Dave's Internet Weblog

Ninja Stuff

2008-07-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this Chinese military exercise They're like space-age ninjas.

Check out this comic strip, Dr. McNinja. It's really awesome. I suggest not starting in the middle of the story though. They tend to get pretty ridiculous.

Another ninja comic strip is White Ninja. It's not quite as good in my opinion. Tends to be extremely random and kind of hit or miss as far as hilarity.

Then there's these urban ninja people. Freestyle walking or whatever. I'm not that impressed.

Then of course I can't forget Ask A Ninja:

2008-05-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Dear World,
I passed orals, officially known as the advancement to candidacy exam. I am no longer a worthless graduate student; I am now officially a worthless PhD candidate (+5 points for semicolon usage). Now that I can make a little free time I will maybe be blogging more, if I have anything to blog about. For now maybe an entertaining video if I can think of one... Ok, here are some cool music videos. Make sure to watch them somewhere where people will be looking over your shoulder, like Starbucks or the airport.

2008-02-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

Queue. I joined Netflix recently. I can't get over what a weird word queue is. So maybe I'll talk about movies I've seen. Challenge: Name one other word with 'ueue' in it. I don't like making big long movie reviews so here are a few movie reviews in 11ish words or less:
Superman Doomsday - pretty good if you like Superman stuff as much as I do
Disney's Robin Hood - a fun, silly re-romp through childhood. Has Roger Miller = +5 points.
Last King of Scotland - pretty good. Hotel Rwanda-esque Africa political drama movie.

One time I went to a Xmas tree lighting at a giant church this past year. They had a little petting zoo/area. In the little petting area they had a pony, chickens, ducks, goats. And the rooster was riding the pony. That was awesome. This is better.

P.S. I went to Joshua Tree this past weekend and got sunburn again. I hope I don't get skin cancer some day. Speaking of skin, check this out. Gross.

I'm back?

2007-11-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

There's a new Star Trek movie in the making. The coolest thing about it? If you're ugly enough, you can be in it. Oh yeah. According to the BBC, there's an open call for: "Talent with interesting and unique facial features such as: long necks, small heads, extremely large heads, wide-set eyes, bug eyes, close-set eyes, large forehead, short upper lip, pronounced cheekbones, over- or undersized ears and/or nose, facial deformities, ultra plain-looking people, ultra perfect-looking people, pure wholesome looks, twins, triplets, emaciated talent, regally poised and postured talent, or other visually unique characteristics". I think I could name a few people who could try out...

Speaking of Star Trek, one of my favorite songs is the Picard Song. Also see the Picard YTMND.

Finally, some long-awaited advances in date-rape technology. Toys laced with date-rape drugs. Could this be a new trend in non-consensual sexual activities? playdate-rapes? It's a pedophile's dream come true. Oh and by the way, the toy was Australia's 2007 toy of the year. Talk about a country founded by convicts. But I guess the toys might not be so bad if you don't abuse the kids... Say the kid is being too loud or won't take a nap... Let them play with the magic sleepy toy. Problem solved. They wake up from a coma a couple days later and you are rested and refreshed.

Powerthirst 2:

brb

2007-10-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,
I'm sorry, I know I'm neglecting you. I've got a big paper/exam coming up that I've been getting ready for. I'll be back in a couple weeks. I've got all kinds of cool stuff to tell you about. For now, just a few things to keep you occupied:

There was a fire in Irvine today. I took a few pics. They're on my Facebook.

Which way does it go for you?

