So in my last post I promised to tell you about Tinder- and now I will. Tinder, if you don't know, is a mobile app you use to "make friends"- aka get laid. Why did I use it then, given my current propensity to stay virgin until some necrophiliac digs up my skeleton? Well, long story short- I was at maccas on 10pm on a cold night, and my friend said to me, "you should get Tinder! It's so fun!". So I got Tinder, and it was pretty fun.
Tinder functions like this: you connect your Facebook account, and then choose a few profile pictures, write a short "about me", and off you go. You get shown the profiles of all the people around you, and then you can either swipe left for "no" or swipe right for "yes". Now it's all anonymous, but if both of you swipe "yes" then a conversation is started, and thus the hook up begins.
As you can clearly see, this app is quite shallow in nature, and though it is advertised use is for making friends and meeting new people for a fun conversation- you really kind of just look at people's profile pictures, find that they're attractive and hope that they'll talk back to you. It's essentially Omegle with a picture- and I swear if the picture wasn't there I'd be much more inclined to shit-talk everyone.
Tinder was kind of fun for the first hour or so, while I was on there. My self-esteem was overfilled and I now have 10+ matches, which basically means I've matched with everyone who I've said yes to. It's kind of an awesome feeling, not being rejected, but it kind of doesn't mean anything because it's fucking Tinder.
Anyway I haven't had any meaningful conversation with anyone on Tinder- people are kind of lame and I don't even know how this thing works as a hook up app. I guess some people don't really need shame and you can just take off your clothes and type "DTF" to everyone you match with. It's a novelty app, for sure, but in terms of value and sustained satisfaction it really has nothing to offer.
So my being on Tinder should give you some insight into my pitiful love-life at the moment. I kind of got rejected and kicked all the way to Mars by someone who I wasn't even dating during the holidays, so I was a bit grouchy and while I caught up with friends during that time, some encounters were not entirely satisfying. Not that it matters now, I guess. This is my second week back to school and already I've fallen behind in work. Except days crammed full of lectures are really hard for me- I think I have some sort of attention deficit disorder or something- it's increasingly hard to concentrate, and I seem to be distracted by even the smallest things.
Basically, the moral of this totally cool story is: don't be me, enjoy your life and try not to be rejected by everyone you like IRL and resort to Tinder for restoration of self-esteem.
Thursday, 31 July 2014
Monday, 28 July 2014
Cooling Fan
Alright- sorry for not posting. Been busy (sorta). Actually I wasn't that busy but my lectures ran for a crazy amount of hours and required me to wake at 8.30 every morning- which was all sorts of not-fun. It's kind of exhausting when you sit in one spot for ages, listening to this guy with a bunch of qualifications you don't understand drone on and on and on. Out of the 15ish lectures I've had this week- there was ONE lecturer who I liked. With the rest it was just kind of tragic.
So last night I was up late, trying to write tutorial notes again. These weekly tutorials are shortening my lifespan- I can feel it. When I woke up this morning at 7 it was miserably cold and I barely stayed awake during the tutorial anyway. When I had to give some sort of explanation or "participate", everything was remarkably hard and I had no idea wtf I was doing for most of the time.
Went shopping in the afternoon- spent money on a good deal of stuff, checked out some laptops in case my current one burned down. Also spent like $50 on a new cooling fan- I'm really hoping that it'll help my laptop- but I just ran a check on temperature and everything's still around 50 degrees, which is kind of not cool. On the bright side, if I ever get a new laptop, at least I'll have a relatively expensive cooling fan to go with that.
Uh yeah... not much has been happening on my end. I'm just kind of sleeping, playing piano and wasting time. Actually- I started using Tinder- I'll tell you about that in another post though.
So last night I was up late, trying to write tutorial notes again. These weekly tutorials are shortening my lifespan- I can feel it. When I woke up this morning at 7 it was miserably cold and I barely stayed awake during the tutorial anyway. When I had to give some sort of explanation or "participate", everything was remarkably hard and I had no idea wtf I was doing for most of the time.
Went shopping in the afternoon- spent money on a good deal of stuff, checked out some laptops in case my current one burned down. Also spent like $50 on a new cooling fan- I'm really hoping that it'll help my laptop- but I just ran a check on temperature and everything's still around 50 degrees, which is kind of not cool. On the bright side, if I ever get a new laptop, at least I'll have a relatively expensive cooling fan to go with that.
