What is essentially removed during this surgery is bad brain. Even when a seizure is not going on actively, there is disorganized electrical activity that can interfere with learning and thinking," said Warf, a Harvard graduate.

The Burlingames had inquired about surgery before meeting Warf, but doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland said it wasn't an option because Daniel hadn't tried some available medications, Esther Burlingame said. Kaiser wasn't recommending surgery either, she said.

"Even neurologists tend to under-refer for that procedure," said Warf, who was in Alameda last week visiting his in-laws and saw Daniel for the first time since he had the surgery and has been seizure-free.

"He looks good. He's grown, his face has thinned out," said Warf, who also performs the brain surgery on children at his hospital in Uganda.

With the surgery, doctors claim there is a 60 to 75 percent success rate for curing epilepsy and a nearly 90 percent success rate of drastically reducing it. Daniel had the surgery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, and doctors there have given him the OK to only return annually for checkups, Esther Burlingame said.

That's all fine with Daniel. He'd still rather play with his dog, Jason, or ride his bike than talk about epilepsy or medications or doctor stuff.

He's better, but he's still a kid of few words on the subject.

But when asked what the best part of his life is now, he doesn't hesitate.

"Being off the medications," Daniel said.

Daniel had his first seizure in 1992 when he was 10 months old, following a fever that quickly rose to 106 degrees. That seizure lasted 45 minutes, but he didn't have a second one for five years. At that point, doctors determined he had epilepsy, which 30,000 children are diagnosed with each year.

In 1998, he had a seizure on his school playground that was so bad Daniel didn't know his own name or where he was after the episode.

More seizures followed.

So did more medications.

Different medications.

Different combinations of medications.

When Daniel went under the knife in September 2003, his parents didn't know what to expect.

They were told Daniel might have problems with speech, movement and memory because those functions are controlled by the part of the brain that was removed — the hippocampus.

Doctors warned that he might have problems recalling shapes or remembering directions.

Surgeons were removing the anterior temporal tip, a part of the brain about the size of a matchbox and the right hippocampus, about the size of a thimble, and the scarred portion that had been causing Daniel's seizures.

The five-hour surgery went well and Daniel emerged groggy and somewhat disoriented, but healthy and strong. He stayed on the medications for a year just to be safe, but was seizure-free during that trial period.

His health, general well-being and school work steadily improved.

"He was below grade level before (on standardized tests)," said Esther Burlingame. "Since the surgery, he's caught up three grade levels on the tests."

Daniel has a twin brother, Matthew, who has never suffered from epilepsy or seizures.

Having the twins on an "even playing field" is helping Daniel make progress — physically and emotionally, his parents said.

"It's still going to take some time to even out completely, but I can see him making that gain," said Esther Burlingame.

His parents said the biggest blessing is that Daniel, like Matthew, now has a chance at normal life. He will be able to get a driver's license in a couple years, study in the field of his choice and enjoy sports and leisure activities without worrying about having a seizure. "He won't have any restrictions put on his life," said his father Bob Burlingame, 45.

These days, Daniel is spending three mornings a week with a group of 10 4-year-olds at an Alameda city parks and recreation pre-school class.

"He's been a pleasure to have in class. The kids love him," said pre-school teacher Gloria Garcia, who said she didn't know Daniel had previously suffered from epilepsy or about the surgery until he told her a day before a reporter and photographer visited him in the classroom.

"We had no idea," she said. Garcia said she is just happy to have Daniel to help out with play time, recess and crafts. He brings toys from home — bristle blocks and books — and sits on the floor with the group teaching and talking.

It is with children, at the pre-school, at his church and in his neighborhood, that he seems to be the most at home. "He's a sweet kid," Garcia said.


-30-


so, there are a lot of things in common with my situation, and there are a lot of differences, as well. i don't think the hippocampus will be involved in my surgery, it's just my temporal lobe that's problematic. (as an aside, i must say, i've always found hippocampus to be a rather amusing word - it gives me a visual of the place that a hippopotamus would go to get an education)

i really wish i would've taken the neurologist's advice a couple of years ago and had this surgery then, but the whole idea of BRAIN SURGERY freaked me out and i pushed for the Vagus Nerve Stimulator surgery as a compromise. *sigh* oh well, can't change the past, i just have to get the weight lost and get this surgery done so i can get back to maybe being a productive human being...

help my niece - donate to her fundraiser!

yeah, i'll be the first to admit it: people are puzzled when i mention that my niece has 4 legs and big floppy ears, but it's true! Madison is adam and codi's baby, and she also happens to be a basset hound. they're all going to waddle around Dwight, Illinois next month and will be at The Largest Basset Gathering In The World!

you can sponsor Madison and donate online by using this link (in addition to seeing a pic of Ms. Madison herself!), or if ya see me in person, hand me some cash and i'll make sure it gets into the right paws. c'mon now, i don't go beggin' for donations too often and it's a lot less obnoxious than me hitting you up to buy a 49 cent candy bar for 3 bucks...