Wednesday, December 3, 2003

   For Rusty': A Tale of Torn-out Teeth . . . . . Part 1!
Well, our beloved Rusty's gotten his wisdoms out, and he seems to be in "a bit" of pain. I did the whole thing too, though I don't complain about it as much . . . but still, I know how he feels. So Rusty, buddy, this one's for you . . . the story of how SomeGuy lost four teeth to the happy hands of the dentist . . . . . now, this might get a bit juicy, so if you don't wanna get into this sort of bloodletting, well . . . . . I'll just apologize beforehand, since many of you'll probably read ahead anyway . . .


So, it was the day after I had turned 19. I went to the dentist to get my top wisdom teeth taken out. I went in, saw my dentist, and said to him, "you're looking forward to today, aren't you?" He replied, "Well, I get paid more!"

So I sat in the chair, he stuck me with the needle to freeze me (I think I sorta grunted at the last injection [the roof of the mouth pinches like a bitch!]), and after a while I started tapping my cheek. I said to my doc, "yup, feeling's all gone." He then said to me, "stop doing that! You can't feel how hard you're hitting, and if you bruise yourself, I get in trouble!" I laughed and stopped. Yes, I was sitting in a dentist chair and I laughed.

Well, they got to work . . . all of my wisdoms were under the gum, so they had to knife through the gum to get to it; the words were, "don't move, these instruments are sharp . . ." I must say the scalpel felt rather interesting when my mouth was frozen. I mean, you feel something traveling along the top curvature of the tooth underneath, but you totally don't notice it going through the gum! Heehee . . . ah, what fun times . . .

So the guy gets the pliers out (well, I figure they were pliers of some sort), jams 'em into my mouth, clamps down, and just sorta starts twistin' a bit . . . . . LOTS of pressure, I gotta tell ya . . . I may or may not have groaned lightly from it, I forget . . . in any case, the thing came out, I sorta raised my fist up in triumph . . . and my dentist said something like, "wow, this is a big tooth! Has three . . . no, four roots . . . big roots!"

I then sorta sat up to look . . . and yeah, gigantic bloody tooth, all in one piece . . . . . and the roots were windswept! They were all curved in like a willow that had been under heavy wind for years! It was so cool!

So then, it was on to the other side - more of the same, pretty much . . .

Then came the stitches . . . then the rolled up things of gauze . . . . . and then that was that! I was told to leave those there for a few hours, to buy some Tylenol 3's if I felt I needed them (was already on antibiotics by this point), and yeah.

The next few days were spent eating soft foods, gargling salt water, and getting used to the new topography of my upper mouth . . . man, it feels different after that! And yeah, after a while, the stitches started dissolving (which they were supposed to do), and they started hanging funny in my mouth . . . creeped the hell outta me! I think I actually stuck scissors into my mouth to clip it!

But yeah, after a while, things got less troublesome, my mouth didn't hurt as much . . . though to be fair, they didn't really hurt all that much to start with . . . . . but yeah, that was fun . . .

And in the week after that, I get to get my bottoms out! Whee!


(To be continued . . . . .)
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Tuesday, December 2, 2003

   One Down, Three To Go . . .
December, 2003 . . . 4 days since my last shave . . .

I'm gonna discuss my exam rituals tonight, okay? Okay . . .

So, I haven't cut my hair for this month (or last month, depending on how you count) and I haven't shaved since the last day of classes on Friday. I probably won't shave again until the first day I'm out in public again after exams are over. Why do I do this? Well . . . . . it's not so much that I'm a superstitious guy or anything . . . I guess I'm just curious as to how long my hair will grow if it's left unkempt for a week or two. And really, exam-time is about the best excuse you can have for that! Of course, my friend'll probably beg me to not shave until AFTER Dec. 17th (so I can have "cool Aragorn stubble" . . . yeah, we're all geeks . . .).

Now, I don't know what brand they are, but do you know those cookies you can buy from vending machines? You know, they're chocolate with little chunks of white chocolate in them and that BIG single white chocolate chip in the very center of it? Well, since grade 10 or 11, I've always eaten one of those before a big test. It's sort of a "last meal" sort of mentality, and besides, those things are good!

