I heard the funniest story yesterday via first person account. This guy who's in my class grew up on a dairy farm in rural PA. He's a jolly character, very easy-going and had lots of funny stories to tell. He was once driving down a road when he accidentally hit a deer. He stops the car and he looks at the deer. "Well, this deer is somewhat hurt" he thought and he decided to do the kindly gesture of pulling the deer off the road by its antlers and then he slit its throat.
Now, another car happened to pass by and saw this taking place. They immediately stopped and dialed 911. The cop came over and this guy explained the situation to the cop. The cop nodded understandingly and in a flash, pulled out his gun and loaded two bullets into the deer's head. The other people looked on in horror. As the guy wryly deadpanned,"I don't think the folks in the other car were too pleased with the situation, for they were, after all, calling the cops ON ME."
Thursday, March 27, 2008
My dental experience
Yesterday I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled. Boy was I in for a treat!
First my dentist comes in, big, tall, broad-shouldered, squared jawed. He was definitely a man's man, from just his looks. (really not a bad looking guy all told) But what really caught my attention was his somewhat bullying, persistent, aggressive and thoroughly alpha male persona.
First he tells me to open my mouth and say Ahh. He peers into my mouth and looks at the cavity and frowns. Then he says, "hmmm, THAT's unattractive." In exactly that cadence, and in exactly that emphasis. I looked at him somewhat speechless. I felt offended on behalf of my poor cavity ridden tooth. And I even briefly wondered if he just insulted my womanhood. Then I shrugged it off, I was being a nincompoop. He definitely was somewhat rough around the edges though. But by no means should I get my pretty little feathers all ruffled up, I decided there and then.
He proceeds to tell me that I have a HUGE cavity, the size of Kansas at the very least. And he's going to need to fill it with metal or give it a crown. I listened to him talk for about 2 minutes and then I asked him which one is more efficient. He cocked his head in confusion. I asked again, "which one would take less time?" He frowns and asks, "you seem to be in a dire need of expediency. What's this need for speed?" It was then that I knew, this was a dentist who likes to challenge you, he's not a Mr. Nice Easy going Fellow.
The other funny thing was that I kept trying to sit up and turn around to face him, I thought it would ease the conversation, as I was not used to talking to someone whom I had to look towards the ceiling to see. He keeps saying, "Oh, put your head and rest it down here, thank you!" In a firm, polite but still controlling way. I felt like I was grinding his gears by being so fidgety. He then asked me if I was always this energetic or if I was just nervous. By this time, he had stuck a lollipop of local anesthesia into my mouth and I was trying to talk with my mouth full. So I ended up saying, "I wus jusss nervosed." And he asked why. I said, "because there's usually pain involved." And he say, "okaaay, that's a fair answer." He gave me the impression of being a talk show host, he always has to say something in return.
But all in all, he turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He made sure I was completely pain free, by giving me extra shots of novacaine, even quizzing me on what nerves he was blocking, once he found out I was attending med school. Alas, I failed to impress, because i hadn't started my head and neck series yet. He also made sure I was able to see my cavity after he cleaned it out and it was indeed a big gaping hole in my tooth. He filled it with metal and then he asked me to bite down repeatedly to make sure I don't feel anything. He then had to file the filling in such a way to maximize my comfort. I walked away feeling like he was very competent and did a good job on my tooth. I know only time will tell if that's the case, but so far so good.
But it's just been really amusing for me too, that both dentists that I've had the pleasure of visiting in Philadelphia turned out to be such characters (see previous blog on previous dentist)
First my dentist comes in, big, tall, broad-shouldered, squared jawed. He was definitely a man's man, from just his looks. (really not a bad looking guy all told) But what really caught my attention was his somewhat bullying, persistent, aggressive and thoroughly alpha male persona.
First he tells me to open my mouth and say Ahh. He peers into my mouth and looks at the cavity and frowns. Then he says, "hmmm, THAT's unattractive." In exactly that cadence, and in exactly that emphasis. I looked at him somewhat speechless. I felt offended on behalf of my poor cavity ridden tooth. And I even briefly wondered if he just insulted my womanhood. Then I shrugged it off, I was being a nincompoop. He definitely was somewhat rough around the edges though. But by no means should I get my pretty little feathers all ruffled up, I decided there and then.