A couple songs/videos that I like:

El Jefe

2007-09-16T01:34:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite coworkers is Jeff Hoshiko. In the lab, we think he is so great that we made a list of facts about him. These are the Jeff Facts:

1. Jeff doesn't walk: he hovers, moving his feet only to fit in.
2. If you stare into Jeff's eyes long enough, you can see the future.
3. Jeff doesn't have to pay for lapdances; he just pays so the dancers
don't feel so badly about their lack of self-control.
4. Jeff doesn't make molecular magnets, the spins align in adoration of
the god also known as Jeff.
5. Jeff is 5'5"; close to the earth, so he can strike you down when you
least expect it.
6. Jeff can speak Braille, Latin, Swahili, and Canadian Sign Language.
7. If you strike Jeff down, he will become more powerful than you can
possibly imagine.
8. Jeff has black hair, which serves as his cloak of invisibility in the
night hours.
9. Jeff's favorite movie is Pulp Fiction. What most people don't know, is
Pulp Fiction was originally named "The Life and Times of Jeff". But Samuel
L. Jackson was so unconvincingly Jeff, a name change was necessary. (He
wasn't tough enough.)
10. Jeff doesn't poop. His digestive system is so efficient that he uses
every digested molecule for energy (and converts extra carbon to
diamonds).
11. The diamond mines of Africa are Jeff's commodes. A common
misconception is that blood diamonds are so named because of the violence
surrounding their acquisition. However, they are actually the result of
Jeff eating too many beets.
12. Jeff hates white people.
13. Max: izzo
Min: iyyo
14. If you meet Jeff in a dark alley, it isn't a question of whether you
will survive, or even how long. It is merely a question of how much of his
greatness he cares to bestow in you.
15. Jeff was born on June 10, 1983, as predicted by Nostradomus.
16. Jeff was once stranded in the Amazon for 2 months, during which time
he became the leader of a band of spider monkeys. He survived by eating
berries, anacondas, and mutineering spider monkeys, which he caught with
his bare hands.
17. Jeff convinved a grizzley bear to skin itself by handing it a knife
and saying "shave".
18. Jeff escaped from the jungle by creating a flying machine out of only
leaves, animal bones, the elastic band from his underwear, and a
helicopter with a full tank of gas.

And that's all we have to say about Jeff. Of at least all we had room for on the whiteboard. And in honor of Jeff, here is a video starring his one true love:

Want more? Bananas, melonas, yeah.

Flying rats

2007-09-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

Read about this a while ago: In LA, they're giving contraceptives to pigeons to keep the population down. That's a little ridiculous I think.I wonder if they do this other places? I would guess not because then there would be no reason to write an article about it. Typical LA/OC. Can't have birds flying around pooping on all the movie stars (and other famous-for-no-good-reason stars) while they're in their fancy cars while they're driving around on the wrong side of the road while they're drunk and high on coke. That would just make everything look poopy.

What's a pirate's favorite chemical element? AARRRRRRgon

Last time we saw prison inmates doing Thriller. Well in today's episode we have a real treat: Indian Thriller...

Excuses

2007-09-06T01:22:00.001-07:00

I just moved into my new apartment. It is to my old apartment as Pauly Shore is to Morgan Freeman: it's not that bad all the time, but it just doesn't compare. So that is my current excuse for not writing often. I'll write back soon with a new one.

I just saw Pop Up Video for the first time in about ten years. It made me very happy. VH1 Classic = my new favorite channel.

Hey, what's a pirate's favorite basketball player? Kareem Abdul JabAARRRRRRR

Apparently there's this prison in the Philippines makes/lets? the inmates choreograph mass dance scenes to various songs. It's pretty awesome. See them all here. See Thriller below:
(And check out that chick! Oh, wait..)

Slacker

2007-08-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

I've been really slacking with the blog. So sorry to the one or two people who read it. I've been real busy lately though. Then whenever I get some free time I don't feel like doing anything. Last weekend I was on vacation in Maryland. It sounds odd to say I'm leaving California for a vacation in Maryland. But I had an awesome time at home. It was good to see my old family and friends. The east coast is so much better than the west coast.

I've been asking people lately if they've ever really tried to use the force. You know, the binding, magical and ubiquitous power that is the object of the Jedi and Sith monastic orders (Wikipedia). I'm surprised that a lot of people have said no. I mean, what if you could do it? No harm in giving it a shot. Me, I try it all the time, like when I can't reach something.

