Wheetsin

My perfect solution to anything band and holidays (or just fun) is FONDUE! We hosted a fondue event last season that went over VERY well, and if you think about it - it's kind of the perfect bandster meal. Small pieces of moist/tender meat, eating takes a long time because you cook each piece as you go, meats tend to be lean and healthy cuts, etc. Appetizer was a gruyere and emmenthaler with crab leg meat and crusty bread. Main course was a broth fondue (chicken broth, OJ, seasonings) with choices of lobster tail chunks, shrimp, chicken, filet, salmon, pork, duck and ravioli. Desert was plain milk chocolate with fresh fruit, cheesecake, Peanut Butter Cookies, rice krispie treats, pretzels, etc. You can make it as nice, or low key as you would like.

We got a good 2" of ice lastnight, and it's still raining. Just barely above freezing out, so if the temp drops before quitting time, it's going to be one crazy mess out there. We're good on power. Our area is new enough that the lines are underground, but several family/friends have been without power since late last night. I worked from home yesterday, today... probably will tomorrow, too. I hate winter. I miss SoCal.

Had a big long response here basically saying I agree. Then the power glitched... %^$ ice storm.

Yes, I started off witht he idea that the only stable thread through atheists is being without the existence of god(s). In my back and forth of my message, I did leave out "most" or "for the most part" a few times. (Guess I had hoped that the lack of universal absolutes was understood by that point). This was not intended to mean that my statement was an absolute about atheists, or that there are no exceptions to the rule. My fault for omitting these phrases in a few places, but I'm still not gonna go back and edit to put them in so from here on, just consider them implicit.

I don't hate anything about teachers. They're just people doing a job for some reason, and by and large I have no moral objections to what they're doing. One thing I would really like to see change is requiring teachers to learn how to teach. Learning types, group behavior, instructional integrity, etc. In addition to my regular job I also contract in my field. A large number of my jobs have been with educational establishments - trying to help the teachers understand what it means to teach from the perspective of instructional congruence and classroom dynamics. When I first started doing this, I was dismayed by how little teachers knew/understood about what they were doing instructionally, and even their understanding of group dynamics in a classroom. (I've only worked with high school and up, so I can't speak to anything under that, though I can't imagine you suddenly get a surge in skillset/knowledge because of the age difference of the students). This is a far cry from "why I hate most about teachers" and much more along the lines of, "what I hate that someone somewhere isn't providing nor requiring of teachers."

ETA - just gonna have to deal with my random changes in tense, misspells, etc. I wanted to get through the post, and I'm not about to wade through smilies and tags to edit it now.

