Sunday, November 22, 2009

it isn't a good day without a fart joke

This was on Youtube's "videos being watched right now". No I did not search for this. The fart spelling bee. Heh.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

things are -SO- much better upstairs!

ON TOP of recognizing a Greenville homeless street dude a few days ago, I just stopped in Barley's, and I was only going in to use their bathroom to wash my hands (story later), and on the way to the bathroom in the back, a man was in a meeting at one of their tables, and as I passed, I thought "Hmmm, I think I know him." So after I washed my hands, I waited until they were leaving, and I approached, saying "This may seem off the wall, but does the name Zig mean anything to you?" He said "I hope so, that's me! How ya doing man?" This fellow is part of the crew that runs Albino Skunk bluegrass festival, the best bluegrass festival around, which means I just recognized someone I only see ONCE a year! HECK YES!

Now the reason I was washing los manos was that at my bus stop, I recognized the other bus patron, and we got to chit-chatting, the way good Southerners do. (I shook his hand, thus the hand washing) I don't remember how we got into our tales of woe, but it turns out his story is unbelievably worse than mine! He says that he was hanging with the wrong crowd, and they all did cocaine in some guy's bathroom. It being his first (and only) time doing that, he OD'd, and was left for dead on the bathroom floor. Amazingly, he came to a few hours later and went straight to the hospital. Doctors told him he actually was dead for those two hours (I don't know about that, but this is the part where you & I just nod our heads and say "Uh huh, oh really"). Anyway, it turned out that with both of us coming that close to death, we end up sharing many similar attitudes. Like making a point of always being nice to strangers, and avoiding most of the old crowd these days. And since his name's Lloyd, and I sometimes need to give you a nickname to remember your real name, I now take the same bus most days with "Lucky".

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

your daily dog fix

So I love dogs. Have for years. I foresee being a volunteer dog walker at the Humane Society for years to come. It's a sweet deal-- you get some dog-lovin' time, they feed 'em, bathe 'em, and do other necessities. So it'll be a long while before I want a dog all my own. But when I do, I know the desired breed. My apartment-neighbors have a great, sweet, very smart Australian Shepard that I just had to go buy a big bag of doggy treats for, and try to work in a trip next door most days to see my sweetie. That way, I can take her treats, for which she'll shake my hand and perform scavenger hunts.

So I started researching what kinds of tricks you can teach Aussies. I found everything ranging from this (duh) to this (whoa, cool).

things are so much better upstairs...

... it just took time. My memory banks have been through the ol' proverbial train wreck. (that's actually doggone close, I wonder why the saying isn't simply "been through the ol' try to talk a drunk person out of driving, and while doing so, she drives the car through you", huh, I wonder) So anyway, my memory ability (the ability to retain & recall new memories, not recall the memories I had) has been steadily improving for the last 2.5 years-- it's not at the top yet, but it's DEFINITELY better. (And since I can't figure out what "the top" is, maybe I'm there, who knows ;-) )

The other part of memory is all the stored memories I had in May of '07, which was 28 years worth. Since I couldn't retrieve them, I just assumed the were lost-- that I was starting completely over again. Things like not recognizing mom & dad on day 1 of being awake, etcetera, etcetera. Well, no, it seems they weren't lost, they were merely repressed deep down in there (well, still haven't recognized mom & dad yet ;-)), and it's just taken time to even have the ability to get to them, and it takes time to recall them (it's sometimes very helpful that being labeled 'disabled' gets you twice as long on school tests). Sometimes they come back randomly, as in waking up at 2:30am and reciting the serial number off of my old favorite rental bowling ball. What's the point, Jeff: late yesterday afternoon, I took the bus back by myself from my gym and did my usual stop-in-at-the-restaurants-on-the-way-home-to-say-hi shindig. Then I came out of the last restaurant I'm friendly with, and started walking home. An older man passed me, walking the opposite direction. I thought "You know, he looks familiar... hmmm..." and kept walking about 10 feet more since I've been wrong about that before (like yesterday). Then it hit me and I turned around and caught up.
"Sir, excuse me sir, I may be way off base here, but is your name... ... Dick?"
"Yes! Oh, Mike! Hey Mike! How are you doing? I heard all about your ordeal, Mike. Oh wait, you're not Mike, you're Jeff! Yes, how ya doing now, Jeff?"
Now the reason this makes me so happy I'm blogging about it, is that this fellow Dick is a homeless man that was a drinking buddy of Jeff 1.0's, and J2.0 certainly hasn't seen him or had reason to hear of him since my saga. So that's a memory that was seemingly lost, and it took time, but it came back-- it just went on vacation (hopefully somewhere cool). And it shows that I've always been the sailor at heart, since he thanked me last night for giving him Master & Commander back in the day. "Oh... yeah... cool. You're welcome-- I guess, since I don't remember that." (I'm learning not to sweat the minor stuff)

