Wheetsin

Restriction - yowzer! Had a fill Monday. Half a cc, which puts me at 3 in a 4. That night I had a protein drink, didn't feel a thing, and some refried beans mixed with water to make them runny, didn't feel a thing. Yesterday morning go to work, don't eat breakfast, leave around noon. Get home, make a protein drink, and have to wait about 10 minutes between each swallow because I can feel it just sitting there like a brick. 3 swallows and that was enough of that. Yesterday evening heat up some refried beans (by some I mean about 3 oz), grab a 100 calorie pudding cup, and head upstairs to work on the computer. Eat the beans slowly and I do just fine. Two bites into the pudding cup and I'm full. Go to bed about 2 hours later - we're now just past midnight. Drink some water, no problem. Drink some more water, no problem. Wait a few minutes. Take a swig of liquid Benadryll (same consistency as water) and almost immediately I'm sliming & hurting over it. Enough that I tell DH to get the kitchen sink ready (sad, we've developed a little routine for the PBs). Go downstairs, start walking my laps around the kitchen, and several Benadryll burps later it starts to feel better. No PB, but I slimed for a good 15 or 20 minutes. Over a mouthful of, essentially, water. That's definitely never happened before. About 20 minutes ago I bit off about 1/3 of my chewable multivitamin ,chewed it to goo, swallowed, and while I'm not sliming, I feel it sitting there. GOing to give it a week or so and see how I do. I'm liking the restriction. It's been a long time since I couldn't finish a pudding cup. Maybe I'll just have to readjust my eating schedule to be between 10 and 11:30 pm.

UNFORTUNATELY I've not yet had a sex dream about this guy. How could I not after seeing that shower picture?!? You know, IRL I really don't dig the big muscular guys. Or bald heads. This guy is my exception. It's the voice. I was hooked after watching Iron Giant, before I even knew what he looked like. Sexy & dorky. Perfect!

My mom has a thing for him, especially circa "Roadhouse". But she also has a thing for Michael Bolton, long-haired version. And Sylvester Stallone. Maybe I have some splaining to do over that one. In the dream I was a sex therapist (something I really considered doing a while ago). Only instead of just talking with people about it, helping them overcome their fears, etc. I would show them what to do. So maybe I was more of a... sex consultant. So Fred & Wilma came in, and were having some problems, and I pretty much threw Fred to the floor and was like, "Watch, this is what you do..." And thus began the sex dream. Very platonic, so at least I can feel good about that. I don't remember the details of how Jimmy Smits *cringe* worked into it, I must have blocked that from memory. As you can probably tell I have no shortage of sex dreams. Unfortunately (most of the time) they don't happen on nights when I can sleep in. I could start a list of "people I've had dream sex with" but it would require its own thread.

10 months out and my hair is still coming out. And I get more than my required amount of protein and take supplements 11 days out of 12. Good thing I had freaky mega super thick hair to begin with, or I'd be bald.

Took me 8 years to get out of undergrad.

Then, IMHO, still depends. I work behind the scenes in corporate training. I also consult & contract with other business and schools to redesign their training and performance cirricula. So it's my job to figure out what people need to know, the best way to teach it to them, and create the materials to do that. And to make sure that the curricula maintain instructional integrity end to end. (And I could go on, because there's a huge world of tasks & responsibilities that are included). The trend in current & large organizations is to educate at an individual level, and lots of companies are willing to pay to make sure that happens. So yeah - some people are getting more time for training than others, and some people are getting more simplified materials than others. Obviously it's not a wide-spread practice or I would have no consulting jobs. And it's a relatively new way of doing things if you consider that the larger system has been in place since WWII, and it's only in the last 10 years or so that this approach has grown in favor. It used to be more rigid - much more "one size fits all", but that's quickly falling out of favor (for the companies that can afford to do something else, anyway). Also as a nod to the PC impact, I'm fairly confident that in most sizeable organizations if you have - say - a black, disabled, female trainee over the age of 40 who isn't getting it, exceptions will be made. Companies are afraid not to.

Sorry, I'm not following. "So, are you saying that could get them out of jail? We still have to abide by the law right...And criminals in regular jails can say the same thing. What's the difference? I don't think any laws have been changed. Speaking of laws, I think people should put more energy into changing laws......" If you're referring to the religious proferring, no - that does not get them out of jail. And no, I did not say that. So I'm not sure what difference you're referring to. And I don't think I claimed that any laws were changed (?) Sorry, normally I can follow along pretty well, but I'm completely lost.

Believe I said "Very hard to gather, but would still be interesting." I made the statement as a reflection of my personal curiosity, conversationally, and not as part of an ongoing debate.