Uh yeah... not much has been happening on my end. I'm just kind of sleeping, playing piano and wasting time. Actually- I started using Tinder- I'll tell you about that in another post though.
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
School Again
First day of school already- yeyeyeye. The journey back was tiring, as usual, but I entertained myself with my phone and a book. I finally finished reading George Orwell's 1984- and I finally understand why people praise it so highly. It is legitimately one of the best things I've ever read- philosophically inspiring with a strange twist along the way. I understood the blatant political references right away- but there were so many goddamn layers to the story and everything was so much deeper than I expected.
One of the things that got me was the idea of "Big Brother". As I read along, I merely thought "Big Brother" was a reference to Stalin- a simple, one-dimensional reference. Then the major plot twist in the later chapters shattered the majority of my assumptions about the novel- and I realized "Big Brother" was the representation of the political ideology; it was also the meaning of life itself- the raison d'etre. Then I felt kind of ashamed that I didn't think about everything hard enough as I read, and only took things at face-value. At the same time I marvelled at Orwell's genius- not every author can write something which makes me think so hard and so much. Overall I wouldn't say the novel was very entertaining- it wasn't the sort of adventurous fantasy I enjoyed- but it's something you read for self-improvement as opposed to entertainment.
Anyway- my first day at school. We had a feedback session on the exams we did last term- all I drew from that was that I performed terribly. But hey, I don't care, I passed. Over the hour of feedback we had, I realized how many I've answered incorrectly, and I felt very sad about it. Of course I wish I did better- and this semester I'm going to try harder- but a lot of effort is required and it sucks that I have to think about this on my first day back. The more positive thing about today was how I realized I had friends at school after all, and we sat next to each other and conversed, and talked about working on a group assignment together.
I don't think this semester will be the worst semester yet.
One of the things that got me was the idea of "Big Brother". As I read along, I merely thought "Big Brother" was a reference to Stalin- a simple, one-dimensional reference. Then the major plot twist in the later chapters shattered the majority of my assumptions about the novel- and I realized "Big Brother" was the representation of the political ideology; it was also the meaning of life itself- the raison d'etre. Then I felt kind of ashamed that I didn't think about everything hard enough as I read, and only took things at face-value. At the same time I marvelled at Orwell's genius- not every author can write something which makes me think so hard and so much. Overall I wouldn't say the novel was very entertaining- it wasn't the sort of adventurous fantasy I enjoyed- but it's something you read for self-improvement as opposed to entertainment.
Anyway- my first day at school. We had a feedback session on the exams we did last term- all I drew from that was that I performed terribly. But hey, I don't care, I passed. Over the hour of feedback we had, I realized how many I've answered incorrectly, and I felt very sad about it. Of course I wish I did better- and this semester I'm going to try harder- but a lot of effort is required and it sucks that I have to think about this on my first day back. The more positive thing about today was how I realized I had friends at school after all, and we sat next to each other and conversed, and talked about working on a group assignment together.
I don't think this semester will be the worst semester yet.
Saturday, 19 July 2014
I hate p2w games
You may or may not know about how bankrupt I am. I had wisdom teeth surgery and it cost a tonne, and I swear I just need money for everything all at the same time. Basically my laptop is overheating, and I haven't quite gotten my hands on a cooling fan, so it's just shitting itself periodically. I prefer looking into buying a new laptop as opposed to getting this one fixed, because this laptop isn't particularly good anyway and I don't expect it to last me longer than 2-3 years. Which means I need money for a new laptop. Instead of buying another shitty laptop I'm thinking of investing in something decent around the $1500 price mark- that's literally more than double what I paid for my current laptop. I have the money for it- but I was going to use the money to buy a car.
Then apparently my teeth's fucked up enough that my dentist informed me I need to consult with an orthodontist, and the orthodontist advised on getting 10 thousand dollar braces for 2 years. That's like a year's worth of tuition, right there. Basically I'm at the stage where if I can pay for my braces I won't have a car for another 4 years, but if I get a car I'll be paranoid of messing up my teeth. Naturally teeth > car because the inconvenience of travel isn't nearly as bad as the inconvenience of having shitty teeth. It won't be any consolation that I can drive myself to the dentist's if my teeth start aching.
Yet something seems horribly wrong with the idea of taking out all my savings to put into ugly-as-shit braces, while dealing with an overheating laptop and not having a car. I seriously can't figure out what my priorities are. In any case- I'm planning to get braces on some time in September, and afterwards I'll probably look into getting my laptop in Christmas. I was hoping this laptop would last the entirety of my degree, but it probably won't.
