My nephew sent me a bunch of Youtube links relating to a folk duo from New Zealand called “Flight of the Conchords“  Their music, at least from the samples I looked at, seems to be heavily slanted towards somewhat off-colour humour.  In my opinion, it’s first rate stuff- I spent a good half hour laughing. 

Business Time, the song I’m embedding here, is a prime example.  It isn’t crude, but might not be safe for work..

“…that’s why they’re called business socks”

I mentioned previously that I had some long-overdue dental work done last week on Thursday.  Post-dentist, it was relatively pain free.  Until Monday afternoon, that is, when it was as if some hitherto somnolent nerve suddenly awakened from its deep slumber.

To put it another way, I was in agony.  I’ve been taking far too many Tylenol 3s since then (they work wonderfully- it is like this is exactly the kind of pain they are designed for).  The most irritating thing: the pain is not specific to a tooth.  I can tap my teeth and get no twinge- the pain is radiating out through the jaw, sometimes seeming to come from the upper, sometimes from the lower.  A properly engineered nervous system would pinpoint the source of the pain- obviously, my body is defective.  So much for “intelligent design”.

On a completely unrelated note…I spend a few minutes each day checking out the collected and captioned cat (mostly cat) pictures on the “I Can Has Cheezburger?” website.   If you’ve never heard of this site and find it confusing, here’s the overview: for years, folks in various web forums have periodically created “fun” threads where people post cat or animal pictures with humorous captions.  These captions are generally written in a type of “baby” or “dude” speak: sort of pidgin English.  These captioned photos are sometimes called “lolcats” (Laugh out loud cats).  The I Can Has Cheezburger? site is one of the better-known/more popular places to see these pictures. 

I found this picture today, and for some reason it struck me as particularly funny…it might be the drugs

I went to the dentist today.  A small piece of one of my molars (the teeth at the back of my mouth) fell out recently.  This is no great surprise for two reasons.  Firstly, I have a number of very old, very large fillings.  Secondly, it has been over seven years since I went to the dentist last.

I don’t like having dental work done.  Nothing against dentists, really, I’m just not fond of pain, or of the drilling/scraping/abrading process.  This is the second time in my life when I have permitted a huge gap (no pun intended) to occur in my dental care record.  The first time was between the ages of about 15 and about 25.  I started going to dentists again regularly shortly after getting married.  I had a couple of reasonably good dentists in a row, and got sort of comfortable, or at least resigned, to the annual process.  I was had a regular dental checkup record for over a decade.

I never got around to finding a new dentist after we moved to B.C..  That was in 2000, so seven years ago.  Irene has been reminding me every few months for the last seven years that I should find a dentist and get checked out, but it took the appearance of a hole in one of my teeth to get me in motion.

So…on to the dentist.  As I mentioned a couple of paragraphs back, I don’t like pain, or the equipment, or being at the mercy of a stranger who is putting potentially lethal implements in my mouth.  So I looked around a bit, and found a likely sounding company with several clinics nearby.   I went to their closest location, which is basically a five minute drive from my house- nice and convenient.  And my first visit wasn’t too bad.

Mind you, they really didn’t do much.  They showed off their digital X-Ray machine…which I really liked.  I had a monitor right in front of me as I sat in the dental chair, and as they snapped the x-rays I was able to see them immediately.  It was a bonus that this type of x-ray uses about 1/20th as much radiation as the old style.  They confirmed that my crumbling tooth has two cavities, and recommended a crown.  They even took a digital photograph of the tooth in addition to the x-ray, which again appeared on the monitor in front of me.  It was pretty easy to see why a crown made sense- there just isn’t much left of the the chomping surface of the tooth which is mostly occupied by a silver (yes, silver) filling.  Dr. Ben also explained that silver fillings had been shown to expand minutely, creating hairline cracks in the tooth…this simply added to the damage done by the cavities.

