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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
There's a lot there, so I just wanted to take a second to say a couple of things.
You are enough. As is, just the way you are, you are good and deserve good things, just for being you. It can be hard to understand that, but sometimes a random internet stranger can give you some clarity, so maybe I can do that for you. Whether you study for your CS undergrad entrance exam, or join a gym or not, or work out: You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
Being lonely is terrible, and it's a thing that is insidious. Sometimes we don't realize how crippling being lonely can be; it can be devastating. You've said that therapy and medication aren't an option for you, so I'd suggest trying to find a place online to connect with people. Tildes is a place that has lots of great people, and weekly recurring ~talk threads. If it helps, dive in - there's a mental health thread to talk about things as well.
Personally, I'd love to read more about the public reading club and the game jam - did you make a game?
Wow, I 100% knew it was a public speaking club, but I totally wrote reading. Brains are weird!
A game jam like that sounds awesome! What games did you play? What are your favourite boardgames?
Those are all great fun - 4Connect / Connect 4 is a favourite at our house right now. Monopoly is a classic, and it's actually a pretty good game, but I recommend checking out the rules and not playing with any home-brew rules. Notably, if anyone says something like "I land on free parking so I..." and then describe any action, that's a homebrew rule that is only going to make the game longer and thus worse.
There are lots of great games, that are similar to the ones you've described, and even more that go off in different directions, but I guess playing them is contingent on having access to them. If you want to try new games without making purchases, there's a site called Board Game Arena which has access to loads of games for free, with good instructions. I realize that playing online with people is probably not what you're necessarily going for, but it's a good, free way to introduce yourself to loads of games. 6Nimmt is a personal favourite of mine on that site (and it's also a "real" board game as well that you can play in person if you can find it).
DnD is fantastic to get into; it's one of those hobbies that kind of lends itself to whatever your budget is. Want to spend $0 and have fun? There's Roll20 and countless other descriptions of the player's handbook and dungeon master's guide online for free, and free tools to play games. Want to spend a bit? Get physical books. Want to go nuts with a hobby? Invest in miniature figurines and tiles for maps, or a special table. I definitely recommend seeing if you can find a group, and it's important to remember that the goal is just "fun"; there's no winning or losing, just experiencing.
For the public speaking club are you preparing something beforehand and reading it out, or are you given something to read, or... or what is the format? It sounds interesting.
I put on my new teeth! I didn't take care of my teeth for years due to laziness and mental health issues and ended up losing three teeth over the years. The new teeth were extremely expensive so it took about 5 years for me to have the means and the courage to get them. That meant more than 5 years with difficulty chewing steak, a less than stellar appearance, and self-esteem issues.
The process of putting on new teeth was not just expensive, but very uncomfortable, long, and excruciatingly painful. I lost count of how many needles went deep into my gums for anesthesia. I'll have to use a bruxism guard to sleep and also sometimes when I'm awake, but I don't mind it. I'm not afraid to smile anymore!
Was it a full implant replacement?
I have one crown, and the only thing that could compare to was the one time I got an un-anaesthetized filling because of how intensely they had to grind the tooth down. I can't imagine doing more than a tooth.
Yes, the three teeth were completely replaced. The roots had to be extracted. I don't know specific names for the parts and procedures in English, but the metal thingies were implanted in my jaw, some other piece went over it, and the fake teeth were screwed on that other thing, basically. Easier said than done :P
Anesthesia needles into the gum sometimes feel that they're penetrating the jawbone, and, from there, into your very soul. 100% do not recommend even once, and certainly not dozens of times like I had.
And anesthesia only means that you won't feel as much pain in a very specific section of your mouth. You'll still experience mind-blowing discomfort, such as the feeling that your face is going to break in two. Don't forget to floss, people.
(I'm not sure why dentists in my country don't use laughing gas. They're allowed to. Maybe the initial investment is too much for them. It's probably better than needles in the gum.)
Congrats!
