kagoscuba

sweaty? Nope. Now I am freezing all of the time. I used to go outside, in the middle of winter, with no jacket on. Not anymore!! The protective blubber is too thin now!!

Raspberry Ice is my favorite, followed closely by Fruit Punch.

My personal trainer gave me the best advice ever last week, when I was a little hesitant about talking about my band. He said, "Don't ever feel embarrassed about your band, and ignore people who ever try to bring you down over choosing surgery. You did what you had to do for yourself, and no one else can understand your decision. You are getting thin; you are looking great, so fuck 'em if they don't like it." Great words, especially coming from a guy who weighs 185 with about 8% body-fat and says he's never had a day in his life where he has worried about his weight.

Here is one I use: Calorie Counter - Free Online Diet Journal

I know the feeling about people not paying enough attention, when you talk about sizes and such. My mom asked me about clothes for this holiday season, and I said get me size L (down from XXXL and XXL), as I am getting a lot smaller, and I will continue to. Well, she went ahead and got me XL shirts which are almost too loose now, much less what they are going to be like in 2-3 months. Oh well. At least I'll have a fun time getting an entirely new wardrobe, after New Years!!

I've had three surgeries, and here are my experiences. 1. Wisdom teeth, in the oral surgeon's office, and I "woke up" heard people talking, heard the doctor get irritated at someone for me being awake, then back to happy-land...never felt any pain. 2. I had a deviated septum fixed in an ambulatory care center (strip-mall surgery). It was one moment "lights-on" to "lights-out" back to "lights-on". Unlike the wisdom teeth surgery, I never felt any passage of time. The surgery was about an hour, with some pretty invasive things done (think of dozens of sutures inside your nose...not nice) and I only remember the doctor talking to me prior to surgery, then asking me loudly to wake up, when it was over. I was already in recovery. It was weird as I felt I had only blinked my eyes and it was over. 3. Lap-band. First time I've ever been wheeled into an operating room. It was a bit scary, and it was DAMN cold. I was freezing, and the warm blankets were a nice touch. Anesthesiologist told me I'd go down soon, and so I did. Time passed for me in this surgery, and I can't swear to it, but I think I remember gagging on a tube as I woke up, then the next thing I remember I was in recovery. The gagging on a tube thing was fuzzy enough of a memory that I didn't bring it up to the doctor, but I did have a sore throat, so maybe I wasn't just dreaming.

I'm a non-Mormon, and Romney is my front-runner. His religion is a non-point, because he's still a minority. He'd never be able to get a "Mormon agenda" going with the government set up like it is. Huckabee, on the other hand, is one scary mo-fo. His vision of the United States, "united under Christ" is terrifying, and his conviction that evolution does not exist is just ass-backwards.

"When you assume correct grammar, diction, pronunication is attributed to a certain race of people --- instead of a particular social status/culture/education level, you're mistaken and subtly.....racist. " Actually, you'd be subtly predjudiced. Racism is defined as using a position of power to exert power over another person, based on race. Having a pejorative view is not the same thing. A person can be hopelessly predjudiced and still not be a racist. Here is an example: A white policeman pulling over someone for being BWD (Black While Driving) is a racist. The policeman's wife saying she likes her husband pulling over black people because she hates n*****s is a predjudiced bit@h, but she is not a racist. The distiniction is needed, when having a discussion over race. I heard this distinction outlined by a black radio host, and it stuck with me. He said racism and racist are terms not to be overused, as they lose their meaning.

