Filed under: alerts, posts | Tags: commercials, health, hearing, meniere's disease, self, summer, The Old 97s, widsom teeth
Summer is off to a bang! Well, if by bang, we mean molar extractions, ear mysteries and pain, pain, pain. I start my medical tale with my wisdom teeth extraction. I go in last Saturday and get a general dental cleaning. She does her thing and notices I have some wisdom teeth needing removal. So we take the x-rays and they do indeed need to be taken out. I had one taken out about a year ago and that left three.
20 minutes, some local anesthetic later and the upper right wisdom tooth is gone with another one of those lovely caverns to show for it. With that sucker out, that only left two of the bottom two. Come Monday, while the upper wound is still somewhat painful, I have this Shanghai-medical school graduated business-man of an oral-surgeon removing my lower wisdoms. He talks the whole time about how I need to get into high finance and how that is where the whole of American opportunity lies. Hell, whilst under the scalpal, I am in no mood to argue the issues with that statement. The guy does some practiced yanking and out come two teeth in about 5 minutes. He is on a schedule that day with 20 other kids in line. (400 dollars a pop – not a bad day.)
So i have three gaping holes in my mouth – the two lower being much more painful than the upper one. I’m eating mush everyday and on a consistent stream of amoxicillin and ibuprofin. Good stuff.
Now, if this was the only health related thing I was going through, I’d be A-OK. Wisdom teeth and some pain are fine, as long as no dry-socket infections occur. However, my hearing in my left ear has been going insane in the past week and a half. I’m still dry-socket paranoid. There’s probably some elitist paranoia term for it, like drysocketaphobia. (I’m not creative, I know).
At first I thought it might have been caused by the teeth extractions, but I remembered this hearing issue beginning a few days before anything was pulled from anywhere. Here’s the problem, but it is a bit hard to describe:
My left ear hears sounds as if they have been altered or distorted through some voice-changer or electronic device. Much like those voices heard in pop and electronica songs, I hear a very electronic tinge to the sounds coming into my left ear. In fact, music has started to sound bad if I cover my right ear and hear only though that.
Today, I went to the good ol’ Tang Center and got my ears washed. It did not help at all, so now I’m being referred to a specialist. Honestly, I’m a bit anxious and of course, the plethora of ear-related maladies exposed on the internet does not help. From what I have gathered, I have Ménière’s disease without the vertigo, which defeats my hypothesis.
The only symptom is the sound distortion. If any of my humble readers have any clue what this is, feel free to enlighten me. I suppose I will know by my Friday appointment with Dr. Ears anyhow.
Well, that’s really all so far, pain and anxiety in the medical sense.
One piece of excitement: I heard a song advertising fuse.tv and it was quite touching – above the normal riff-raff that is mass marketing. Here’s it is:
Title: Question
Artist: The Old 97s
Album: Hit By A Train: Best of the Old 97s (2006)
Hopefully, I’ll be able to hear that song in true sound without distortion soon enough! Wish me luck.
‘Tis All.
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Filed under: mobile | Tags: crisis theory, Das Kapital, everyday, internship, Keynsian economics, life, love, Marx, political economy, self, Spring 2008, summer
So Karl Marx has a theory in his Das Kapital called the “crisis theory.” In fact, it is one of his most important ideas when it comes to the downfalls of liberal economics of the time. (Go PEIS100!) It basically describes the inconsistent flow of the pure capitalist system between the exchange of capital for commodities and so forth. It tries to explain business cycles and recessions of the market.
More after the jump. But reader beware, the political economy ends and only boredom awaits.
Filed under: posts | Tags: Abagail Adams, art & lit, freedom, HBO, idealism, John Adams, politics, realism, school, self, society, Thomas Jefferson
Ok, so Jefferson was a schizophrenic about slavery. He seemed to be a product tried and true of Virginia, but his logical subconscious suffered for it. But, let’s not debate the morals of Jefferson, this piece is about “John Adams”
First, here’s some free advertising courtesy of HBO and youtube:
This seven-part miniseries from HBO is nothing short of fascinating and maybe even needed. The acting comes from a top-notch cast headed by Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail. Tom Wilkinson does a great job at portraying an eccentric Franklin.
More after the hop.
Filed under: posts | Tags: cars, crime, dialogue, Evo, punks, school, self, society, vandalism
If you guys don’t know me that well, then you do not know the relationship I have with my car. The evo to me, is like what a dog is like to its owner. It’s reliable, proud and is always there for me when I need it. There’s nothing like boosting away the world’s problems. So when I tell you today some punk(s) keyed my passenger side door, it is akin to a parent just realizing someone had blinded their child with a pitchfork. Sure, life goes on, but does it really?!