And then a quick draining in the washroom before the test, and then in I go. I don't really have any particular rituals once we've all sat down. Sometimes I might say "strength and honour" to everyone around me - sometimes i'll even clasp their shoulders while I say it (go Gladiator!) - but yeah, I didn't do that today . . .

Finally, if I'm feeling especially good about the exam, I'll take it up to the front once I'm done, hand it in, and say to my professor, "I'll do better in April." Now that, I DEFINITELY did today!

So yeah, I've got a good track of stubble on my chin and under my nose and a big bag of books. Happy hunting, I guess.


Oh yeah, and Latin may or may not have kicked my ass this afternoon . . . . . I finished it, and as is usually the case, for how I think I did, well . . . again, I do not trust to hope . . . 'tis forsaken, these exams . . . . .
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   Why am I not studying?!
Yeah, so . . . they didn't show Teen Titans today. That was a bummer.

I don't think I realise the gravity of the next two weeks yet . . . I have finals, and I'm doing VERY LITTLE to prepare for them . . . I shall state again, that as a student, I am perhaps the WORST role model out there! Savvy?

Hey, "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD comes out tomorrow . . . today . . . . . well, it'll be today soon enough . . . in any case, cool!

It's not quite the 17th yet . . . aaaaany second now . . . . . then the glory of that final film shall be unleashed and we shall all bask in its glory . . . ahh . . . . .

By the way, I'm hearing that "The Last Samurai" isn't half-bad. Guess that's good news for me, who is really hoping that it'll be good. Seems I'm gonna have a lot of movies to see this holiday . . .

Hey, anyone know a good place to buy Inuyasha plushies? (Eheh . . . I'm sure if would help me if you did, huh?) I just realised this could be the perfect gift for "The Girl" and I REEEEEALLY need to find one!

I watched most of "Memphis Belle" today. Neat film about a B-17 crew (Iggy! WWII movie!). What was even neater about it, though, was that Sean Astin was in it! And he was really thin! Heehee . . . ah, the many times I giggled . . . . .

Am I spouting nonsense tonight? Absolutely. Could I be studying for Latin right now? You bet. Am I going to crash and burn when I'm in that lecture theater to write this exam? Like a fireball! Eheh . . . . . kids, procrastination might seem like a cool thing to do since all the other kids do it, but let me tell you: Procrastination leads to medication!


(This message paid for by the "Procrastination = Medication Society of North America", or "The PMS of NA")
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Monday, December 1, 2003

I think it's time I bury the hatchet . . .
I've been thinking about a few things lately, and I think it's time I make another point . . .

Now, I've been an active member of this site for a few months now. I've come to know many people and would like to think that many of them are my friends now. We all make each other laugh, we all pick each other up when we're down, and we stand up for each other.

And if anyone ever, ever does anything that might cause them unnecessary grief, strain, or fear, well . . . I'm not gonna sit idly by and watch it happen . . . . .

That said, I'm gonna conclude a problem that's dragged on for a while. Now, when someone offends one of my friends in one of or in a similar manner to the ways I've listed above, I am going to be deeply, deeply upset with that person.

Now, if one were to disrespect, threaten, or otherwise hurt one of my friends and apologized for it, I would be fine with that. What I would not be fine with, however, would be if the apology was completely insincere and only given for the sake of saving one's own neck or for some other reason other than for being sorry for what had been done, well . . . I must say, I'm not gonna forget that. Ever.

So let's all be civil, shall we? Cause I'm not pullin' the punches for certain things anymore . . .
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Sunday, November 30, 2003

   Pesky MSN . . . . .
So, I come back home this afternoon after working out, come downstairs, and find that MSN is running. I have three messages from people. These people are wondering why I'm not responding. That, in turn, makes me feel silly.