Some folks would hate seeing the x-rays, or would find the pictures of their teeth unpleasant to look at.  Personally, I like being involved/aware of what is being done, and I think it helps a bit with my anxiety about the process.  I also like high-tech gadgets, and digital cameras that go inside the mouth are kind of neat :)  I found the dental chair very comfy as well…and when they leaned it all the way back to check a couple of things, I discovered they also have a TV on the ceiling for patients to watch…

So, I’m booked in for preliminary work and a temporary crown on August 16th.  I *might* get in on August 9th, the day before Chris and I go to the airshow- they tell me it will only take an hour and a half and I’ll be “fine” afterwards.  But for some reason, the character Steve Martin played in Little Shop of Horrors keeps running through my mind…

There were two news stories on my desktop today that, individually, were sad tales of accidental death.  But side by side as they were, they pointed out the difference between a life well spent and a sad waste.

In the one instance, we have the explosion resulting in three deaths at Scaled Composites.   Scaled Composites is the company that won the X-Prize a few years back for being the first commercial company to get a vehicle into “space” with their SpaceShipOne vehicle.  The people at Scaled Composites are developing inexpensive and reliable technologies for getting people and material into orbit.  Despite their skills and design excellence, they are still working with some dangerous materials…and accidents can happen.  The three that died were pursuing a noble end, and I can look on their efforts as being truly important to humankind.

The other instance was the collision of two news helicopters and the deaths of all four on board.  The police in Phoenix were chasing someone, and the two news copters were competing to get some interesting news footage.  It is doubtful that the police appreciated their presence.  In fact my first thought upon hearing about the crash was to be worried that the press had collided with a police helicopter.  A moment later I was relieved that it was “only” news people.  I honestly find it hard to imagine that the world is a better place as a result of on the spot helicopter news coverage of yet another police chase.  Which makes the death of four people in that kind of endeavor seem rather…pathetic.

Death in any form is tragic.  There are mothers, brothers, spouses, and friends who are all grieving today, and it makes no difference how the death occurred.  My condolences go out to anyone who knows any of these folks personally.  But these events are, for me, a reminder of how I personally would want to “spend” my life, if I had to make the ultimate sacrifice. 

I am feeling “fat”, and I know exactly what I need to do to fix it.  Eat less junk (not necessarily less *food*, just less junk), and be more active.  But knowing what needs to be done and doing it are two entirely different things.  Fortunately (?), I’ve stabilized for the moment at around 190 pounds.  But I fear waking up one day and realizing I need a crane to get out of bed.

I was bouncing around Youtube today and came across this video.  It expresses more or less how I feel:

“I’m fat cause I eat, then I go to sleep”

My previous post was angry, and looked at the worst aspects of the human animal and how some can sink to levels that might drive me to violence against them.  I find it really difficult to soften my feelings towards the two teenagers involved.

But humans can be kind as well.  The stray kitten (who has been named Adam) I was talking about is receiving a lot of love and care, and actually stands a good chance now of surviving.  There is even a video of Adam including one of the nurses involved in his care.  Tina, the Nurse, says she has chosen to keep her thoughts on the kindness of people who have come together to help him.  Bear in mind that the video was taken about a month after Adam was set on fire by the teenage girls.  Several other cats in the same cages are still missing.

I’ll do my best to adopt Tina’s frame of thinking as well.  But it is hard not to wish for a few gallons of napalm and a little free access to the prison cell where the teenage girls who did this are being held.

Update: Adam is being treated at/by the Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County organization.  You can visit their website to see updates regarding Adam.  His next major surgery is on July 24th.

Two darling teenage girls out for a walk saw a stack of cages containing feral cats.  As a light hearted lark, they poured lighter fluid on one and set it on fire, laughing at their uproarious hi-jinx.

If I met these two twisted little delinquents while carrying a gun, they’d be dead.  If I had a can of gasoline, I’d light them on fire myself, then track down their parents and see how they burned.