Bypassing everything that happend while I was MIA and addressing OP: Generally speaking, atheism is a not believed in dieties, or being nontheistic, hence a (without) theism (belief in the existince of god(s)). Atheists do not believe in theism. An agnostic, long story short, is someone who cannot state that god(s) exist or do not exist because of some reason, e.g. they have investigated and find that there is no proof, or they do not believe that humans are capable of comprehending the truth, etc. The agnostic will often say I don't think there's a god out there, but there has to be something... we'll just never know what. Of course, then you get into agnostic atheism, agnostic theism, etc. There are also different degrees of atheism, not all "atheists" believe the same thing. When referring to the atheist population there are two (generally accetped) types of atheists: a weak atheist (implicit atheism/agnostic atheism/passive atheism/etc.) would be someone who lacks belief in any gods, period. Then there's the strong atheists (gnostic atheism/active atheism/etc.), who is someone who denies would be someone who denies the existence of god(s). There's actually very important difference here. Saying 'I do not believe in god(s)" and saying "God(s) do not exist" imply entire different abilities and competencies. All atheists are weak atheists because all, on some fundamental level, will say that they do not believe in god(s), but do not try to prove that god(s) do not exist - for them it is enough that they do not believe. Some atheists go the extra mile, so to speak, and believe/state that god(s) cannot exist, which would imply they might have some means of proving it. And in some cases, most weak atheists are also strong atheists with some gods. As one commonly used example, I don't know single atheist who would not say "Zeus did not exist." Ok so umm yeah, not all atheists believe the same thing. I will use my husband for example. He does not believe in the traditional god image. He is more a weak atheist than strong, but definitely not a theist. As for UFOs - I'm going to broaden that to general "other intelligent life in the universe". He absolutely believes there is other intelligent life. He does not see it as any deity's doing. He sees it as something inevitable given the expanse of space, the abundance of raw materials out there, etc. For him, it's a matter of statistics, time, and change in the form of cosmic radiation causing mutations. Maybe some people call that "god" - but in his eyes they're totally separate. Let's take ghosts as another example. He does not believe in the traditional idea of a "ghost" -- as in, a lost soul or whatever you want to call it. He does think that sometimes iunexplainable things occur. To him, it makes a lot more sense that there might be residual energy (maybe this is a "soul" to theists, but it is not to atheists, e.g. the energy that allows for consciousness is converted into energy that does not). He also believes in the multiverse model - that we could have parallel universes leaking into each other or that perahps we're even receiving leaks from the four dimensions (that we're aware of - maybe more - some scientists are theorizing as many as 11 in recent times). To show the contrast of theories, a different atheist - having never experienced anything they would classify as a ghost, or having seen reasonable evidence - would simply believe that anyone who sees "ghosts" is having mental disturbances. Most atheists do not believe in karma in the traditional sense (and let's face it, probably 99% of the people who use the word karma, and have not studied Buddhist/Hindu/Jain/Sikh teachings, don't really know what the word means. Instead we've adopted a sort of colloquial meaning of it to state "you reap what you sow" in a shadily vengeful sort of way.) One way an atheist might explain (colloquail) karma is that mean people who do mean things can only do them for so long before they're going to put into effect some action or behavior that will reciprocate their actions. Atheists (none that I've met or spoken with, anyway - though it would be interesting to hear one's explanations/descriptions) do not believe in reincarnation. Reincaration is something that cannot be adequately proven (remember - the typical atheist has a heckuva head on their shoulders, and is not opposed to believing in anything that can be sufficnetly proven). Lots of things have been done to try and prove the idea of reincanation (e.g. MacDougall's work in the early 1900s and the ensuing documentaries) - none of them sufficient - e.g. had MacDougall's work been accurate/irrefutable, it would not necessarily imply anything with religious implications. To an atheist, when you die, you die. You completely an utterly cease to exist, at least in any "real" way. (E.g. maybe there are still electrical impulses within your body, because it has not yet dissipated out... you can "live on" in the memories of those who loved you, etc). There is no afterlife, you are not reunited with loved ones, etc. To an atheist, these are ideas concocted to make people feel better about death. As I've said before, I think having a belief in the afterlife lessens the sting of loss. If you truly believe you will be reacquainted in a better place, then loss will only hurt so much, whereas if you believe that's it, nice knowing you - differetn scenario. Hope this has helped to shed some light.

Actually the girl at the top isn't a bandster, she's just stock imagery. Alex added her (I believe his reason was "sex appeal") when he redesigned the site several months ago. So don't worry, it isn't female over male bandsters, there aren't any bandsters at all.

Does it happen while eating? Pains on the chest, especially the area of the band, that radiate to the back, is fairly common to experience when something is stuck.

No real instructions, it's small but sturdy. One tip - if it ever out of the blue just stops working, try cleaning the base. Bits can make their way down through the little openings. Good cleaning as in - soak, scrub, and of course thoroughly dry before using. recipes - I'm usually whizzing some combination of vanilla or choco Protein pwder with fresh fruit, Peanut Butter, sugar free syrups (esp Kahlua flavor), etc. Outside of band specific use, I use mine for guacamole, homemade whipped cream, mousse, eggs (the BEST omlettes are made with air-laden eggs), Soups, purees, etc.

Oh, if lima beans and butter beans are the same thing, then these are nothing like lima beans at all. Butter beans make me wanna yak.

We're fine with its use, as long as it complies with our rues and regs, e.g. using out in humor vs. using it to attack someone. Hope that answers your question.

I don't know that I've ever had lima beans, I'm not sure. My husband does not like any bean other than green beans, but I made him taste this and as soon as he started chewing his face lit up and he was like, "Oh, wow, those are good!" He thought they tasted meaty, and a little buttery. (No idea if he's had lima beans when i say he doesn't like other beans, so can't help there either).

Hmm, I may have been misunderstood. I was addressing, purely, the idea of whether or not bitterness prevents someone from holding/cherishing beliefs. Nothing else.

