So on January 23 I had laser vision correction surgery performed by Dr. H. Douglas Cooper at Pacific Laser Eye Center. What a fantastic experience. So easy, so fast, and I can see better now than I have ever been able to in my life. Within one day I could see 20/20, and at my two week post-op appointment, I had 20/15 in my right eye, 20/20 (or a little better) in my left eye. There was almost no discomfort at all resulting from the procedure, and the only disruption to my life was taking one day off of work (not supposed to use the computer for a few days) and sleeping with goofy goggles on so I wouldn't rub my eye or poke it with a stick in the middle of the night.
It was the easiest, most amazing procedure ever - It took about 7 or 8 minutes once I got into the surgery room. You lay back, they cover one eye, and put some numbing drops in the other eye. The only uncomfortable part of the entire procedure is when they draw a suction on the front of your eye so they can cut a flap. That part just feels like someone is pushing hard on your eye, so it kind of aches and your vision fades, but then it comes right back and it's all ok. They flip back the little flap they cut, tell you to look at a green light above you, and you start hearing a popping sound as the laser fires. The laser they use can cut notches in a human hair it's so fine, and there's a tracking laser that fires at 4000 HZ, so even if you move your eye around, it follows it and will not affect your results, just lengthen the procedure time.
You smell burning cornea for a few seconds, then it's done. They fold the flap back, realign it, press lightly on it to seat it, and they cover that eye and move on to the next. When I stood up after surgery, I could already see clearly - it was blurry, and yet still in focus, if that makes sense. Like there was water in my eyes after swimming. By the time I got home, I could see pretty well - much better than with my old glasses, and the next morning I was fine.
I highly recommend the procedure to anyone who's a good candidate. I'm so happy with my new eye balls, and I sure am glad it was possible.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The state of politics...
Well, I may have burned everyone out on politics with my ridiculously long post back before super duper Tuesday, but here's one more -
Obviously the political scene has changed quite a bit since then - now, instead of people talking of a brokered convention on the Republican side, they're discussing a brokered convention between Hillary and Obama (and even that possibility is fading fast as people seem to leap from the sinking ship of Hillary's campaign for a admittedly fantastic and charismatic speaker, even if he never gets around to saying anything specific...)
With Mitt Romney's endorsement, John McCain is guaranteed to be the Republican nominee, and I'm having to just get used to that idea. I will certainly vote for him, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy casting that vote!
So here's my last comments on McCain and Romney before I throw my support behind McCain out of necessity.
For those of you who haven't heard Romney's speech at CPAC (the one in which he announced the suspension of his campaign), I highly recommend finding a transcript and reading it in its entirety. It is one of the best speeches I have ever heard a politician give, and there wasn't a word or phrase in there that I disagreed with. That speech showed a fantastic understanding of the economy (both national and global), national security, and basic conservative principles such as the right to life, and limited government. It was hard to hear him step out of the race after giving a speech like that. I think he did do, however, the right thing in stepping out - too bad Huckabee won't follow his example.
(Quick note on Huckabee - by staying in, he's really hurting himself. It's fairly clear he can't win, even though he's doing quite well, but instead of dropping out when he's "on top" of the game, winning states no one expects him to, he's staying in until there's no doubt in anyone's mind that he can't win. Big mistake. He should drop out now so people can dream and speculate about what might have been...)
Now - my final concerns about McCain: McCain's entire campaign is based on national security (the war on terror), and he admits that the economy is "not his strong point". So here is my question - what is the difference between his stance and President Bush's stance? Bush has focused all of his presidency on the war on terror, while the economy has suffered (while not nearly as much as people say, it has seen harder times). So if the world really dislikes President Bush as much as they say, why will they vote to put someone with the exact same major policies in the office right after he leaves? This is part of the reason I'm really quite surprised at how easy this win was for McCain. But I'm very worried that it is only a matter of time (in fact, I heard it mentioned in an Obama speech already) until democrats turn around and start pointing this out to the world - do we really want four more years of "Bush Doctrine"?
Too bad it's too late to get a nominee with a solid grasp on both national security and the economy.
Final parting words - notice in Romney's CPAC speech how close this race was before you look at delegates:
Popular vote for Romney: 4 million
Popular vote for McCain: 4.7 million
States won by Romney: 11
States won by McCain: 13
The issue is of course which states McCain won - winner take all states with huge delegate counts. The flip side is that McCain tended to win states that Republicans have no chance of winning in a general election this November. States like California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington and other New England states. Not one of those states went to Republicans in the last general election.
