Take a look HERE.
Special thanks go to Rob for lending me his season 3 DVDs.
8/17/2009
Wisdom Tooth the First
My Odyssey begins about a year ago, when I first started to get a pain in my lower left tooth area. Chalking it up to sensitive teeth, it turns out that slowly, over the course of months (perhaps years) my rear left wisdom tooth was grinding into my number 7 rear left molar (or the one right in front of the wisdom tooth), causing a cavity to form.
In about March of this year, things came to a head and I either bit down on something hard or otherwise widened the cavity, exposing the nerves there to the air and whatever food was going into my mouth.
Now, I think I've got a pretty high pain threshold. At least enough to be a wuss. But this HURT. It was first a dull pain, but rapidly degenerated into SHARP INTENSE MIND DESTROYING PAIN. Of course, geek that I am, my loyalties were to gaming, so I actually waited a day to play D&D before heading to the nearest dentist I could find using Google Maps.
(In my defense, I'd been pretty desperate to get a real live 4E game going, and this was the first group I had found in almost 3 years of looking.)
But those few nights, I was popping 4 advils every 2 hours, and STILL I couldn't really sleep. The pain was so bad that I was literally moaning in pain, pacing my room, eyes strained shut. During that time I tried every shitty home remedy to no avail.
A trip to the dentist, a few x-rays, and all was revealed. In the end, I had to get a root canal done.
I've heard some say that the old saying "I'd rather get a root canal" isn't really relevant anymore, because getting a root canal isn't supposed to be all that bad.
FUCK. THAT. SHIT.
Getting a root canal was awful. OK, the pain itself wasn't all that bad, but the sheer uncomfortableness of it, while the dentist roots around AFTER drilling out your tooth to SCRAPE out the rest of the nerve endings with a barbed wire, periodically checking with some sort of electric contact to see in there are any nerves left, is downright unpleasant.
Anyway, this has all lead to this moment (and one more in about 2 weeks time when I get my OTHER lower wisdom tooth removed).
All told, it wasn't too bad. I laud the dentist, who despite the problems she was having, didn't one mutter the Japanese equivalent of "goddamn mother-fucking tooth". As I write this, my jaw is no longer paralyze, though I've got noticeable swelling in my jaw and cheek. It's starting to ache pretty badly, so I'll soon make some soup and take my painkillers and antibiotics.
Here are some pics of said tooth.
In about March of this year, things came to a head and I either bit down on something hard or otherwise widened the cavity, exposing the nerves there to the air and whatever food was going into my mouth.
Now, I think I've got a pretty high pain threshold. At least enough to be a wuss. But this HURT. It was first a dull pain, but rapidly degenerated into SHARP INTENSE MIND DESTROYING PAIN. Of course, geek that I am, my loyalties were to gaming, so I actually waited a day to play D&D before heading to the nearest dentist I could find using Google Maps.
(In my defense, I'd been pretty desperate to get a real live 4E game going, and this was the first group I had found in almost 3 years of looking.)
But those few nights, I was popping 4 advils every 2 hours, and STILL I couldn't really sleep. The pain was so bad that I was literally moaning in pain, pacing my room, eyes strained shut. During that time I tried every shitty home remedy to no avail.
A trip to the dentist, a few x-rays, and all was revealed. In the end, I had to get a root canal done.
I've heard some say that the old saying "I'd rather get a root canal" isn't really relevant anymore, because getting a root canal isn't supposed to be all that bad.
FUCK. THAT. SHIT.
Getting a root canal was awful. OK, the pain itself wasn't all that bad, but the sheer uncomfortableness of it, while the dentist roots around AFTER drilling out your tooth to SCRAPE out the rest of the nerve endings with a barbed wire, periodically checking with some sort of electric contact to see in there are any nerves left, is downright unpleasant.
Anyway, this has all lead to this moment (and one more in about 2 weeks time when I get my OTHER lower wisdom tooth removed).
All told, it wasn't too bad. I laud the dentist, who despite the problems she was having, didn't one mutter the Japanese equivalent of "goddamn mother-fucking tooth". As I write this, my jaw is no longer paralyze, though I've got noticeable swelling in my jaw and cheek. It's starting to ache pretty badly, so I'll soon make some soup and take my painkillers and antibiotics.
Here are some pics of said tooth.
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| From Drop Box |
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| From Drop Box |
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| From Drop Box |
7/14/2009
Vacation is here, 3 days early.
OK, it's not vacation. I have been ordered to remain at home and under quarantine because I came into contact with a person testing positive for the H1N1 Influenza virus.
So here I am, 9:40 in the morning, writing my blog and thinking about going back to bed. After all, what else will I do other than sleep while I wait for WoW to come back online.
All kidding aside, there are some rather uncomfortable realities at work here that make this whole affair rather unwelcome.
First is that my laptop is at work. While this isn't in and of itself a problem, there are some files on there that I need to continue work on a powerpoint presentation I'm to give at this years JET orientation.
Next is the fact that my friend Fran is coming on Saturday. I don't suspect there will be any difficulties, but I'm knocking on wood and taking my temperature every few hours just to be sure.
After that is the fact that I have asthma. In the US, I've read that 1 in 3 patients diagnosed with the swine flu has asthma, and that this is a veritable risk factor whose ultimate symptom could be death! YIKES!!
Thankfully, no symptoms yet, and if my asthma starts to get twitchy, my awesome doctor, with ingenious foresight, prescribed me a couple of days worth of Prednisone.