I just spent twenty minutes reading about the force on Wikipedia. That happens a lot to me. I get sucked into Wikipedia and keep reading about stuff. It's interesting. I like learning. But only about completely useless things.

I have this little notepad file in which I jot down things I think would be interesting to mention in my blog. One of the things I have written down is 'pigeons'. I have no idea what I wanted to say about pigeons. Maybe I'll remember later. Oh I found it. In LA, they're going to feed contraceptives to pigeons in order to get rid of them. An interesting solution. I hope it works out for them. New York has tons of pigeons, but everything seems to be working fine there. It's these California people. Got to have everything nice and pretty. It's all about appearances.

Pizza for dinner.

For your viewing pleasure (an excerpt from one of my favorite shows):

More than meets the eye

2007-07-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

My half birthday is coming up in a couple months. This is what I want.

Saw a couple movies recently. Transformers was pretty awesome. Not perfect, but still quite enjoyable. Though, I wish Optimus Prime (who has an exceptionally long Wikipedia article) would have used his battle axe more. Harry Potter was not that awesome. I was about halfway through reading the book (re-reading) when I saw the movie tonight. Strangely, the first half of the movie (which I had just read in the book) I didn't like very much (because I don't think they did a great job with it), but the second half (in which I couldn't really remember what was supposed to happen) was much more enjoyable. We wanted to see it on the IMAX but it was sold out. Very disappointing.

Unrelated:

400 BABIES

2007-06-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Try this: pick up your right foot. Right now. And then rotate your right foot in clockwise circles. Now, take your right hand and draw a six in the air. Did your foot change direction? Yeah.

Now watch this video:

Powerthirst Sports Drink

How come chips come in bags and crackers come in boxes?

Miscellaneous Thoughts II

2007-06-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

Has anyone seen the new milk commercials? They're stupid. In fact, they're so bad I couldn't even find them on youtube. But the new milk website is fun. It's a game. Humans are the only animals that drink other animals' milk.

Orange County in one word or less: Artificial.

Irony? Jack Kevorkian spent a decade of his early life learning medicine so that he could become a doctor. He then dedicated his life to helping people die. Because of this he had his license to practice revoked and was sent to prison. Oregon is currently the only state that allows assisted suicide. (PS, he's also an artist?)

After I was at home over the last winter holiday season, I came back to find my car stinking like piss. I investigated and found evidence of mice living under my hood. I cleaned it out as well as I could. A couple weeks ago, after less than a week of not driving it, I left a light on in the car and couldn't start it. I found someone to give me a jump and when I opened my hood they (the rodents) were back. But they were huge. Pretty sure they were rats. My question is this: Why were they hanging out in my ratty old car, when there's a beautiful BMW parked right next to me?

I got a bunch of these new presidential $1 coins as change from the post office yesterday. I read on the website that what they're doing is releasing four presidents per year. So this year is George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, and .... James Madison? YES! I got them all, I just mixed up Jefferson and Adams. No biggie. Anyway that's cool about the coins, right? Wrong. This is why it's not cool: In ten years I'm gonna be walking around with both George Bushes, Bill Clinton, and some other totally lame guy in my pocket. Unless Hillary wins next year (HAH!).

I accidentally bought 75% less sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch at the store the other day instead of the normal kind. It's awful. Like cinnamon toast woodchips.