Portion size relative to pre-op is irrelevant. If you were eating 8,000 calories before your surgery, and now you're eating 4,000, you could very easily not lose weight. Half of a giant portion is still going to be an above average portion. Calculate your BMR , calculate your AMR, and shoot for somewhere in between -- for starters.

nuts Yes peanut butter Yes waffles/pancakes Yes with caution pickles Yes pasta Yes apples ( which I used to eat almost daily) Yes, but not the skins, and applesauce hurts me root vegetables Yes pork ribs, chops, tenderloin Yes

I've not had MRSA, but I'm familiar with it and I know two people currently being treated - one localized to the hand, the other on the back. It's nasty stuff. I had my gallbladder out in August and I was chatting with the nurse and she said it definitely has everyone on red alert. It's the Energizer bunny of staph infections. MRSA

I buy both shelled and unshelled. Well - let me rephrase that. All the ones I buy are shelled, but some have the skins removed, and some do not. Removed I use them for side dishes. Not removed - I use those for roasted until crunchy. I'm not sure what the brand is but I get them at the organic market (similar to Whole Foods) and it's roughly $3 for a large bag. If you have a Sam's Club, check there - ours recently started carrying them. I also buy the pre-packaged dry roasted, lightly salted ones from Seapoint Farms. Our local World Market sells them. I've not seen them sold anywhere else other than there and online, but they're the BEST snack.

I had a big old reply to this, and then my computer crashed, so you get the truncated version. Airports - once I set off the metal detector (out of 40+ flights, so that's probably 90 - 100+ gates). The wand picked up in the immediate area of my port, and I could not explain it any other way - e.g. no underwire bra, no metal zipper, no other implants, etc. I go through this gate for most of my flights, and only had this happen once. Fluke? Maybe. Actual trigger? Maybe. Who knows. MRI - Should not be an issue unless the metal is loose (and why would it be) or near a dangerous area. For example, a plate screwed into a bone - that's not going to go anywhere, and should not cause any problems with the MRI. A metal rod running next to your optic nerve - you might not be getting an MRI anytime soon. (I asked a good friend who is a doctor about this). Diving - I dive with a deep diving specialty and no problems so far. I questioned Inamed about the integrity of the abnd under pressure extensively, and never had an indication that it would be a problem. As for how you react - if anything things should get a heck of a lot looser. Your tissues are going to be much more susceptible to pressure changes than silicone. Maybe diving is the cure for being stuck.

Whoppers?

I'm not a therapist, but I have the degree, and I see several red flags in your story. I can understand where the psychologist is coming from sometimes - in family closeness s/he's likely looking for your support system, but then by your therapist's rationale, someone who's family has died would be a poor surgical candidate, and that certainly doesn't have to be the case. I can also see his comment about one foot in. This procedure is widely viewed as the "reversible" procedure, meaning that it doesn't require the full committment that something like a permanent change/removal of your organs would. However, there are many, many extraordinarily valid reasons someone could opt for the band over a "permanent" solution, that s/he is either unaware of, or failing to acknowledge with you.

Sure it's a belief. She believes it is not true. That's just as valid as believing it is true. As for christmas - I hate the crowds, the extra traffic, and the surplus of unsupervised children running amock. And I hate the competition to get items that are in limited supply. Christmas isn't terribly special because I see my family regularly throughout the year. If I instead preferred to just pick one or two days of the year when I saw them, then I can see how it might hold more value. I love buying gifts for people, and hate to receive them. One of the very few types of charity I will support are the families that we "adopt" (a PC way of saying "buy shit for") for the holidays.

I wish I could find a remedy that works for me, but so far - nothing. The only thing that has brought any relief has been hunching over on my kitchen island. Twice, after doing that, my blockage has passed. Maybe coincidence -- it certainly doesn't work all the time. I've tried everything... meat tenderizer, pineapple juice, papaya tablets, holding my breath, doing the "stuck" dance, hopping up and down... I guess I'm just remedy-less. As for why I'm more open in the evenings... I have no idea why, it's just my version of restriction. Some people have even restriction throughout the day. I'm unfortunately not one of them. But it's a pattern that has been proven for coming up on 2 years now so I don't anticipate it changing anytime soon. There are exceptions, usually tied in to the time of month, whether or not I've flown lately, etc. -- but by and large it's a very consistent pattern.

Oh I love people watching. It's a great way to pass some time.

Whether or not you tell someone - totally your choice. However, as someone who has been banded going on 2 years, let me give you a bit of anecdotal experience. When you're banded, and achieve restriction, at some point you're probably going to be in pain, and or have to yak up gross stuff. The pain can be over in an instant, or it can last hours and hours. The yakking can be over in one try, or it can take 10, 15, 20 tries. There's just no way of knowing. And it's also very likely that you'll experience some of this prior to seeing change in your body. In other words, the majority of bandsters have their first "uh oh, restriction..." encounters long before the point where they're noticing their results. Again, totally your choice, don't get me wrong. I would be concerned, if I had kids, that having them see their parent go through this (when you're hurting and having to yak, you can't really do much to hide or disguise it, it HURTS, and the yakking isn't something you can "disguise") could scare them quite a bit. Do consider that as you make your decision.