I had this spot in my vision in my left eye, upper right quadrant. Had it for several months. It was only minor annoying like the floaters one gets occasionally. But I noticed recently that it seemed to be growing, so I decided to get it checked out with the eye doc. This would also be a good time to get my eyes measured for glasses as my distance vision is also starting to blur slightly. I dont trust optometrist as their primary income is selling glasses so there is an inherent conflict of interest there. So I went to an ophthalmologist.
After shining some blinding painful lights into my eyes, and a couple of ‘umms’, he asked me, “Have you ever lived in the Mississippi or Ohio River Basins?” Puzzled, I said no. “Have you ever been around chickens?” Yeah, I raised a some on the ranch. Well you have a disease called Histoplasmosis. Its a fungus that comes from the soil where chicken poop has collected. When disturbed it goes airborne and can be inhaled. Lord knows I cleaned enough poop out of the barn and chicken coop. Anyways, he sent me on to a retina specialist.
They put me thru a whole battery of tests. One of them was injecting me with a dye in the arm and then viewing the inside of my eyeball on a blacklight. The specialist told me it takes 15 seconds from the time it enters my arm til it shows up in my eye. He warned me that one of the after effects was that I would be peeing green for a couple of days. He wasn’t kidding! Glad he warned me.
Finally the retina doc told me there was not much they could do about it. There was a clinical trial of a drug if I was interested. Sure why not. Then he told me they would inject it straight into my eyeball. When, I said? Now, he said. Gulp. Okay go ahead.
They put me in the chair and put numbing eyedrops in my eyes. After several minutes, he clipped these thin wires to my eyelids to hold them open. I felt like the guy in Clockwork Orange. Then he pulls out a long thin needle ( I swear it had a hook on the end ) and inserts it into my eye. It hurt slightly but not near what I feared.
Latest. Its been a couple of weeks. Good news it the spot seems to have become more translucent, almost transparent. Bad news is it has moved to the center of my left eye give me a slight double vision. Its sort of like looking thru a drop of water. Its really difficult to read and if I need detail I have to close my left eye.
Another appointment at the end of February, so we’ll see what he wants to do. He hinted that I may need multiple shots in the eye. Yee Haa.
So those damn chickens that I snuffed out on the ranch seem to have taken final revenge.
This was a sleeper I had never heard of. I just saw a description that intrigued me.
The plot is sort of like The Matrix. The main characters appear in three different stories as different characters. The three stories are intertwined and the intriguing part is figuring out how. But it is “an intellectual” picture and the plot gets confusing quickly. But for me, that was the fun part – trying to figure it out.
The acting is excellent by all three main characters. However I was very impressed with Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls). Her character was very likable and it felt like she got best dramatic parts and really pulled it off.
So overall I give this movie 8/10. Definately a must-see.
This is a hilarious video. The guy in the video was the lead actor in the Firefly / Serenity series – Nathan Fillian. The girl is a porn actress – Aria Giovanni. The website that describes the make of this is here.
This is one of my all time favorite games for the PC. Its called PORTAL. Its a simulation where you have to get to the end by solving these teleportation problems. You get a gun that can create portals, a blue one and an orange one. You go in one and exit out the other. For example, if you need to get over a moat of acid, you just fire your gun at a wall on the far side and another one on a wall near you. Then enter the portal near you and you come out on the far bank. The levels keep getting more and more complex requiring you to utilize your momentum going thru a portal to ‘fling’ yourself. It was very challenging and I only had to go to the web twice because I was stuck. The song at the end is very cute. Someone even made a video with it.
This is the tree that was hit by lightning. The tree service guy told me it would take a couple of hours tops. It took them seven hours but they finally got it down. He and his helper were two tired dudes. The city will come by later in the week to pick it up. To more pictures of the various stages of it coming down go to my Flickr group.
Watched three movies last nite. First Chronicles of Riddick – Pitch Black. Plot – ship crashes on a planet where there are creatures that like the darkness and eat people. A lot of red shirts in the crew, of course. VinDiesel is badass as usual. Acting is good by all. Plot is predictable, but the action is continous and well shot. And I never felt like I was watching a movie being shot. I hate it when suddenly you realize they are just actors on a set with cameramen and crew standing around. I’m glad I didn’t pay to see this in a theater but it will be an entertaining rental.
I followed this one up with Chronicles of Riddick – Dark Fury . It sorta surprised me that this was an animated feature. But once I got used to that, it was pretty good. I reminded me of the artwork from Heavy Metal . It takes off where Pitch Black ended. Again a predictable plot, but action was good and it was well drawn. So for both the Riddicks, I give them a 6 out of 10 – good entertainment from a rental.
The last movie I watched yesterday was – War Games – The Dead Code. This was a waste of an hour and half. Plot was very predictable. But the action was convoluted. Several action scenes had actors running down the road in front of cars chasing them but the cars couldn’t seem to catch them, huh? And it was very uneven. Slow character development scenes and silly characters followed by meaningless unorganized chase scenes. The bad computer had female persona and they kept ‘trying to shut the bitch down’. Acting was just mediocre, so hopefully this was just a training film for them. So rating is 3 out 10. So I’m sure Matthew Brodrick is rolling over in his grave…er wait..he isn’t dead yet.
It looks like Hurricane Fay is coming. Current projections are it will be here in Lakeland Tuesday night with winds of 60 mph. I wonder if I need to get my kite out? Although living here for two years, this will be our first encounter with a hurricane. This one is not too scary right now as it will go over considerable land before it gets here which should slow it down considerably. Still, I’m gonna go fill up my gas cans and get some groceries just in case. I’ll also run my gas generator some too just to make sure it is in good shape. I’m not gonna put anything over the windows this time as this house was built in 1974 so I figure it has seen a few of these and the previous owner didnt leave any coverings behind.
lanet where there are creatures that like the darkness and eat people. A lot of red shirts in the crew, of course. VinDiesel is badass as usual. Acting is good by all. Plot is predictable, but the action is continous and well shot. And I never felt like I was watching a movie being shot. I hate it when suddenly you realize they are just actors on a set with cameramen and crew standing around. I’m glad I didn’t pay to see this in a theater but it will be an entertaining rental.