Anyway, these recent events have driven me a little crazy, as all I can think about atm is money money money. Naturally I play games to try and distract myself, but I swear in every single fucking game I still get reminded of how poor I am right now. I couldn't play anything on my laptop because I managed to cap our data again- so I resorted to playing my DS. About 5min in I realized I didn't really want to play my DS, because I've lost all interest in the games. I go back to my iPad, and start playing one of my favourite rhythm games- Cytus. About 5 hours in I've managed to clear every single song on every single difficulty, managing at least 90% accuracy for each chapter. Then I see that I need about 6 dollars to unlock extra chapters- and the music sounds REALLY nice- but I didn't want to charge up any credit so I moved to a different rhythm game.
The other rhythm game I play has a competitive nature- you can battle other people online and you win based on streak and accuracy. I was battling this girl and for the first time ever I achieved 100% accuracy on a song (full streak), and I still lost even though her accuracy was 99.5%. Now 100% accuracy is really fucking hard because it means hitting about 600 notes right on the mark, consecutively. I realized the reason I'd lost was because the girl had a pet dragon, which boosts the base point value of every note by a certain percentage, and thus she beat me score-wise. I got really mad because the pet dragon alone costs like $20 and who the fuck pays $20 for a single dragon in a rhythm game.
So uh- yeah this is the story of how I got really pissed off while gaming because people could afford to drop money on virtual dragons while I'm stuck in the real world worry about money for the "big stuff" like orthodontics, car and tuition.
Then apparently my teeth's fucked up enough that my dentist informed me I need to consult with an orthodontist, and the orthodontist advised on getting 10 thousand dollar braces for 2 years. That's like a year's worth of tuition, right there. Basically I'm at the stage where if I can pay for my braces I won't have a car for another 4 years, but if I get a car I'll be paranoid of messing up my teeth. Naturally teeth > car because the inconvenience of travel isn't nearly as bad as the inconvenience of having shitty teeth. It won't be any consolation that I can drive myself to the dentist's if my teeth start aching.
Yet something seems horribly wrong with the idea of taking out all my savings to put into ugly-as-shit braces, while dealing with an overheating laptop and not having a car. I seriously can't figure out what my priorities are. In any case- I'm planning to get braces on some time in September, and afterwards I'll probably look into getting my laptop in Christmas. I was hoping this laptop would last the entirety of my degree, but it probably won't.
Anyway, these recent events have driven me a little crazy, as all I can think about atm is money money money. Naturally I play games to try and distract myself, but I swear in every single fucking game I still get reminded of how poor I am right now. I couldn't play anything on my laptop because I managed to cap our data again- so I resorted to playing my DS. About 5min in I realized I didn't really want to play my DS, because I've lost all interest in the games. I go back to my iPad, and start playing one of my favourite rhythm games- Cytus. About 5 hours in I've managed to clear every single song on every single difficulty, managing at least 90% accuracy for each chapter. Then I see that I need about 6 dollars to unlock extra chapters- and the music sounds REALLY nice- but I didn't want to charge up any credit so I moved to a different rhythm game.
The other rhythm game I play has a competitive nature- you can battle other people online and you win based on streak and accuracy. I was battling this girl and for the first time ever I achieved 100% accuracy on a song (full streak), and I still lost even though her accuracy was 99.5%. Now 100% accuracy is really fucking hard because it means hitting about 600 notes right on the mark, consecutively. I realized the reason I'd lost was because the girl had a pet dragon, which boosts the base point value of every note by a certain percentage, and thus she beat me score-wise. I got really mad because the pet dragon alone costs like $20 and who the fuck pays $20 for a single dragon in a rhythm game.
So uh- yeah this is the story of how I got really pissed off while gaming because people could afford to drop money on virtual dragons while I'm stuck in the real world worry about money for the "big stuff" like orthodontics, car and tuition.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
PASSSSSSS
So as I finishing breakfast I felt something getting stuck in my teeth. That's not uncommon, since I now have these gaping holes in my mouth where teeth used to be and I thought I'd got food stuck in there again. So I try to pull it out and then it stung a little, so I was like "damn this thing really wedged deep" and then I see that I've pulled out a piece of string, which means I just pulled apart my stitches. Go me.