A parent has had several years of pretty awful dental situations for a number of reasons... definitely something I'd never wish on anyone.
I guess first thing: While I didn't mention I had COVID, I'm on the other side of it, and my sinuses are getting better. I only had the head-cold version, which was still pretty horrible with the fever and sinus swelling. Tylenol and Afrin got me through it, and my Neilmed nose bottle thingy is helping me keep my nose clear without medicine.
Got ready for more training, this time in Chicago a week from Sunday, so I get to see new parts of the US. I goofed up and the agent gave me an window seat, but I'm tempted to suck it up and just watch the country pass under me, provided there's no clouds, but I lowkey hope there's a kid on the aisle or center with a parent who wants to see out so I can swap.
I put my MKUltra/Spaceman Pancake bluetooth keyboard together, just got the keycaps today (the first set I ordered didn't fit the spacing), and I'll be porting my OLKB Planck layout to it. It's a cool piece of gear.
I bought a lot of gear this week:
I got a new trackball, the Elecom Deft Pro, used for like $35 because I wanted to try that out, and I can swap between my work laptop and desktop with a switch. It's nice so far, but I plan to live with it for a while to really get used to the finger ball.
A wireless backup camera with a solar charger, and the dash cam I bought my brother for our birthday a few years back so I can park easily, and protect myself while driving. My brother hasn't had his ass saved by his yet in three years, but his wife could've used one when her car got totalled. As a new driver myself, it's extra peace of mind.
Finally finished moving this week. During the move, I cracked a tooth (dumb story below), and today I got to go to the dentist. It has been my first trip to the dentist in far too long; my previous dentist retired, and I never really enjoyed his replacement, so I just stopped going. I luckily got in with the same dentist my wife and kids use, and I had so many X-rays. The doc came in and looked at my teeth and my intake form, and said that most people write, like me, that they floss daily, but I was the first one in a long time that actually clearly did. She also was impressed with the care I had taken, and that I'd never had a cavity. She suggested a WaterPik flosser (which I also vaguely remember maybe @kfwyre also recommending?) and an electric toothbrush because I still have all my wisdom teeth and want to make sure to be able to clean all the way back. She also remarked at the sheer size of my massive head and jaw, and wondered how I broke my tooth.
Well, what a dumb story. I was driving between houses, and I realized that I had something stuck in my tooth, so I was trying to get it out with my tongue; I had my jaw over to one side, pushing on the back of the tooth with my tongue. A cat ran out on the street, and I hit the brakes. I wasn't going fast - maybe 30km/h - and I didn't slam into anything, just clicked my teeth together. My top teeth are apparently a bit harder than my bottom teeth, and one of the bottom ones broke.
I'm getting it filled in September, so I have about two months of time with the back half of this tooth gone. One of my coworkers brought up the concept of the homunculus of perception - the relative size that we perceive parts of our own body to be. I really understand that - the crack in my tooth feels massive.
The move itself was generally okay, though I did have an absolutely awful interaction with a moving company. We mostly used our realtor for moving - we had a Pod from PODS.ca and he had some guys to do some of the moving, but then in the last week, he ran out of time / contacts, and we had to find someone to move a fridge on short notice. The company that we went with was bad - they were a clear bait-and-switch scam, and I should not have let them move anything at all. I don't like that they even know where my house is, and they overcharged by a large amount of money, which I stupidly paid because the movers were standing in my garage attempting to be physically intimidating.
That said, the new house is great; we back onto some Conservation land, with a forest and a river, and are a half hour walk to the local lake in one direction and a 15 minute walk to the local disc golf course in the other direction. There are no back neighbours, and everyone in the neighbourhood seems lovely. Most of my stuff is in boxes though, which is getting a bit old.
That's it, that's my stream of consciousness week summary.
I have one too, and have been using it for years now. It's great. I struggle to use regular floss, since even the sticks ones makes me gag. But the water flosser doesn't.
