My Bar Mitzvah was nothing like Elizabeth’s Bat Mitzvah. While I didn’t have Steven Tyler in attendance to sing with the band, my mother lent her talents to the stage, and it’s quite possible she sang an Aerosmith tune.
Month: November 2005
Ugly Dog Dies – More At Eleven
Some ugly dog died which, while sad, seems not really important enough to make the front page of CNN.com. However, I am wrong, and the poor, putrid pocch’s passing is apparently important enough.
Music On Load – A Rant In Three Parts
There was a bad web design trend around 1996 and 1997 that has since gone away, thankfully. There were many people who designed websites and decided that the user would be required to listen to music, usually annoying music, when the sites finished loading. Sometimes, there was no way to stop the music, but usually you had to press the Esc key or click the browser’s stop button.
Thankfully, this annoying “feature” fell out of favor. Unfortunately, however, it’s back in the form of MySpace profiles. I fcuking hate MySpace, the third most-visited site on the internet. It’s such a horrible website, poorly designed and programmed, it’s a miracle that its shoddiness hasn’t caused the site to crumble under its own increasing mass.
Of course, to appeal to the masses (and to cater to bands that are unsigned for a reason), MySpace lets users add music (and videos) to their profiles. This means that even if I’m not already listening to my own music while browsing, my experience will be completely interrupted. It is disgusting. Turn off the profile music and make it an option to start playing. Otherwise it is a horrible annoyance.
Of course the answer is to stop using MySpace. More and more people are using it as thier main form of online communication, so just giving it up is unfortunately not going to work for me. I’ll just deal with it until people realize that even the Netscape blink tag was less annoying than automatic music (especially automatic “bad” music).
They will. Eventually something much better will replace MySpace in the minds of the hordes that use it. I have faith. I have faith because if I didn’t, I might cry. :>
Potter and Plans
My brother and I caught the latest Harry Potter movie last night. It wasn’t too bad. There seem to be several movies I’d like to see over the next few months. I think it’s going to be a busy holiday season. Hopefully the plans that are still squishy will solidify a bit. I’m flying back to the “home area” on Friday and going into New York City on Saturday for Laura‘s birthday. I’ll finally make it home to Rupert on Sunday — then it’s back to work.
At some point, I’m supposed to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with Amy. That will be a first.
Paint on My Hands
There’s nothing like getting away for vacation and finding myself working. It’s not so bad. So far I’ve fixed up parts of a training website for my mom’s company so that it will also work as a standalone app from a CD-ROM and I’ve begun painting a room. At least it’s fun. I’ve also introduced my mother and B. to Arrested Development (the show) and they seem to think it’s great. I think we all tend to have a similar sense of humor.
Thanksgiving Time
I’m preparing for my traditional trip to California for Thanksgiving. Last year I found myself a bit depressed (not in the clinical sense) while out there. When I visit my family, I often find myself with time to reflect about my life and how it’s not progressing the way I had always hoped it would.
College
Should college be reformed? Here’s an interesting broad history of the undergraduate curriculum in the United States.
“Buddy List” Cleared
I had too many people on my instant messenger buddy list with whom I no longer talk or have since moved to new screen names, and I was pushing the 200 name limit. That signaled to me it was time for a fresh start, so now I’m working with a blank slate. Send me an instant message so I can add back in those who like talking to me. :>
Ben Folds and the Baltimore Symphony
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make Jen‘s birthday celebration this weekend — I had plans to go to Baltimore for a pretty special event, despite my wisdom teeth extraction. Ben Folds was performing with his piano as he normally does, but Saturday’s concert included a set of back-up musicians normally known as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Becca was kind enough to pick up tickets a while back for Amy and me, so the three of us plus Steve ventured from the D.C. area to Baltimore for the concert.
Obviously, the music was amazing. Some of the orchestrations were a little over the top; where Ben is usually somewhat subtle, the orchestra added a bit of “THIS PART IS SWEET! THIS PART IS SWEET! ARE YOU GETTING IT!” and “THIS PART IS LOUD AND IT ROCKS! THIS PART IS LOUD AND IT ROCKS! DID YOU CATCH THAT?” if you know what I mean. The classy setting didn’t deter Ben from his potty-mouthed behavior (for example, the “director’s cut” line from the minor-key version of Give Me My Money Back, “You fucking whore,” was happily included).
Somewhat relatedly, I was later taught the etymology of the description “upper crust.”
My favorite arrangement of the night was Narcolepsy, which included an opera singer, but the low note for me was the last encore, The Luckiest. Ben should have known to end the concert with a different song.
Unfortunately, from where we were sitting (orchestra right), the entire concert could have been mixed better. We were not in a direct path of a speaker, so the sound we were getting was a mix between the natural acoustics of the room and the reverberation of the amplified instruments against the balcony. That might have had something to do with the problem. I often couldn’t completely determine exactly what Ben was saying between songs and the music was muddled in general. I’m sure Darren could have fixed that right up. Otherwise, the seats were great and the concert was fantastic.
Surgery
Thanks to everyone who called or emailed to inquire about the surgery. Everything went well with the procedure from what I could tell, and apparently I was very talkative as I was coming out of sedation. At the time, I was under the impression that I had been awake for the whole thing, but that would be impossible. This is what did happen, to the best of my memory:
The anaesthesiologist or dentist’s helper (I’m not sure who was who) said they’d start me off with oxygen and laughing gas, so she placed a mask over my nose. I had been administered nitrous oxide before so I expected to begin slipping into sleep. However, I was staying blissfully aware of my surroundings. When she asked how I was feeling, I said I was fine, but still aware.
They inserted an IV into my arm and began feeing me what I believe was sugar-water. This, also, was doing nothing to calm me — I’m nervous around surgical equipment. The food was somewhat refreshing since I had been instructed not to eat or drink anything for eight hours prior to the appointed time for the surgery. At this time, I was informed that I’d be receiving the sedative intravenously.
The dentist came in and told me he was going to begin the drugs. Everything else is hazy, but I must have been somewhat aware of at least part of the operation, which is why I later told Amy that I had been awake for the whole thing.
The next thing I remember without a doubt is being in a different room — a hallway — on a bench, in the process of sitting up from a prone position, next to Amy. The dentist came by and shook my hand. Someone else was there to give me instructions for taking the various drugs (penicillin and hydrocodone bitartrate). Luckilly, Amy was more conscious than I at the time and was able to remember the instructions. I barely remember taking out my credit card to pay for the procedure. (Let’s hope it doesn’t take my insurance too long to reimburse me.)
Over the weekend, I have been gradually reintroducing “chewing” to my daily activities. I’m not fully there yet, but at least I haven’t had any kind of problems with the surgery yet — knock on wood. There’s still a slight possibility that something will go wrong with the stitching or I’ll get the dreaded dry socket. It does seem like everything is progressing normally, and at this point, there’s very little pain — just a mild uncomfortability that can be controlled with the drugs.
More about this “well-orchestrated” weekend later…