But on a personal note...

Over the years since I joined this group, I've been very active at times, quite absent other times.  Invariably, my health was the driving factor keeping me away.  And over the last 4 or 5 months, I've been further down, in more pain, and confused.  I've been the weakest I ever felt since I first became sick 22 years ago. 

Going back from Friday afternoon, to the holidays, it seems like my memory is on ping pong balls poured out on the floor.  When we talked over the last few days here at home, I can remember things that have happened, if someone says, "..but we did X, Y or Z for Easter.", I can remember the instance, but there is no continuity to life in general.

I remember that ping pong ball, but the ones in front or behind, I can't put in order.

By the time I got to Friday afternoon last, I had been awake for most of a solid week.  I would sleep a few minutes, or a half hour.  I slept just 90 minutes from Wed morning at around 06:30, until I headed to the E/R at 18:00 on that Friday.  But somewhere around 18:30, I went totally bozo, off the hook, stark raving nuts.  I had a complete and total psychotic break, losing it so far as to be pounding my head on a door frame, punching holes in the hallway walls, and begging my family to kill me, so that I could get some relief from the pain.

They managed to get a muscle relaxer into me, called a ambulance and then got me to the nearest E/R.

At the E/R they ran a ton of tests, did CT scans, did a number of x-rays, all while I climbed the walls in pain.  When the E/R doc finally came in, he started asking me about my medical history, going back decades.  He asked me if I was willing to try something a little, as he put it, out in left field.  I was willing to grasp any thread of hope he was willing to extend, so told him I'd do it.  That was around 21:30.  At 22:00, the nurse got me to sit up on the hospital gurney, and she hooked up a HUGE syringe to my IV.

Friends, buddies, pals, I took the most intense, warmest, fuzziest TRIP of my life.  In the 'real' world it was about 30 minutes, but I had no concept of time.  At 35 minutes I was standing up, walking in the E/R treatment room.  By 22:45 I was no longer high, I had no residual effects at all.

Except that ALL my pain was gone, my muscle wear sore, but not twitching like they had been 45 minutes before, nor cramping.  The other physical symptoms I had were gone also.  Hell, even my sinuses have cleared up.   Beyond that, my mind is clear.  Last Friday night, although I'd been awake the better part of 60 hours, I felt strong, stronger than I'd felt since the week between Christmas and New Years.

Here's the miracle, they gave me a 10 minute infusion of Ketamine.

I simply cannot tell you the difference in the before and after.  Looking back to Friday and before, it's just those ping pong balls scattered in front of me.  If YOU point at a ball, I remember that instance, but not what happened immediately before or after.  Since Friday night, I've been out to work in the garden some.  I've been out checking the bee hive.  I drove this morning, for the first time since early March.

My health history tells me that the Ketamine is not a long term cure all.  After talking to my family and all of us putting our heads together, we're pretty sure that over the years, I've had ketamine a number of times.  It is primarily used as part of the cocktail they give people going under general anaesthesia.  And we're certain that over the years the periods where I was feeling the best, it was because of the ketamine.

We've done hours of online research now, and it's a drug that's been around for years.  Doctors have been using it for years.  But the pain mngt usage is new.  Or at least there's a resurgence of it being used this way.  They started doing it some in the 1990's but it never truly got wide usage.

Well, that's the whole of it. 

Other than this, I'm going to go back through all my medical records and even oral surgery docs, to see who has given me ketamine.  I've had this boost before and no one could explain it.  So I'm going to find out how much and when in the past I've had ketamine.  We feel like it's a no brainer that I had it when they did my stent last November.  For anyone who is interested, shoot me an e-mail, or ask questions in the comments section.
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Schteveo

The Pentagon is run by MORONS!!

As a veteran, I was always of the opinion that the guys in the 'home office' just didn't remember what it was like working in the fleet.  I even found a whole different mind set between San Diego and Norfolk, which we called 'proximity pain'.

Meaning, the closer you are to the Pentagon / CNO, the bigger a pain in the ass they were on a daily basis.

