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Google Goggles
Oct. 9th, 2006 01:10 pmWearing my over-the-counter magnifying glasses while using the internet until I get my new perscription, I realized that there was a typo in Dr. Seuss's alphabet. Girl, Goat, Goo-Goo Goggles? Clearly, "Google Goggles" was meant, but the proof reader had no way to know that 40 + years ago (unlike the clarvoiant good Doctor.)
Edit: I'm clearly quite late with awareness of this phrase. Googling shows 656 hits for "Google goggles". These include multiple contraditory definitions of the neologism, some of the obscene. Um.
While I've lost my minor superpower of microscopic vision up close, I have gained a power hitherto lacking-- being able to enjoy being at the beach without glasses. Indeed, this opens up more opportunities for beach enjoyment-- since my childhood more than a short walk along the oceanfront was problematic as my glasses would cloud up with salt.
Boca has two good NPR stations, helping make it hospitable for resting eyes. (I mentioned to my dad my fondness for the show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", and he revealed that one of the fairly regular panelists is a cousin. There's even a photo of me and Kyrie O'Conner on the family wall-- along with about 50 other people at a family reunion in the late 1970s.) Other listening has included some of the boxed set of the new complete cd release of Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress interviews which I picked up before leaving New Orleans.
Edit: I'm clearly quite late with awareness of this phrase. Googling shows 656 hits for "Google goggles". These include multiple contraditory definitions of the neologism, some of the obscene. Um.
While I've lost my minor superpower of microscopic vision up close, I have gained a power hitherto lacking-- being able to enjoy being at the beach without glasses. Indeed, this opens up more opportunities for beach enjoyment-- since my childhood more than a short walk along the oceanfront was problematic as my glasses would cloud up with salt.
Boca has two good NPR stations, helping make it hospitable for resting eyes. (I mentioned to my dad my fondness for the show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", and he revealed that one of the fairly regular panelists is a cousin. There's even a photo of me and Kyrie O'Conner on the family wall-- along with about 50 other people at a family reunion in the late 1970s.) Other listening has included some of the boxed set of the new complete cd release of Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress interviews which I picked up before leaving New Orleans.
Just stuff
Oct. 7th, 2006 08:56 pmI'm looking forward to the return visit to the eye doctor Tueday, and hope my new glasses will result in better vision. Short drives in the nearby area only until then, but fortunately there's a good variety of stuff near our hotel (and my parents' condo is a short distance away). My eyes with new artificial lenses in them are much more sensitive to touch; a moderate touch of eyelid feels like a harsh poke in the eye.
Boca Raton does have good food. I think the selection of good gelato within a limited area is the best I've found outside of a few cities in Italy. I'm just disappointed that the Inca restaurant is closed for vacation. This evening we got some take out from "Canoli Kitchen", a small busy place with an impressive menu including at least 10 different interesting good pizzas availible by the slice. It was interesting hearing a combination of English, Spanish, and Italian as the workers were addressing eachother.
Hollie is tolerating exposure to my parents with admirable fortitude.
Ms Hollie watches "Sábado Gigante" fairly regularly, she says, though her Spanish is worse than mine. I enjoy seeing bits of it on occasion (in part nostalgia as one of the few shows still on from my teens); not having cable at home I seldom have a chance. But I can only take it in limited dosages-- it can feel to me like watching weeks worth of constant television concentrated in a couple hours.
Boca Raton does have good food. I think the selection of good gelato within a limited area is the best I've found outside of a few cities in Italy. I'm just disappointed that the Inca restaurant is closed for vacation. This evening we got some take out from "Canoli Kitchen", a small busy place with an impressive menu including at least 10 different interesting good pizzas availible by the slice. It was interesting hearing a combination of English, Spanish, and Italian as the workers were addressing eachother.
Hollie is tolerating exposure to my parents with admirable fortitude.
Ms Hollie watches "Sábado Gigante" fairly regularly, she says, though her Spanish is worse than mine. I enjoy seeing bits of it on occasion (in part nostalgia as one of the few shows still on from my teens); not having cable at home I seldom have a chance. But I can only take it in limited dosages-- it can feel to me like watching weeks worth of constant television concentrated in a couple hours.
Eye of Frog update
Mar. 22nd, 2006 05:38 pmNext procedure, it'd be better to bring own drugs.
After they spent 20 minutes shooting laser beams they shot into that eye, you'd think I'd now be able to shoot some laser beams OUT.
But NOOO, I can't.
Not even a little.
After they spent 20 minutes shooting laser beams they shot into that eye, you'd think I'd now be able to shoot some laser beams OUT.
But NOOO, I can't.
Not even a little.
New Orleans progress; Eye Ai ai!
Mar. 21st, 2006 01:01 pmI have the feeling that the degree of Katrina recovery we have now is about where we should have been in October, or maybe the first week in November.
They are still pulling bodies from the ruins. Mostly in the Lower 9th Ward, but recently also in the Upper 9th, Lakeview, and a couple in New Orleans East. They are now in the process of tearing down some of the ruins of buildings that are blocking streets.
Some 2/3rds of the local businesses in my unflooded neighborhood are back open, now including coffee shops, though wi fi is still spotty or very slow.
The big chains have decided that New Orleans is still here, and are reopening or making plans to reopen; the Starbucks in Riverbend and the Wal-Mart on Tchopitoulas have signs saying they plan to reopen this month.
