Oh boy, what a way to start the weekend! Nothing like a major dentist appointment at 9AM sharp. It was an... Interesting experience. There I sat for more than an hour, as two rather attractive women stared oh-so-intently at my gaping mouth. I was semi-blinded by the overhead lamp while they proceeded to play with all sorts of power tools and gadgets that made funny noises. And there I sat, with a limp mouth, while all I could see were these terror instruments going into my mouth and coming back out looking not as pretty. Oh, and just to spice it up they threw in some cotton, gel stuff and UV rays that came from a device you could swear came from a 1950's sci-fi ray gun. Some highlights included:
-It was quite interesting when the put my mouth "to sleep". They put some gel stuff on my gums which numbed it a bit, and they went ahead and put a nasty looking needle in my gums while they injected some wondeful substance. It didn't really hurt, but inside I was freaking out because I had a large syringe sticking into my mouth. The sensation that followed was quite intriguing, though. It was really neat to sit while my mouth slowly froze and started to feel like... A frozen banana. Why a frozen banada? I couldn't tell you. Kinda cold, kinda stiff/hard, and yet a bit spongy.
-At one point they put yet another tool into my mouth and moke coming out. The lady apologized, saying it smelled bad. That's not what concerned me - there was smoke coming from my mouth. SMOKE FROM MY MOUTH.
-At one point they were temporarily placing little needles with plastic, multicoloured tips into my tooth. I couldn't feel it, but I sure heard it when the first one went TWANGGGG. I had to try so hard not to laugh. That's the last sound I expected to come from my mouth. Y'know like the smoke.
-I think those little needles were detectors of some kind, because shortly after they went in a machine on the table would beep. One beep, two beeps, high pitched beep, low pitched beep. She was playing music on my teeth! I felt like a human xylophone.
Had I actually been in pain, all of this might have qualified as some kind of torture scene from James Bond. But no, not only was my mouth frozen so I couldn't feel it but I paid for it. Yup, that's right. $474.00 to be exact. There are a million different things I'd rather blow $474 on, but no. Instead I spent a third of a month's wages so the dentist could tinker around in my mouth with various power tools while making smoke and electronic beep music.
Although, it really makes me wonder what it actually cost to have the whole thing done, especially if the staff get paid as much as I do. Okay, let's double the wage to $20/hr, for two people, for two hours - That's $80. Lets further assume that the half-swab cotton they used came from mythical unicorn creature that lives in rainbows and eats stars for breakfast. Another $100. And... We'll say that that they needed to sterilize the other tools they used - $50. That's $230, almost half of what I actually paid. Which means one of two things - Either dentists get paid really freakin' well (which is most likely) or 90% of the tools they used are disposable and need to be replaced. *Sigh* Almost $500 out the door for an hour and a half (ish) appointment. Screw graphic arts, maybe I need to be a dentist. So I can make teeth music, stick needles in gums, and make smoke come out of people's mouths.
-Cril
I had enough and you're going down
(Shut your mouth)
What comes around you know goes around
(Shut your mouth)
You're getting what your ego deserves
(Shut your mouth)
What comes around you know goes around
Pain - Shut Your Mouth
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Milk, muffins, and a BELT
^ That was my shopping list for today. I should've done it on Friday when I cashed my paycheck, but I completely forgot that and my income tax returns. Oh well. But go figure - There were no belts to be had in Superstore. Sure, they carry every other clothing item you can think of, but no belts to be had. So I had to drive across the parking lot to Mark's Work Warehouse to get one. Normally I'm not that lazy, but it's snowing out. Yes, snow. On the May long weekend. If ever anyone has doubt to whether or not God has a sense of humour, look no farther than Calgary weather. And the platypus.
Anyways, I realize I've broken my rule of posting at least once a week. That past week, nay MONTH has been some sort of wonderful variation of "going to hell in a handbasket" for the entire company. I think I've put in at least a small bit of OT every day for the past month, with a bit of weekend work mixed in. Large orders, an in-town convention, prepping for a very very out of town convention, and finishing it all off with a grand finale of "Chris being in charge of the office for the remainder of the week because he's supposedly the best trained and senior employee to do the job even though he doesn't feel like he knows what he's doing".
Yeah, it was just as scary as it sounds. A lot of "Unfortuneatly, ___ is at a convention right now, and will not be back until Tuesday/the following Monday. May I take a message, or would you like to call back then?" Not a lot of people left messages. From there, I completely winged it on a few FedEx documents, took some phone orders, and generally spent most of my time at the order desk HOPING I was entering each purchase in properly. Sure, I'm technically trained to do all of that - but I can't say the confidence is all there. One thing's for sure, though, I now have a LOT more respect for the people who normally man the order desk. It was really difficult to get so much stuff done while you get interrupted with other requests for things.