Such is the life of one who shares a computer, I guess. I have MSN Messenger set so it doesn't run during start-up, and yet these things still happen . . . very strange, it really is . . . . . so yes, to the threeuvya who tried to chat this morning/afternoon, sorry 'bout that. T'was not my intention.
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   Gotta love Rocky . . . . .
It was on just now. There's just something about that movie . . . such a feel-good movie! And I don't know what it is, but when people get hit by the big punches, I just . . . I feel them.

And then in the later movies when he starts winning . . . ahh . . . . . I don't know what it is, but I always smile when the fights end. It's times like this I wonder why we don't own these movies yet . . . . .


Latin exam on Tuesday. Got some time to work on my stuff. So, I shall relax today.

And yes, the eye is feeling much better.
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Saturday, November 29, 2003

   Out of the frying pan . . . . .
I've decided that this week shall henceforth be remembered as my "Spider-Man" week in rememberance of the movie. You see, it was the final week of classes for this semester; on the other hand, I had all of those assignments and stuff to do (one of which eluded me [still very burnt up about that]). So yeah, there's some really good, and there's some really bad . . .

"This is my gift; this is my curse . . ."
(Get it?)

Well, I guess I'll swing through everyone's pages tonight, then I'll go to sleep, and then I'll wake up on Sunday, how 'bout! Time to make my eye change back to its normal colour!

Ooh! I should try to get a digital picture of it to show you guys! It's SO painful and gross! You'd love it!
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Friday, November 28, 2003

   . . . . . I'm sorry, everyone . . .
I couldn't do it . . . . . . . the CS assignment beat me . . . . .

I crunched the numbers, and if they all turn out how I expect them to process, I can still pass the course as long as I pass the final. Essentially, there's 3 stipulations for passing:
min. 50% overall in the course.
min. 50% on the final exam.
min. 50% on overal grade on labs and assignments.

Now, my lab mark is perfect (worth a quarter of that last requirement), and I've done really well on the two assignments I did . . . so unless a 0% on a single assignment'll hurt me more than I realise, I can still pull this off. And yes, this is just me rationalising what I've done. It's not a good thing.

As an addition to this story: I have a friend who goes to school in the east who's a software engineer. I asked him for help and stuff, and he actually modified some code for me . . .
Now, there's the OBVIOUS issue that plagiarism/cheating is handled EXTREMELY seriously in university and doing so risks long-term suspension, failure, and notification in one's permanent record. Despite that, I just wouldn't have felt right doing it - morality and all, ya know. I'd rather fail in this case, I think . . .


So yeah, this wasn't something I had hoped would happen . . . . . but frankly, the bags under my eyes are darkened, red, and visible from across a room; my eyes physically hurt when I blink right now.

Sorry I let you all down . . .
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Thursday, November 27, 2003

   How NOT to Handle Time . . .
So tonight (Wednesday) I start my CS assignment. Should've started last week. And guess what I did after classes were over?

No, I didn't go home to work on it right away . . . . . I stuck around at school for FOUR more hours while "The Girl" worked on an assignment of her own with some people. In turn, I looked at some CS stuff from a computer, studied my other stuff . . . played cards with another guy . . . . .

In any case, I'm doomed again. The next two days are gonna be fun . . . . . so yeah, again, don't expect to see too much of me around everywhere.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2003

   One Down, One to Go . . .
1:30am, PST. I am dead tired. At some point I slipped and clicked on the "print" button instead of the "page layout" button and wasted about 6 sheets of paper and the equivalent of ink before I was completely finished.

After getting the final words together, I didn't really read over it (which is gonna cost me royal) and printed it out. Then, I put the staple into it . . . both prongs of the staple bent the same direction . . . needless to say, that had to be fished out and I had to restaple . . . . .

But, I'm done. It is now time to get to bed so I can go to school tomorrow, fall asleep in History, and then get out in time to sleep in a student space! Whee!


So yes, now that this is out of the way, I can finally work on the CompSci assignment that I SHOULD have started last week! Yeah! HOOAH! Yahaahahaha . . . . . . crikes I need sleep . . . see ya tomorrow.
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