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Blog - August 2003 |
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This page stores my blog entries from August 2003. The entries are dated August 7, August 12, August 23, and August 28.
What makes them Wisdom Teeth if they're always removed? / Current Want List / Georgia (and Pam) on my mind / Time Off for Two Weeks / Notes concerning Blog page / Job Hunt Update Thursday, August 7, 2003 Having my upper wisdom teeth removed August 20 will cost a lot, depending on how easily they come out. They've had cavities for some time, and I can see the decay on one of the teeth myself (the other is rather well-hidden behind my molar). Since my dentist informed me that he cannot adequately clean them (given they are too far back in my mouth and don't extend down far enough), I figured it wouldn't be worth it to have them filled. They'd probably just get another cavity in a different spot. ***** Given the aforementioned huge expense (around $500-1000), I've had to list and prioritize the assorted things I've been thinking of buying. Those items include:
I kind of want a larger bookcase than the one at the foot of my bed. It's a two-shelf backless bookshelf
that houses my CDs, cassettes, university books, my alarm clock, and my tiny TV. I want something bigger
to hold more of my books and some books off my shelves above my bed. ***** Pam has been in Georgia since last Saturday or so. I miss her a lot, though I know she'll be back home Sunday. It's hard to be apart from someone you care about, and that's especially true if you're used to spending a lot of time together. While we were both working, we'd spend hours together each day. I don't know how long that will last, but if it does subside, I'll know that it doesn't mean that we care any less about each other. Pam called Tuesday night, and we chatted for maybe a half-hour. It was late at night over there, so we didn't have much time to talk. It didn't help that the police were getting involved, either. Pam had to walk up the road a bit in order to get any sort of signal with which to call. So, in the middle of the night with threatening thunderstorms approaching, she walks up the road with her sister's cell phone to call me. <grins> While we were talking, I could hear several cars passing by, obscuring her voice at times. The last car I heard led her to ask me to hold on for a minute. After hearing some talking and Pam assuring someone that she's ok, Pam comes back on and says that a police officer stopped to make sure she was ok! It was very cool to know that some police in Georgia are genuinely concerned for the safety of the people. Pam told me that she'll have to make grits for me with the fixings she bought there in Georgia. Apparently people told her that she had to have the "right stuff" to make grits, which, allegedly, is a lot better stuff than what's available here. We'll see what my little budding Julia Child creates when she comes back home. <grins> ***** Next week I start on two weeks off from work. Pam will be back, and I know we'll do a lot together during that time. Well, at least until I get my teeth yanked. We plan on going out to breakfast sometime next week. We kind of did so when we stopped at Manhattan Bagel and ate at a table next to a church near work, but that doesn't count too much. It does, but we're looking forward to something a little more formal. I know we've mentioned IHOP, but we might entertain other thoughts before settling on that one. I was going to research exercise gyms and such while she was gone, but I then felt it'd be better if we looked at things together before making any sort of decision. I feel like I'll be making the final decision anyway, but I'd like to have her thoughts and input on this (yes, my dear; you need to participate in this <grins> ). I have an itch to look around consignment shops and maybe some remote antique shops and malls, so I'll see if she'll be interested in something like that. If I can find either a bookcase or entertainment center that would perfectly fit my needs, then I'd be really happy and buy it. I may look out for other interesting things, too. Maybe I'll finally start piecing together my grim reaper costume if I find a scythe in good shape. The California State Fair starts August 15, and the Go-Go's will be performing that night. I will certainly be there, and hopefully I'll have Pam with me for the occasion. ***** As some of my loyal readers may note, there is a bit of a delay at the beginning of each month when it comes to me updating my blog. Part of that comes from the work I have to do in order to make the transition. This page here (the main blog page) stays put, but when a new month starts, I save the previous month's entries onto a separate page to prevent the page from getting too long. To be honest, I tend to not really like doing this, so I may consider alternatives to my current method. This method works for now, but it may not last for very much longer. I have considered putting an e-mail link at the end of each entry so that people could more easily comment on things I have written. The problem I have with that is that my current Juno account is getting overrun with spam, and I need to establish a new account there before I make this minor addition to my blog. ***** The job hunt has sucked. Royally. I've had some glimmers of hope, though, with the occasional interesting position. Recently, I learned about an opening with a major producer of strategy guides for computer and console games. They needed an Editorial Assistant, and I felt I would be a good candidate for that. Heck, I even irritated Pam quite a bit when I noticed some of the errors in a paper she shared with me. Writing or spelling errors are things I tend to notice first when reading any particular thing, so this position could be a natural fit for me. I e-mailed a resume and cover letter yesterday, but I have not heard anything from them so far. It might take a while to hear anything back, or I may hear nothing. The latter possibility is more likely, which is a sad state of affairs for companies and the job hunt.
