The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and something with the Tooth
So I’m coming out of a fog from the last several days, due mostly to a cocktail of painkillers. Why would I be in a fog of painkillers, you might ask?
Tuesday I woke up to a pain in my jaw. I figured something had gotten caught between my teeth, and irritated the gum, causing swelling. A little flossing, some brushing, and some rinsing, and I managed to dislodge what I figured was causing it, and everyone would be happy.
Not so much. The swelling was back on Wednesday. So some more cleaning, a little Aleve, and it felt right as rain. That’ll take care of it, right? Right up until the Aleve wore off. By Thursday night a blister on my gum said to me “not so much” and “abscess.” So Friday morning I’m hitting the Aleve WAY outside the recommended dosage, and calling around town to see what dentist happened to be open[1]. I managed to get an early afternoon appointment with a new dentist in town, who actually has Friday Hours.
The short story at this point is, yes, I had an abscess, and oh YEAH, that tooth came out with a whole bunch of woobly junk that was identified as the infection itself, and I got the GOOD painkillers for the rest of the weekend. And wow, even with the hole in my mouth and OTC painkillers, I feel a WHOLE lot better than I did last week.
The COOL (and longer) part of the story is that I have found the most awesome dentist ever.[2] She is, to be blunt, one of us. Smartphone using, social networking, Holy Grail quoting, former Ren geek, makes her own corsets AND fairy wings, plus she swore right back at me when I dropped a “motherfucker” during a particularly difficult part of the procedure *grin*. As per my superpower[3], I got a chunk of her life story, and quite frankly, she’s not only a fantastic dentist, but a very cool person who busted her ASS to get where she is.
All that and she managed to yank out a molar on short notice on Friday, with a great attitude to the point where I actually had FUN during the extraction.
I have a new dentist. And I can’t wait for my next appointment. Ain’t that wild?
[1] Why dentists in Pittsboro close Fridays is beyond me.
[2] She’s actually buying out a dentist who’s retiring, and I hope the bank approves it ASAP.
[3] The one where I get anyone’s life story within minutes – nay seconds – of meeting them.
What I’m Reading – Web Comics Edition
As many of you know, I have a horrible web comics addiction. Just as Ursula – if we’re travelling, I get the jitters if I don’t get my fix of at least SOME of the daily web comics.
Yesterday, Jeff The Riffer asked for web comics to read. And I promised my list of “currently following.” The list is currently 101 items – even though I go through semi-regularly and cut out things I’m bored with or haven’t updated in forever.
They are in no particular order, and not sorted by update frequency. Some update infrequenty, some NSFW, you have been warned, etc, etc.
I never expected that…
Anthrocon was a blast, as usual. As per Ursula’s Post we had fun, but didn’t do as well as we normally do. But since it’s the last con of the season, we’ve got a couple of months to look at the overall trends and play with some new merch ideas.
I also realised that I REALLY need to talk to Ellen again and get the name of the tea and soap suppliers.
That being said, we had fun. We got to hang out with Jennie and her sister and Miss Monster and Spunky and Dave and Diana and the Dorsai Irregulars and the Artist’s Cabal[1] and Laura and Blotch and SofaWolf and tresch and Tango and lots of fans and friends and even more that I’m forgetting.
But what sticks out most is that late Saturday night, I ended up walking the streets of Pittsburgh with a posse.
Ursula was off doing her homework, so Jennie and Miss Monster and I went to the Lawn Party. I got a call from Urs – Laura was done with her homework and was a little concerned about walking back to her hotel alone. Being only mostly inebriated, I told Ursula that I would find a way to make sure she got an escort. Turning to Crimson, an absolutely standup guy and part of the security staff, I posed the concern to him. He offered to go with since he was off duty, and then Jennie and Mel offered to go with, and before we got to where she was we had collected Foxfeather and Mbala and a friend. We picked up Laura (not literally) and off we went to get her to her hotel safely in the dark of Pittsburgh.