That's just wrong on so many levels. It's one thing to be attracted to someone you shouldn't(hell, I've got some smokin' cousins), but it is entirely another to actually proposition someone you KNOW you should not be talking to in such a manner. That is just crass beyond belief. To bad when he asked you for a threesome you didn't say, "Why would you want to disappoint two women at the same time?" :scared:

A couple of quick points: There is no war in Iraq or Afghanistan. There is an occupation. There is no such thing as a nebulous war, like "The War on Terrorism" or "The War on Drugs." Call it what it is. Taking proactive steps against items we do not like. I don't mind that. I don't even mind a lot of what we are doing, other than the fact it should have never been started...that's a different discussion. Calling it a war, however, pisses me off to no end considering my penchant for studying history. In addition, if we are truly going to continue down the idiotic road of "pre-emptive war" to meet our national goals, then please stop calling our defense budget by that name and start calling it the offense budget. It's just semantics, but since this administration likes semantics such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" over such succinct terms as "torture," then having an offense budget makes sense or even "Enhanced Democratic Thuggary Budget." Just because we are right doesn't make it right to impose our will. In their mind they are right too. We need to go back to "talk softly and carry a big stick" days. Let them talk smack all day long, but if someone attacks us then we obliterate them. Don't bomb, invade, and occupy. Obliterate. Sand makes nice glass.

So, I went to get my second fill today, as I've been feelnig rather hungry. When I saw the barium go through the band pre-adjustment, I was shocked and the doctor said "wow, you are wide open." I asked him why, since I saw last time it was pretty restrictive. He just smiled and said, "Because you are losing weight and there is less fat pushing around the band. The fat pushing around the band also helps restriction, but once you lose fat the band can and will get looser "on it's own." He asked me how restricted I wanted to be and I told him to go for the gusto. He told me I'm "liquid tight" right now, and I'd better chew good in two weeks, when I go back to solids. Very cool. Three NSV's 1. Wearing jeans I haven't worn in 2.5 years 2. Losing enough weight to affect the band 3. Having the radiology tech say, "Hey, you are looking good, you're getting to be a skinny man!!!" If he wasn't a dude, I would have kissed him, so I just slapped him on the a$$. *kidding*

Moderate. Death penalty conservative though, and I just read this morning that the a-hole who was the person responsible for Megan's Law being created will no longer have to worry about death here in NJ, as the death penalty is 99% sure to be repealed. Give me a gun and a free shot, and I'll take care of it. I won't shed a tear either.

"We all suck and will eventually kill each other off..." That's why, when people ask if I am scared diving with sharks, I always laugh and say, "Have you been to the mall recently? That's a lot scarier than any dive where the sharks show up." At least sharks are semi-predictible.

"For your information, I was self pay.. insurance did not pay for me. And if getting my band to lose 40 lbs of overweight is inmoral to you.. then you have issues." I went back to make sure, and yep I never used you or your in my statement. I will now. You ignored the basis of the statement and allowed yourself to think the statement was pointed at you. It was not. The statement was to make you think about the illogical rational you were using. Telling a woman to keep her legs together is simple enough. So is telling a fat person to keep their mouth shut or telling a smoker not to light up. It's even as easy as telling a man to go beat off in a corner instead of asking the woman to have sex with them. (unlike overeating or smoking, there are two sets of influences for human sexuality) I used the morality clause, not as a personal attack, but as a sign of how absurd the argument (the one I used) was. The monetary clause was used as an additional point of contention and was not personally directed at you (for that matter, I am a self-pay as well), nor did I even look at how much weight you had lost, but congratulations.

"IMO women that don't want things (because they apparently consider babies just things or they wouldn't kill them) growing in their bellies should probably keep their legs closed." Wow...and I guess that people that don't want to be fat should keep their mouths closed. If they are fat, it is their choice and problem, and anyone who uses medical science to get "un-fat" is not being moral. Why should science and insurance pay for a mistake that was made by a bad entirely personal choice? Hell, fat people didn't even have someone else asking/begging/sometimes forcing them to make the bad choice.

