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GODDAMMIT!

I just bought a Nikon D60 DSLR camera and two lenses; a Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm and 55-200mm. It’s a nice camera, and is a good entry-level DSLR. Now, I was super-excited about this. So of course, what’s the first thing that happens when I go out for a stroll to test it out? The fucking strap comes undone and it crashes to the ground! Now, it still appears to be working, but my 18-55 lens is all jacked up now. It jiggles; not much, but if it jiggles slightly while I’m composing at 40mm or higher it actually screws up the focus. So goddamnit, that figures, right?

I can probably work around it. Like I said, the camera body doesn’t seem to be damaged and the lens is still usable. I’ll probably buy a (higher quality) wide-angle lens eventually, or alternatively, an adapter so I use all my old K-mount lenses (if I still have them). Oh, and I refastened the strap and triple-fucking-checked that it won’t come undone again.

Wisdom Teeth Story

I wrote a nice long email to (my friend) Natasha about getting my wisdom teeth removed. The attempt failed, here’s the story (taken from the above mentioned email).

My dental horror story.

I went in for a relatively run-of-the-mill procedure; getting my three remaining wisdom teeth removed. My wisdom teeth weren’t impacted, or strangely situated or anything like that. They were coming in at a 45 degree angle and pushing into the teeth in front of them, which was causing some potential decay issues with the teeth they were leaning on. Not a big deal.

So I arrive good-and-slightly late. A guy I know from the math department was also in the lobby, apparently waiting for a check-up and cleaning. Then I get called back to the room, and wait for the doctor to numb me up. The waiting is the worst part, really. I’m not a wuss when it comes to dentists. I mean, when I had my previous two teeth pulled, I grinned and bore it as best I could. The long needles don’t scare me, and as uncomfortable as it is, I can bear most of it.

So I was ready when he started working on my first wisdom tooth, back right. I could kinda see what he was doing in the reflection on his glasses, and he was slicing my gums to get at the roots. Makes sense; so there’s a lot of scooping, some tugging, and some prying. All’s fine, until I realize he’s still going. And going. Then he switches instruments, starts tugging more and more. Then pushing down, jerking my jaw around, and I’m thinking “oh God, what the fuck is he doing?” For ten full minutes he goes on, cracking and scraping and scooping like he’s trying to unhinge my jaw. Finally, I hear a real loud *CRACK* and see him drop something on my blood-splattered dental bib. I’m exhausted and ask “is it out?” the assistant informs me “no. You have some real tough roots in there”. Apparently he had only managed to break of the top of the tooth; the roots were too long and curved, they told me, to get out easily.

The next thirty or so minutes was the same, only with a bonesaw added to the toolkit! I could see blood and bits of bone and teeth splattered on his mask and my dental bib. I could feel him digging real deep into my jaw trying to dig out roots, slicing away more and more gum and cheek. Every ten minutes or so he’d stop to take a new x-ray and check how much more root he managed to extract. All the while jerking and tugging, applying pressure to my jaw and all-around torturing me.

After nearly an hour (I think, I wasn’t actually timing but I DO know that he used almost the entire scheduled time for just one tooth) he finished the one tooth. He decided to look more carefully at my x-rays, and decided that the other bottom one would be better left to a surgeon. He re-numbed the top teeth, popped out the top wisdom tooth in 30 seconds, and gave me a referral to an oral surgeon.

On the upside he gave me plenty of painkillers and a day off.

Wisdom Teeth Story

I wrote a nice long email to (my friend) Natasha about getting my wisdom teeth removed. The attempt failed, here’s the story (taken from the above mentioned email).

My dental horror story.

I went in for a relatively run-of-the-mill procedure; getting my three remaining wisdom teeth removed. My wisdom teeth weren’t impacted, or strangely situated or anything like that. They were coming in at a 45 degree angle and pushing into the teeth in front of them, which was causing some potential decay issues with the teeth they were leaning on. Not a big deal.

So I arrive good-and-slightly late. A guy I know from the math department was also in the lobby, apparently waiting for a check-up and cleaning. Then I get called back to the room, and wait for the doctor to numb me up. The waiting is the worst part, really. I’m not a wuss when it comes to dentists. I mean, when I had my previous two teeth pulled, I grinned and bore it as best I could. The long needles don’t scare me, and as uncomfortable as it is, I can bear most of it.