But it's all over now! I'm back to being a lowly grunt! Huzzah! Well, that better be the case Eric & Becky are supposedly coming back today, so they'll be at work tomorrow. Tuesday is going to be NASTY with just three of us there.
It looks like all the TV shows I watch are coming to their season finale, if they already haven't. BSG was great, Scrubs sucks and is getting quite stale, Airbender was awesome, Heroes looks to be a blast (just like the entire series thusfar), and Lost is... A "special" case. I don't know what to think after the whole Jacob episode. It was a good, engaging show but dipping into the paranormal takes part of the fun out of the series. I guess deep down I was hoping for some semi-logical, crazy-go-nuts science experiment answer to everything. Now that they're bringing ghosts into the mix, it makes an easy scapegoat for all the other bizzare mysteries. Oh, and then there was The Office. Which ROCKED. The ending was absolutely *priceless*. The look Ryan gave the camera at the very last second was too perfect.
I guess now that the shows are coming to the end of the season, it'll leave me with a few extra hours over the course of the week. "Great!" I tell myself, "Now I can get more drawing/Photoshop work done!" What it probably means is more time spent messing around on the internet, searching the deep, ugly depths of Digg to occupy myself.
What else... OH! Starcraft 2, of course. I'm stoked for that, even though I probably won't get my grubby little hands on it for another year or two. It looks so great, but I'm sure it's still a long ways off. I just hope they pickup with the story - That was my favourite aspect of Starcraft. I'm a sucker for good video game storytelling, and SC is probably the best I've ever had.
I've been getting a bit of travel out of that bike I got. I put a bell and some mudguards on it. I've gone to work a couple of times, and this weekend I took it exploring around the community here. Some on road, a bit more off road. The hills and dirt out back is really fun to ride around on, but it really makes me realize how much I took my bike with dual-suspension for granted.
Anyways, should get going to do something semi-productive. I'd still like to get the house decently cleaned for when the aunt and uncle get back. I've done a bit of tidying already, but there's still a bit to do yet. I got my room cleaned and all my laundry washed, though. I think I'll go and draw something... I've played a bit too much BF2142 with Frank over the weekend to justify more gaming.
Oh, and a closing note - Next weekend I get to go for a happy-fun-root-canal of doom. Oh joy.
-Cril
Link, he come to town
Come to save the Princess Zelda
Ganon took her away
Now the children don't play
But they will when Link saves the day
Hallelujah!
Now Link, fill up your hearts
So you can shoot your sword with power
And when you're feeling all down
The fairy will come around
So you'll be brave, and not a sissy coward
The Rabbit Joint - The Legend of Zelda
Anyways, I realize I've broken my rule of posting at least once a week. That past week, nay MONTH has been some sort of wonderful variation of "going to hell in a handbasket" for the entire company. I think I've put in at least a small bit of OT every day for the past month, with a bit of weekend work mixed in. Large orders, an in-town convention, prepping for a very very out of town convention, and finishing it all off with a grand finale of "Chris being in charge of the office for the remainder of the week because he's supposedly the best trained and senior employee to do the job even though he doesn't feel like he knows what he's doing".
Yeah, it was just as scary as it sounds. A lot of "Unfortuneatly, ___ is at a convention right now, and will not be back until Tuesday/the following Monday. May I take a message, or would you like to call back then?" Not a lot of people left messages. From there, I completely winged it on a few FedEx documents, took some phone orders, and generally spent most of my time at the order desk HOPING I was entering each purchase in properly. Sure, I'm technically trained to do all of that - but I can't say the confidence is all there. One thing's for sure, though, I now have a LOT more respect for the people who normally man the order desk. It was really difficult to get so much stuff done while you get interrupted with other requests for things.
But it's all over now! I'm back to being a lowly grunt! Huzzah! Well, that better be the case Eric & Becky are supposedly coming back today, so they'll be at work tomorrow. Tuesday is going to be NASTY with just three of us there.
It looks like all the TV shows I watch are coming to their season finale, if they already haven't. BSG was great, Scrubs sucks and is getting quite stale, Airbender was awesome, Heroes looks to be a blast (just like the entire series thusfar), and Lost is... A "special" case. I don't know what to think after the whole Jacob episode. It was a good, engaging show but dipping into the paranormal takes part of the fun out of the series. I guess deep down I was hoping for some semi-logical, crazy-go-nuts science experiment answer to everything. Now that they're bringing ghosts into the mix, it makes an easy scapegoat for all the other bizzare mysteries. Oh, and then there was The Office. Which ROCKED. The ending was absolutely *priceless*. The look Ryan gave the camera at the very last second was too perfect.
I guess now that the shows are coming to the end of the season, it'll leave me with a few extra hours over the course of the week. "Great!" I tell myself, "Now I can get more drawing/Photoshop work done!" What it probably means is more time spent messing around on the internet, searching the deep, ugly depths of Digg to occupy myself.
