FLOSSING

Earlier this month, reports came out that new studies showed that there is no scientific proof that flossing your teeth has any medical benefit. When I read that, I had a very smug reaction to the new findings. My reaction was such not because I think I can just forget flossing forever now, but because I’m now looking forward to my next visit to the dentist.

Before I continue, let’s back it up and let me give you history of my dental hygiene with regards to flossing. I’ve had meticulous dental care my entire life. My father took me to the dentist from the earliest time possible as a child. I’ve had six month check-ups like clockwork all my life. I was told from probably my first visit on that I should floss. I was shown how to floss countless times. As you might imagine, I never flossed as a child. Honestly, how many eight year olds do you know floss every single day? I felt lucky that I even brushed my teeth twice a day.

Once I was an adult, I flirted with regular flossing many, many times. After being admonished after a check-up at the dentist, I’d half-heartedly floss maybe a day, two days, perhaps even a week before giving it up. It just seemed like such a damn hassle when there were so many other things I could be doing. About six or seven years ago though, I started flossing after a visit to the dentist and I kept on doing it. To this day, I’m not sure what happened or what the switch was. Perhaps I found the right floss that made it easier. Technically, I don’t even use floss, I use dental tape as I find it removes more debris. Whatever it was, I’ve been flossing daily for many years now. I admit that on some days, I’m much more thorough than others but I never fail to at least floss all the major spots where most of the food is trapped.

I remember my first visit to the dentist after continuously flossing daily. I was totally expecting the dentist and the hygienist to notice the big difference in plaque build-up. Instead, they asked me if I flossed regularly. I said of course and when they heard that, I could see that were trying to figure out if I was lying or if I was just terrible at flossing. I admit, I was insulted by their reaction. I know how to floss. I’ve seen them floss my teeth countless times.

Initially, I thought this might be just an isolated incident but when I returned for another check-up six months later, I got a different hygienist and she asked me the same thing and gave me the same insulting reaction. Over the years, this has happened over and over again with different dentists and hygienists. They all seem incredulous when they tell them I floss daily. It wouldn’t so bad but they always find a way to tinge they reaction in a condescending manner. Like the one time, a hygienist made hold a mirror and watch while she flossed my teeth. Holy crap lady, you mean the floss goes between your teeth? I’ve been just stuffing it into my mouth and chewing it for thirty seconds and spitting it out. What a revelation!

I probably need to go to the dentist next month and I can’t wait to mention the report above. They can take all their condescending and insulting attitudes and shove it into those tiny spaces in between their teeth where plaque builds up but science says flossing won’t really help remove it.

DIARRHEA WATCH

Yesterday I bought some grapes and took them home. In the evening, I took a bunch and placed them in a bowl and carefully washed them (at least I thought I did). Some people just eat fruit without washing it but I think that’s dumb. Anyways, I drained the bowl of water and put the grapes back in the fridge for about twenty minutes so that they would be nice and cool again.

I took the bowl out and ate the grapes. They were sweet and delicious and I was really glad I bought them. About an hour and a half later, I felt some rumblings down there. It was a good thing I was at home at the time because I had your classic case of diarrhea. It wasn’t urgent though. It was almost as if my digestive system was saying, “Hey, you might be noticing everything isn’t exactly ok down here but there’s no rush, so you won’t be feeling cramps or gas or any of that funny stuff you see in movies. You’ll probably want to take care of it sooner or later but there’s no need to drop whatever you’re doing right now.”

Sure enough, I was able to watch about fifteen minutes of YouTube videos in relative comfort before I decided I probably should take care of things before they escalated. I will say that what occurred in the bathroom had almost no correlation to how urgent it felt beforehand. It was one of those “under promise and over deliver” situations, if you will. I was almost shocked at what transpired in there. I won’t go into the details but it was one of those situations where you feel like you need to shower immediately right afterwards. Wow.

Now they say, they being smart people, that it takes hours before something makes you ill so that if you eat something and you start to have problems, it was probably something you ate earlier in the day. I don’t think my body works like. My digestive system is very sensitive and if I eat something dodgy, it can take less than thirty minutes for the fireworks to happen. I’m positive my diarrhea episode on Saturday was because of the grapes.

Interestingly, this experience did not sour me on those grapes. I washed another bunch this evening and ate some more. It’s been almost two hours now since that happened and I don’t detect anything out of the ordinary. I think it maybe safe for me to go to bed now. Wish me luck!

HEAT WAVE

It’s been very warm in the local Vancouver area during this week. Now when I say warm, the daytime highs are about 30 degrees and even higher inland away from the water. It’s a late summer heat wave for the city. I will admit that as I write this, I am only partially clothed.

While the warm and sunny weather is nice, I am preparing myself for the inevitable lightning fast switch that Vancouver experiences from summer to near-eternal rain and grey skies. Two months ago, it was still nice but a mere thirty days from now the temperatures will drop and the skies will open up. We’re just six weeks from Thanksgiving, which means that the coats will be back out in less than a month.