As I got older and the world changed to the all volunteer force, I felt like we were getting better people into our military.  If for no other reason that anyone in the military, WANTED to be there.  I thought things were being made even better a few years back, when they raised the required entrance scores a few points.  You'd think someone my age would know better than to ass-u-me things.

Not only did the changes not seemingly help, they tied the hands of the recruiters, sometimes over a point on ASVAB Scoring.  It was so bad in 2000 to 2005, that they instituted the Stop Loss Program.  So at the same time Stop Loss was in place, they left the scoring points where they were, and cut out, literally tens of thousands of willing, smart probable recruits.

Eventually, the numbers grew, the DoD met recruitment numbers across all the services, and Stop Loss wasn't needed.  The story, to me anyway, is about piss poor management and proves that number crunchers in UNIFORMS, are just as thick headed as those in SUITS.

So, coming forward, I find this story on Drudge this morning.
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The Pentagon is weighing allowing some immigrants brought illegally to the country as youths to serve in the military, a unilateral step by the Obama administration as immigration legislation remains stalled in the Republican-led House.

The announcement came Tuesday as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended his election-year decision to rebuff a narrow immigration measure pushed by a GOP congressman to achieve a similar goal.

The Pentagon consideration would apply to immigrants who arrived illegally as kids but already have received work permits and relief from deportation under a program President Barack Obama announced two years ago, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. More than 500,000 immigrants have benefited from the program.

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First let me say, this is more social engineering on par with Obumble's Muslim's to the Moon program.  It doesn't come from the DoD / Pentagon / Joint Chiefs.  It comes from the hand-wringers in the West Wing.  But beyond that, it's a really bad idea, IMO, because in its simplest form, it is NOT needed!  We've kicked around the idea that the Libs would use the military to subdue the citizenry.  

While I don't think they can EVER swell the ranks with enough illegals to do the job, I'm still against it.  

Listen, I'm not xenophobic, hell, I'm ONLY second generation from immigrants myself, both of my mothers parents came from Italy / Sicily in the early 1900's.  I'm not racist, I hate idiots of all race, creed or colors equally.  But anytime we overlook CURRENT citizens, to give favor to ANYONE else, so that the non-citizen gets a hand up, after they've going around the system, should NEVER be allowed.

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Schteveo

Phunny Engineers

Understanding Engineers #1

Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."


Understanding Engineers #2

To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.


Understanding Engineers #3
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers.
The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"


The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!"


The priest said, "Here comes the greens-keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello George, What's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?"


The greens-keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime!"


The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."


The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if here's anything she can do for them."


The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"



Understanding Engineers #4
What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers? Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.


Understanding Engineers #5
The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"



Understanding Engineers #6
Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.


Understanding Engineers #7
An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."


He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.


The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn back into a beautiful princess and stay with you for one week."


The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.


The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want."


Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.


Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"


The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog - now that's cool."



And Finally


Two repairmen were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top.


A female engineer walked by and asked what they were doing.


"We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole," said Sven, "but we don't have a ladder."


The engineer took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced, "Twenty one feet, six inches," and walked away.


One repairman shook his head and laughed, "A lot of good that does us. We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"


Both men have since been removed from their repair jobs and are currently serving in the United States Congress.

Monica Lewinsky SPEAKS!!!

I'm betting it won't be long before someone in the Hitlary Camp says the timing of this book is set so it messes up her Mrs Clinton's chances of getting to the WH.

Yeah, that's what will keep her out, Monioca Lewinsky.

Anyway, late today I saw that Ms. Lewinsky has a book about to hit, about her affair with Mr. Clinton.  First let me say, BFD, who gives a sh1t, why now, so what, and BFD.

Monica Lewinsky writes in Vanity Fair for the first time about her affair with President Clinton: “It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress.” She also says: “I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”

After 10 years of virtual silence (“So silent, in fact,” she writes, “that the buzz in some circles has been that the Clintons must have paid me off; why else would I have refrained from speaking out? I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth”), Lewinsky, 40, says it is time to stop “tiptoeing around my past—and other people’s futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story. I’ve decided, finally, to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past. (What this will cost me, I will soon find out.)”