For those in the car detailing know, there are two scratches from the key. One is just barely through to the color while the second, more bitterness-filled one goes right on into the primer. This means that either my car will look like it has tissue scars or my local body shop is getting a phone call. Nonetheless I will see what magic I can conjure up with paint touch-up pen before spending the repair bucks.
In my mind, I keep making up how this all went down:
(2) kids probably because one isn’t usually brave enough and has no one to show off to.
Kid 1: Hey [Bob, Joe, Francis, Kareem, Tayshawn, Soo-Kim, Cheng Jian, Kimberly, Collete*, Mary, Hasheem, Andre, Jose, Ivan, Peter], check it out! It’s a mother****** Evo!
Kid 2: Yeah [long list of possible names], probably some rich **** drives it around.
Kid 1: Yeah, f*** those guys. You know what?
Kid 2: Wha?
Kid 1: Watch this!
Kid 2: Oh, hell, you’re crazy man!
Kid 1: Haha, you know it!
*Evo violation*
*Silent Evo weeping*
Kid 1: F***, let’s get the f*** outta here!
Kid 2: **** *** ***** *** ** **** *** (I don’t know if you can string foul language this long consecutively, but I want to imagine you can)
*Runs away*
*This name is too awesome to be associated with this nonsense
Now, before the real mourning process can begin, I must take another final.
‘Tis all.
Filed under: posts | Tags: Evo, happiness, Pushing Daisies, self, Shoe Drop 2007, sights & sounds, society, TOMS shoes
“We wake up every morning with a list a mile long and maybe we spend our lives making those wishes come true. Just because we want them doesn’t mean we need them to be happy.” (S01E06 Pushing Daisies)
This has come to be a very mundane quote. It has been put more eloquently, with more high-brow vocabulary and from more notable mouths than Lee Pace. But its importance and potency stands, perhaps even more so in this colloquial, banal adaptation.
Sometimes, we all need to refocus and collect ourselves. This is a viable and important question to ask, honestly and often. Are we just checking off the wishes on our list, or truly looking for sustainable happiness? In an effort to be more optimistic, I will just skip the bashing of the endless commodity driven lives I see everyday at Cal and focus on where I’m at.
Things I want to be happy:
- Tanabe Touring Medallion Exhaust for the Evo
- Do-Luck style front carbon fiber lip for Evo
- APS BOV, Works Drop-In Filter and reflash
- Timbuk2 Medium Laptop Messenger Bag
- Nintendo DS!
- Subscription to Top Gear Magazine (!!)
Things I need to be happy:
- Giving and sharing happiness
The first list isn’t sin. It just needs perspective. It is so easily to fall on this path of jumping from one purchase to another as a means of happiness. I know I do it. However, like meeting friends at drunken college bashes, it is very brittle. Such happiness is insubstantial and wears away quickly. I find that they are much better as seasonings to a much stronger, core sense of happiness derived from the second list.
Like the happiness derives from family rather than from the presents during the giving Holidays, this weighty happiness is so valuable in life. For me, the thing that has made me so very happy during the last few days is this blog: http://tomsshoedrop.blogspot.com/
I worked with TOMS in the summer and to know that my work is paying off in the form of bringing happiness to children in Africa is extremely uplifting. It reminds me that I have the luxury of having my basic needs taken care of so I can write this otherwise unimportant blog about the need for more substantial happiness.
As for fulfilling that latter list (of one item), it does come in many forms I believe. One of those ways is through cause-driven work with clubs and companies. However, since only one of my clubs has an immediate human element, it is hard for me to find that happiness solely through my work. I find myself struggling some days to find this foundation in my life.
Even so, I am not afraid. I know it’ll come eventually. In the end, it will have to be a person, someone I can share happiness with and simply give a part of myself to. I am not in too much of a rush though, there is much to be done in all the other fronts of life as well.
Maybe I’m being too naive with my perception of human relationships. However, I really do believe in happiness being found in relationships rather than in a certain income level. They are sustainable, substantial and evolving whereas a number is simply a launch pad to another bigger number.
So I celebrate the little triumphs in life and in happiness. I smile knowing that a child in Africa has shoes on his little feet because I helped sell those shoes. I smile knowing it is the first act of kindness he has experienced in his life – the first expression of shared happiness. I hope this changes things, even if for a while.
The end of that episode of Pushing Daisies asks: “What do you need to be happy?”