After a wrong turn or two (and I owe Crimson BIGTIME for riding herd on us) we did get her to her hotel. On the way we kept Miss Monster mostly out of trouble, we saw the AMAZING architecture that is the Renaissance Pittsburgh, wondered past public art, found out that the Allegheny River looks really cool at night and that there are some neat bridges over it, and I decided that I need to get out of the Convention Center area a little more next year.
As we were staggering back, it dawned on me – this is not supposed to happen. I should NOT have a posse. Miss Monster should have a posse. Jennie should have a posse. Ursula should have a posse. Me? I’m just Ursula’s lackey at these things. I should be walking back alone, not with a group of some of the truly fantastic people I get to hang out with at these things. [3]
On our way back, we detoured to the dance so Jennie could see the spectacle. Which resulted in all of us on the dance floor. After about half an hour[3], we were panting and hanging out near the fursuit lounge. Looking at my phone I that it was almost 2am, and perhaps it was time to head to the room and pass out.
I call that a good Saturday night. *grin*
[1] What I have dubbed the a group of artists who ALWAYS seem to be hanging together – namely Heather, Natasha, Marci, Diana, and Shyboar
[2] Which is one of the reasons I like the furry cons so much – there are some great people at them, and some who have become phenomenal friends – even if I only get to hang out with them once or twice a year.
[3] I love me some house/techno, but the DJ needed to vary the tempos some. The songs changed, but the beat remained the same. Give me a cooldown song every so often, dude. Please.
The followup
A quick followup to my last post, but I’m not going TMI with this one because the TMI bits aren’t that amusing, and will take a while to write up, and I have to pack for AnthroCon (see you there!).
And best shared with LOTS of alcohol.
So, All good news on the medical followup front :
- Good : All the tests came back negative, and I am overall fine
- Better : My A1C blood sugar is DOWN from 6.5 to 6.1! This is “as low as we’re probably gonna get” so as long as I keep up the good work, we can consider my Type-2 Diabetes UNDER CONTROL!
- Mediocre : I am off spicy foods for the foreseeable future, as this causes, as noted in the earlier post, dire repercussions.
So, as we pack for AnthroCon 2010, I can go with a BIG sigh of relief, and knowing that I’m FINE.
And now, back to our regular programming…
[TMI] My little vial of…
So yeah, this will venture into the territory of TMI. If you are uncomfortable around discussions of bodily functions, now is your chance to turn back.
It also makes use of a number of swear words that are, in fact, used for their exact biological definitions.
So if you continue, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The Stupid, it burns us
So yes, I’ve had to deal with some stupid, stupid things these last few days. But all-in-all not a BAD week. And reasonably productive to boot. So, in no particular order, mixing tech with non-tech :
- Be aware that the WPG2 plugin for Wordpress does some stupid theme handling hacks that make it not send the header or footer when using something like the Wordpress Mobile Edition or Wordpress Mobile Pack plugins (or any other plugin that dynamically changes the theme at page load time). The fix, after tracing through the plugin, is to copy two files (wpg2header.php and wpg2footer.php) from the active theme into the mobile theme. And voila, it works. Those of you with iPhone and Blackberrys and other mobile browserscan now see the Red Wombat Studio and Miss Monster galleries properly now.
- We have our last con of 2010 in less than two weeks. We will be taking Jennie with us to meet the Anthrocon crowd. I will probably be sending the usual Twitter updates as well. You have all been warned.
- We get to play D&D tomorrow night for the first time in two weeks. I’m very excited, and cannot wait to run these next few encounters. The next combat will be VERY tricky, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun. Once they get through this next bit of roleplay. I will be making maps later today, and they will be…interesting.
- My Facebook account has been disabled for close to two weeks now. It will be interesting to see if it actually DOES get deleted in the next few days like they claim it will.
- And finally, the one bit of stupid that had me ready to break faces on Friday :
I am not an Exchange admin, but I end up touching it more than I’d like to at work. Which me leads to remind everyone who IS an exchange Admin of the following :
It is a BAD IDEA to set up your exchange server to journal all the mail to an external location.
Another exchange server internally? sure.
An internal SMTP server with LOTS of disk? don’t see why not.