Spokesman gig
And more that goes into the "almost dying was the best thing to ever happen to me" bucket (which is starting to overflow), I've blogged before about this new kind of gym I go to, where their machines are great for regular folk but perfect for brain injuries, and that I'm the first brain injury to go through the program. I've been asked to give several speeches for feedback on this gym (here, on the right). And since those were received so well, the owner of my gym approached me yesterday about being a spokesperson for this gym! (details yet to come, but it would be scheduled around my free time, and I haven't said 'yes' yet since I'm not sure what all it entails)

And there's no connection to any of that, but since I traded in the old brain for a new one that has an issue with central disruption of fusion ("double vision", or, as my Veterinary Medical Terminology book just informed me, "diplopia"), that messed me up BIG TIME for more than a year, year-and-a-half-- to the point we had to put a gate across the stairs since I might just fall down them. But after 2.5 years of having double vision 24/7 (well, I guess not 24, I do occasionally sleep, or blink), it's finally gotten to 'Who cares'! Yeah, so the image from my right eye is always moving in relation to the image from my left eye, based on my head's orientation, so if I look at you while rotating my head, one of you will circle the other of you... but you know what? I'm used to that! And it means I get to quip to future girlfriends that they're exactly twice as good looking to me as they are to any other guy!

What we should really be afraid of is an ULO, an unidentified landing object.

Friday, November 6, 2009

how LUCKY am I...

... to be able to give thanks to the medical community that awoke me from the coma. Watch the speech here. (and I just put the text of the speech here in case you're having difficulty)

Monday, November 2, 2009

good grade & a new bus stop

Good news!
  1. First, my school grades! Now I wouldn't have just blatantly bragged about good grades in college #1, but that was Jeff 1.0 with a normal brain. We have no idea what Jeff 2.0's gonna turn out to be like, so heck yeah I'm bragging about any & every good thing! We just got back my fourth test in this veterinary terminology class. My 1st test grade in this field was a 96-- whoa, sweet! My 2nd came back an 88. Alright, still very good. The third came back a 76. Alright, now I'm concerned about the trend I'm noticing here. So it was with trepidation that I took my test back in class today. FOR NO REASON-- I GOT A 108!!! (4 out of 5 bonus questions right) So look, I'm not bragging "Look how smart I am." It's just that we had no clue how with-it this post-TBI Jeff was gonna be. But look at that! And allow me to brag for a second-- "Look how smart I am!"
  2. Other piece of great news-- so my folks and I are all about my regaining independence, just to show I can do it. I don't currently drive, and my college campus isn't on a bus route (yet). So my folks come over to take me to my weekly class. Also, since the nearest bus stop to the Humane Society makes for a slightly scary walk though a questionable apartment complex, after veterinary class we make it an animal day by driving to the Humane Society and volunteering to walk dogs. "What? The bus doesn't stop there? They won't stop there since it's not an approved bus stop? They go right down that road, even passing it!" So I talked to several bus system supervisors, and dad called & wrote a bunch of emails. And guess what? TODAY THEY PUT A NEW BUS STOP SIGN THERE! Limits that you think are set in stone may very well be movable. Persistence definitely pays off. So now I can go enjoy me some doggy-action whenever I feel like it-- well, as long as 'whenever' is within the bus schedule, and that's fine.
DAMN IT WAS A GOOD DAY!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

the pedestrian life

Okay, it's been at least 2 hours since my last blog ramblings (barely) so I kept my word. I just walked to the grocery store & did this week's shopping. Kinda cool that I can walk there. It's only about 4 or 5 full city blocks. Then when I was done shopping, I learned a KEY lesson: if you walked there, you gotta walk back. Uh oh. It's 4 OR 5 FULL CITY BLOCKS. Tip, kids: don't load your shopping cart down if there's not a magic car waiting for all that stuff, 'cause guess what? I think that should get me outta going to the gym this whole week at least. Maybe the month. Or year. Or dec-- no, that's just silly. Isn't this the year Publix starts complimentary door-to-door helicopter service?

GHS

GHS-- I just realized those 3 letters play a significant role in my life. Greenville Hospital System (yup). Greenville Humane Society (yup). Good Humored & Single (definitely). Galactophagist Has Some (sometimes). Gangrenous... no wait, not that 'G'. Gamic Hunk's Sexy (I hope). Gelato Hallucination Subsiding (better get some more). Girlfriend-Harvest Seeking (yup, there's a crop of girlfriends out there somewhere, ripe for the pickin'). Gladiator Hawk Sage (modest?). Good Helpful Sailboat (oh yeah).

Okay, right, I have things to do. Productive things. This is kinda weird (kinda?), but that's what it's like upstairs. Sorry, I'll stay out of your Inbox for at least 24 hours-- well, at least 2.

Hide -n- go seek

Profile for CacheDeal

In between Q & S is Arrr!

My pirate name is:
Captain Jack Kidd
Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network