Stars

2007-06-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

As you should already know, Bob Barker has taped his last episode of The Price Is Right (set to air this Friday). I guess by the time you're 83 it'd be nice to retire, especially after doing the same show for 35 years (Wikipedia says, "In Judaism when someone reaches 83 they celebrate a second bar mitzvah." Is this true Jews?). Now, there are two problems we face in the absence of Bob Barker:
1. Who will host The Price is Right now?
2. Who will educate the public about spaying and neutering their pets?
Let's talk about question 1. I hear on the radio that Rosie O'Donnell is a front-runner for replacing Bob. Well, I'd be pretty uncomfortable with that. I think most people would. Well good news: according to this article, Rosie isn't one of the possibilities. Instead we have these guys:
1. George Hamilton, the well-known actor from well-known films such as The Godfather: Part III, She's Too Tall, The Little Unicorn, and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington.
2. John O'Hurley, Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld.
3. Mark Steines, nobody.
Here are my top three choices to replace Bob Barker:
1. Alessandra Ambrosio
2. Adam Sandler
3. Big Bird

'SHUT UP! Enough already, news people! Who cares about Paris Hilton anyway? The girl has only one look, for Christ's sake! Dumb Blonde? Party Girl? Wasted Hooker? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!'

Today is Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson's 21st birthday. I bet they're having an awesome party in LA somewhere. I've got half a mind to drive up there tomorrow and see if I can get in. How come it's always Mary-Kate and Ashley and never Ashley and Mary-Kate?

Evolution, Creationism, and Dinosaurs

2007-06-03T13:26:00.001-07:00

I've been accumulating items of interest related to Christianity, the religion. Most Christians are alright, but there are some crazies out there. For example, all those people who don't want evolution taught in schools. Even the late Popes Pius XII and John Paul II recognized that evolution doesn't necessarily conflict with Christianity (read their thoughts here and here). But anyway, I guess if we're going to stop teaching children about the theory of evolution, maybe we should stop teaching them about the theory of gravity too. Or maybe let's just stop teaching them anything at all and let them figure everything out on their own. Wow, that would be great: then we could lower taxes.

I'm getting off topic. Behold! The ATHEIST'S WORST NIGHTMARE! The BANANA! You have got to watch this video. Words cannot describe it.

I also wanted to talk about this Creationist Museum (which is now open in Petersburg, Kentucky). I read this article on BBC News about it. It's pretty insane. They believe that the book of Genesis should be taken completely literally. They have exhibits with humans and dinosaurs playing together (click on exhibit #10). And yes, I typed that correctly. Children playing with dinosaurs. Based on my experience with dinosaurs, which comes mainly from scientifically infallible movies like Jurassic Park, this seems unlikely. This is my favorite part of the BBC article (in response to "But dinosaurs have sharp teeth!"):

'"So do bears", says Ken [founder of the museum and Answers in Genesis], "but they eat nuts and berries! Remember, before the sin of Adam, the world was perfect. All creatures were vegetarian." One of the dinosaurs lets out a rather contradictory roar.'

Yeah, some bears to eat berries, like the black bear. They also eat insects and young deer/elk/whatever. I've never heard of a polar bear eating berries, but I did see one on TV the other day trying to eat a walrus. A lot of bears eat fish. I don't think that counts as vegetarian.

These Answers in Genesis people are pretty... amazing. They manage to show that males having nipples and rabbits eating their own poop support creationism. Also, they explain that dinosaurs were actually on Noah's Arc and many probably survived the Flood. But, sadly, those that survived later died... "Due to (1) competition for food that was no longer in abundance, (2) other catastrophes, (3) man killing for food (and perhaps for fun), and (4) the destruction of habitats, etc." Their fossils were apparently made from all the mud from the flood. And seriously, you can't deny their point that the New York Times is a "secular evolutionary propaganda machine." Okay, I've ranted enough about that I think. More info on the Creation Museum.

But there are a lot of good things that come out of Christianity. Like Christmas, Easter, X-mas, Santa Claus, and the movie Sister Act starring Whoopi Goldberg (who has no eyebrows). But one thing that's really awesome is the Lego Bible. In it, stories from the bible are told in Lego form. Quite awesome. Another really cool thing is Bible Fight, a game from Adult Swim that allows you to fight as Jesus, Mary, Abraham, Noah, Eve, and even Satan (And God if you're really good). Of course they all have special moves, which are fantastic. It's basically just like Mortal Combat. So I guess it would be... Immortal Combat?