A gmail.com address? Oh HELL NO.
See, funny thing, when gmail gets over 200 messages an hour destined to a single address from a single IP, they cut you off. As in, all mail for gmail addresses (good AND bad) get rejected as bulk-mail for a few hours. Which means that even GOOD messages for gmail recipients get rejected, and when it lets you back in, you can BET they’ll cut you off not long after after because of the FUCKING MAIL JOURNAL THAT HAS NOW BEEN BACKING UP FOR A FEW HOURS.
And this does not even BEGIN to touch on the security implications of such a thing. Exchange journaling sends a copy of EVERY email sent to or from the server to the target address.
Yes, you read that right : EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Upon discovery of this abomination of a configuration at work, I turned that bullshit OFF, thank you very much, and proceeded to clean up the queues so the 400+ journal messages waiting to go out to gmail got flushed. Well, except for about 16 of them, which I figured would timeout after a day or two.
No such luck – Exchange proceeded to try to resend quietly every few hours FOR OVER FOUR WEEKS until I finally managed to nuke the fuckers from orbit on Friday (of course, that required not only a complete shutdown and restart of the exchange services, but a reboot of 2K8 on top of that…), all the while swearing at exchange for allowing such an abomination and making a list of people to curb stomp should it be their mis-pleasure to ever meet me in person.
- OpenNMS is, as usual, the bestest thing ever. Their remote poller has some quirks, but damn, it’s still the best monitoring package I’ve ever used.
[A-Kon 21] Pocky Fuelled Brutality
Back at work after a weekend I now dub “Pocky Fuelled Brutality” – that is A-Kon 21. We had a lot of fun, but the con was very large, and very long by our standards. It kinda blurs, so here are the high points :
- Ursula’s fans are, as always, awesome. We were honoured to meet all of you, and very happy y’all came out.
- Why didn’t someone warn us that Anime Fans do not, in fact, sleep?
- The con staff was amazing, and I hope we expressed that adequately to the ones we had the pleasure of talking to through the course of the weekend.
- Never, ever, ever let an energy drink company give away product for free at a con. Ever. [1]
- I am more of a bear than Randy Milholland from the neck down. He’s got me beat from the neck up.[2]
- J. Grant is one mad motherfucker.[3] I look forward to the next time he, Mel, Ursula, and I can hang out.
- Jennie is, as always, awsome.
- I may have fanboyed over Raistlin (AKA Ebenezer) just a little. He didn’t seem to mind.
- There were fewer height/weight inappropriate costumes than the last Anime con I went to.[4]
- The Dallas people are awesome, and we do want to go back. Maybe next time for fun, and not just airport-hotel-con-hotel-airport[5].
- If I never hear the term “buttscratcher” again as long as I live, I might die happy.[6]
[1] To the NOS Energy Drink distributors who were giving that shit away in bulk : I hate you with a hate that burns like the very flames of hell powered by a nuclear rage.
[2] I blame genetics.
[3] You know Two Lumps is awesome, but did you read Flem Comics? You need to read Flem Comics. NOW. From the beginning. DO IT BITCHES!
[4] Although it was fun introducing one friend to the term “Sailor Bubba”….
[5] That’s a lie – we did spend some time outside the hotel, mostly Sunday night, which J. documented gloriously.
[6] Seriously, whoever decided that the Family Guy “Buttscratcher” bit needed to be the con’s verbal meme needs to die in a fire. While being molested by flaming weasels. Flaming rabid ass weasels who have been fed large quantities of Pocky and NOS energy drink laced with crystal meth.
On BBQ
In North Carolina, nay, the South altogether, you must understand that BBQ is a NOUN, not a verb. And each region has it’s specialty, and everyone else are heathens.
This is PARTICULARLY true in the Carolinas, where the regions are particularly proud of their variety. Eastern NC (whole hog, vinegar based sauce), Western NC (aka Lexington BBQ – shoulder only, tomato based sauce), and South Carolina (Mustard and Vinegar based sauce). Many an argument has been had over the validity of a particular variety, who’s momma makes the best sauce, and who’s daddy roasts the best pig[1].
