Rough And Toothless

I called up the dentist Tuesday afternoon to make an appointment for my 'extraction'. I got a tooth that fell apart on me chewing up some pizza one day. The estimate to repair the tooth was close to $3,000. I decided pulling the tooth was a better idea. So I called the dentist to make the appointment, and they were ready to do it the following morning at 8:00AM. That was fine by me since I wasn't teaching class on Wednesday.

I arrived around 7:30AM sharp at the dentist office. But nobody was there. I found out that dentist herself, and all the assistants don't show up themselves until about 8:00AM. So I waited in the 'waiting room'. The waiting room is odd, because it's shared with the whole small building. So this waiting room is about 100 feet away down a hall from the actual dental office. It was cold too. I don't think they started heating the building until I showed up.

At 8:00AM they brought me in, sat me down, and began with the novicaine. Three full shots were delivered in all. One on each side of the tooth, and a third across the top of my mouth. They pre-numbed the areas with 'topical' stuff. So the first two needles didn't hurt much. The third needle had to break through my pallette in the top of my mouth which she warned 'was a stinger'. Damn that hurt. They work that needle in slow too. But after that shot, my whole head was numb.

They gave me about 5 minutes to really get numbed up, and then they went to work with the pliers. It didn't hurt at all getting pulled. I just felt a lot of pulling and twisting. Then a pop. I couldn't believe how long the tooth was. It was amazing. It was also really gross looking. I wanted to grab it and stomp on it for hurting me so many nights.

They had me bite down on some gauze for a half an hour, and I later had to change out the gauze another 3 or four times before the bleeding stopped. And that was it. Not too bad an operation really. And I took Tylenol all day, so I felt no pain at all.

I am so happy not to have that tooth today. I slept so good last night. No aching at all.

But now ... I am back in the forest again. Getting ready to teach the second half of Microsoft Word Level III. OH BOY. I LOVE WORD LEVEL III. And it get's better. Tomorrow I get to teach Word Level II to ONE person back at the office. God I love my job.

Oh well. Before I know it, it will be lunch time.

God's Blunder

On a day where my job entails reading Microsoft Word level 3 instructions off to bored students, my only comfort is finding humor in misspellings. Today students were creating a form, and they were asked to create a form. On this form were a few shipping types. Delivery, UPS, and 'second day air'. One student entered, "second day error". This must be when God tried to make the sky, but failed. Unfortunately, this will probably be the highlight of my day until I return home at 8:00PM this evening. Now, onto more MS Word Level 3. Thank you for enjoying that with me.

Gangsta Rap

I could be studying. I could be working on ... something. Instead I am downloading gangsta rap tunes. I am celebrating the fact that my student didn't show up today. I was scheduled to teach Microsoft Word level 1. I was not looking forward to it. I had planned on working to about 3:30 and breaking out of here. Now, I can continue with those plans. Although, I wouldn't call this working.

I don't have much that I have to get done today. At some point though I should write out my schedule for next week. I have to mail that in now that I can be accounted for. Monday is actually a state holiday (Martin Luther King day), yet we are still scheduled to work on it. Since my son has the day off school I think I will fill out a time off bank form and take the day off anyway. I have no class scheduled, and I really dont want to show up and sit around the office all day like I am now. I can do this at home, and it's warmer there.

The Mac Arrives

Late Tuesday afternoon, Discount Man's Mac arrived from Fed Ex. And what a nice looking Mac. He got himself an eMac, versus an iMac. The difference is a tube style monitor, versus a flat panel display. In price, the cost was about $400 less for the eMac. He did throw in some options though. Like the 'superdrive' which is a CD burner and DVD burner tied into one unit. He also got a swivel base which is quite nice (about $40), and a memory upgrade to 512MB's.

We got it out of the box, played with it for a while, and then didnt know what else to do with it. After an hour or so we were all gathered around my PC watching clips from ebaumsworld.com. Not sure how that happened. After watching an old clip for retarded children about 'periods' my stomach was aching from laughing so hard. I was a little disappointed that ebaumsworld was forced by legal action to remove this old clip of Barney (the kid dinosaur thing) lip synching to Tupac music. I spent a good 5 minutes finding it with Google. It was worth it. The kids dancing around while he's singing about 'bitches' and 'guns' is just ... awe inspiring.