Finally, I read an article that a hammerhead shark in a zoo in Nebraska (wow, how do you get a shark to Nebraska?) had a virgin birth, but then they tried to rationalize it with all this science mumbo-jumbo. The first thing that came to my mind when I read it is, I'm sure, the same thing that just came to your mind: Shark Jesus? How great would it be if sharks became Christians? Maybe they would stop eating us. At least on Fridays.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

2007-05-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

Why are people so crazy about TV shows about doctors? ER, Grey's Anatomy, House, Scrubs (not quite as popular), isn't there another one I'm missing? Do we all secretly want to be doctors? Or do we think that doctors just have really interesting lives? I think it's the day-to-day excitement that (we imagine) doctors have. Is it really exciting to be a doctor? I wonder how similar real doctoring is to what we see on TV. Which show do you think is closest to reality? If any doctors are reading this (HAH!) please leave a comment with your thoughts.

How about a toothbrush that you can stick on your tongue and then brush your teeth with no hands? Brilliant or stupid? It would be useful maybe for people with no arms.

I was in the grocery store the other day looking for toilet paper. I figured it was in one of the last aisles somewhere. I saw some diapers and thought, oh it must be in this aisle. That would make sense wouldn't it? Of course things can't possibly be that simple. It was several aisles away with the paper towels. Now, though paper towels and toilet paper both come on rolls in big plastic packages, they are very different in terms of function. Well, okay, both used for cleaning crap. But would you not agree that the toilet paper belongs next to the diapers and not the paper towels? I think things in the store should be organized according to where they belong in the house. Bathroom/poopy stuff should all go together.

Words that I hear people overusing: random, literally, like.

One saying that I really don't like is, "There's a first time for everything." It's just a plain lie. There is not a first time for everything. There was not a first time that George Washington was eaten by a bear, nor will there ever be (he died of pneumonia). Extreme example? Maybe. But I needed to use something that couldn't be debated. Actually, you should check out the Wikipedia for George Washington. It's pretty interesting: "Washington's teeth were not made out of wood, as was once commonly believed. They were made out of teeth from different kinds of animals, specifically elk, hippopotamus, and human.[44] One set of his false teeth weighed almost four ounces (110 g) and were made out of lead." How awesome would it be to have hippopotamus teeth? Well, Granddad, I know what you're getting for your birthday.

Relativelyquiteimpressiveguy

2007-05-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

So, as you may be aware some European scientists recently 'discovered' a new planet (or 'exoplanet', which simply means a planet outside of our solar system), supposedly the most Earth-like to date. It's been all over the news (the official paper was submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics). You can check it out on Wikipedia, of course (I'm pretty crazy about Wikipedia). The planet orbits the star Gliese 581 (once every 12.9 days) and is aptly named Gliese 581c. Three planets have been detected orbiting the star, Gliese 581b, c, and d (You might think it would be a, b and c, but the star itself actually gets the letter a). The star system is approximately 20 light years away towards the constellation Libra. We can't actually see the planets from Earth (yet), but we detect them by noticing the small but detectable effect of their gravity on the star, which we can see.

So, as you may be aware, the discovery Gliese 581c is special because it is in what is called the Habitable Zone. This is the window of distance from the parent star that a planet can orbit and be at the proper temperature to have water in the liquid phase (It is actually much closer to its sun than we are to ours, but its sun is a red dwarf, much cooler than our sun. So it balances out (see above for an artist's rendition of the sunrise/set on Gliese 581c)). This water thing is a huge deal because liquid water is crucial for life, as far as we know. This made me think, what it there is life on that planet? What if there's a civilization of beings that look just like us but are much more technologically advanced? What if their planet was about to come to an end and no one believed the one scientist who was predicting it? What if that one scientist sent his baby son on a space ship headed towards Earth, the last son of Gliese 581c? What if that child crash-landed in a small town in Middle America and grew up on a farm and discovered he had extraordinary powers? What if this one time these other three people from that planet who had been exiled into the Phantom Zone but were released by a nuclear explosion in space came to Earth and ran amok (is that really how you spell that?) but the last son of Gliese 581c couldn't do anything (because he gave up his powers to become his mild-mannered reporter alter-ego and be in love with some nosy woman reporter) until he managed to trick the three bad-guys into giving up their powers and getting back his own?