But we all agree on one thing – no matter what region you are from, Carolina BBQ is by far the best in the world, and we all agree that anyone who disagrees with THAT needs to have their head checked.
Now, I am all about Eastern NC BBQ, something I didn’t truly appreciate until I had been out of state for a few years, and couldn’t GET it anymore. When people said “we’re having a BBQ” and it was nothing more than grilled meats, MAYBE with memphis style sauce on chicken or ribs, I had to check my temper and explain to them what REAL BBQ is, and how they were doing it wrong.
It was then that I realized something important – the North Carolina BBQ had gotten into my blood. Nay, into my very genetic makeup.
And that really, there was no hope for me but to return to NC (and I may give many other reasons when asked why I came home, but really, how can someone live where BBQ is a VERB?), so that I could once again have proper Eastern NC BBQ on demand.
What brings this on?
We went to a pig-pickin’ yesterday. This is a Southern tradition, whereby a large grill (usually converted from an oil drum or two) is used to roast a pig (half or whole) for several hours until done (the best start cooking at 4am, and serve the food somewhere around 4pm) while being basted in that tangy/spicy/sweet Eastern NC vinegar sauce the whole time. Oh, you can do it sans sauce, and add after, but it’s not the same.
And Ursula? I love her, but she doesn’t get it. Yet.
It only took me 30 years to discover that I love sweet tea[2]. Give it a few years, and then we’ll be far away, and she’ll get the craving for proper NC BBQ. and we won’t be able to get it, and shortly after we get off the plane, we’ll be at one of the reputable Eastern NC BBQ places[3]
And then I’ll know she’s truly adapted.
[1] As well as the official record of parentage of your opponent in the discussion, including but not limited to the nature of the honor of the opponent’s mother. Also up for debate are the breeding habits of your opponent, their father, and the pig which they roast. So yeah, BBQ discussions can get heated in these parts.
[2] At a wedding they had nothing but water and sweet tea. And after a lifetime of having mediocre sweet tea forced upon me I had given up, and was drinking this because, well, it wasn’t water. This particular tea was the nectar of heaven. And that was it, I was hooked.
[3] Cooper’s in Raleigh,Allen & Son’s in Hillsboro or Bynum, and Old Tymme in Cary. And if all else fails, Smithfield’s. I’m not saying The Pitt in Raleigh isn’t good, but I want a place that specializes in Eastern BBQ and fried chicken (and MAYBE fried fish).
[D&D] Item : Cleric Bronner’s Mystical Soap
Cleric Bronner’s Mystical Soap
Category: Gear
Price: 10 sp
Weight: 2 oz solid, 4 oz liquid
Description: Cleric Bronner’s Mysical Soap can remove almost any stain or scent. For one encounter after use, Cleric Bronner’s Mystical Soap grants a +2 Bonus against smells, stinks, or funks, or breath weapons.
No one is really sure where Cleric Bronner comes from, or where he goes to. All anyone knows is the Cleric Bronner spreads the gospel of his Mystical Soap in every dimension, creating monasteries dedicated to his “Moral Ac-Beorc-Cen” and the making of soaps. The soaps are of high quality, inexpensive for the common adventurer, and get out almost any stains or stenches (including the lich crotch musk so common to enchanted jockstraps).
As far as anyone knows, the soaps themselves are not magical, just made from a formula of the highest quality and secrecy. It is known that all ingredients are organic, fair trade, and natural, unlike many other soaps, which are made via conjuration and poaching.
The labels of the soaps also serve as an evangelical device – each label is printed with “highlights” of the “Moral Ac-Beorc-Cen”, although not a COMPLETE rendition of all it’s tenets. If anything, each variety of soap contains some fragment of this legendary moral guide, but no one has ever managed to piece it all together despite centuries of trying.
