freedoms, plural

NY Times: The Speech Misheard Round the World

The most interesting part about this article, to me, is actually the notion that there are two concepts of freedom in the US: one that "emphasizes civil liberties, political participation and social justice" and one that "means doing what one wants and getting one's way".

Or, since most US citizens are relatively privileged, perhaps "other people's freedoms" and "my freedoms" might be one way of looking at it (although the article doesn't put it that way).

post-LASIK: day 10

Not much to report, fortunately.

As of Day 8, my vision is now nominally 20/20 in each eye--that is, it can't be made better by adding corrective lenses. I still can't exactly clearly see the 20/20 line, but as far as I can tell that's mostly because the haloing (brought on by the fact that the test involves a bright spot on the wall in a dark room) is fuzzing it out a bit. The haloing, as a temporary phenomenon (I hope), is actually occasionally amusing: my tennis shoes, in bright light coming in the window, look like a cheap special effect right out of that scene in James Brown's church in The Blues Brothers or something.

( again, mild squick warning )

One thing that may have helped me recover as quickly as I have is that I set several alarms per day to remind me to take my eyedrops--of which, for the first week, I had to take three varieties a day, four or more times a day, spaced out so as not to mutually interfere. (Amusingly, the anti-inflammatory is apparently the same steroid that body-builders use. I'll let y'all know if my eyes acquire bulging muscles. ;> ) Personally I can't remember to do this sort of thing without aid; the alarms helped me a lot.

For the first week, my eyes were a bit uncomfortable when I woke up; apparently this is because they don't get enough oxygen (for the healing) while my eyes are closed. This has tapered off in the last couple of days, though, probably because the flap has now entirely closed (if not completely finished healing).

My optometrist is sufficiently tickled pink (his phrase!) by how this has turned out that I wonder, a bit, how well he was expecting it to have gone. *wry smile*

Thus far at least, I'd recommend Dr. Tooma at TLC (Newport Beach) for LASIK. (Not necessarily for IOL/ICL, though--he'll take your money to do it, but he hasn't done a thousandth as many of those as he has of LASIK.) And definitely Dr. Fisher for an optometrist--he's been very helpful, informative, and supportive. I appreciate the fact that he's willing to go into as much detail as he has, even when the information arguably isn't very useful to me. :)

conversation with Dad, and my place in the world

Unlike most of my LJ entries, this one is posted here mostly for my own sake--my memories have already faded somewhat, and I want to remember this later. I won't lock it or disable comments, but I'm not really looking for feedback.

( Some personal reflections on my place in my family and so forth )