If I had more vacation days, I might entertain a quick jaunt down to San Diego in November.

ACCIDENTS

Yesterday on my way home I came upon an accident scene at the intersection where I catch my bus. I must have arrived a mere minutes after it happened. There were about four cars pulled off to the side of the road, along with a motorcycle. Six or seven people were on the sidewalk, standing around, several on the phone. A gentleman with motorcycle gear on was seated on grass next to the sidewalk. He looked okay but dazed somewhat. He was conscious and talking but people were talking to him and seemed concern about his potential injuries. I’m no accident reconstruction expert so I couldn’t even guess what had happened. There was no outward major damage to any of the cars that I could see, nor any large pieces of debris on the road. I’m guessing the motorcyclist must have made contact with the ground somehow, either through direct contact from a car or he was forced to make a maneuver that forced him to lose control.

Within minutes I could hear sirens. The fire department was on scene first. They pulled up in this big truck. One fireman got the cones out and blocked off the lane that the cars and bikes were in. The other firemen started talking to the witnesses and participants of the accident. A few were checking on the motorcyclist. He began motioning to his foot. The police then showed up with two vehicles. At this point, there were a lot of flashing lights from the fire truck and the two squad cars. Traffic at this point still had two lanes to use but was slowed considerably through the intersection. A few drivers were caught gawking as the light turned green but they just stayed put. A good honk from behind got them moving.

The last first-responders to show up was the ambulance. The EMTs got out and started talking to the motorcycle dude. They must have deemed it not that serious as they didn’t get out the stretcher or even got him to sit in the ambulance. He remained on the grass the entire time I was there. At this point, the intersection was a major light show, with the emergency lights from the fire truck, two cop cars, and the ambulance all going off. My bus arrived a few minutes later so I had to go home.

If that wasn’t enough, on my way to work this morning, I was crossing the street in the exact same intersection. When I got to other side, where the cars and motorcycle were yesterday, I saw two vehicles stopped in the curb lane. Both drivers were out on the sidewalk, talking on their cell phones. The first vehicle in front was a city works truck, some sort of utility vehicle. The vehicle in the back was a minivan. The minivan had major front end damage and it was clear it had rear-ended the city truck. There were pieces of the minivan all over the road and I think I even saw bits of it stuck to the back of the truck. Luckily, none of the drivers seemed injured. It sucks for the driver of the minivan because nearly 100% of the time, insurance companies will assign all the blame for the one doing the rear-ending.

My commute home today was uneventful though! I didn’t see any accidents this evening!

NO PORNOGRAPHY TONIGHT

As luck would have it, my home Internet connection crapped out before I could write my blog post tonight. I restarted my modem five times already and nothing seems to work.

I’m stuck with my cell phone data connection which sucks since it’s slow. Worse yet, I’m typing this on my cell phone. Writing anything long form on a tiny virtual keyboard is quite inefficient.

As an exercise, let’s think back to a time before the blesses Internet. You only had network television, books, and your stupid imagination to amuse yourself. What a terrible time that was. I hope my Internet is fixed by tomorrow morning.

DAMN, NO MORE EMBEDS

In a recent post, I shared with you a website called YouPak that allowed you to view YouTube videos without having any regional restrictions from blocking you. One of the great things for me was that the site allowed me to embed such videos in my posts.

The site, unfortunately, has gone through some changes. The first was a name change, with it now being called EachVideo. That didn’t really bother me but another change did. The site no longer allows you to embed videos on web pages or blog posts. The link to the video is now the only thing that can be shared and viewers must now go to the web site directly to see the video. That kinda sucks. I wonder if this was something they did or if Google forced them to do it (either directly or indirectly).

Now, if I had the ability, I would have embedded this new video of Conan O’Brien learning to play polo.

PRAISE BE

It doesn’t take a lot to get me excited these days. For example I looked at one of my credit card statements yesterday. I saw that Mastercard now recognizes the EA Vancouver cafeteria as a restaurant. Since restaurants is one of my “special” spending categories, I get another 1% off anything I spend at the cafeteria for a total of 2% cash-back. This wasn’t the case before so the payment processor or whatever must have re-classified the cafeteria’s point-of-sale terminals or something.

Anyways, while 2% is not a whole lot, it’s better than paying 2% more right?

FAT FACE

The annual EA summer family event was held today. Every time I go to one of these things my main goal is eat copious amounts of free food. I did exactly that today.

For the first time in recent memory, they had corn dogs available. I love corn dogs but I haven’t had one in years since I found out how unhealthy they are. I started with those today. I ate two of them before even most of the studio had made it onto the field. I followed that up with a cheeseburger. Because you just can’t resist them, I decided to eat two whole bags of mini-doughnuts. They were made fresh so they were all hot, moist, and glistening with sugar. So good. I chased it all down with a soda and an apple cider.

You might find this hard to believe but I practiced some restraint this afternoon. I also wanted to eat a bag of kettle corn and a bag of potato chips but I decided I had eaten too much already. It’s back to salads tomorrow.