Compltely depends on your program and I'd say - more importantly - size of your program. I'm working on my second Master's degree. During the first one, it was what I would call "cut throat". It was also a popular program with strict admission guidelines and people figuratively fighting for a place in the program. The second, that I'm in now, was a bit of culture shock for me. I'm amazed at the level of foolishness present in the students, their work, etc. We share papers for peer reviews and I am really dismayed by the caliber and quality of some of the work I'm given to review. And the professors do a lot to help these students stay with the rest of the class. I can't adequately put my dismay into words. It is a good program, and has a top notch curriculum, but its downfall is the fact that it's a small program struggling to grow. I think that leads them to accept students that wouldn't otherwise be accepted, and go the extra mile for struggling students... because if they lose that tuition, there isn't necessarily someone else waiting to fill their spot. There are people who, every semester, I'm sure they're going to fail... yet there they are right along next to me when the next semester starts up. It never ceases to amaze me. And it makes the state of competition (to stay alive) very evident and sad. When I taught college, I taught 099 and it was my responsibility to get people to the point of being able to survive a 100 level class. This was back at a busier school with more competitive entry requirements. If they failed my class twice, they pretty much didn't have any option to continue, short of taking the credits somewhere else and hoping they transferred.

How can they say the same thing? They're in jail.

No, that's not at all what I'm saying. I don't think we're on the same wavelength. What I said was I would be curious to see the numbers.

I think you're misunderstanding the issue I have. The issue is not "some prisoners get better treatment than others". Good behavior has always bought favors. Hell, it's one of the token currencies in prison systems. My problem is specifically the crossing of the separation between church and state. As far as I'm concerned, if someone gets more mashed potatoes because they did a good job cleaning toilets, good for them. When someone gets more mashed potatoes because they were willing to stand up in front of their peers an announce Christ as their savior, in a facility paid for by tax dollars, that's not cool with me.

Oh and umm... I can't repost the information, but it's not hard to find out who owns a domain. And from there it's not hard to find that person's contact information. And from there, you can send them your opinions. But of course, domain queries are to be used only for assistance with registering a domain, never to contact someone, so I would never condone using the information in such bad way.

I'm guessing an exclusively RNY surgeon created that site.

Kind of depends on how you would define worse, actually. If you mean worse in humanitarian terms - sure it could get worse. Prison could actually be a punishment. But that would require huge, ginormous bumps in fundung because right now in just about any prison in the country, the inmates could take over at any point. Keeping them placated is pretty much the only thing that keeps us from reliving Attica on a daily basis. Could it be worse in terms of people "milking" the system? Sure it could. What saves $$$ as it is - is general ignorance about what al they have at their fingertips. If they did, and just played a key few the right way, the average prisoner could get out with an average income of about $1300 per month, taxpayer bill. (Numbers are only accurate for State of MO, I don't know anything about other states but I'd guess they're similar). Could it be worse in terms of working to prevent repeat crime? Well, that's not prison's goal, that's reform's goal. And the reform really is, in most cases, a separate beast. But if you want to make it a direct connection, see previous note on prisons actually being a punishment -- another area where I falter astray from the typical liberal ideals. If some faith-based program in a prison has impressive numbers, then fine - go with it. BUT, don't use taxpayer $ to fund the bribery of people into religion. (I've seen attition rates for these programs, but I'd also be curious to see the rates of people who remain "conformed" to the religion and maintained it longterm. Very hard to gather, but would still be interesting. 99% of the criminals out there are smart enough to realize that if they just say whatever it is they're supposed to say, and do whatever it is they're supposed to do, and from that they'll get all these perks... hell yeah they announce Christ as their savior. I'd wager you'd be hard pressed to find many who wouldn't, just to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow).

Because it crosses the line between separation of church and state. If you had to research them online you're probably not familiar with the full story. We aren't just talking about prisons that incorporate faith. Most prisons give people a way to recognize their faith. We're talking about deluxe accomodations, extra & "gourmet" meals (anything is gourmet compared to a mealloaf, I guess), extra visitation time, extra outdoor time, etc. for participating in the activities. If you refuse to attend or refuse to announce Christ as your savior, you're given many fewer priveledges than those who are willing to do it. That people can receive these perks, funded by tax dollars (don't think for a minute that some generous person out there is paying to construct the nicer quarters, bring in the musicians, etc.) in exchange for religious "conversion" or rebirth (or whatever you want to call it) crosses the line of separation.

