Binarynomad

So this past Tuesday, I took shot at one of my phobias. I went to a new dentist to look at my problem teeth. To help put this in perspective, let me give you some quick flashes of my psyche in regards to dentists.

1) I HATE NEEDLES! (a lot) 2) I have had a number of (bad) dentist experiences when I was little 3) After braving 3-4 fillings in a year, I come to find (from a different dentist) that they were all defective. 4) In avoiding dentists over the last 5 years, I have had 2 fillings fall out in the last 12 months.. 5) My responsible self is now dragging me (kicking and screaming) to a dentist before it gets worse

So a friend of mine (at OpenTV) who also had problems with dentists had to go in for some work. He found one of those “Sedative Dentists” and told me of this wonderful experience where he took a pill and remembered going into the office and then remembered leaving, but almost nothing in between. (NOTHING!) ….. WOOT! He said they were able to accomplish work that would have taken 4-5 visits in that one, and it was a pleasant experience. (sign me up).

Now his dentist is in the Mountain View area, too far for me, so I started searching around. After a while I finally found one in Montclare/Oakland Hills. I visited him on Tuesday (Sept 13th, of all days) and was surprised to find that my teeth were not as bad as I thought. Yes, the one that lost the filling about a year ago was on the teetering edge of needing a root canal but otherwise my teeth were surprisingly strong.

So we talked about the work (a bit), about the different sedative options (nitrous, valium, triazolam) and I opted for the triazolam (I wanted the added possibility of light amnesia). So I have now been scheduled for next Friday (Sept 23rd) for my $2000 worth of work.

Wish me luck…

Yesterday wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I actually woke up pretty early (8:30am)ish and realized I was much better off staying in bed (given the night before). I did send a quick message to Kristen asking her to call me when they got up, I wanted to (1: findout if I needed to pay for any cleaning charges, 2: thank them profusely for making sure I got home ok). Over the course of a few hours I slept, drank an ocean of water, took some asprin (that Marlyn left by my bed “THANK YOU!!). I eventuallly got up and was doing pretty good by noon. A bit nauseous, but not bad, no headache. Cleaned up, stopped by the girls house, picked up my shoes, thanked them and headed out to visit Nate and his new computer. Setup a bit more of his new system so he can now be the 13373 h4x0r that he always wanted to be, grabbed a Togo’s sandwich (what a heavenly meal after the previous night) and realized I needed a bit more crash time.

Scott had invited me over to a game night at his house and so I got up around 6pmish, cleaned up and headed over. I got to meet 3 new lovely ladies, and had a fun night of (apples2apples, balderdash, and operation). Before we knew it 12:30 rolled around and we all turned into pumpkins.

What a way to start Labor Day weekend, on Friday night, Kristen was driving back to Alameda with Marlyn and invited me over for the new Alias drinking game they invented. Basiclly the rules are to take a drink any time: Sydney’s hair changes, any time she admits she is a spy, any time she learns something bad about her father, anytime she learns something good about her father (double shot for that one), etc. Basically you get toasted really fast :).

I was on my way into Alameda, and stopped off at Bev&Mo to grab some rum, coke, and scotch. Once I got there, we all loaded up on our fav drinks and then sat around and had a great time, after an hour or two Alicia and Toby retired while Kristen, Marlyn, and I headed out back to chat/philosophize under the stars with our drinks and some clove cigs.

Now I remember quite a bit of disscussion, but then things get spotty and go from (talking) to (leaned over a toilet, with a glass of water) to (being walked home) to (being put to bed). sigh That is the second time in my entire life I’ve gotten so drunk I’ve had to pray to the porcelain goddess. ( 1: One should never start a drinking night with a large/tall glass, you don’t realize how far along you really are, 2: Coconut Rum/Coke are a DANGEROUS COMBO!!, you have been warned)

(sad thing is that we are planning the same tonight…..I think this time I’ll stick to the smaller glasses 🙂 )

This weekend turned out pretty well:

Saturday, I headed out to the SF Faire (http://www.sffaire.com/), metup with Kristen, Michelle/Sean/Kids, and Krys/Trey/Kayla. Walked around for a while, saw some old friends, Jerri, KimT, June, and Randy. Caught a few shows, wandered more, had a pretty relaxing day. After which Bryan showed up, and we all headed over to Warakubune where we hooked up with Murry/+friends, and Marlyn. After some great sushi, we all walked over to Sweet Inspirations for dessert and coffee.