The last thing of course is the possible parallels with the 1918 Spanish Flu. According to Wikipedia, "[i]t was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1" and there were two waves. The first wave started in March, and "the epidemic resembled typical flu epidemics." But there was a second, deadlier wave that occurred in August of that year, where "the virus had mutated to a much more deadly form." This is what infected 500 million people and killed some 50-100 million of them.
Our pandemic started in April, and so if the pattern follows, we'd see a second wave in September. With news of a new Tamiflu-resistant strain, coupled with the fact that September is notorious around the world for being a month in which more people suffer asthma attacks, this whole pandemic thing has gotten me just a little bit worried.
So here I am, 9:40 in the morning, writing my blog and thinking about going back to bed. After all, what else will I do other than sleep while I wait for WoW to come back online.
All kidding aside, there are some rather uncomfortable realities at work here that make this whole affair rather unwelcome.
First is that my laptop is at work. While this isn't in and of itself a problem, there are some files on there that I need to continue work on a powerpoint presentation I'm to give at this years JET orientation.
Next is the fact that my friend Fran is coming on Saturday. I don't suspect there will be any difficulties, but I'm knocking on wood and taking my temperature every few hours just to be sure.
After that is the fact that I have asthma. In the US, I've read that 1 in 3 patients diagnosed with the swine flu has asthma, and that this is a veritable risk factor whose ultimate symptom could be death! YIKES!!
Thankfully, no symptoms yet, and if my asthma starts to get twitchy, my awesome doctor, with ingenious foresight, prescribed me a couple of days worth of Prednisone.
The last thing of course is the possible parallels with the 1918 Spanish Flu. According to Wikipedia, "[i]t was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1" and there were two waves. The first wave started in March, and "the epidemic resembled typical flu epidemics." But there was a second, deadlier wave that occurred in August of that year, where "the virus had mutated to a much more deadly form." This is what infected 500 million people and killed some 50-100 million of them.
Our pandemic started in April, and so if the pattern follows, we'd see a second wave in September. With news of a new Tamiflu-resistant strain, coupled with the fact that September is notorious around the world for being a month in which more people suffer asthma attacks, this whole pandemic thing has gotten me just a little bit worried.
7/06/2009
Strange Food
Been a while since I last posted. Mostly this comes from me being very busy at work, and very tired. I just can't surf the way I used to, and as a result I don't feel I have any new to contribute.
However, my photographing of Engrish and strange Japanese food products continue unabated. For your viewing pleasure, I bring you these oddities (in no particular order).
However, my photographing of Engrish and strange Japanese food products continue unabated. For your viewing pleasure, I bring you these oddities (in no particular order).
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
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| From Food |
5/11/2009
Summer heat...
...in May. Yes, it's a balmy 30 degrees in Fukuoka today, far too warm for my liking. At least the breeze is cooling.
So news. I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. Pretty much since the new school year started. Part of this is because my classes are clumped together on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, leaving me with little time during those days to plan. As well, despite being in my 3rd year, I find that every year I still have to make new lessons. Probably this is because most of my lessons suck. But a part of it is because a lot of the classes have changed in terms of curriculum.
Here's an example. My English Expressions class, last year taught solely from the textbook, is now being taught via movies. I'm not personally all too happy with the way it's being taught now; as it stands, we only show parts of the movie, and so for the students the experience is rather disjointed. I'm hoping to use smaller elements (the WKUK "Sniper Business" skit, for example) so that the stories are self-contained, but we'll see how that pans out.
In other news: After much scrambling, I've got a weekly gaming group! A long sought after goal, myself and three other JETs are currently workout through the Scales of War Adventure Path offered by D&D Insider. A total blast. I'm actually saddened that we're skipping a week. It's odd how some skills, like being an effective DM, actually start to rust without use. But I'm getting back into the hang of things.
I guess that's more or less it. I'm just here enjoying a semi-day off. I have some work, but it's not too pressing...
So news. I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. Pretty much since the new school year started. Part of this is because my classes are clumped together on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, leaving me with little time during those days to plan. As well, despite being in my 3rd year, I find that every year I still have to make new lessons. Probably this is because most of my lessons suck. But a part of it is because a lot of the classes have changed in terms of curriculum.
Here's an example. My English Expressions class, last year taught solely from the textbook, is now being taught via movies. I'm not personally all too happy with the way it's being taught now; as it stands, we only show parts of the movie, and so for the students the experience is rather disjointed. I'm hoping to use smaller elements (the WKUK "Sniper Business" skit, for example) so that the stories are self-contained, but we'll see how that pans out.
In other news: After much scrambling, I've got a weekly gaming group! A long sought after goal, myself and three other JETs are currently workout through the Scales of War Adventure Path offered by D&D Insider. A total blast. I'm actually saddened that we're skipping a week. It's odd how some skills, like being an effective DM, actually start to rust without use. But I'm getting back into the hang of things.
I guess that's more or less it. I'm just here enjoying a semi-day off. I have some work, but it's not too pressing...
4/15/2009
Heisei 24
or 3 years from now. That, as it turns out, is when the old Fukuma teacher's housing (or juutaku for those in the know) is destined to be demolished. Which is why they didn't bother to tell me. Cause, you know, it's 3 YEARS from now.
There's a lesson in all this somewhere, about loose lips or the dangers of second hand rumors etc.
I eagerly await the day that I am the SOLE resident of the entire apartment complex.
There's a lesson in all this somewhere, about loose lips or the dangers of second hand rumors etc.
I eagerly await the day that I am the SOLE resident of the entire apartment complex.
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