Just to play devil's advocate: Joshua: 8:23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. 8:24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. 8:25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. 8:26 For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Not that any of this allays the severity of the deed the father did to his daughter; however, there is much smiting and dying, in the name of the Lord, in the Bible too. I'm no fan of the Muslim religion, but examples of one-off items like you provided don't add too much to the argument; in fact, they would tend to dilute it with the hint of ethnocentrism introduced.

wasa - That's why I chose my solution. It takes the onus of the "moral" decision away from the mother and gives it to society at large. If society at large wants to dictate how she must deal with a pregnancy, then make society at large accountable by forcing them to raise the child. The mother gets what she wants - no child to raise; society gets what they want - no child dies; and pro-choice people like me get what we want - a barometer of how true the pro-life people are being to themselves. They talk a good game, but as Ben Franklin and Tom Brady most recently said: "It's better done than better said." Let's see how they react when the government shows up at the door with their new unexpected bundle of joy. We'll even give them 9 months notice a baby is coming so it won't be one day to the next.

oops, made mistake in first version...the last "pro-choice" was meant to be "pro-life."

<p><p>"the ideal would be a solution that would protect the mother's rights and the baby's rights for those who think that the baby should have rights.."</p> <p> </p> <p>This is probably not a new idea, as ideas rarely are, but here is my shot. Have a national binding referendum on abortion. In order to vote in this referendum you have to be 21 (reason will be clear later) or older and you have to sign a registry which lists you as pro-choice or pro-life. Based upon the results of this referendum, if abortion remains legal, then nothing changes. However, if abortion is made illegal, then the follwoing happens: Any unwanted child first can go to those couples wanting to adopt. If the baby is not adopted within 1 year, then the child is placed in the home of one of the registrants who claimed "pro-choice" as their affiliation. This child cannot be refused by the chosen guardian. Mandatory monthly social worker visits will be required for the first 4 years, in order to account for the health/safety of the child.</p> <p>In this system, the child wins, anti-abortion voters win, and we all get to see if the pro-life lobby will put-up or shut-up in order to get this referendum passed. If they truly care about the children, then this should be a no-brainer.</p></p>

"some Jews who had killed Christ" Jews do not deny they had something to do with the death of the Jew known as Jesus Christ. However, it was a particular sect of Judaism that was concerned with the death of Christ, and it wasn't a crime against Christianity, as Christianity did not exist yet. A group of Jews killed another Jew they accused of heresay. End of story? Nope...it took awhile but 351 years later the religion of Christianity was codified at the council of Nicene. That'd be like the United States declaring independence in 1776 and writing the Declaration of Independence in 2127. Doesn't make much sense. The more I learn the more I question.

Zero-Tolerance equals Zero-Intelligence. We are creating a nation of emasculated auto-bots.

I drink the occasional beer. I can't get down more than two bottles due to feeling full. That's about 1/3 of what I could get down in an evening (not every evening) of drinking beer before the band.

"What is talking white? talking black?" It could be worse, you could be told you "look Jewish." That's about as intelligent as telling the Pope he looks Catholic. It happens all the time to Jews though. Oh, and I made the mistake, while I was in the military, of calling someone black who was so black that in the words of Chris Rock, "if it was nighttime and he closed his eyes, he'd disappear," but the person was Puerto Rican. He was not pleased, and I got to hear how it was offensive to him and other Puerto Ricans, and Puerto Ricans run the gamet from very dark-skinned to blonde hair and blue eyes. Lesson learned.

I slightly misquoted Mr. Huckabee. Here is exactly what was said: In 1998, Huckabee told a Baptist convention that “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ,” and explained why he gave up pastoring for political campaigning: “I didn’t get into politics because I thought government had a better answer. I got into politics because I knew government didn’t have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives.” Jesus Wept.

Romney (OUTSTANDING speech the other day), then Giuliani, then McCain. I liked Huckabee as a candidate until I found out he did not believe in evolution and has a vision of America "united by Christ." I still like a lot of his views and he's probably a lot of fun to hang out with and have a beer or two, but you couldn't get me to vote for him unless he was running against Stalin. Of course Hillary is only Stalin in a dress. If Barack wins the Democratic ticket, it'll be a tougher choice for me (I'm Independent).