So I was ready when he started working on my first wisdom tooth, back right. I could kinda see what he was doing in the reflection on his glasses, and he was slicing my gums to get at the roots. Makes sense; so there’s a lot of scooping, some tugging, and some prying. All’s fine, until I realize he’s still going. And going. Then he switches instruments, starts tugging more and more. Then pushing down, jerking my jaw around, and I’m thinking “oh God, what the fuck is he doing?” For ten full minutes he goes on, cracking and scraping and scooping like he’s trying to unhinge my jaw. Finally, I hear a real loud *CRACK* and see him drop something on my blood-splattered dental bib. I’m exhausted and ask “is it out?” the assistant informs me “no. You have some real tough roots in there”. Apparently he had only managed to break of the top of the tooth; the roots were too long and curved, they told me, to get out easily.

The next thirty or so minutes was the same, only with a bonesaw added to the toolkit! I could see blood and bits of bone and teeth splattered on his mask and my dental bib. I could feel him digging real deep into my jaw trying to dig out roots, slicing away more and more gum and cheek. Every ten minutes or so he’d stop to take a new x-ray and check how much more root he managed to extract. All the while jerking and tugging, applying pressure to my jaw and all-around torturing me.

After nearly an hour (I think, I wasn’t actually timing but I DO know that he used almost the entire scheduled time for just one tooth) he finished the one tooth. He decided to look more carefully at my x-rays, and decided that the other bottom one would be better left to a surgeon. He re-numbed the top teeth, popped out the top wisdom tooth in 30 seconds, and gave me a referral to an oral surgeon.

On the upside he gave me plenty of painkillers and a day off.

holding pattern

I’ve been trying hard to find something to write about, but with the election over and my peace on prop 8 said, I’m out of luck. One week, though, and I’ll have something up. Hell, maybe it’ll be interesting. No promises on this end, though.

uncanny valley

uncanny valley

…and one more thing.

Equality Action Now if you want to help the effort to undo Prop 8.

So I’m going to a gay rights protest…[now with pictures!]

You probably have all heard about Prop 8 in California which bans same sex marriage in the state which really is the bellwether for gay progress in America. Pundits across the board have opined one way or another about the contradictory message from this election: we can elect a black man president on a center-left ticket but still won’t acknowledge gays and lesbians as equally protected under the law. Much to my chagrin the media is largely (and according to statistics, accurately) blaming the large black turnout. This is what distresses me most.

To be clear, I am not gay but feel very strongly about this issue. My take is this: the main reason Prop 8 passed is that it was not framed as a civil rights issue. Prop 8 supporters talked up “homosexual agendas”, “protect the children because they’ll teach them homosexuality in school” and “they’ll take away your religious right to hate the gays”. All bullshit of course and quickly retorted against by senator Feinstein, the Governator, and even our president-elect Barack Obama.

The reason this is so dangerous is the one thing that was not emphasized by either side: Prop 8 takes away rights that the California Supreme Court decided gays had under the state constitution. The state Supreme court didn’t “force” gay marriage on anyone; it simply said that the constitution protects cerrtain fundamental rights of citizens, and gays fall under that protected class. This needs to be emphasized: Prop 8 takes away existing rights of citizens at the whim of a prejudiced majority. That is not a precedent that should be set, anywhere, especially in California. Of course California was just one of four states to have some anti-gay measure or another pass, but still-this is California. How could this happen here?

I expect it will be a long fight ahead to overturn this crap. Gay rights advocates have hopefully learned a valuable lesson about framing this issue as well as getting support quickly and early. But the mark of a great civil rights struggle, of course, is the lengths to which its supporters go for their cause and their unwillingness to give up, even in the face of such a devastating defeat. To that end, I think I can spare a couple of hours from my Sunday afternoon to help them out.

In the unlikely event you’re actually in the Sacramento area and want to drop by, the rally starts at 1 PM this afternoon at the capitol. No more details than that; I’m getting a riding along with friend . I’m also going to take pictures and post them if anyone’s interested. Wait, who actually reads this?

Yes We Carve

Found this on HuffPo.

Yes We Carve

My election obsession is too much now. I haven’t done any real work in two weeks, I check my reader feeds every 20 minutes, I check Intrade and 538 about once an hour. I thought I’d do better if I left my computer at home, but nope-I just use my officemates. And with less than two weeks left I’m likely to freak out even more. The only thing keeping me from volunteering for the Obama campaign is the fact I have too little “time” to really devote to it, and I doubt my adviser would approve.