Ok so there's only about a week's worth of holidays left, and I STILL feel like I haven't done anything. I've done roughly 10% of the reading I was supposed to do, I barely touched my xbox (which means I still have like, a million unplayed xbox games) and I don't feel like I've done that much gaming. That's probably mostly because my laptop is slowly burning down, and even though it's relatively new I'm looking at replacing it by the end of this year. Pro tip to everyone out there: NEVER BY HP. They're so cheap but goddamn they're so bad.
I finished watching the 2 seasons of Hannibal that's currently out, by the way. If you haven't heard of Hannibal, it's about this psychiatrist who the FBI consults, who later turns out to be a cannibalistic serial killer. The show is 100% gruesome and 200% trauma. After every episode I feel like I'm ready to go vegetarian or just straight up fast for a while. Despite all this, the plot is amazing, the 2 lead actors themselves are amazing, and every episode looks soooo cinematic. It's a quirky show, to be sure, and I would certainly agree it's not for everyone, but if you think you can handle a lot of gore then this one's definitely worth your time. Right now Hannibal is certainly up there in my list of favourite TV shows. The finale was so goddamn sad, I felt so bad for everyone involved.
Oh- to explain the title- I passed my course. Thank God I don't have to repeat- next term is meant to be much harder, but I'm not too stressed about that. I passed, after all. And I don't fucking care if I borderlined again or passed first in my class (though it'd really suck if I borderlined again), I'm just happy that I passed and I'm one step closer to attaining my degree and being useful to society.
Ok so there's only about a week's worth of holidays left, and I STILL feel like I haven't done anything. I've done roughly 10% of the reading I was supposed to do, I barely touched my xbox (which means I still have like, a million unplayed xbox games) and I don't feel like I've done that much gaming. That's probably mostly because my laptop is slowly burning down, and even though it's relatively new I'm looking at replacing it by the end of this year. Pro tip to everyone out there: NEVER BY HP. They're so cheap but goddamn they're so bad.
I finished watching the 2 seasons of Hannibal that's currently out, by the way. If you haven't heard of Hannibal, it's about this psychiatrist who the FBI consults, who later turns out to be a cannibalistic serial killer. The show is 100% gruesome and 200% trauma. After every episode I feel like I'm ready to go vegetarian or just straight up fast for a while. Despite all this, the plot is amazing, the 2 lead actors themselves are amazing, and every episode looks soooo cinematic. It's a quirky show, to be sure, and I would certainly agree it's not for everyone, but if you think you can handle a lot of gore then this one's definitely worth your time. Right now Hannibal is certainly up there in my list of favourite TV shows. The finale was so goddamn sad, I felt so bad for everyone involved.
Oh- to explain the title- I passed my course. Thank God I don't have to repeat- next term is meant to be much harder, but I'm not too stressed about that. I passed, after all. And I don't fucking care if I borderlined again or passed first in my class (though it'd really suck if I borderlined again), I'm just happy that I passed and I'm one step closer to attaining my degree and being useful to society.
Wednesday, 9 July 2014
The Pain is Real
So I said before I wasn't really taking any pain medication, because I wasn't feeling anything. It's been almost a week since surgery, and my pain has peaked in the last two days. It would just constantly ache and ache and I'm just like "wtf is wrong with me". Naturally I'm chugging down the maximum dose of paracetamol I can in one day- but if this goes on I'm gonna move up to the codeine because goddamn it hurts so bad.
Went to the dentist again yesterday, he said everything looked to be healing well and now I just need to see an orthodontist about braces. Fun stuff. I won't be able to do that for a looong time though, because orthodontists have really busy schedules, and I have to go to school so it's kind of annoying.
The weather's terrible today, so I can't really leave the house. I have a lot of spare time but my laptop burned down so I can't play LoL, and I don't think I feel like reading when I have to babysit my little sister. I spent like 4 hours drawing last night, and I realized how disproportionate everything was by the time I finished, so that was a shame. I kind of want to start drawing with paints again, but that always ends up a mess, and I don't think I have any good paper left.
Hrm, I guess I'm just sit here and suffer the pain.
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Goodbye Team
My holidays are getting shorter and shorter and I feel mildly concerned, because results are going to be released soon enough, and I'm not sure I'm ready to see them. I don't feel like I failed, but I didn't feel like I failed last year and I almost did, so feelings are no good in terms of predictions.