Most of the city has just been assigned once a week garbage pick up days. Though there are still sizable portions of the city with some people back living in them that don't have trash pickup or electricity.
Mail is still spotty.
About half of major intersections have their traffic lights back working now.
More than half of those who requested them in the aftermath of the strom now have had their short-term emergency housing FEMA trailers delivered (though how many of those are actually inhabitable yet -- electric & water hook ups, for example-- is a very different question still).
The previous time I went into the Lower 9th, a CNN camera man told me it looked like the Biloxi 3 days after Katrina.
I stopped back yesterday afternoon after my radio show. I was hoping to photograph where the Ingram Barge used to be, but they aren't letting people near there now. I saw a crew working on demolishing one of the street houses. [Edit: "street house" meaning a house that was knocked off its foundation and the ruins were in the street. Unfortunately fairly common in some parts of town. Those that completely blocked streets were usually some of the first demolished, but many that that only block half the street remain.] Not far away, an old guy was piling his pick up full of metal bathtubs, railings, and other scrap metal from the ruins not hard to gather from streetside. Another tv news team was filming the ongoing levee repair work, and someone from one of the networks interviewing someone from the Common Ground aid house here. A small group, who turned out to be from Ohio working with Habitat for Humanity, interviewed me when they found out I was a local who'd been back since October and had been visiting the Lower 9th since November.
In the evening I went to the Prytania Theater and saw the film "V for Vendetta". I'd give it a B-, but I'd read thefunny book graphic novel back in the day.
I decided to make some use of my eyes. Later today I go for the first in a series of procedures which I hope I'll be seeing better at the end of. No corrections with this one; as I understand it, it's some sort of using lasers to "tack down" my retena to minimize risk of detatchment in later procedures. I hope I get some decent drugs; I'd have a damn hard time holding still while they mess with my eyes otherwise.
They are still pulling bodies from the ruins. Mostly in the Lower 9th Ward, but recently also in the Upper 9th, Lakeview, and a couple in New Orleans East. They are now in the process of tearing down some of the ruins of buildings that are blocking streets.
Some 2/3rds of the local businesses in my unflooded neighborhood are back open, now including coffee shops, though wi fi is still spotty or very slow.
The big chains have decided that New Orleans is still here, and are reopening or making plans to reopen; the Starbucks in Riverbend and the Wal-Mart on Tchopitoulas have signs saying they plan to reopen this month.
Most of the city has just been assigned once a week garbage pick up days. Though there are still sizable portions of the city with some people back living in them that don't have trash pickup or electricity.
Mail is still spotty.
About half of major intersections have their traffic lights back working now.
More than half of those who requested them in the aftermath of the strom now have had their short-term emergency housing FEMA trailers delivered (though how many of those are actually inhabitable yet -- electric & water hook ups, for example-- is a very different question still).
The previous time I went into the Lower 9th, a CNN camera man told me it looked like the Biloxi 3 days after Katrina.
I stopped back yesterday afternoon after my radio show. I was hoping to photograph where the Ingram Barge used to be, but they aren't letting people near there now. I saw a crew working on demolishing one of the street houses. [Edit: "street house" meaning a house that was knocked off its foundation and the ruins were in the street. Unfortunately fairly common in some parts of town. Those that completely blocked streets were usually some of the first demolished, but many that that only block half the street remain.] Not far away, an old guy was piling his pick up full of metal bathtubs, railings, and other scrap metal from the ruins not hard to gather from streetside. Another tv news team was filming the ongoing levee repair work, and someone from one of the networks interviewing someone from the Common Ground aid house here. A small group, who turned out to be from Ohio working with Habitat for Humanity, interviewed me when they found out I was a local who'd been back since October and had been visiting the Lower 9th since November.
In the evening I went to the Prytania Theater and saw the film "V for Vendetta". I'd give it a B-, but I'd read the
I decided to make some use of my eyes. Later today I go for the first in a series of procedures which I hope I'll be seeing better at the end of. No corrections with this one; as I understand it, it's some sort of using lasers to "tack down" my retena to minimize risk of detatchment in later procedures. I hope I get some decent drugs; I'd have a damn hard time holding still while they mess with my eyes otherwise.
Poke in the eye
Feb. 16th, 2006 07:35 pmI went to the eye doctor today. I've got a catarct in one eye, and will probably be schedualing surgery sometime in the not distant future.
Yeah, middle-agey though I am, I'm still about a quarter century younger than the statistical median for cataracts, but I've been wearing glasses since I was 5 years old. So it's actually something of a relief to learn that I have something treatable, rather than I'm already going irrevokably blind in that eye.
Last year I was disappointed that my new perscription was unable to adiquately correct that eye. I requested and got a repeat check up then. It seems that was an early sign of what would develop.
I'll likely come out of it with at least needing much less dramatic perscription.
Yeah, middle-agey though I am, I'm still about a quarter century younger than the statistical median for cataracts, but I've been wearing glasses since I was 5 years old. So it's actually something of a relief to learn that I have something treatable, rather than I'm already going irrevokably blind in that eye.
Last year I was disappointed that my new perscription was unable to adiquately correct that eye. I requested and got a repeat check up then. It seems that was an early sign of what would develop.
I'll likely come out of it with at least needing much less dramatic perscription.
Welcome to Old Fogeydom
Nov. 23rd, 2004 09:02 pmWent to the eye-doctor today.
Looks like I'll be greeting the New Year with bifocals.
Looks like I'll be greeting the New Year with bifocals.
