coffee grossness

So I'm currently at work (on break, of course) and just got back from getting a hot beverage from Monroe st. This week, all food-related places are closed on campus. This is considerable since we have a full-service coffee shop right in my library building. I eventually found my way to a Dutch Bros. where there was a line of 9 people and 1 barista. This wasn't too bad, since the barista was pretty fast. However, the barista did sneeze violently (not directly on his hand, but I'm sure some contact was made..) once, and then touched his face or nose 5 more times before preparing my beverage. Perhaps it's just me, but the last time I took the food handler's test it was recommended that you wash your hands after any touching-of-self or bodily expulsion. Carefully watching him prepare my beverage, I observed that he did not come into direct contact with any surfaces that liquid or my lips would touch. I can't say the same for others, but I lucked out. Would it have been rude for me to ask him to wash his hands? The line was long when I got there, and people kept coming in so it stayed at around 9 people in queue the entire time I was there so he was very busy and people were in a hurry...but still?

mood: lethargic and slightly grossed out

christmas: joy and lies?

It's the night before christmas and I can't help feeling a little jaded by the way our society has turned this holy holiday into a commercial enterprise. I am staying at my parents' house along with my sister and 11 year old niece. My niece still believes in santa claus. Yes, she's convinced that all of the children at school are liars and the christmas shows on TV are irrefutible proof of his existence. Tonight the traditional cookies, milk, letter, and vegetable tray (for the reindeer) were left out when she went to bed. Before bed, my father and I took turns munching on the cookies, veggies, and milk. After that, I wrote a carefully composed response to her letter, especially from santa himself.

As our children are growing up, they're supposed to trust us, right? So why do we spend years reinforcing this outright lie and then pull it out from under them? I caught on to the gig when I was 7 and my parents were relieved to finally give up the hoax.

So now I'm a 26 year old man that lies to and manipulates children. I'm not sure I really feel very good about that. There are some very grown-up things that children don't really need to know the whole story about and I am comfortable throwing around a white-lie or vague response now and again, but an out-and-out useless and manipulating lie kind of bothers me. So when they're 15 and we tell them that smoking is bad for them, why should they believe us? Perhaps once they hit 30 we unveil the truth about that too; it actually tastes great and makes you live longer, gotcha! We're so clever.

Would christmas be such a large holiday in the US if we discontinued the lies to children? I believe that parents would still get presents for the children, that stockings would still be filled, and candy canes and carols would overwhelm and sicken everyone for the entire month of December.

On the more joyous side of things, today I spent time with an old friend that had drifted considerably, a mutual drifting really. We were both friends during an awkward and often confusing and unhappy time in our lives. Now he is incredibly happy and fortunate in his life and I am very glad for him. I hadn't realized how much I missed him and his friendship, it meant more than I had remembered, as relatively brief as it was.

Tomorrow after opening gifts and being lazy and eating an early dinner I have to drive back to Corvallis. I'm not especially fond of the traffic I'm likely to encounter. My typical 1.5 hour drive is probably going to turn into at least 3. I'm definitely going to have to stop so Gus can sretch his legs and take a potty break.

Everyone else has finally gone to bed and here I am, the last up, which has been typical for about 15 years. I am still excited and have trouble getting to sleep, even though I'm fully aware that santa will not be visiting our house tonight. That damned childhood programming, I've been brainwashed.

The semester is over

So I finally wrapped up my semester...a few days after everyone else did. I had completely forgotten to turn in one assignment for the last class, it never made it onto my calendar. Not the best of plans really. My professor was nice enough to send an e-mail, prodding me to get it done and turned in so I could potentially get an A- instead of a C+. It's done and now I have an A-. What a nice lady.

Gus is doing very well, we went for a walk last night at around 8 pm and ended up having to cut it a bit short from the ice. The path we normally go walking on has a lot of water runoff on it which in turn has frozen over. Too bad I didn't have ice skates, then I could just hold onto Gus's leash and zoom down the 2-mile path! Actually, he wasn't doing so hot on the ice either, he didn't seem to "get" that any vigorous activity resulted in him slipping and nearly falling. Sometimes I wonder about his intelligence... [photo of said path shown below...]