Since surgery I have been sitting around all day doing nothing, chugging antibiotics to prevent infections but not really taking any pain medication. Yeah, I haven't even opened my packet of codeine, and the paracetamol I took was for my cold before the surgery. I'm quite surprised by how little pain I've been experiencing- I don't think it's because I have a high pain-threshold, because I'm a fucking wuss when it comes to anything pain-related. Eating has been a real inconvenience- food keeps getting stuck every where, and chewing is a nightmare. It doesn't hurt if I just leave it alone, but when food jabs where my teeth used to be, or if I have to clench my jaw to bite, the ache is real.
Anyway, as of today my achievements are: finished watching a season of Free! and a season of No Game No Life- both of which are anime. Free! is actually pretty terrible in terms of storyline, but the characters are pure eye-candy and I didn't mind- the show was boring as hell for me, though. No Game No Life was more interesting in terms of story, I think it fell under the seinen category (more mature audience than shounen). I'll tell you what, the only difference between seinen and shounen is that shounen is about "friendship" and "teamwork", like, if you believe in things hard enough everything will work out. Seinen is more about how much ecchi can we possibly fit into one episode, like, the upskirts and the cleavage shots and w/e. Well, never mind, No Game No Life did do well because of those things, and it wasn't even a bad anime. Of course Sword Art Online (SAO) is in for a new season- I had a lot of negative comments about the old SAO, but despite that I'm still looking forward to season 2. My main problem with it was disappointment- it set me up for so much in the first few episodes and then it just turned into trash tier.
Speaking of trash-tier, that's where my LoL team landed themselves today. If you're not aware, I'm a huge fan of the North American LoL esports team, Cloud 9 (C9). I kind of got into LoL the same time C9 qualified for the championship series, so I've been watching them for about a year, and they've been my fav team since. As of this season, they've experienced some very, very heavy slumps and they've been losing quite a bit to some of the low-tier teams, while still trading blow-for-blow with the top-tier teams. This is kind of weird, because it shows that they ARE good enough to take out the good teams, but the way they lose to the lower-ranked teams is just completely baffling.
Today I woke up early(ish) to watch their match live, and it was like, the worst thing I've ever seen. C9 just got completely stomped and outplayed all over, and they did nothing for the entirety of the game. I can't believe I sat through almost 50 minutes of that shit. There were some points where I was hoping that C9 would make the epic come-back, but nothing happened and then the game just ended and I just--- like, wut. I'm pretty sad that they're slumping this hard, and they've been like this all season. I thought they'd get back to form in a week or two, but obviously not, and their games are really painful to watch.
Sadly because they're my fav team and I've been with them for so long, I'm still cheering for them. I don't think they'll make it into the world championships at this stage, given how hard they're slumping, but I really hope they do, because I don't really want to have to cheer for a Korean team at worlds (I don't like the Chinese teams or EU).
Since surgery I have been sitting around all day doing nothing, chugging antibiotics to prevent infections but not really taking any pain medication. Yeah, I haven't even opened my packet of codeine, and the paracetamol I took was for my cold before the surgery. I'm quite surprised by how little pain I've been experiencing- I don't think it's because I have a high pain-threshold, because I'm a fucking wuss when it comes to anything pain-related. Eating has been a real inconvenience- food keeps getting stuck every where, and chewing is a nightmare. It doesn't hurt if I just leave it alone, but when food jabs where my teeth used to be, or if I have to clench my jaw to bite, the ache is real.
Anyway, as of today my achievements are: finished watching a season of Free! and a season of No Game No Life- both of which are anime. Free! is actually pretty terrible in terms of storyline, but the characters are pure eye-candy and I didn't mind- the show was boring as hell for me, though. No Game No Life was more interesting in terms of story, I think it fell under the seinen category (more mature audience than shounen). I'll tell you what, the only difference between seinen and shounen is that shounen is about "friendship" and "teamwork", like, if you believe in things hard enough everything will work out. Seinen is more about how much ecchi can we possibly fit into one episode, like, the upskirts and the cleavage shots and w/e. Well, never mind, No Game No Life did do well because of those things, and it wasn't even a bad anime. Of course Sword Art Online (SAO) is in for a new season- I had a lot of negative comments about the old SAO, but despite that I'm still looking forward to season 2. My main problem with it was disappointment- it set me up for so much in the first few episodes and then it just turned into trash tier.