Is it me, or does it seem appropriate that this story is in VANITY Fair?

The ONLY White House, staffed, peopled and full of hangers-on, that is more vane than the Clinton WH, is the one we have NOW!  So, this may work out for all of them when her book hits.  I do understand how Lewinsky might be concerned about going back in front of the world.  She may well go down in history as famous for her sexual 'choices' as the Marquis de Sade was for his.  If nothing else, leagues of teen boys have ridden Slick Willy's coat tails by convincing teen girls that a BJ is NOT sex.

It means nothing to me that she has a book.  I don't read that kind of sensationalistic HS.  And maybe her fears won't come to fruition, and she won't wind up again the public eye, with a bad taste in her mouth.
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Schteveo

Phreakin' Phunny Phriday

A guy is sitting in a bar,and it's late, really, really late and he's drunk, I mean really, really, really drunk.

It's finally closing time, and they chase him out the door.

As he stumbles out the door, he sees a nun walking up the the sidewalk, toward him.

He stumbles up to her, and he punches her, RIGHT in the face!

The nun is totally surprised, but before she could do or say anything, he punches her again.

She falls down and he starts kicking her, over and over, walking around her in a circle.

He reaches down, picks her up, and throws her into a wall.

After that, she was pretty weak and could barely move, she's just moaning and trying to crawl away.

Realizing she can't do anything to defend herself, he leans down, put his face right next to hers and says, 

"Not as bad as you though you were, are you Batman!?!"





Aw man, that's phucked up!

Handwringers for Peace, Love and Free Shit!!!

I'm not sure what 'comedian' signed me up for these e-mails, but I'm getting stuff from some hand-wringer outfit called Change.org.  The folks at the 'org' helped get out the petition for backing so Trayvon Martin's parents could sue Zimmerman.  And they got out the petition for people to demand that Bank of America NOT charge $5 per month to people who had B of A accounts, without any deposits going into that account.  They helped students and incoming students complain against and demand that tuition not be raised in AZ's state's university system.

Most of what they do, IMO, is just the force of youthful ignorance at work.  This story proves it to me.  So, haha and bite me for whomever did it, good joke.

And speaking of jokes, these people ARE. 

This morning, the 'nice' people at Change.org sent me an ONLINE Petition, that was to be sent to Muslim Militants, Boko Haram, in an attempt to get hundreds of kidnapped girls released from the militants.  Militants by the way, who are selling the girls into forced marriages, for funds they need to keep their militant army going.

Now, I'm an an admitted old, hippie.  And as a believer in the Constitution, I don't just think the 1st Amendment GIVES us a Right to Free speech.  I think it's my responsibility to speak up, speak out, and speak my mind.  Sending petitions to businesses, government officials, or any person or group if we feel they are somehow out of line, is what we are SUPPOSED to do, IMNSHO.

However, and having said that, are the people at Change.org serious about 'petitioning' a militant Islamist ARMY, on another Continent?  An army that is busy enslaving teen and near teen girls, and selling them so they can buy more BULLETS?!!?  Does that even sound like a group who could be swayed by a petition?   What are the odds that they can read?

If the petition gets sent, and delivered, the leader of Boko Haram will use it for toilet paper.  If you've not seen the grinning maniac behind this 'army', HERE'S a video report.

We live in a twisted world, in case you hadn't noticed.  I can't imagine being the parent of one of these girls..  But one thing has been glaringly absent from ALL the reports of this, that I've seen.  No one, not one person, in Nigeria, on any U.S. national news, the BBC news, nor any of my local news, has been able to bring themselves to utter the dictionary definition of what it is, when you capture someone and sell them to a third party, for profit.  It's doubly troubling to me that this practice is very common in Africa, the Middle east and parts of Asia and South America.

And through all this, I haven't heard sh1t from the likes of Al Sharptongue, Jessie Jackass or any other race baiter.  I guess there's no way to make a dime off of helping African-Africans.
That word by the way, according to Messrs Funk & Wagnall, and Mr. Webster et al, is Slavery.  .
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Schteveo