He proceeds to tell me that I have a HUGE cavity, the size of Kansas at the very least. And he's going to need to fill it with metal or give it a crown. I listened to him talk for about 2 minutes and then I asked him which one is more efficient. He cocked his head in confusion. I asked again, "which one would take less time?" He frowns and asks, "you seem to be in a dire need of expediency. What's this need for speed?" It was then that I knew, this was a dentist who likes to challenge you, he's not a Mr. Nice Easy going Fellow.
The other funny thing was that I kept trying to sit up and turn around to face him, I thought it would ease the conversation, as I was not used to talking to someone whom I had to look towards the ceiling to see. He keeps saying, "Oh, put your head and rest it down here, thank you!" In a firm, polite but still controlling way. I felt like I was grinding his gears by being so fidgety. He then asked me if I was always this energetic or if I was just nervous. By this time, he had stuck a lollipop of local anesthesia into my mouth and I was trying to talk with my mouth full. So I ended up saying, "I wus jusss nervosed." And he asked why. I said, "because there's usually pain involved." And he say, "okaaay, that's a fair answer." He gave me the impression of being a talk show host, he always has to say something in return.
But all in all, he turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He made sure I was completely pain free, by giving me extra shots of novacaine, even quizzing me on what nerves he was blocking, once he found out I was attending med school. Alas, I failed to impress, because i hadn't started my head and neck series yet. He also made sure I was able to see my cavity after he cleaned it out and it was indeed a big gaping hole in my tooth. He filled it with metal and then he asked me to bite down repeatedly to make sure I don't feel anything. He then had to file the filling in such a way to maximize my comfort. I walked away feeling like he was very competent and did a good job on my tooth. I know only time will tell if that's the case, but so far so good.
But it's just been really amusing for me too, that both dentists that I've had the pleasure of visiting in Philadelphia turned out to be such characters (see previous blog on previous dentist)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Restless energy
Is this stress? I can't even recognize stress when I am experiencing it. Perhaps it is indicative of how little stress I've had to endure in my previous lives. Maybe I've had it easy all along. Lately I have found myself a victim of that hitherto unexperienced syndrome (at least by me) and that is called insomnia. I would go to sleep at 12 and then wake up at 3 AM. Like most hapless people whom sleep evades at that ungodly hour, I'd like in bed and wonder whether or not to get up. I would make little promises to myself. "Okay, if I don't fall asleep in 10 minutes, I'm getting up." I had even gotten up at around 3:30 AM in the morning and decided to read the Bible, I figured it would be somewhat sleep-inducing (no offense intended). INstead, I read the book of Job and found to my surprise how interesting it can be. It's a study into one man's agony and suffering and his added anguish in not knowing why, nor did he believe he deserved it. This is an aside, but let me talk about the book of Job. So Job had health, properity and a happy household. In a talk with Satan, God decides to give Job a little test of faith. Overnight, he lost everything he has ever had, including his health. His three friends, good friends that they were, kept declaring that Job must have sinned somewhere along the way as to incur the wrath of God. Job steadfastly declared his innocence and he asks to have an arbitrator between him and God! What a bold statement that is. I admire such confidence. In the end though, God rebukes Job in an indirect way by saying, you can not possibly begin to question me, you speck of a human being. And Job meekly accepts that whatever God wants to do to him is in God's right and Job apologizes for his impudence. At the same time, God admonishes his three friends and told them they were misguided scoundrels as well. I thought in this case that Job's friends meant well, even if they were wrong, they shouldn't be blamed. But then again, I tend to be very lenient on mistakes, as I am a creature prone to making them.
Anyway, what of this restless energy? I don't know, I think I need to channel it better. More focus, more drive, instead it gets permeated into useless activities and then fuel useless parts of my brain. And meanwhile I still have the main course to attend to, but then I get distracted by the trillion gazillion of little things crowing my mind, jabbering nonstop, grabbing at my attention, fragmented as it is. I need peace and quiet!!
Anyway, what of this restless energy? I don't know, I think I need to channel it better. More focus, more drive, instead it gets permeated into useless activities and then fuel useless parts of my brain. And meanwhile I still have the main course to attend to, but then I get distracted by the trillion gazillion of little things crowing my mind, jabbering nonstop, grabbing at my attention, fragmented as it is. I need peace and quiet!!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Two movies in one day - utter indulgence!