Speaking of trash-tier, that's where my LoL team landed themselves today. If you're not aware, I'm a huge fan of the North American LoL esports team, Cloud 9 (C9). I kind of got into LoL the same time C9 qualified for the championship series, so I've been watching them for about a year, and they've been my fav team since. As of this season, they've experienced some very, very heavy slumps and they've been losing quite a bit to some of the low-tier teams, while still trading blow-for-blow with the top-tier teams. This is kind of weird, because it shows that they ARE good enough to take out the good teams, but the way they lose to the lower-ranked teams is just completely baffling.
Today I woke up early(ish) to watch their match live, and it was like, the worst thing I've ever seen. C9 just got completely stomped and outplayed all over, and they did nothing for the entirety of the game. I can't believe I sat through almost 50 minutes of that shit. There were some points where I was hoping that C9 would make the epic come-back, but nothing happened and then the game just ended and I just--- like, wut. I'm pretty sad that they're slumping this hard, and they've been like this all season. I thought they'd get back to form in a week or two, but obviously not, and their games are really painful to watch.
Sadly because they're my fav team and I've been with them for so long, I'm still cheering for them. I don't think they'll make it into the world championships at this stage, given how hard they're slumping, but I really hope they do, because I don't really want to have to cheer for a Korean team at worlds (I don't like the Chinese teams or EU).
Friday, 4 July 2014
Surgical Extractions
Had surgery yesterday- was given fasting instructions, but some asshole in the house woke me up at ungodly times, yelling at me and giving me a lecture about being hypoglycaemic. Nobody appreciates being woken like that- and I was no exception. I was moody as fuck, leading up to the surgery- I drank one glass of milk and I wasn't even fucking hungry. Anyway I slept all the way up til 12, given my surgery was in an hour and a bit, and then during surgery I slept some more. Well, I kind of lost consciousness, but it was kind of like sleep because I remember dreaming.
Coming out of surgery- I had wisdom teeth extractions, in case you were wondering- the nurses offered me an icy pole. I declined the first time but accepted the second, out of boredom. It was kind of horrifying, the moment I took the icy pole out of my mouth, to see it stained with bloody mucous. Completely disgusting- but then I kept eating it because at least it was my own blood and mucous. My pain rating was roughly 0/10- but it was more the fact that I couldn't feel anything as opposed to not feeling pain, in particular. My mouth was numb, but everyone told me to drink more water- I was pretty scared of swallowing, though, because of how numb my tongue was. The worst feeling is having uncapsulated medication dissolve in your mouth, because you've failed to swallow 3-4 times.
I actually feel a lot better with the wisdom teeth out of my mouth. I'd been in pain since late January, when my wisdom teeth started growing. This one tooth just kept on getting infected over and over, and I took roughly 2 courses of antibiotics- the first one worked for about a week, the 2nd one not at all- and I kind of forgot to take my meds in the end, because I was leading up to test week. I had a look at what my dentist extracted- it was ugly as fuck. There was this one tooth which had a massive hole inside, and it looked like it was fragmented. Wonderful stuff.
Anyway I can now open my jaw and move my tongue, which means the anaesthetic has probably wore off. I still feel no pain, which is an excellent response, really. My cheek are not as inflamed as I imagined- my friends kept on asking for selfies post-surgery, probably wanting to see my puffy cheeks, but my body's unique inflammatory processes seemed to have denied them the satisfaction thus far.
I hope I'll be able to eat normal foods come Monday- I wanna go out by then, and look like my usual, handsome self.
Coming out of surgery- I had wisdom teeth extractions, in case you were wondering- the nurses offered me an icy pole. I declined the first time but accepted the second, out of boredom. It was kind of horrifying, the moment I took the icy pole out of my mouth, to see it stained with bloody mucous. Completely disgusting- but then I kept eating it because at least it was my own blood and mucous. My pain rating was roughly 0/10- but it was more the fact that I couldn't feel anything as opposed to not feeling pain, in particular. My mouth was numb, but everyone told me to drink more water- I was pretty scared of swallowing, though, because of how numb my tongue was. The worst feeling is having uncapsulated medication dissolve in your mouth, because you've failed to swallow 3-4 times.
I actually feel a lot better with the wisdom teeth out of my mouth. I'd been in pain since late January, when my wisdom teeth started growing. This one tooth just kept on getting infected over and over, and I took roughly 2 courses of antibiotics- the first one worked for about a week, the 2nd one not at all- and I kind of forgot to take my meds in the end, because I was leading up to test week. I had a look at what my dentist extracted- it was ugly as fuck. There was this one tooth which had a massive hole inside, and it looked like it was fragmented. Wonderful stuff.