[To get straight to the answer and skip the BS, just go to the bottom.]

So, as you may be aware, I'm a pretty big Superman fan. As I was reading about Gliese 581c, I noticed a lot of similarities it has with Krypton: Both have a red sun, unlike our yellow sun; Both have a greater mass than Earth; Both could harbor life; Both are in space; Both are planets. Maybe you can see what I'm getting at. What if someone were to come to Earth from this newly discovered real planet? Would they be like Superman? Well, according to the earliest versions of the Superman tale, Superman was so strong because Krypton had a much stronger gravity than Earth. It would be like us going to the moon. He could leap over tall buildings in a single bound, etc. Sound familiar?

So I've got this book, The Physics of Superheroes. Phenomenal book. Written by a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, James Kakalios. In the first couple chapters Kakalios uses the facts that Superman weighs about 220 pounds and can leap over a tall building (about 660 feet) to figure out how much force Superman needs to exert to jump that high (about 5,600 pounds), what the gravity is like on Krypton (apparently 15 times that of Earth), and how big/dense Krypton has to be (either 15 times denser, 15 times larger, or somewhere in between). My goal? Using this book as I guide I will figure out what kinds of powers someone would have if they came from the planet Gliese 581c rather than Krypton. Also, just for fun, to see how high I could jump on Gliese 581c.

So to start off, I have this information that the brilliant scientists of Earth have been able to deduce: Gliese 581c is about 5 times the mass of Earth, and has a radius about 1.5 times as large. The first thing I need to do is calculate the gravity on 581c. The acceleration due to gravity of a planet at its surface is given by the equation

g = Gm/r²

where g is acceleration due to gravity, G is a the universal gravitational constant (6.67300 × 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2), and r is the radius of the planet. So I know everything I need to know about earth:

g_e = 9.800 m/s²
r_e = 6.3781 x 10⁶ m
m_e = 5.9742 x 10²⁴ kg

And I know that for Gliese 581c, r_g = 1.5r_e and m_g = 5m_e. So I can just plug those values into the equation to find the gravity on 581c, g_g:

g_g = 5Gm_e/(1.5r_e)² = 21.78 m/s²

So this is about 2.2 times the gravity on earth. I weigh about 143 pounds here, so I'd way about 318 pounds on Gliese 581c (but of course my mass will always be 65 kg).

Now, the important part. How high could I jump on Gliese 581c. According to the guy who wrote this book (who would know a lot more than me) most people can exert a jumping force approximately equal to their weight. Converting my weight to metric/standard units (you've just got to use metric for any kind of serious calculations)... 636 kg∙m/s² or simply 636 N. First on Earth: I will use the fact that I flex my legs for about 0.25 seconds while jumping, gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s², and the following equations to find my liftoff acceleration, liftoff velocity, and then jump height:

my acceleration = force/mass
= 636 N / 65 kg = 9.8 m/s²
liftoff velocity = acceleration x time
= 9.8 m/s² x 0.25 s = 2.45 m/s
jump height = velocity² / (2 x deceleration of gravity)
= (2.45 m/s)² / (2 x 9.8 m/s²) = 0.31 m

So according to my estimations, I should be able to jump about a foot high on Earth, which is sadly close to the truth. I tried to measure my vertical jump. I was disappointed.

Now on Gliese 581c:

jump height = velocity² / (2 x deceleration of gravity)
= (2.45 m/s)² / (2 x 21.78 m/s²) = 0.14 m

Pretty sad. Let's try someone a little more interesting than myself. Cleveland Cavalier (that's basketball, folks) LeBron James (6' 8", 245 lbs, 111.1 kg) can jump 44" (1.12 m) on Earth. Using the same assumptions as above, we get...