Pam back from Country Music Torture / Samurai Helmet Cases progress / How do your Astrological Signs match up? / Myers-Briggs: The Full Version - Results Monday Tuesday, August 12, 2003 Pam is back home! Yay! <grins> I met up with her after work on Monday. She showed me many pictures from her trip to Georgia, including some set and candid shots of family and a picture of the catfish she caught. I got to see the "Confederate Mt. Rushmore", which consisted of a carving of Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The trio are carved on the side of a huge mountain, and all three are on horseback. Apparently, one section is cut so deep into the mountain that one can park a bus on it. In the middle of showing me pictures (and watching her cat help herself to my water), Pam said she had something for me. She quickly bound up the stairs to her room and promptly arrived with a white paper bag. The bag contained a 3" tall chocolate-scented pillar and an 8 oz. container full of chocolate fudge from The Fudge Factory in Dahlonega, GA. The candle currently resides in front of my bottle of Tie-Dye Lager on my dresser. The fudge will have a far worse fate than that. <grins> I found it interesting that Pam thought about getting me something while she was over there. Just after she left for Georgia, I thought about getting her a gift card to Starbuck's. I had to make sure that one would actually suffer from jet lag when flying from the East back here to the West, since I wanted to say something along those lines in the note I wrote to her. So, this past Sunday, when Pam returned home, I wrote up a short note and drove over to Starbuck's to get her $15 on a gift card. She got it when she got home, and she thought it was sweet. <grins> On our plates for this week is breakfast at an IHOP Wednesday morning. We'll also be going to the opening day of the California State Fair this coming Friday. The Go-Go's will be performing that night, and if we get in before 5pm, the admission will be $1.50. We have floating plans to go swimming in the river, and we have a coupon for 25% off our whole meal at Cafe Vinoteca. ***** I realized that I haven't written much about the samurai helmet cases on which I've been working with my Grandfather. We're beyond the prototype phase and are ready to make the real things. We made two different prototypes to see how the cases would be constructed and designed. One piece consists of the base, a corner post, and an L-shaped piece of thin plastic (the plastic that would protect the helmets). That piece helped us see how the posts would hold in the plastic sheets, how those posts would be attached to the base, and how the plastic would fit into grooves in the base. The second prototype shows how the top would be constructed to allow a sliding sheet of plastic to serve as the top part. We created a rear post and modified it to accomodate the back board and top rails. The top rail had a groove cut into it to allow the plastic to slide and stay supported above the helmet. I don't intend to do much of anything more until sometime after I get my teeth pulled, but my grandfather and I intend to buy the wood we need and let it set for a while before starting construction. ***** Ever wonder how your significant other and you match up astrologically? Well, this site offers a chance to see how people of two signs would be together and maybe some insight as to how the relationship could go. I don't put much stock in these, but I find them very interesting to read. ***** I have a counselor working on my personality type through the full version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator. The last few times I did the short test online, I was either INFJ or ISFJ. I think I told her that I tested at INTP, but that would be Jordan, not me. Hopefully, by next Monday, I will find out what the test says I am and what else it says about me.
