I think my right eye is as healed as it's gonna get. There's a window of about a 1/4 inch about three inches in front of my eye where I can see clearly. That's opposed to about a one inch window about four inches in front of my left eye that I can see clearly, which is like what both eyes were before the surgery.

I imagine just getting new glasses would fix my vision problems. Still, it's a little scary that I've apparently lost 3/4 of my focusing power with my unaided right eye...

On the bright side, it never has hurt at all...

My eye has gotten much better overnight. I think my prescription has changed though. My glasses aren't correcting that eye like they used to...

I had eye surgery today and my vision is so messed up at the moment I can't see myself doing much computing this week. Talk about bad timing... this is definitely the Curse of Blondie, since all their stuff is blowing up right now!!! (Carson Daly on March 2nd... check it out!)

My eyes should be fine after a couple weeks... but I am not sure at what point in those two weeks I'll be able to stand more than a minute or two at the computer. Right now it's nearly unbearable. Doesn't hurt, but it's really hard to focus on anything.

My vision in my right eye is actually worse than before I had the surgery. Now I didn't get Lasix, I just got this surgery to fix the tear and the hole in my retina. But I didn't expect it to actually change my prescription. I can't see anything clear in my right eye with my glasses. I am heartened by the fact that WITHOUT my glasses, I can see my finger clearly at about four inches. This is different from my left eye, which sees things clear at about three inches. (Yes, I am really nearsighted!) So when this is done, it might just be a matter of getting a new prescription...

The "Dean Scream" - The Version of Reality You Didn't See (or Hear) on TV

By Diane Sawyer

(New York-ABC News, January 29, 2004)

It was the scream Howard Dean says became famous after the media played it nearly 700 times in a few days. Not only that, his camp adds, what we heard on the air was not a reflection of the way it sounded in the room.

After my interview with Dean and his wife in which I played the tape again -- in fact played it to them -- I noticed that on that tape he's holding a hand-held microphone. One designed to filter out the background noise. It isolates your voice, just like it does to Charlie Gibson and me when we have big crowds in the morning. The crowds are deafening to us standing there. But the viewer at home hears only our voice.

So, we collected some other tapes from Dean's speech including one from a documentary filmmaker, tapes that do carry the sound of the crowd, not just the microphone he held on stage. We also asked the reporters who were there to help us replicate what they experienced in the room.

Reena Singh, ABC News Dean campaign reporter: "What the cameras didn't capture was the crowd."

Garance Franke-Ruta, Senior Editor, American Prospect: "As he spoke, the audience got louder and louder and I found it somewhat difficult to hear him."

Dean's boisterous countdown of the upcoming primaries as we all heard it on TV was isolated, when in fact he was shouting over the roaring crowd.

And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called scream couldn't really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with the crowd.

Neal Gabler, Senior Fellow, Lear Center USA: "When you're talking about visuals, context is everything. So, you've got a situation in which you have what I'd call the televised version of reality, which is not the same as the actual reality in room. You know in a situation like this, no one takes responsibility."

Comments from network executives:

CBS News: "Individually we may feel okay about our network, but the cumulative effect for viewers with 24-hour cable coverage is -- it may have been overplayed and, in fact, a disservice to Dean and the viewers."

-- Andrew Heyward, President - CBS News

ABC News: "It's always a danger that we'll use good video too much."

-- David Westin, President - ABC News

CNN: "We've all been wrestling with this. If we had it to do over again, we'd probably pull ourselves back."

-- Princell Hair, General Manager - CNN

Fox News: "It got overplayed a bit, and the public clearly thought that, too, and kept him alive for another round."

-- Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO - Fox News

I went to the doctor today to find out what I can do about my floaters.

(Floaters are dark spots that float around your eye. In my case it's blood from a blood vessel that burst, probably somehow related to my high blood pressure. It's not really blood clots, it's more like releasing red jelly into a fishbowl... it breaks up and floats around, but there are concentrated spots that don't break up too. Anyway it gets in front of my vision and to my brain, it looks like a large bug flying around just outside my peripheral vision, or a dog running past me, or a car turning in front of me really quick... just these large nebulous shadows that are constantly annoying...)

My new doctor said flat out that he would not do anything for the floaters. There are two surgeries for floaters: an invasive surgery where they actually cut into the eye, and a laser surgery designed to break the floaters into smaller pieces.

During the invasive surgery, they remove the natural gel filling the eye and put in a sterile jelly-like solution to replace it. There's risk of infection, tearing the retina further, bleeding, and all sorts of other complications. He says that the isn't worth the risks (and I agree with him).

As for the laser surgery designed to "break up" the floaters, he says he's never seen actually work. The eye is self-contained... the fluid in there is never regenerated or circulated through the body. All they'd be doing is moving the floaters around.

He is one of the most respected and experienced eye doctors in Phoenix, so I believe him.

I am getting surgery though. Surprise! During the exam, he found a large horseshoe-shaped tear in my retina, and a smaller hole. He says the tear must be fixed, because there is risk that it will get bigger, and if it does, it will tear right into the "seeing" part of my retina. For now it's only on the very side and doesn't affect my vision, thank goodness. I'm very lucky it hasn't progressed further into my vision. Luckily this surgery is done with a laser and only takes about 10 minutes to complete.

So they're going to call me and schedule a surgery date. Woo hoo.

I'm feeling much better this week. I think pretty much everything is either resolved, or just so ridiculous I don't even care about it anymore.

I'm almost done with this new DHBIS project and i think everyone's gonna love it...