LeBron's liftoff velocity is 4.69 m/s
LeBron's liftoff force is 2082 N (468 lbs!)

That means LeBron can exert almost 2x the force of his own weight when jumping! Bet you can't do that (unless... LeBron, are you reading this?). So on Gliese 581c, that translates to a 20" (0.50 m) vertical (simply multiplying by the gravity ratio)... Still more than I can jump on Earth. Ouch.

Okay, that was fun, BUT what if some guy just like me but from Gliese 581c came to Earth? Well, on Earth he'd way only 143 pounds, even though on his home planet he weighed 318 pounds (but of course his mass will always be 65 kg). If he's like me, which he is because I said so, he could jump with a force equivalent to his weight, 318 lbs = 1415 N. Using the same equations I used to figure out how high I could jump on Earth, I find that Dave from Gliese 581c (SuperDave?) can jump 1.51 m (about 5 ft) on Earth. Not quite Superman, but he could jump clear over some people I know. Maybe... Relativelyquiteimpressiveguy?

What about SuperLeBron? He'd be able to jump 5.53 m. Is that high? Who knows? Let's see... 5.53 x 3.28... Wow! 18 feet! Sounds pretty super to me.

Phew.

[Mistakes/Corrections? I don't care, I'm not changing it. It took me a long time to write all that.]

Tooth Doctor

2007-04-27T00:39:00.000-07:00

I went to the dentist today for a cleaning. It was good because I hadn't been to a dentist in a couple years so I felt like I needed it. But they did a very thorough cleaning. First the assistant x-rayed my mouth from a hundred different angles. Then I waited for a while. They didn't have a very wide selection of magazines, but I found an interesting article in Ebony about the lack of black/African-American baseball players these days. Then a pretty young-looking woman (as in fairly young-looking, not pretty and young-looking) came to clean my teeth. She introduced herself as "doctor" whatever her name was, but are dentists really doctors? I guess they can be. What are the degrees with which people can call themselves doctors? Okay did a little research on that (i.e. looked it up on Wikipedia). According to the all-knowing Wikipedia contributors, dentists can call themselves doctors, since a dental degree is considered a "professional doctorate," not to be confused with a "research doctorate," which is way better (partly because that's what I'm going to get). So anyway, the doctor/dentist first measured all the gaps between my teeth and my gums and read them off to her assistant. Apparently I've been brushing my teeth too hard in a couple places, causing my gums to recede. Then she cleaned my teeth with one of those pointy things with the water sprayer while her assistant was sticking that vacuum thing in my mouth. I kept wanting to swallow and kind of gulping because I couldn't close my mouth. It would have been nice if she gave me a little break once in a while. After that she scraped around with the pointy metal scraper thing (I'm sure they have technical names for all of these things). Then she told me I didn't have any cavities. Duh, I haven't had a cavity since I was a kid. Because I brush my teeth so hard my gums are receding. After she scraped my teeth and gave me a clean bill of dental health (aside from brushing too hard), the assistant tried to rip my teeth out of my mouth using only a single strand of floss. She told me I didn't floss enough because my gums were bleeding. Then she polished my teeth and I was finally done. The best part was I didn't have to pay for anything because my insurance covers it. Phew. My gums/mouth hurt for a couple hours afterwards. I just brushed my teeth, nice and softly, and they bled a bit. But no pain no gain, right? Maybe not. I'm not sure if that applies to oral hygiene.

Wow, why would anyone want to read this?

Pictures Posted!

2007-04-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

Downloaded this new software from Google. Google does a lot.

Pictures:

Bikeride through Burnination

It begins...

2007-04-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

This is my first post ever.

Today I went for a bike ride in Santiago Oaks Regional Park. I tried to go there a few weeks ago, but it was on fire. Many of the trails were still closed, and a good deal of the park was still charred. I will try to post some photos.