Anyway I can now open my jaw and move my tongue, which means the anaesthetic has probably wore off. I still feel no pain, which is an excellent response, really. My cheek are not as inflamed as I imagined- my friends kept on asking for selfies post-surgery, probably wanting to see my puffy cheeks, but my body's unique inflammatory processes seemed to have denied them the satisfaction thus far.
I hope I'll be able to eat normal foods come Monday- I wanna go out by then, and look like my usual, handsome self.
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
The "Anti-vaxxer" and the "Flat-Earther"
Given a previous post I wrote regarding vaccinations, I think I make my stance on the matter perfectly clear: yes, vaccinate anyone who can be vaccinated. No, it's not the same as mass sterilization. God fucking damn. If you want to look at my education record, as well as the training I am currently undertaking, you could say that I've been brought up to understand the world from a scientific perspective. Of that, I am rather proud, because science makes a lot of sense to me. Not that we've found all the answers, but it just feels as if there is always a way- a way to explain how everything falls into place, and no piece of the puzzle gets left behind. I don't really feel the same way about religion.
So naturally you'd assume I'd grow up not believing in God- well, maybe it doesn't have to be God, but you'd think I wasn't religiously inclined, at all. That's not necessarily true in the way you think it's true, given my fascination with the concept of spirituality and philosophy and all that jazz. I'd consider myself agnostic- if that still means what I think it means. I don't like the concept of atheism, the same way I don't like the concept of becoming fanatically religious. There's something about absolutism that drives me insane- it's like... really uncomfortable.
Anyway, the scientific community is in a uproar, because there has been an immense outbreak of some vaccine-preventable disease, and the blame has fallen to the "anti-vaxxers". Firstly, I'd like to say that name-calling behaviour is childish, and it is very, very rude. Like, sure, the outbreak likely happened because someone wasn't vaccinated for whatever reason- accept that and move on! Why is blaming them afterwards useful, in any fucking way? I just think it would be far more productive, to examine the reason as to why they weren't vaccinated. Was it a lack of supplies? Was it a lack of education? What interfered with the circumstances, and what conditions were fulfilled so that the disease spread from one to another? I don't recall "find someone to blame" being a practical strategy in damage control. I'm reading these articles thinking: this has nothing to do with science or morality or health concerns- in its barest forms, it's politics. That is all I fucking see to it. Politics.
Then I keep browsing the internet and I come across shit like this: http://richarddawkins.net/2014/06/anti-vaxxer-and-flat-earther-fired-from-the-view/ and I'm pretty fucking mad. Yeah, I know who Richard Dawkins is. Yes, I read The God Delusion- and I'll tell you what- it was a good book. It was interesting to read, it was adamant in its stance and it did not allow for a shred of doubt or cynicism. That's why I praise it, and that's why I hated it, at the same time. The arguments seemed logical, for sure,but whether or not they are reasonable, I think is up for debate. I also don't understand why religion and science cannot coexist. Sure if you're a strict Bible-lover (word for word, everything literal) it was never going to work out, so we'll give up on that, but if one simply pines for the existence of a higher order, I don't think that necessarily leaves one devoid of all sense and reason.
Now it was the caption to that article which pissed me off, hard. Taken from their Facebook page as of today, I have: "It was announced Thursday that Jenny McCarthy, who thinks vaccines cause autism, and Sherri Shepherd, who once questioned the shape of the Earth, were fired from The View." Like, alright, fine. Two people got fired. But I'll tell you what, she's probably not the only one who thinks vaccines cause autism, and we shouldn't write people off like that, even if it's far too easy for us to say those people are ignorant or blatantly-retarded. Well, I don't know her personally. She COULD be blatantly retarded, for all I know. That's not the problem. The problems lies in the fact that, people have very real fears, and the fear is that vaccines cause autism. They don't. The fear is ridiculous. But if you believed in it, what kind of monster would you have to be, to want to give your children a dose of autism? Nobody wants to do that, nobody wants to risk that- the study have not supported the link at all- but do you think people want to read studies? Do they want to study statistical significance and distributions and to go back to the maths they've forgotten since year 12- if they got up to year 12? Hell, even I don't want to do that. What people need is greater media exposure to the EVIDENCE, explanations. Nobody responds nicely to insults like "anti-vaxxers are so dumb, wtf".