Marimaru - not sure if you're responding to me or not, but I didn't mean it was about the kid not saying it. I just meant -- something like that, something "pep rally", especially at that age, would really irritate me and while granted, I would have probably been one of the ones refusing to say it out loud, I would also have given an antagonistic answer (e.g. "mediocrity") when asked the question. Just because I would have thought the activity was lame. From the few facts I know, I can completely relate to that kid and completely see myself having done the same thing at that age... so I guess I just see it from a different perspective. Doesn't mean I would have truly believed I'm fine with mediocrity... just means I'm in a bad mood, or think "this" is stupid.

Charles Colson's InnerChange and Fellowship Ministries. Backed by te Federa Bureau of Corrections. For one. Or the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and its agency centers incuding the ACF which has granted money to faith-based organizations incuding Catholic Charities of Kansas City - St. Joseph (this one hits close to home, I live in Kansas City), Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, Holy Redeemer Institutional Churh of God in Christ, Cristian Community Health Fellowship...

Are you freaking serious? Because that's really bizarre. This weekend I had a sex dream about Tom Selleck. *BARF* Even worse? A year or so ago I had a sex dream about Jimmy Smits. *DOUBLE BARF* And Fred Flinstone, in the same dream. Think I'd prefer Fred!

Not everyone of any political persuasion has to agree 100% with everything it encompasses. That's why we have things like alternatives to straight party tickets. And if you want to get nitty-gritty about it, the founding of the abortion movement (Ameican Birth Control League, circa 1920) is as anti-liberal as it gets, fundamentally speaking, because in its origin it was intended as a way to prevent lesser people from procreating. Lesser people then, of course, included Blacks, Italians, Jews, Slavs... some would call that genocide. Remember it was one of their founding members who proposed "The Negro Project" (written to forcibly sterilize young southern blacks, mostly born out of race hate, but loosely tied to the idea that fewer blacks = less welfare = more money for whites). Most liberals support the right for a woman to choose what happens. Whether it's getting a tattoo or coloring her hair or having an abortion doesn't matter. It seems like a lot of people prefer to emphasis the actual abortion over the right to make a choice. I'm about as liberal as you can get. Plot me on a chart and I guarantee I will be as bottom left as possible, surpassing most others with liberal perspectives. But a lot of liberals would be aghast with my beliefs around welfare. That doesn't mean I'm not a liberal.

When did you have surgery? For a few weeks after my surgery my burps definitely had a weird synthetic taste. I don't remember it well enough to know if I'd equate it to plastic, but it was definitely abnormal. It lasted... I think 3 weeks. I never thought much of it, I just figured it was gas from the surgery making its way out, and that I was tasting the gas or something.

I had surgery on a Wednesday. I was nervous the Saturday before. I was amazingly calm and indifferent the night before surgery (went to bed early, slept through the night) and the morning of. It seemed - routine, in a weird way. Fine the entire time UNTIL... In the prep area, where they get your IV in, your hat on, give you the initial sedative, etc. -- I started getting nervous. Just a little, nothing like butterflies. They closed the curtain and asked me to change into the robe. I got up, put the robe on, and could NOT make myself lay on the bed/gurney/whatever. I just couldn't do it. I started shaking and crying. Not much, but a little. And I am NOT an emotional person. So that's saying a lot. It truly felt like I just couldn't do it. DH was there and I had to keep asking him if I was doing the right thing. I kept telling him, "I don't think I can do this..." This was my first surgery, I'd never even had an IV before (other than infancy), so most of my anticipation was around the unknowns of what would happen, what would I remember, what would be going on when I woke up, etc.

What would you consider an unscale restaurant? Do you mean that as in "the opposite of upscale"?

First, was the kid even serious, or was he being a smartass? I ask because, when I was that age, if someone had made me do that, I would have been thinking "LAME" and probably would have given a similar answer just because I wasn't digging the activity. If he was serious... I don't think it's a fad. Nor do I think it's limited to younger generations. I see lots of older people all around me who are OK with mediocrity. You have your drivers/reds/As/whatever you want to call them who will be compelled to always push for that next step. That's me. Then there's your blues/amicables/whatever you want to call them who will always be happy to have what's handed to them and don't see a need to strive or push for more. That's my husband, to a degree. Of course you have degrees in between. But none of that is "teenagers", it's "people". My parents always pushed me, his parents did not push him. I had friends who were pushed and friends who were not. Same with their parents. Same with the kids in school now.

Oh - yeah - situation similar to Ariel. I submitted my preliminary stuff, then started getting annoyed with my surgeon's office because they're instructions stated, "If you haven't heard anything in 2 weeks, call us" and I had been calling them and they weren't getting back with me. So finally they called me back. I was expecting "we also need..." and instead she says, "I'm assuming you got the same letter I did..." and told me I was pre-approved. Then when I went to check mail on my way home, there it was.