Can McCain pull it together and start appealing to grassroots conservatives that didn't vote for him first time around? I sure hope so. I feel like I need to start a savings account to start prepaying my taxes and the increase ridiculously over the next 5 years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/us/politics/08romney-transcript.html
Obviously the political scene has changed quite a bit since then - now, instead of people talking of a brokered convention on the Republican side, they're discussing a brokered convention between Hillary and Obama (and even that possibility is fading fast as people seem to leap from the sinking ship of Hillary's campaign for a admittedly fantastic and charismatic speaker, even if he never gets around to saying anything specific...)
With Mitt Romney's endorsement, John McCain is guaranteed to be the Republican nominee, and I'm having to just get used to that idea. I will certainly vote for him, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy casting that vote!
So here's my last comments on McCain and Romney before I throw my support behind McCain out of necessity.
For those of you who haven't heard Romney's speech at CPAC (the one in which he announced the suspension of his campaign), I highly recommend finding a transcript and reading it in its entirety. It is one of the best speeches I have ever heard a politician give, and there wasn't a word or phrase in there that I disagreed with. That speech showed a fantastic understanding of the economy (both national and global), national security, and basic conservative principles such as the right to life, and limited government. It was hard to hear him step out of the race after giving a speech like that. I think he did do, however, the right thing in stepping out - too bad Huckabee won't follow his example.
(Quick note on Huckabee - by staying in, he's really hurting himself. It's fairly clear he can't win, even though he's doing quite well, but instead of dropping out when he's "on top" of the game, winning states no one expects him to, he's staying in until there's no doubt in anyone's mind that he can't win. Big mistake. He should drop out now so people can dream and speculate about what might have been...)
Now - my final concerns about McCain: McCain's entire campaign is based on national security (the war on terror), and he admits that the economy is "not his strong point". So here is my question - what is the difference between his stance and President Bush's stance? Bush has focused all of his presidency on the war on terror, while the economy has suffered (while not nearly as much as people say, it has seen harder times). So if the world really dislikes President Bush as much as they say, why will they vote to put someone with the exact same major policies in the office right after he leaves? This is part of the reason I'm really quite surprised at how easy this win was for McCain. But I'm very worried that it is only a matter of time (in fact, I heard it mentioned in an Obama speech already) until democrats turn around and start pointing this out to the world - do we really want four more years of "Bush Doctrine"?
Too bad it's too late to get a nominee with a solid grasp on both national security and the economy.
Final parting words - notice in Romney's CPAC speech how close this race was before you look at delegates:
Popular vote for Romney: 4 million
Popular vote for McCain: 4.7 million
States won by Romney: 11
States won by McCain: 13
The issue is of course which states McCain won - winner take all states with huge delegate counts. The flip side is that McCain tended to win states that Republicans have no chance of winning in a general election this November. States like California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington and other New England states. Not one of those states went to Republicans in the last general election.
Can McCain pull it together and start appealing to grassroots conservatives that didn't vote for him first time around? I sure hope so. I feel like I need to start a savings account to start prepaying my taxes and the increase ridiculously over the next 5 years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/us/politics/08romney-transcript.html
Friday, February 15, 2008
valentine's day
Valentine's day is a lot more fun if your spouse doesn't expect you to do anything. (See Jenn's blog for an explanation of why she didn't expect anything - she thinks that it's a holiday created by marketing schemes of evil corporations).
If your wife knows she's getting flowers and dinner every February the 14th, she's just wondering how many and where... So, for Valentine's day, I sent Jenn some flowers, and then we had a nice quiet meal here at home. I grilled sirloin, made twice baked potatoes, and artichokes. I enjoyed it, and she said she did too.
If you must know, the purpose for this post is so I can maybe win free stuff over at wifeadvice.com. It's worth a try, right?
A post with further political commentary and an update on my new eye balls (and the process of getting them) will come sooner or later.
Happy Valentine's Day.
If your wife knows she's getting flowers and dinner every February the 14th, she's just wondering how many and where... So, for Valentine's day, I sent Jenn some flowers, and then we had a nice quiet meal here at home. I grilled sirloin, made twice baked potatoes, and artichokes. I enjoyed it, and she said she did too.
If you must know, the purpose for this post is so I can maybe win free stuff over at wifeadvice.com. It's worth a try, right?
A post with further political commentary and an update on my new eye balls (and the process of getting them) will come sooner or later.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)