As for the second part- "Sherri Shepherd, who once questioned the shape of the Earth". Well, fuck you, I, too, also questioned the shape of the Earth, ONCE UPON A TIME. Maybe our Earth depended on the shell of a giant turtle supported by elephants- I didn't know, until someone told me the Earth was round and orbited the Sun, and that's how we derive the concept of days, months and seasons. So what am I, a "turtle-Earther" now? Fucking hell.
So naturally you'd assume I'd grow up not believing in God- well, maybe it doesn't have to be God, but you'd think I wasn't religiously inclined, at all. That's not necessarily true in the way you think it's true, given my fascination with the concept of spirituality and philosophy and all that jazz. I'd consider myself agnostic- if that still means what I think it means. I don't like the concept of atheism, the same way I don't like the concept of becoming fanatically religious. There's something about absolutism that drives me insane- it's like... really uncomfortable.
Anyway, the scientific community is in a uproar, because there has been an immense outbreak of some vaccine-preventable disease, and the blame has fallen to the "anti-vaxxers". Firstly, I'd like to say that name-calling behaviour is childish, and it is very, very rude. Like, sure, the outbreak likely happened because someone wasn't vaccinated for whatever reason- accept that and move on! Why is blaming them afterwards useful, in any fucking way? I just think it would be far more productive, to examine the reason as to why they weren't vaccinated. Was it a lack of supplies? Was it a lack of education? What interfered with the circumstances, and what conditions were fulfilled so that the disease spread from one to another? I don't recall "find someone to blame" being a practical strategy in damage control. I'm reading these articles thinking: this has nothing to do with science or morality or health concerns- in its barest forms, it's politics. That is all I fucking see to it. Politics.
Then I keep browsing the internet and I come across shit like this: http://richarddawkins.net/2014/06/anti-vaxxer-and-flat-earther-fired-from-the-view/ and I'm pretty fucking mad. Yeah, I know who Richard Dawkins is. Yes, I read The God Delusion- and I'll tell you what- it was a good book. It was interesting to read, it was adamant in its stance and it did not allow for a shred of doubt or cynicism. That's why I praise it, and that's why I hated it, at the same time. The arguments seemed logical, for sure,but whether or not they are reasonable, I think is up for debate. I also don't understand why religion and science cannot coexist. Sure if you're a strict Bible-lover (word for word, everything literal) it was never going to work out, so we'll give up on that, but if one simply pines for the existence of a higher order, I don't think that necessarily leaves one devoid of all sense and reason.
Now it was the caption to that article which pissed me off, hard. Taken from their Facebook page as of today, I have: "It was announced Thursday that Jenny McCarthy, who thinks vaccines cause autism, and Sherri Shepherd, who once questioned the shape of the Earth, were fired from The View." Like, alright, fine. Two people got fired. But I'll tell you what, she's probably not the only one who thinks vaccines cause autism, and we shouldn't write people off like that, even if it's far too easy for us to say those people are ignorant or blatantly-retarded. Well, I don't know her personally. She COULD be blatantly retarded, for all I know. That's not the problem. The problems lies in the fact that, people have very real fears, and the fear is that vaccines cause autism. They don't. The fear is ridiculous. But if you believed in it, what kind of monster would you have to be, to want to give your children a dose of autism? Nobody wants to do that, nobody wants to risk that- the study have not supported the link at all- but do you think people want to read studies? Do they want to study statistical significance and distributions and to go back to the maths they've forgotten since year 12- if they got up to year 12? Hell, even I don't want to do that. What people need is greater media exposure to the EVIDENCE, explanations. Nobody responds nicely to insults like "anti-vaxxers are so dumb, wtf".
As for the second part- "Sherri Shepherd, who once questioned the shape of the Earth". Well, fuck you, I, too, also questioned the shape of the Earth, ONCE UPON A TIME. Maybe our Earth depended on the shell of a giant turtle supported by elephants- I didn't know, until someone told me the Earth was round and orbited the Sun, and that's how we derive the concept of days, months and seasons. So what am I, a "turtle-Earther" now? Fucking hell.
Alright alright, I'm done venting. Going to wrap up my rant now. People are stupid, I know. I complain about the same thing too often. Except recognizing faults in others doesn't lead to self-improvement, and it won't necessarily lead to the most efficient or useful solution. Regardless of what other people do, and how hard it is for us; slowly, we learn. We learn to forgive, we learn to tolerate, and we learn to be kind.
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