Prologue / No More Wisdom Teeth, None Less Wiser / CA State Fair: August 15 - Picture of Pam / More Pam Notes / Dungeon Siege / Hypocritical Eco-Terrorists Saturday, August 23, 2003 What a long fortnight! Quite a bit has been happening, and I haven't had much energy or drive to write much of anything lately. I certainly have a lot to write about, though, so I'll certainly make it up to you. ***** On the morning of August 20, I had my upper wisdom teeth extracted. They were not impacted, and, apparently, my oral surgeon had an easy time removing them. I say "apparently" since I had a rather nice general anesthetic for the procedure. I'm doing fine, and I'm feeling pretty well. I had rather little in the way of swelling, and the bleeding stopped sometime around Day 2, the day after the surgery. I'm still a little sore, and I'm taking it slowly towards working back up to eating the foods I did before the surgery. I started on apple sauce, yogurt, and jello, but I have been able to eat instant cereal, instant mashed potatoes, and ground-up chicken and cornbread without any problems. I filled a precription for a generic to Vicatin, and I'll be out of that after today. I think I'll be fine pain-wise; it wasn't that bad when I took a brief hiatus from the faux-Vicatin a day ago. I do have aspirin, and I've been using bags of frozen baby peas to ice things down. I have had one unexpected (but understandable) positive side-effect from having my upper wisdom teeth removed: I can now breathe through my nose. I could, on rare occasions, have very clear nasal passages in the past, but I usually had to blow my nose vigorously or pick it in order to clear the passageway. Even then, I would inevitably start sneezing, causing the passages to block up again. Since the day of the surgery, my nose has been clear, and I have had no problems breathing through it at all. <knocks on wood> I know that my sinuses reside just above where my upper wisdom teeth used to be, and I know that the roots can certainly interfere with the sinuses. Anyway, I'm really happy with this situation, and I hope it continues. ***** On August 15, Pam and I attended the opening day of the California State Fair. I had been looking forward to this for a long time, since the Go-Go's would be playing that night. Pam and I started out, after finding some lemonade, with the theme rooms in the Expo center (that huge cement building group with the tower-type things). We enjoyed the rather nice-looking carpentry projects, bunnies, and the life-sized bull made of knives and other metal kitchen utensils. Some of the carpentry projects included an entertainment center and a couple of desks. I believe there were a couple of gothic clocks in one of the rooms, too. The entertainment center and desks looked shiny and very nice. Pam and I passed through the Wine-Tasting center, sponsored by Albertson's, a couple of times, but we decided to keep ourselves hydrated rather than pickled. We did enjoy a short juggling act by someone who stood in the plant areas, though. The goods dealers area disappointed both of us. I didn't find much of anything very interesting in either of the buildings, although I did see one person peddling some pillow covers that were, allegedly, made in India with silk. I thought about getting one to put around a pillow to go under my other samurai helmet, but it didn't feel right. As dinner time approached, Pam and I searched for something good to eat. The vendors had so many different things, but nothing seemed to sound all that great. I don't think the prices helped much, either. <grins> We ended up eating from a place that had barbecued beef sandwiches (Pam) and a beer sausage (me), with chips and water rounding out the first round of eating for dinner. I bypassed the garlic fries from another vendor to go straight to dessert, where Pam and I each had a waffle cone sundae. From there, we wandered around and ended up going through the carnival section, looking for something to win for Pam. The dart-throwing game seemed the best odds-wise