In the dreamland that is television the answer from the guy protagonist to the girl protagonist is “you.” I bet in the mire of happiness that is life, the answer is not far off.
‘Tis all.
Filed under: posts | Tags: china, Communism, Communist Revolution, food, life, love, Mao, parents, self, society
[poster via Stefan Landsberger]
This weekend was an interesting one. Along with finally finding a trustworthy and knowledgeable mechanic for my car, I visited one of our family friends who happened to own a Japanese restaurant in Antioch. I am a sashimi fiend and when my Dad asked me to go over and take some pictures of the finished architecture and design project, I was quick to ditch my economics homework and head on over.
It think I will withhold his name and just call him Mr. L. I knew he was a talker, I’ve heard him go on and on about his son (Berkeley physics grad) and his hopes and dreams for him. I am not here to discuss his parenting – which I do find a bit unsettling in its mercilessness.
This particular time I went over we sat down and he started talking about something that he never really discussed with me before. He told me about how love was viewed under the Communist regime. In his youth, during the revolutions of the 70s, there was no time for petty things like love. There was only China to love. And oh did the youth love China.
My generation’s parents, those born in China during the mid-to-late 50s all have experienced a certain prescribed form of love. Love, as universal and human as it may seem, was something controllable by the government. They simply had to encumber the youth with so much nationalism and so many duties associated with such nationalism that they thought love to be a waste of time – hours and hours that could be used towards revolution.
So love was simple, quick and utilitarian. Oh, she’s a hard worker, not terribly ugly and gets along with my family. Done. Run down to the marriage office, get a license (which in that time was a fairly new thing) and then you’re done. There was no concept of dating or choices. When the opportunity arose, you just simply tied the knot then got back to pushing Mao’s goals forward.
To say that Mr. L. was a revolutionary is an understatement. He was a party leader. A man who cried real, angry tears during Mao’s fear-induced purges. The Tienanmen square incident still bubbling in his veins. He was a passionate comrade of the old guard. He believed fiercely in the social values that Mao tauted but became disillusioned after those promises fell short. Needless to say, he put his love of China over love over any woman.
Now, he tells me this is the single greatest regret of his entire life.
[Image via threadless]
I always loved that threadless shirt. Too bad they were sold out before I got one. But it does represent some brewing rage I had today.
1. Chinese class is harder than my political theory classes. However, I feel a real personal gain when I learn a new way to say “hypocritical” in my native tongue.
2. There are some really boring but completely stress-less jobs out there. For instance, my BART ticket was demagnetized, all $16.60 of it. I went down to the Berkeley station to get an exchange and I was directed by the station official to a small little booth where a small Asian man sat.
He had a nice little insulated lunch box in the background. I wondered someone who loved him packed that each day. He also had the obligatory tea bottle with Jasmine tea. On his left ring finger he wore a golden ring with a jade insert. It’s very unstylish, but it fit with his look. Married, from Southern part of Asia I would assume where gold and jade still are in fashion.
He spoke tersely, gruffly and directly.
“40 Cents,” he said in a muffled, accented voice.
I hand him the change and get my nicely exchanged 17 dollar ticket and a cardboard ticket sleeve. I like it – it gives my wallet some structure.
This guy just sits in this 7 feet by 7 feet square locked room in a neglected corner of Berkeley BART on select days and exchanges damaged tickets. He’s very diligent. I wonder what he thinks about. Is he just checking out the college girls that walk by? Does he think about his family or his country? Who knows?
So I think, there are plenty of people with such mindless jobs. They are all needed elements of our economy and they all do what they do to support people they love (or themselves). The American Dream?
How does someone make that person feel more apart of this society? Eh, that’s for another day.
3. One cute girl can really make my day better. So I’m getting myself a drink at a Boba place and the girl who takes my order is one of those people are just massively outgoing and excited. I’ve talked to her before in one of my classes and her personality once again overwhelms me. Bubbly is the best way to describe it.
It is not even like I was gonna hit on her or anything. It was just a random conversation after a tiring day filled with economics and Chinese tests. Gotta make more friends with bubbly personalities.
4. I saw a homeless person give a guitar-toting street performer 2 dollars and a handful of change. Hobbes is wrong, people are generally good.
5. I’m very confident when I have a task to do. I need purpose to be effectively confident.
Well, that’s what I learned today. Sweet huh?
‘Tis all.
Berkeley isn’t a walk in the park. Okay, sometimes it literally is, but metaphorically, never. This first week though, has been just a stabbing of a time.
I’m gonna cut this off here, for the click-through is going to be a burden to read.