I went to see a film screening with my roommate today. It was the oscar winner for 2007 - No Country for Old Men. You know, I have a strong stomach in general and the blood and gore rarely get to me. So I can't say this film was too bloody or gory for my tastes. Yet, perhaps it's my current state of mind. I still had trouble stomaching it. In the same way There Will be Blood filled me with tense utter dread in its entirety, this film had me similarly gripped, trapped, enthralled in its horrificness.
The backdrop of this film was 1980 Texas. The landscape is desolate, barren, a wasteland. It complements the theme of the film perfectly, the hardships of living in a place like this, the pain of existing in a world becoming increasingly mad. The main story is of a hired gun, who kills for a living perhaps, but appears to be overly eager to kill for no reason at all. Like most psychopaths, this one thrives on the thrill of power and control over his hapless victims. They live or die entirely according to his whim. What is particularly scary about him and creeped me out was his page boy like hair, oddly incongruous with his stony, cold, broad face. He moves slowly too, deliberately, never in a hurry. He walks like a man who knows he has all the time in the world to kill and kill he usually does. I kept waiting for him to show a sign of weakness, anything to denote that he is anything other than a pure unadulterated demon. It appears that character complexity was not the high point of this film. Yet it occurred to me that this character later on began to become larger than life, and he represented not just himself, just another lonely serial killer with big guns, but that he was metaphorically speaking, another example of how this world has become increasingly senseless. The horrors that can take place within it, collectively, it is embodied by him.
The other guy in the film, a protagonist who stumbles on some major loot and decides to take it (as most normal people in a fit of weakness might have done) earned the audience sympathy readily enough. He is shown to have a soft spot for his family. Ironically, it is another fit of weakness that ultimately led to his demise - a momentary feeling of guilt perhaps and a stricken conscience. In any case, after he took the money, he essentially started living on borrowed time.
I watched the film with great dread. There were times when I could do nothing but wait in agony as I prepare for yet another victim to die a grisley death. It is actually, truth be told, quite tiresome for the mental psyche. I wanted to like it and I certainly had not been this tortured in a while. Still, in the end, it gave me the same feeling that I had earlier experienced in Ringu, The Grudge, There Will be Blood, and other such movies, which takes bleakness, dementia, murdering sprees to a whole new level.
Thereafter I came home from this film and in order to cleanse my mental palate so to speak, I watched Life is Beautiful and appreciated once again the beauty, the lush and glorious and iridescent hue that life can take on. And my world became a little brighter once again.
The backdrop of this film was 1980 Texas. The landscape is desolate, barren, a wasteland. It complements the theme of the film perfectly, the hardships of living in a place like this, the pain of existing in a world becoming increasingly mad. The main story is of a hired gun, who kills for a living perhaps, but appears to be overly eager to kill for no reason at all. Like most psychopaths, this one thrives on the thrill of power and control over his hapless victims. They live or die entirely according to his whim. What is particularly scary about him and creeped me out was his page boy like hair, oddly incongruous with his stony, cold, broad face. He moves slowly too, deliberately, never in a hurry. He walks like a man who knows he has all the time in the world to kill and kill he usually does. I kept waiting for him to show a sign of weakness, anything to denote that he is anything other than a pure unadulterated demon. It appears that character complexity was not the high point of this film. Yet it occurred to me that this character later on began to become larger than life, and he represented not just himself, just another lonely serial killer with big guns, but that he was metaphorically speaking, another example of how this world has become increasingly senseless. The horrors that can take place within it, collectively, it is embodied by him.
The other guy in the film, a protagonist who stumbles on some major loot and decides to take it (as most normal people in a fit of weakness might have done) earned the audience sympathy readily enough. He is shown to have a soft spot for his family. Ironically, it is another fit of weakness that ultimately led to his demise - a momentary feeling of guilt perhaps and a stricken conscience. In any case, after he took the money, he essentially started living on borrowed time.
I watched the film with great dread. There were times when I could do nothing but wait in agony as I prepare for yet another victim to die a grisley death. It is actually, truth be told, quite tiresome for the mental psyche. I wanted to like it and I certainly had not been this tortured in a while. Still, in the end, it gave me the same feeling that I had earlier experienced in Ringu, The Grudge, There Will be Blood, and other such movies, which takes bleakness, dementia, murdering sprees to a whole new level.
Thereafter I came home from this film and in order to cleanse my mental palate so to speak, I watched Life is Beautiful and appreciated once again the beauty, the lush and glorious and iridescent hue that life can take on. And my world became a little brighter once again.
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