for my ability, so I took a shot. In the end, I won a medium-sized stuffed dog. I let Pam pick the color (tan), since it would be hers. We named the dog "Dart". At 8pm, the Go-Go's hit the stage, and they put on a good set. Frankly, I'm not the least bit familiar with their stuff outside of whatever was popular, but I still enjoyed what they played. When they took a short break, many people started leaving. I knew they hadn't played their biggest hit, "Our Lips Are Sealed", at that point, and I wondered aloud to Pam as to why the people would leave so early (probably tired or had kids to take home, maybe). The Go-Go's came back after a few minutes, and their bassist stepped up to the mike and said, "I ran into the firemen out back, and they have t-shirts that said, 'To Protect and Serve.' ... Come and serve me, baby!" That was easily the best line from them that night, and one that let me feel that they hadn't changed all that much since their initial success in the music industry. The Go-Go's played from about 8pm until 9:30pm. Pam and I sat around a bit, waiting for the fireworks display. That display lasted about 10 minutes. Exhausted from a long day of walking and many fun things, we set off for the exit. When Pam and I first stepped into the gates, someone gathered us together and took a picture of us. As we left for home, we stopped by the booth just outside the gates and bought some pictures of us. Pam bought us a 5"x7" and a wallet-size for each of us. You can see a version of that pic on my Photos page. Other interesting or unusual things from that day:
This visit was the first time in over a decade that I had attended the California State Fair. Pam and I enjoyed it a lot, especially since we both have similar styles when it comes to looking through things. We both like to take brief looks at things, to where we just don't do well with our parents, who seem to enjoy analyzing the many details of things in each booth. ***** In other Pam news, we went swimming at Paradise Beach along the river on Monday. I really enjoyed the swimming, though we both got rather sunburned. We took a picnic lunch and ate there. Next time, we'll either need to make sure to reapply sunscreen every couple of hours, or we need to invest in a parasol. A word to the wise: don't trust any sunscreen that says it's "waterproof." Pam came over yesterday and had lunch with me. She rented "Chicago", which I enjoyed very much. I still wasn't feeling all that great, but we both had a good time together. Pam nibbled on some yogurt and cucumber, finishing off with some apricots. I don't remember quite what I had to eat, though I think it consisted of vanilla yogurt, mashed potatoes, and some strawberry jello. Upcoming plans with Pam:
My mom said that I have to go to the Vic's Ice Cream shop over on Freeport (or maybe Riverside?), so I may pass that along to Pam <waves> and see what she thinks. I think she'll be ok with it; she's been there before and moaned with shock when I said I had never been there. <grins> ***** I recently bought my first game in ages. While bouncing around from Pier-1 to Pier-1, trying to find a decent-shaped CD tower, Pam and I stopped in an Electronics Boutique. I have been waiting to get Dungeon Siege for months, but I refused to pay the $50 they wanted for it when it came out. Recently, I saw that it was finally down to $19.99, and I bought it. I'm really enjoying the game so far, and I'm already loving the luxury of saving my game wherever, instead of having to find waypoints or getting to new cities like in Diablo II (I love Diablo II, but the saving "feature" is one of my biggest annoyances with the game). ***** Recently, some "eco-terrorists" attacked, burned, and destroyed property in some Southern California auto dealerships. Why do people, who, I believe, desire to fight for the good of the ecosystem, deliberately burn cars and buildings that would release numerous toxic gases and fumes into the air? Why do these insane individuals not see the irony and contradiction in their actions?