You floss daily so you shouldn't get much gum bleeding after using it. But as a word of caution, I would still recommend starting on a lower pressure setting until your gums get used to it. The first time I used it was on max setting and when I spat into my sink afterwards it looked like a murder scene. ;)
Interestingly, the dentist also recommended that, especially towards the back of the mouth where it is difficult to floss effectively. She said that people who switch have this tendency to use it on their front teeth fine, where it's easy to floss, and then tear up the gums around the back of the mouth.
I will be careful!
Hopping in to say that yes, I did recommend it, yes, you should definitely pace yourself on the pressure at first, and yes, it is totally worth it and SO much better than flossing!
I'm going to pick one up that's a toothbrush / flosser combo. The dentist actually said "we sell these here, but they're cheaper at CostCo, so go there."
I'm excited to give it a shot!
Busy weekend that feels like I didn't get much rest.
My dentist's server hard drive failed again. I don't know what the hell Dell is doing, but he's now on the 3rd Seagate hard drive for that server because they keep failing. First time he kinda had to start anew because he had a Dell tech set it up and they didn't bother with any sort of backup strategy. I was able to get the pertinent data off the failing hard drive, so they didn't lose any records, but all of the software they use had to be reinstalled from scratch from the various makers of said software.
This time I had backups set, but it was monthly so now they just have to re-input patient data from the past month. What I found funny is they didn't really understand how the backup was going to work, so cue elated dentist and practice manager when I restored it back as if nothing had happened (and it was a month ago). Shock that they wouldn't have to reinstall everything. It's fun seeing non-tech people happy when tech-magic happens.
Since Dell/Seagate have proven to be woefully unreliable, the backups are now daily and I'm looking for some reliable and removeable hardware to handle it.
Then I went with friends to see Robocop in a local independent historical theaters for a 35th anniversary event which was fun. Gotta love 80's movies that prophesize the future.
I purchased a bandsaw.
A large bandsaw.
A large, industrial, metal cutting, USA-made, WW2 era (1942) bandsaw with a three foot (nearly 1 meter) throat1 that weighs around 1,400lbs (635kg).
Oh, and I paid $225 for it.2
1: Throat is the distance between the bandsaw blade and the vertical upright of the machine and largely determines what size material you can cut. With a normal consumer grade metal bandsaw you'd normally have about a 12" throat, so if you had a 6' piece of pipe and needed it to be 3' long you'd have to cut off 1' at a time leaving you with one 3' section and three 1' sections. With this bandsaw I can cut the same pipe once. The larger the throat, the larger the machine, the more expensive the machine which brings us to item 2.
Checking it out once I placed it in my shop, I've discovered that I'm the 2nd (actual) owner of this bandsaw. There's a brass badge on the back that says "E.T.S.T. College - Commerce, TX" which stands for East Texas State Teachers College, which eventually became Texas A&M - Commerce, which is who I purchased it from.
I'm excited.
I like new tools.
I just got back from a short work trip - I work remotely for a company in Halifax, NS, Canada, which is about four or five hours of driving for me. Another person was hired to the same team who is from a city that is similarly distant, and we decided to have a team-building day. I drove up on Monday, worked in-office on Tuesday, then on Wednesday we had the team-building event before I made the long drive back home.
I know most people will roll their eyes when it comes to corporate team-building, but I actually had a really wonderful time. One of my coworkers owns a sailboat big enough for all of us (6 people), so we went out to a sailing club on a bay and spent some time on the water. The conversation was easy and interesting and we couldn't have asked for better weather. I learned a lot about sailing mechanics as well - it was only my second time on a sailboat. The only issue we had was that my fellow out-of-towner had a bit of seasickness and ended up ducking out before we could have dinner, but other than that it was basically perfect. There really is nothing like the breeze on the ocean in the summer.
Here is a pic from the restaurant! That is the bay we were sailing in. It was very bright out and the ocean was very blue. :)