Sunday, I somehow ended up waking early (what’s up with that 🙂 ) dropped by Julies Coffee & Tea for a few hours of work, visited mom and took her out to The Drunken Boat for brunch, headed back to her place to help her workout a class schedule, then over to Nates to help him hook up his new computer. After which Alicia called up and we headed out to go shopping, and then grabbed a bite at Acapulco, dropped by the house for a bit to see if Kristen and Bryan were interested in seeing any movies, and then over to Drunken Boat for berries & ice cream, cheesecake, and Kaffee Chocolate. (mmmmm).

Which pretty much wrapped everything up.

What a way to start out my 32nd year of life. I just posted to two online personal sites, and applied for a visa to leave the country (man I am on a roll). 😀 (did I mention life changing events earlier…I could have sworn I did….)

doin’ the happy dance

Saturday closed up pretty nicely, I headed out to find a replacement beard trimmer (the current one lives only by the grace of ancient vodoo rituals, loud cussing and occasional threats of distruction….I think it finally gave up the ghost). Somehow, I ended up getting an electronic watering system (as my plants breath a sigh of relief), heading over to Jack London for a BBQ dinner, glass of Merlot and a live Blues band at Everett and Jones, and then finished up with “Duce Bigelow – European Giggilo” (ask me not of this insanity for I shall never speak of it again).

Sunday I got the watering system up and running (though I think it is too late for my mint plants), found my trimmer, and finished up at Julies Coffee and Tea for a quiet evening. All-in-all a really nice quiet weekend (much needed after the one previous).

So far this is turning out to be a pretty nice lazy Saturday. After last weekend, I really could use this.

I was driving around after lunch and decided to head along Shoreline Drive. While driving along the beach I passed my old (high school) best friend’s house and noticed ballons attached to every conceviable corner. I then noticed a ton of people dressed up in tuxes and dresses. Now An has been moved out for quite a while now (I havn’t seen him for over 5 years). Only is father and mother live there now, but they are the type to pretty much stay until the end of days, so I have a feeling he (my friend An) may have just gotten married. :-0 Wow, of all my friends that have gotten married so far, I think that one is the most shocking. You have to realize that in my narrow memory view, An and I are hanging out on late nights watching Anime (he’s the one who got me hooked), Console games, comptuer games, computer hacking, phreaking, etc. He was one of those best friends that you could go for months and not see and the second we are in the same room it was as if no time had passed. Unfortunately around the time I moved out on my own, started working in the city, he moved out of Alameda, and we kinda streached that (few months) to (a number of years). We lost track of each other. At one point I came across his father (a retired vietnamese general that now own a beauty nail shop) and asked him to pass my contact info along to his son. I never heard from An. I didn’t want to crash this party, and as far as I know it may have not been him, but neverless, I want to try and hook up with An again to see how life is treating him. 🙂

You never know what to expect when you go looking around the internet:

http://hackaday.com/entry/1234000730052452/

(Just scroll to the bottom of the article)

Ok, so it is about time I got off my ass and started blogging again. Lots of things have happened and I have been quite dilligent in my continual procrastination when it comes to my (blog) website.

Let’s see where things are:

1. The next 4 weeks are going to be crazy at work, and I mean (design/rebuild network structure, rollout email/calendar system, rollout vpn system, order 6 digit ($) phone system, move company to new location in Emeryville) crazy!
2. Went to play at (Defcon 13)
3. Went to up Reno for Kristens (birthday/welcome back) party
4. Starting to ramp up possible (life chaning) plans, (check back later on this one…)