Am I serious?  I guess I’m exaggerating a little.  Not much, though.  Unlike a lot of humans, if I had to make a choice between saving a miscellaneous stranger’s child and saving a cat or dog, I’m not completely sure which I’d choose.  I don’t particularly believe that humans are supreme: my own family and friends, yes, but other humans?  Moreso than the other creatures we share the world with?  Perhaps not.

Definitely  not in the case of at least two 15 year olds who will almost certainly receive little more than a smack on the wrist.  Then they’ll go off to breed and raise more mouth breathing, crap for brains humans incapable of either compassion or complex thought.  God save us from their offspring.

I read a blog entry today giving an opinion regarding a book on the topic of whether or not user-created content is killing our culture (Is the web killing our culture? - (37signals) ).  My immediate reaction to the topic of the article was that the author of the book is probably a professional writer who resents the intrusion of all the bloody amateurs into his career plans. 

My opinion has long been that there is a risk of users of the Internet becoming creators of their own reality.  I can spend my whole life on the Internet reading “news” and opinions tailored to my specific beliefs and interests.  This is true whether I’m an intelligent, introspective person willing to consider dissenting viewpoints, or whether I’m a right wing, neo-Nazi anti-Semitic member of the NRA.  I tend to believe that the vast majority of people are more prone to ask questions and expand their horizons rather than isolate themselves into an echo chamber consisting of their own personal quirks.  But the jury is still out- it will be decades before we really know how the Internet is changing us socially and politically.

Unfortunately, on first glance at the review of the book at least, it sounds like the author may have spent more time focused on the amateur nature of the content created instead of on the potential “echo chamber” effect I describe above.  The implication being that the only way we’ll get a da Vinci or Beethoven is if we silence the musings and creations of Joe Sixpack.  If that’s his real perspective, I’m not likely to find much to inspire deeper thinking: instead, I might just think the author is an elitist wanker.

However, in the interest of looking at the other side of things, I’ve bought/downloaded his book and added it to my reading list.  I’ll be looking at it in the next month or so.  I’ll render my very amateur opinion here on my narcissistic Web 2.0ish blog in a few weeks…kinda ironic, isn’t it? 

As a Canadian, I suffer from every little twitch our American friends make.  And as I see more and more evidence of the devolution of that once free (if somewhat arrogant) nation into fear-crippled police state, I feel I have cause to worry.

When I was a teenager I heard stories about the Soviet Union and how the military and KGB would seize your camera or arrest you for taking photos in many public areas.  Apparently the Americans think this was such a good idea that they are implementing the same measures in droves. 

Ordinary tourists are being apprehended for having “professional looking” cameras and taking pictures of things like fountains, streets, or parks…I can just imagine how fun that would make my vacation.  I like bridges, and I’ve taken photos of several American bridges in the past: I imagine the next time I do this I’ll have my camera confiscated and be introduced to some fine American “hospitality”.

I suppose that there is at least some hope: the “radicals” on Slashdot have largely reacted to this kind of thing the same way I do.  And most Slashdotters are American, I guess.  Although by Department of Homeland Security standards, they are probably not “right thinking Americans”. 

Update: I found this transcript of a 2002 speech by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul.  I have no idea who this fellow is or what his overall perspective might be, but at least on the topic of the erosion of personal liberty in the United States he gives me hope for the Americans.

It took me over two weeks, which is a long time for me, but I finished reading War and Peace (the Project Gutenberg edition) yesterday.  I even wrote a one paragraph summary of my impressions of the book.  I’m only a century or so late :) 

I think I’ll take a break from the classics for a while now…but I’m not sure what is next on my reading list.  I expected to have a couple of new books from the Science Fiction Book Club in my mail box by now, but they seem to be a bit behind.  I’ve become used to always having another book standing at the ready to read- darn book club. 

Maybe I’ll watch some TV…<shudder>