What else... OH! Starcraft 2, of course. I'm stoked for that, even though I probably won't get my grubby little hands on it for another year or two. It looks so great, but I'm sure it's still a long ways off. I just hope they pickup with the story - That was my favourite aspect of Starcraft. I'm a sucker for good video game storytelling, and SC is probably the best I've ever had.
I've been getting a bit of travel out of that bike I got. I put a bell and some mudguards on it. I've gone to work a couple of times, and this weekend I took it exploring around the community here. Some on road, a bit more off road. The hills and dirt out back is really fun to ride around on, but it really makes me realize how much I took my bike with dual-suspension for granted.
Anyways, should get going to do something semi-productive. I'd still like to get the house decently cleaned for when the aunt and uncle get back. I've done a bit of tidying already, but there's still a bit to do yet. I got my room cleaned and all my laundry washed, though. I think I'll go and draw something... I've played a bit too much BF2142 with Frank over the weekend to justify more gaming.
Oh, and a closing note - Next weekend I get to go for a happy-fun-root-canal of doom. Oh joy.
-Cril
Link, he come to town
Come to save the Princess Zelda
Ganon took her away
Now the children don't play
But they will when Link saves the day
Hallelujah!
Now Link, fill up your hearts
So you can shoot your sword with power
And when you're feeling all down
The fairy will come around
So you'll be brave, and not a sissy coward
The Rabbit Joint - The Legend of Zelda
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Crash and BURN
I got a bike from the neighbour for a whopping $40. It's nothing special, a fixed-frame mountain bike with 16 gears or whatever. But with gas prices threatening to hit $1.40 this summer I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a bike commuting in addition to exercise. That, and I can hopefully beat Dave in the time it takes to bike to/from the office. I spent roughly 1/10th of what he has for a bike setup. I sure do miss my dual-suspension bike at home though...
Oh man, what a week at work. We practically spent the last five days doing nothing but the huge distributor order. We barely squeezed in enough time to do the day-to-day orders. Heck, I even had to get an extension on the ad that was SUPPOSED to be due on Friday. Buy boy, was yesterday hectic. The whole day was spent running back and forth, and we didn't even make the FedEx pickup. Pure insanity. But the dinner afterwards was nice. We were all so fried that we were making dumb jokes and having a good time.
On a side note, though, we had a really cute waitress. She was attractive and smart and funny. She's two years into some kinda biological-something course to get her into medicine. Talk about a job that doesn't meet her full potential. Don't get me wrong - she was an awesome waitress. You'd just figure she's capable of so much more. The scary thing is that she said she's almost 20. Makes me wonder where I'd be if I had gone right into college after high school. I'm pretty confident I've done the right thing by taking time off to work though. I think of found a bit more direction for my life over the past two years. Not that I have anything really figured out, but it's direction nonetheless. But back to the point: Cute waitress. I should've tried hitting her. But I didn't
Some days I just wish I wasn't so comfortable in this shell I've made for myself.
-Cril
February 5th, Friday morning, purple dawn
Broke a yawn, as a I stepped through the fog, like I stepped to a song
A moment like a poem, you wish you could hold it
I shut my eyes like it's frozen, it's gone when I open
It slipped passed the clouds right there where it lingered
Like your band and a girl could slip through your fingers
Mat Kearney - Undeniable
Oh man, what a week at work. We practically spent the last five days doing nothing but the huge distributor order. We barely squeezed in enough time to do the day-to-day orders. Heck, I even had to get an extension on the ad that was SUPPOSED to be due on Friday. Buy boy, was yesterday hectic. The whole day was spent running back and forth, and we didn't even make the FedEx pickup. Pure insanity. But the dinner afterwards was nice. We were all so fried that we were making dumb jokes and having a good time.
On a side note, though, we had a really cute waitress. She was attractive and smart and funny. She's two years into some kinda biological-something course to get her into medicine. Talk about a job that doesn't meet her full potential. Don't get me wrong - she was an awesome waitress. You'd just figure she's capable of so much more. The scary thing is that she said she's almost 20. Makes me wonder where I'd be if I had gone right into college after high school. I'm pretty confident I've done the right thing by taking time off to work though. I think of found a bit more direction for my life over the past two years. Not that I have anything really figured out, but it's direction nonetheless. But back to the point: Cute waitress. I should've tried hitting her. But I didn't
Some days I just wish I wasn't so comfortable in this shell I've made for myself.
-Cril
February 5th, Friday morning, purple dawn
Broke a yawn, as a I stepped through the fog, like I stepped to a song
A moment like a poem, you wish you could hold it
I shut my eyes like it's frozen, it's gone when I open
It slipped passed the clouds right there where it lingered
Like your band and a girl could slip through your fingers
Mat Kearney - Undeniable
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