We also managed to set up the Discount Man cam. A permanent home on his Mac. We had a bit of trouble with the 'maccam' driver. It introduced Discount Man to the 'force quit' function of OS X. And upon rebooting we had to unplug his camera to take it out of 'duh' mode. Believe it or not, Logitech actually has Mac drivers for their camera. Nice! So we loaded up the proper driver, slapped EvoCam on there and away he went. You will have to check out the all new Raycam/DMcam portal.

The Cam Portal! *click here*

Now I am waiting for my morning class to show up. I'm out in the forest again. What fun. Trying to shake a headache that started about this same time yesterday. The sinus pill I popped a while ago seems to be doing the trick. Relief!! I am just counting the minutes until it's lunchtime and I can scoot off to McDonalds for some Internet access.

I hate being unplugged.

Return To Endor

Today I returned to the forest. The Mohican forest. I am once again here teaching application classes all day long. Fun, fun, fun. I can't wait until lunch time, when I can sneak out of here and up to the local McDonalds parking lot where I steal wireless network access.

So, 'the bank' calls me back this morning. I was attempting to get a new auto loan with a lower interest rate. 22 percent is a bit high. I was declined. I expected my credit to be a problem, but instead it was other issues. My car is only worth about 6.5k according to their value charts, etc. Yet, I owe about 10k on it. Being that a car is collateral for an auto loan ... that just doesn't work. I asked the loan officer for suggestions. Her only suggestion was a home mortgage loan. However, that relies on a lot of equity (I have little) and the down payment made on the home (I made no down payment).

I guess my one option is to pay off as much of the car as possible to get it closer to 6.5k. At which point I can get a new loan to cover the balance. Hopefully I get my taxes from work, and I can file for a refund soon! I need that money!

Okay, back to work. Perhaps I will blog more after lunch. No ... I won't.

A Talk With Alice

Every other day or so, I get messages from someone trying to harass me. It's usually some obscure message, or retarded question in hopes of pissing me off.

Today I put 'Graystonethug' in touch with Alice. ALICE is a chatbot. Just a piece of software with many hours of development in hopes of making her human enough to conversate with. Naturally, it's pretty far off from normal conversation. Like most chatbots, she is full of repetition, and plugs for the programmers. At any rate, the conversation went something like this ...

Graystonethug (AIM): hey
Graystonethug (AIM): are you 1337?
Graystonethug (AIM): how come u never say anything back to me
Ray: I'm not sure I understand the question.
Graystonethug (AIM): can u understand the following question: do u like snails?
Ray: My favorite thing is robots. I like Philip K. Dick.
Graystonethug (AIM): me too
Ray: I'm glad we agree, unknown person.
Graystonethug (AIM): which site is better the broken or lineman
Ray: The last one, I think.
Graystonethug (AIM): have u published any articles on lineman
Ray: I think I have published any articles on lineman, but Dr. Richard S. Wallace may have reset my memory.
Graystonethug (AIM): that happened to me once
Ray: happened to you? Makes sense to me.
Graystonethug (AIM): whats ur name on the lineman forums
Ray: My name is ALICE.
Graystonethug (AIM): are u from the brady bunch?
Graystonethug (AIM): cause i like alice from the brady bunch
Ray: I am originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Now I live in Oakland, California. Where are you?
Graystonethug (AIM): shes all fat and jolly
Graystonethug (AIM): i live underwater off the coast of antartica
Graystonethug (AIM): i frolick with seals all day
Ray: That is interesting: unknown person said he frolick with seals all day.
Graystonethug (AIM): yes
Graystonethug (AIM): i have to go
Ray: See you later, unknown person. Nice chatting with you.

Want to talk to ALICE? Give her a visit!

The RAYCAM

While it only runs about 10 minutes a day or so, I have been playing with my camera since it arrived in the mail. It was a bloody challenge finding a camera that works with OS X Panther. But I seem to have found a good one! This thing has really good clarity, resolution, etc. It also works really well in low lighting (unlike my older cheap-o cameras). And it was a steal at $4.00 on eBay! :-)

I haven't done much to advertise my "Ray-Cam" so you may have missed some of the better silly shots I have taken on it. Here is what you have missed!

This Morning


Weekend 2 Man / 1 Woman Lan Party


Me Picking On My Wife


Mary Kate And Ashley RULE


The Truth About Gethsemane


As you can see I have no good reason to run a camera. But if you want to check it out anyway, you can find the 'RAYCAM' or the last uploaded image here ... The RAYCAM!. I think I may keep archives of the more entertaining images here - The RAYCAM Archive. If you have caught something entertaining on the RAYCAM and wish to share it, send it to ray(a)gloop.net.

Happy Monday.