Visual Migraine Questions

Cos I know I have some knowledgeable readers.

So right now I am sitting in a darkened office, with brilliant jagged geometric shapes floating in my right visual hemisphere. Having just taken my Maxalt, I am hopeful that they will disappear soon, and that they will not be replaced by an exploding horrific headache.

But the questions…

This time, the colors are different from earlier visual migraines. Less bright colors, sometimes appearing to be a palate of grays. It also appears more melty than usual. Oh, and this one is confined to my right visual hemisphere.

So, does that mean vascular activity in left occipital lobe? Or could it be elsewhere in the various visual pathways? More generally, could one conceivably map the location in the brain where the migraine activity is happening by attending to the visual phenomena? (Has this been done?)

The NYTimes had (has?) a blog on migraine art; there is quite a lot of variation. I tend to get the current effect (location varies, as does color scheme now), and occasionally a different sort where it looks like I am viewing the world through a cracked stained-glass window. Would different sorts of visual experiences imply different, and specifiable, brain areas of vascular weirdness.

Signing off now–my right eye is beginning to throb, which is not a good sign.

Best Of?

Ok, so I just noticed something. Some, though not all, of my FtB cohort have a widget of sorts that directs people to some of their “must read” posts from earlier months or years. This being the internet, pretty much anything that is older than a week or so tends to get lost, unless it happens to hit on a popular search term, in which case it will never die (that post was in my top five for every month on the old blog, with a handful of hits every day, each time from a separate search of the… obvious keywords).

So I’m thinking it might be a nice idea to have a side widget, maybe a pull-down so it doesn’t take up an internet mile, with some sort of “greatest hits” or “best introduction” or suchlike (it pleases me to see that “suchlike” is accepted by my spellcheck). I mean, I have over 1300 posts (true, some are re-posts); where is someone supposed to start?

I also am thinking that I have turned out to be a very poor judge of what people like. Things I am proud of are ignored; things I threw together in 15 minutes get lauded. As Linus Pauling would have said if he had talked about poetry, the best way to write a good verse is to write lots of verses. I may not be the best at what I do (I personally know at least three–perhaps four–better, one whose birthday is tomorrow), but by damn I am the most prolific.

I need your help to winnow the wheat from the chaff. I have no idea how many I will put in this sidebar thingy (it will depend on whether I can do a drop-down menu), but not a lot. So… which are essential? If this is the bare-bones (bare cuttlebones?) introduction, what do I include? Is there anything you printed out and tacked to your door at work or your fridge at home? Tattooed on your newborn?

What are the “Best Of”? (and yes, quit lurking and put your two cents in!)

100 Percent Certain!

I’m right, cos I’m right, which I knew all along
I am certain—one hundred percent!
There is zero percent of a chance I am wrong
And I’m certain I said what I meant.

There’s no reason for me to be changing my mind
Like that Dawkins, all wriggly and squirmy
No reason to look at the evidence, either—
I know it will only confirm me.

I’m pointing at Dawkins with utter delight
While his atheist followers grieve,
Cos I’m certain the way we decide who is right
Is how strongly believers believe!

Fun stuff, after the jump: [Read more…]

When Alvin Plantinga’s Car Won’t Start

I got in my car, and turned the key;
The engine pathetically sputtered.
The idiot light on the dashboard blinked,
And the idiot—me—simply muttered.

It’s Satan again, playing loose with my car,
With his telekinetic abilities
Or else it’s the work of a communist spy
Who’s engaging in open hostilities.

Or maybe it’s gremlins, or grumpkins, or trolls,
Which magically live in the wires
Or the spirits of dinosaurs, haunting the gas,
Or a practical joke by the tires

The Car Gods might hate me for riding a bike
It might be the chipmunks at play
It could be I parked with the car facing South
And it messed with my auto feng shui

I questioned a psychic, a healer, a priest,
And I’m worried, and starting to panic;
My view of reality just took a hit…
And I might have to call a mechanic.

Context here.

Headline Muse, 3/1

Though I’m sure, on the right, they are vexed,
It was certain some state would be next
But the Maryland vote
Keeps the issue afloat
And conservative pinheads perplexed!

Headline: Maryland governor signs same-sex marriage bill

Anyone who has ever planted their towel on the beach at low tide has learned two things: 1) change can come slowly 2) but inexorably.

The tide is moving. Religious conservatives are camped out below the high tide level. They will either change or drown. I’d rather see them change. My uncle was a minister… who left a wife and three children to run off with a priest. I don’t want people like him to drown; I want them to live. But… wouldn’t it have been kinder to have maybe let my aunt in on the whole process?

Seeing the tide… seeing the sea-change… faith communities have a brief window of opportunity. They can ride the tide and embrace the flood… or fight it and be overwhelmed.

Just sayin’.

Nothing To Talk About

Wow, it has been a long day. So nothing new today, but one that has been on my mind recently, what with Rock Beyond Belief coming up, and the Reason Rally, and the Global Atheist Convention, and more, and because just so damned many believers telling me what I must, as an atheist, believe.

My faithful friends were wondering,
And I was wondering, too,
When atheists get together—
Just what all do they do?
They have no common purpose,
And so I find it odd,
To think they join together
And talk about “no god”.

(continues, after jump:) [Read more…]