Wild Weekend / Dungeon Siege, Star Date 20.33.35 / Health: gums, sunburns, weight loss, and better living through Vicodin / Gubernatorial Elections: my current thoughts / Final thoughts for the month: possible web site improvements Thursday, August 28, 2003 My upcoming weekend looks to be awfully busy. I'm certainly not complaining, since it'll all be really fun stuff. Tomorrow night, I'll be picking up Pam and going to the Greek Festival over in the Sacramento Convention Center. Initially, she was going to go there during the day and pick up some food for us, but given my uncertainty in what I could eat at this stage (more below) and the current loss of her wallet, we'll be going together. The only Greek-type food that I know I've had is grapeleaves. It'll be interesting to try other Greek-ish foods and drinks. There will be music, a set-up for a Greek Orthodox Church, and other stuff like that. This Saturday night at the Sleep Train Amphitheater, I'll be going to the Iron Maiden/Motorhead/Dio concert. An old high school friend, Jason, might be accompanying me. I haven't heard from him about it yet, so we'll see what happens with that. Of the latter two, I've only heard whatever songs were on the radio or, in the case of Motorhead, in that Young Ones episode when they played live on the set (I've also heard covers of Motorhead's songs by Metallica and Sepultura, but I don't count those since I didn't hear Motorhead's version). I have Iron Maiden's "Ed Hunter" 3CD set, and I'm going to get their back catalog eventually. This will be my second trip to the Sleep Train Amphitheater, though it'll be the first time I've seen the amphitheater itself (the Warped Tour was set up in the concourse and parking lot). My only problem that night will be dinner. I think I'll have to leave at 4:30pm in order to get dinner somewhere and make the 1.5 hour drive to Marysville to get parked and in the venue in time. On Sunday, I may attend a computer fair at the Scottish Rite Temple. This company, Marketpro (?), puts on these shows numerous times throughout the year, and I've been recently curious as to what they have there. I'm neither expecting any great prices nor intending to buy anything. I just figured it'd be fun to look around and see what's available at these kinds of shows. As my weekend events start with Pam, so shall they end. While Pam was in Georgia, her parents enjoyed many Southern meals. They particularly loved grits, so they bought a bag of Aunt Jemima Grits while they were there. On Monday morning, Pam will have me over to her house for some grits, sausage, and whatever else she has in store for me. ***** I'm still playing away at Dungeon Siege, and I'm having a great time playing. The default format for the saved-game files contains my hero's name (in this case, Maurius), and the amount of in-game time I've been playing. So far, I've been playing for 20 hours, 33 minutes, and 35 seconds. It's a rather good way to name saved games, since no two saves would ever be the same and none overwritten. So far, it feels like a decent dungeon-crawl-like game, except that you do receive quests to achieve. Currently, I have to find the staff that my recently-rescued Nature Wizard lost when he was captured. I believe, at the current save, I'm standing right in front of the underground realm where said staff currently resides. Initially, Maurius was the only character I had. Gradually, through adventure and finding new towns, I allowed other characters to join me. Currently, I have eight (the maximum): my hero, two other warriors, two archers, a Nature Magic Wizard, a Combat Magic Wizard, and my packmule. Every hero in the game can aspire to be any one of the four character types (doesn't include a packmule, since that's only useful to carry things). You just have to have the character use whatever weapon you need in order to raise the appropriate skill. For example, to become a warrior, one uses a sword/axe/etc. to raise one's melee skill. An archer uses bows to raise their ranged skill. The wizards use either Nature Magic (NM) or Combat Magic (CM) to raise their NM or CM skills. I imagine that one could use two skills and raise them evenly throughout the game, but that'd strike me as being complicated and potentially allowing one's character to be weaker than desired. There are three stats: strength, dexterity, and intelligence. In general, one's strength determines what armor and melee weapons a character can use. Dexterity determines what bows and ranged weapons one can use. Intelligence determines what spells one can cast. All of these are general rules, since there are some bows that require a certain strength to use, and there are some mage armors that require a certain intelligence to wear. These stats also determine how much life and mana you receive. Each hero starts with a 10 in each, and using the appropriate skill improves one's respective stat. It appears that an increase in any stat will give you added health and mana, though it appears that strength gives the most, followed by dexterity and then intelligence. I would suppose that the opposite order would be true for mana. I'll try to talk more about the game some other time, since my mind is a little lost on what else to say about how the game works. Maybe next time I'll talk a bit about game play and controls. ***** Health-wise, I'm doing great. With respect to my wisdom teeth removal, the gum area where they used to be can feel a little funny or sore on rare occasions, but I haven't had problems with it for a day or two