Topamax: It is working. Goodbye Inderal. (but still more side effects)

I'm still at 100 mg. per day (50 morning, 50 evening), but now I'm sure it's working. One bit of news: my doc now has me ratcheting down my old dose of Inderal, so I can get off that stuff. The theory is I won't be needing the Inderal anymore. I'll be totally dependent on the Topamax instead. :-) I'm gradually reducing the Inderal, using 40 mg. tablets. I had been on a daily dose of 120 mg.

The side effects of the Topamax are mildly annoying. The fumbling for words and saying the wrong words is just not like me and it is embarrassing. It's also not like me to leave out letters and misspell words so often when writing. Plus... Does Topamax mess with motor skills, like hand-eye coordination? I think I it does. I keep dropping things, like pens and keys. I dropped my truck keys and broke the key fob this morning, which was really aggravating, because I then could not turn off the alarm to start the vehicle. But, at least the stress did not trigger a headache, like it would have in the past. (Eventually, I got the fob back together, sort of, and got on the road.)

The most precise Google search EVER

I just encountered the most precise Google search EVER. I put in my search term -- the name of a file that appeared in an error related to some programming that I'm doing -- and I got exactly one result from Google. Did you hear me? ONE result! Not one million. Not one thousand one hundred and one. Just ONE! And it was exactly what I was looking for. It was a discussion of the exact error I was receiving, in the exact circumstances under which I generated it. Plus, it was being discussed on a respectable forum. Amazing!

See the search results for yourself...
The most precise Google search ever

Who I'd invite to dinner

Charline recently asked me who'd I'd invite to my ideal dinner party (I think this was inspired by a recent edition of Oprah, in which O posed this classic question to George Clooney). So, with no further ado, here are the five people I'd invite, if I were guaranteed they'd accept and show up -- listed in no particular order:

• Former U.S. president Bill Clinton
• Debt-relief champion and rock star extraordinaire Bono
• His Holiness The Dalai Lama
• The Daily Show host Jon Stewart
• Comic, political scholar/author, radio host Al Franken

That's a pretty well-rounded list, I think. A semi-retired politician, a rock-star who has turned into a global economics leader, one of the most beloved religious figures of all time, one of the most populare entertainers in America (who has also become the main source of news for young adults), and, finally, a man who has evolved from Harvard graduate to Saturday Night Live writer to political scholar and author to wildly successful radio host.

Now, I just hope they all like barbecued ribs.