From Snow Day 2

Christmas is going to be here in a week. Can anyone believe it? I can't. I still have three gifts to buy before then and I'm still completely confused what to get. Any ideas? I need something for the mother, the father, and the sister. I think I'm going to get the sister a dvd box set, but as for the other two I'm clueless.

On Saturday night Kim and I went to Gresham for the "annual caroling party" which was pretty fun. We actually got some decent caroling in this year, though I have had *enough* of "Angels We Have Heard on High," the chorus is mildly mellismatic and timing is very very important. Apparently no one else realized these two things while singing it. It was fun though, this year there were boys other than myself which was a welcome change, and one of them could even part sing! Hurray!

In closing, there will be a few moments of silence for the hard drive of my desktop computer... it died this last Friday. [ ] <--- Silence. It just turned 2 years old last month, which means it is now beyond the Dell warranty. The other crappy part is the manufacturer (Maxtell) typically carries a 3-year warranty, but on OEM products, the warranty is only honored by the system manufacturer (Dell) who does not honor the standard warranty of 3 years, only their own 2 year warranty. Shitty? Yes. Oh well, it did give me a good excuse to order a new Western Digital 300 GB hard drive that is significantly faster. I got a super rebate on it, plus used Google Checkout for another $20 off and came in under $100, yay for me! Now we'll see if I can manage to get any old stuff off the dead hard drive...

Life updates

Gus
So I believe that Gus is fully recovered from his various "accidents" earlier this month. November was one hell of a ride for him and me both! I think he's gained back most of the weight he had lost when on his restricted diet. Just a few days ago we had a great time playing around in the snow.

Me
I am procrastinating way too much with my school work. I have a paper due on Monday and I haven't even brainstormed for it yet. Slacking slacking slacking. I've been doing a little better in keeping up with the reading, but I still don't have everything read (and probably won't) that I needed to for this semester. Oh well... maybe I'll catch up on it over the winter break.

Work is going decently. Most of my projects are finished, so I'm wasting away with very little to work on, so keep trying to find things to while away my time on. I know that I should be very thankful for this downtime, because when I am a real, live functioning academic librarian I will never be able to claim a lack of things to do. :-)

Random
Has anyone noticed the recent trend of females wearing boots with either shorts or skirts in our wintry months? I think I've seen more boots in the last 3 weeks than at any other point in my life. I have come up with some basic categories:

Boot
-Furry boot
-Fitted boot
-Slouch boot
-Tasseled boot
-Uggs

Lower body covering worn with boot
-Short shorts
-Short skirt
-Denim?
-Skort (those still exist?)
-Capri

Upper body covering worn with said boots
-University logo sweatshirt
-Other stupid sweatshirt
-Tanktop
-Camsiole
-Arctic-grade parka with rabbit trim
-Skater/snowboarder hoodie sweatshirt
-Thermal long-sleeve shirt

Optional accessories suitable for any above combination
-Schoolgirl socks
-Leg warmers
-Tights
-Opaque pantyhose (seriously..)
-Sweatpants (extra points for a "YUM!" emblazoned on the butt)

What are these young women thinking? They will take any one item from each category and mix at will. Where does it say this is alright? Can you imagine sweatpants tucked into black suede boots with stiletto heel and very furry upper trim, with a scandilously short denim skirt on top and a sparkly sequined camisole? Yes, I actually saw this! Why...why...why??

Oh yeah, the old pictures...

It completely didn't cross my mind to post the URL for my web albums that I was referring to in my prior e-mail:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michaeljbaird

Enjoy!!!

old pictures found

So today I finally started playing with the newer features that Google has packed into its Picasa software--one of which is uploading to a web album that can be shared publicly or just with friends. While doing this I ran across some pictures that I had taken when Kim and I took a spontaneous trip to the beach at Lincoln City to watch the sun set. I particularly liked this one:

Web 2.0? It's like pushing digital paper...

So I've been thinking a lot about technology and the cool things it does for us. All of the web 2.0 technologies allow us to track and interact with things in totally new ways, allowing for much easier and natural interactions via technology. However, I wonder at what price is this coming? These are things that most of us simply did not do previously, so we are giving up even more of our limited time to do more new things.