now. Currently, they feel a little sore. Do you know how when you eat something slightly abrasive and it sometimes peels some skin off your gums around the molars? My gums feel similar to that, but not quite as tingly. I didn't eat anything different today than yesterday. Yesterday, I had hot cereal and hot chocolate for breakfast. Lunch consisted of a tuna sandwich, apple sauce, and a yogurt. I don't remember dinner, but I believe it was leftovers with meatloaf and turkey patties, mashed squash, and ice cream. The only differences today were that I had a muffin and apple fritter during my morning break, and I had grapes for lunch and my afternoon break. I had been getting headaches over the last two days (before today), and I determined that it was because I was hungry. Tonight, I had taco salad for dinner, and I seemed to be able to eat that without a problem. I seem to be rather capable to eat whatever I ate before the extraction, but I don't want to push it too far. I need to allow things to heal completely before truly going all-out in the eating department. When Pam and I swam in the river a week or so ago, we both got very sunburned. Fortunately, I didn't get too burned. Currently, my shoulders and the small of my back are peeling. I didn't get any blisters or anything like that, so that's certainly a good thing. When I was much younger, I attended an end-of-year party with my grade-school classmates at Del Norte Swim Club. We went there numerous times, but one time I got so sunburned on my shoulders, a huge bubble/blister formed on each shoulder. Each were easily about an inch wide or more. I think my dad had to chase me around the house with a syringe he was going to use to suck the liquid out of my blisters. Having teeth pulled is a great way to lose weight, but I would highly advise against it as a regular weight-loss method. Naturally, with two gaping holes in the roof of my mouth, my food choice was rather limited. I had to live on foods that were the consistency of and as soft as baby food (thankfully, what I had tasted much better). I had very little appetite with energy to match (the Vicodin heled that, too). I'm slowly working back up to eating the amounts I did before the surgery, but I might take this moment to refigure how much I eat. Yesterday, while getting dressed for work, I noticed that a pair of shorts was a lot looser around my waist than it had been before. There's been a definite decrease in overall weight, and hopefully my eventual continuation of my exercise program will help that along a bit. Jordan mentioned on his page how a drug he was taking didn't seem to help the pain all that much. That sounds quite like how Vicodin works! This drug is lovely stuff, too. Not only does one of the warning notes say that it "may be habit-forming", but apparently it doesn't do a whole lot of good if you're already feeling great pain. I was told to take one of these before my general anesthesia and novocane wore off. This leaves me with one question: What good is a medication that only helps to alleviate pain if you're already under the influence of a different pain medication? I completely understand how taking Vicodin could be habit-forming. It's not really all that fun to be on it, but it certainly beats feeling whatever pain I could have felt during that time. I remember feeling drowsy, as warned, but I never felt sleepy or any need to nap. It seems a bit complicated to me, since I'd normally would want to sleep if I felt drowsy. Time seemed to pass quickly. I didn't feel like doing much of anything in my condition, so it wasn't like I had all these plans to do this and that. I know that I had occasional problems remember what I did during the day or if I did something. While talking to Pam, I tried to recount how I spent my day. I had my computer on, but I could not remember then whether I had gone online or not (after a couple of days, I remembered that I had indeed gone online). I never experienced any side-effects of this stuff, so that's certainly a bonus. ***** I'm not completely sure how I'll vote in the upcoming gubernatorial* elections. I know I'm going to vote "No" on the recall, since I think we're just wasting tax money on this whole venture. That's something we cannot afford to do given the current financial crunch the state suffers through. I do not know who I'll vote for to replace Gray Davis if the recall succeeds. I was going to vote for Cruz Bustamante, but I don't know if I like what he has layed out financially for the state. I'll have to peruse the serious candidates sometime to see if any click with me. And, no, I won't be voting for Arnold.
***** This will probably be the last time I write to this blog until next month. I hope to have established a new e-mail account before then. Those of you with my regular e-mail address need not worry, since it's just my Juno account that'll change. I'll keep monitoring my [email protected] e-mail address until I'm certain I have everything I need moved over to my new address, and then I'll abandon it to the spam. I'm thinking about how I can change the top of this page to accomodate the other months of blogs and other years as well. I'm considering changing it so that one box will have the year, and under that year, I can have each month represented by its first letter (e.g. "J" for January). So, I'd have something like this: 2003 J F M A M J J A S O N D I'm not sure how well that'd work, but I think it'd be ok as long as I put a space between each letter. |
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