Here is a sample from the Wolfsbane Soap :
“3rd: For the University: A kelpie can only love its friend! Lacking frontal lobes, it must fear-smear-slay-slander-dominate-dictate-distort or devour anything it does not understand or disagrees with, that’s a kelpie! But a humanoid being knowing full-truth, the Kingdom of He Who Was’s Law, must teach friend & enemy the Moral Ac-Beorc-Cen to help unite all hunanoid-kind in our Eternal Creator’s great All-One-God-Faith, or that being is not yet Humanoid, a traitor to He Who Was’s Race!”
And a sample from the Greenbane Soap :
“Like a beacon breaking through dark clouds that pass; your deep embrace, your sensuous kiss, who else but He Who Was can make Love last 1 trillion years of sweet eternities! Who else but He Who Was! We are not true, while calculated calm controls us; blood flows near spirit in cold divided flame! Only love’s stormy passion, striking deep within us; can turn blood to spirit & spirit to blood, untamed! Spirit to blood, untamed!”
Consultation with the soap-making monks and nuns of Cleric Bronner’s Mystical Monistaries has resulted in the beleif that you have to be truely devoted and spend years studying (and inhaling soap fumes) to fully understand the Moral Ac-Beorc-Cen. But most of the Prime Material Planes are willing to accept that.
Because it’s REALLY good soap.
Available wherever adventuring gear is sold, in solid bars or vial of liquid, and in a variety of pleasing scents.
The iPad 3G review
So I’ve had my iPad for about a week and a half now. I think I’ve gotten enough use time out of it for a bit of a review. Overall : I like it. No, I love it. It goes where I go, it acts as an excellent remote terminal (issh, logmein, vnc all make this possible), it does me email (imap on one account, exchange on the other), calendar and address book are well done, and the apple esthetics are glorious. I’m actually using the wordpress app to write this review. I have, for the most part, stopped lugging around my MacBook Pro in favor of the iPad for most, if not all, of my daily computing needs. With pages, numbers, and keynote, I’m able to do most of my document viewing and editing on the fly. I have the VGA cable, and can project from it, which is very, very, cool. The 3G model I have let’s me get my stuff anywhere and damn near everywhere.
iBooks is AWESOME. I’ve loaded it up with ePub docs, and a few choice free selections from the iBookstore. And they eat kindle for breakfast, IMHO. I cannot wait for more publishers to support the ePub standard, or offer their books in the iBookstore.
My gripes are, for the most part, with the third party apps. I have Things and 1Password on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac. They sync to each other, so i can have the data wherever. However, they only sync if they are on the same local wifi with the Mac – the primary sync point. Minor complaint, but it means if I check something off on my phone, or add a password on my iPad, until I get all three devices together, it’s, well, out of sync. Now, if I add an address, it shows up everywhere no matter where I am, thanks to MobileMe. And I wonder – why don’t third party apps use something like WebDAV or iDisk or dropbox for this? Omnifocus does it with their iPhone and desktop apps, why not others (and I’d use omnifocus, but it isn’t iPad capable – yet).
Also, why are so many vendors bypassing the Universal app (i.e. Both ipad and iphone versions in one app) capability? Suggestion to developers : sell the iPhone only version for, say, $5, a Universal app for $15, instead of an iPhone only app for $5 and an iPad only app for $10. You still get your $15, I get one app that works properly on both – unlike having to look in iTunes to figure out which “AIM” is for the iPad, and which is for the iPhone. See those three remote admin apps up there, iPhone/iPad developers? UNIVERSAL. Cost a bit more than the iPhone or iPad only versions, but I’ll pay more for a single app that does both.
But that’s it for my gripes. From a user perspective, I am totally in love with this device, and cannot wait to get on the road this con season and do more with it.
Now I have a LOT of friends who gripe that it’s not an open platform, that the hardware isn’t accessible, that the os is locked down. And yes, all that is true. And I can say that in some ways, i’d like it better if the platform were more open in those areas. But I also see that as a good thing – when one company makes an exceptional device that’s closed, the community answers within a year or two with something better. Which means the closed vendor has to try harder and innovate more. Which pushes the community harder, etc., etc. Competition is good for everyone. And the challenge to the open platform community is this : build something better, that is more open, that will have me leaving this platform and not looking back.