So if you keep a blog or two, contribute to a few wiki's, bookmark your favorite and even not-so-favorite sites using a service like del.icio.us, how is this adding up in hours per day? Per week? Per year? I know that I used to bookmark a LOT in my regular browser window, but did I ever use those bookmarks? Nope! There are only a few that were ever useful. Along this same vein, did I ever keep a diary or journal before? Nope. I've figured out that I now spend about 2-4 hours per week just maintaining my blogs, wikis, and social bookmarks. This doesn't even include the blogs and wikis of others that I read on a regular basis. Maybe another 2-4 hours per week?

So, 4-8 hours per week that wasn't there before. Is it worth it? Is my life more enriched? What am I not doing in order to do these things?

The answer? Homework!

saga: prematurely concluded

So on Monday I was playing with Gus and he had a bit of an accident. I threw his toy up into the air and he jumped to catch it, but came down on his right rear leg in an odd position and then crumpled on the floor, yelping and whining. I immediately freaked out, but after a few minutes he got up on his feet, while favoring the hurt leg and was walking around okay. About 10 minutes later he was putting weight on it, so I thought I'd go to work and then see how he was doing when i came home on my break. I came home and all appeared fine.

Tuesday morning, I get up and Gus is limping around, holding his rear right leg up while standing. Great, right? Soooo, I call the vet's office and see if they can get him in for a last minute appointment. We do a full exam with all sorts of pulling and prodding at his legs and hips. At first thought, the vet considered that the injury was the doggy equivalent of an ACL tear. Luckily, it wasn't. This would've been very very expensive to fix. They want to put him under anesthesia and take a bunch of x-rays to pinpoint the exact problem. Ok, fine.

Before they can put him under I have to sign a form that basically says if he dies, it's not their fault. And, if he goes into cardiac arrest, do I want them to attempt resuscitation by extreme measures? I don't want to be a jerk, but I simply could not afford that type of medical care... $15,000 later....

So they put him under and do the x-rays and I pick him up and he's REALLY happy to see me. On the plus side, he got mad at one of the vet techs and expelled his anal glands all over her. Luckily, that was one service I didn't have to pay for. :-) They sent the radiographs off to a canine radiologist to be tested and everything looked peachy except for some fluid where his right leg is socketed to his hip and maybe a touch of osteoarthritis.

So, it looks like Gus is going to live. Hurray! In the meantime, he's on anti-inflammatory medication for a week and restricted to only leash-walking for at least 2 weeks.

How much was this lesson worth? $367 to the vet clinic. Seriously Gus, you're starting to dip into my NYC trip / Christmas slush fund. I may resent this.

saga: concluding?

[Apparently I left this in my draft folder, it should be dated 11/12/2006]

The drama appears to be settling down. For a few days anyway.

I took Gus to the vet on Friday morning and there was not a conclusive diagnosis, just that he had ingested something toxic and had severe reactions to it. Nothing showed in the blood panel, urinalysis, or stool sample. The vet said that if he had ingested a very small amount of mushroom (most types are all toxic for dogs) that it would be plenty to make him very sick, but still not show up. He's now on some good meds and is receiving special moist food for a week to get his digestive system back on track.

What was this worth? $167.50 to the vet clinic. Gus, you're glad I like you.

saga: continued

So I go home each day on my dinner break so I can hang out at my apartment and take Gus out to go potty. My main reason is to take Gus out to go potty. I usually take this break somewhere between 8-11 pm, it just depends on how busy we are and when I can break away from the desk.

Tonight I get home.. open the door .. and ... COW PATTIES ALL OVER MY LIVING ROOM!!! You might ask yourself, "how could cows get into Michael's apartment?" "Not very easily" should be the appropriate response, but I have a 140 lb. great dane named Gus that kind of looks like a cow and apparently his explosive diahhrea resembles cow droppings. There were SIX cow patties in my living room. Big. Really. Big. Ranging from six inches across to about twelve inches across. I almost cried.

Oh, and did I mention that it STUNK? Yep. It did. Poor Gus looked like he thought I was going to beat him with a sledgehammer. Poor guy, it's not his fault at all, he's just not feeling well. I can't figure out what the hell caused this mess, I didn't leave *anything* food-related out where he could get it, and I don't notice anything else missing...so I'm positive it wasn't something he had eaten.

And one more gem of information. One of the small patties landed where? INSIDE one of my new running shoes. I feel disgusting. My apartment is disgusting.

This made my dinner break of a normal one hour turn into two and a half hours. I went back to work, got home, let Gus outside and he darted toward a grassy area and kept squatting and walking for about 10 minutes. Then he comes inside and starts throwing up on everything and then dry heaving. GOOD LORD WHEN WILL IT END?!

In the meantime, my ear hurts and and my jaw hurts and I'm tired and I just want to go to bed.

This could qualify as one of the worst days ever.

the ear: revealed

So, have you ever wondered what happens when an earlobe gets infected? I'm so disgusting....

Sick sick sick

Apparently my dutiful storage of karma has backfired on me. Let's review:

Cons:
Last week I had one tooth extracted
Last Thursday my last wisdom tooth decided to make its debut
I've been on vicodin since Thursday because of that wisdom tooth
Yesterday I started getting a really bad sore throat
Today I called in sick to work because I'm completely miserable
There is practically a torrential storm raging outside my apartment

The pros?

I did get to stay home from work, Gus is much happier with me home, I am catching up on sleep, as well as STNG. Now I'm hungry and nothing in my apartment looks good.....

So the trip to the dentist was fairly successful. The procedure went super quick and the dentist was very happy with it. The Bio-Oss stuff is basically a bunch of little bitty bone shards from Swiss cows that apparently have some very special legal rights. Who knew?

Yesterday I had a bit of a scare because the super glue stuff that they put on top of the sutures was lifting up, and taking the sutures with them. I had a bit of a panic moment and scheduled an impromptu appointment today and as it turns out everything is just fine. As usual, I overreacted, but with this sort of thing I felt it was better to be safe about it.

Now I have a 6-9 month wait before the bio-oss treatment has completely done its job and my jaw is normal, then I'll visit the oral surgeon to get a little titanium bracket installed and then wait another 3-6 months for that to settle in before my new implant tooth is ready to be installed. Quite a process, huh? :-)

Until next time...

So apparently I have won the genetic lottery (not!). This coming monday I have to have my T13 tooth extracted. Yes, that's right, T. That means it is a primary aka baby tooth. I have two teeth that did not have permanent replacements. One of those has lived more than twice its normal exptectancy and recently began to show signs of failure. I'm cutting my losses and getting it done sooner rather than later.

Then what? Do I have a gaping hole in my mouth? Of course not. I am getting a fancy implant tooth, wheee! During my extraction the dentist will fill the jaw bone surface at the area of the extraction with a material called Bio-Oss, it is made of a bovine bone matrix which will my body will eventually replace with its own bone. When you have a primary tooth like I have, the jaw bone kind of divots down where that tooth is, so the surface isn't even. To have a successful implant, the surface must be even. It'll take about 6 months for my body to complete the bone replacement with a sturdy enough structure to accept the titanium implant bracket.

It's really a very fascinating procedure. I'm not looking forward to having a gap in my teeth for 6 months.. but I figure it will turn out for the best in the long run. I'm trying to pin down my insurance folks to find out exactly how much of this they will cover. Odds are I'll get to spend at least a thousand of my own money on it. Sometime in the next few years I'll need to have the same tooth on the other side of my mouth done too. The timing couldn't be better. Hopefully I'll be finished with grad school by then.

So I'm without a student worker for this hour and three of our four printers decide to jam and die. Seriously, it's not my day. Not only was my pirate costume that I wanted not available, but I was sent into printer queue hell with a dozen angry patrons swarming around me. Asking for "that other guy" when I am obviously the only one available is not going to help your cause any further. Not to mention, I probably have a better idea of what I'm doing than that "other guy" anyway.

Printer status: All fixed. You may now bow and praise my name.

I was trying to figure out a good costume to have Gus wear, but kept falling short on ideas. When I got back from the costume shop with my own costume (to be disclosed at a later date) I had the brilliant idea of having Gus wear a scarf. I know, this isn't revolutionary, but it sure was cute: