no smile

In a bid to prepare myself for the rigors of university that includes essay writing and massive reading, I have decided to make have weekly blog entries that are properly written in terms of language and structure.
Well, maybe not in perfect English because that would just be boring (i think) but, more coherent and proper than how I usually write.

Just a few weeks ago I extracted my wisdom tooth in a painful process that will be forever etched in my memory. But that aside, I was pretty lucky to avoid some of the side -effects, such as swelling, and inability to move the jaw. (I even had to give tuition the next day)
I could move my jaw slightly, just couldn't open my mouth too wide because it would feel like I'm tearing the stitches apart. So i couldn't really move the left side of my face much.

As such, one thing that I was deprived of was a smile.

Now you may think this is nothing, but having a neutral-dao face like mine, if I just keep my face relaxed, I'll look very unfriendly and angry or something. So I probably looked grumpy for the few days following the surgery.

The most annoying thing for me was the inability to smile. I never realised how important this was until I started talking to people - normally playful-friendly conversations just sound like i'm pissed off because I don't smile.

Just try it - go smileless for a day. When you talk to people, suppress the urge to smile and see how it sounds like. You'll sound snappy and grumpy in whatever you say without a smile. You see a friend and go "Hey, havent seen you in a long time." -no smile-
It'll sound like you're implying 'aw damn, unlucky to meet you".

Any good thing will sound like you're saying it begrudgingly too. Imagine you are playing a sport, and your teammate scores, and you go 'Good job.' -no smile-
You'll sound bitter like you wished it was you who scored.

It's hard to fully paint the scenarios for you unless you experience it yourself. In fact, you can go one step further and similarly omit all smileys in your online/phone text conversations (unless you're the type that doesn't use smileys at all) and see how you sound. (this looks wrong, since you don't exactly SEE how you SOUND. But yea.)

In fact, how have you felt reading this post? Bored? Glum? I have deliberately left out any smileys or exclamation points to accentuate my point. A world with no smiles is a bleak place.

a random update

hi people sorry for not updating for so long.. didn't really have the motivation to blog. had a good idea to write about like last week after i removed my wisdom tooth, but never got about to penning it down. work la, too little time for recreation. My work's ending tmr so sure blog more k :)


Anyway, last thursday was bestie's birthday! and being the awesome best friend who totally sucks at buying presents (that's why i don't normally get people presents.. so if you get a present from me... it's extra effort so better appreciate it ;p ) , i decided to bake for her!


I went over to weiqin's house (cos i dont have an oven or the equipment at home) to bake. We (or rather I, i did most of the mixing k.) made the batter from scratch! Like not those instant mix kind, we mixed the butter/sugar/flour etc on our own.


BEFORE



AFTER!
Ok la sorry the shape abit screwed up i never shape properly. Next time i make perfect round shape k.
And this time round the cookies were a little normal. Like normal crispyness, which is nice la, just that i wanted to achieve the subway softness.

I made like 2 batches which turned out to be ALOT. So i brought to office to share it.. and people loved them =) hahaha. i'm a baker i rock.


Tastes better than it looks



Fail self-shot of my assistant baker (HAHA ok fine she is more pro than me and guiding me more than anything but.. i did all the hard work k.)



nom nom


THANKS WEIQIN FOR LETTING ME USE YOUR KITCHEN AND HELPING TO CLEAN UP AND HELPING IN EVERYTHING. =)


and a random picture i saw in the papers:


ANAL packages... hmmm.

hahahaha. not a smart logo choice.


AND. the biggest news of all.
As some of you may know, PC Show 2010 was on this weekend, and so i went down with a group of people to get a new laptop! The people ranged from pewi/bestie to some forum user whom i didnt even know. But we buy together to hope to cut more.


In the end, i bought an Asus A42JV @ $1500!





lazy to take more artistic shots but yea. It's nice. It's not very light though, and battery life is kinda short (3-5 hours i think.. i unplugged the power cable just now and it said "3 hours remaining" but it kept changing so i dunno. haven't ran a proper test yet.
But the graphics card is good and all so.. yea.

and to end, tomorrow is my last day at work at IBM and probably the rest of my life.. cos school is starting soon and i probably won't get another short assignment from them or anything.
This 2 weeks was fun, some days very free:


This is my email, one mail at 9.38AM, next mail... 6 hours later. :D

But of course sometimes quite busy la. but it's all ending tomorrow!! time to prep a few months worth of tuition work and start working out :S

Ok bye time for world cup.

wisdom tooth extraction

745AM -

bzzttt. my alarm woke me up, but it was my mind that snapped me awake. The day of reckoning. The day to remove my wisdom tooth.

Not my normal extraction, by surgery. Cos it's lower jaw and it's difficult or something. Otherwise can just pluck.

Am i nervous/scared? Hell yes. It's the first time i'm doing something like that, and I cant say i really enjoy going to the dentist. Who does?

910AM -

Arrival at dentist. The nurse informs me that the dentist is caught in traffic and may be a bit late. -_- cheers, more time to spend worrying and being nervous. I'm firing off SMSes to random people who are replying me in hopes of allaying my fears.

935AM -

My appointment was supposed to be at 930, but still no news. I'm waiting anxiously on the couch, unable to distract myself with the boring dental magazines available there. The butterflies in my stomach are fluttering around looking for some flower to suck on.

Close to 10AM -

The dentist is finally ready, so I'm called into the room. He goes through the procedure with me, warns me of the risks of surgery, asks me to sign a consent form which clears him if he takes out all my teeth accidentally with the wisdom tooth.

Ok fine maybe not that but basically to say i understand the risks and I want it.

10AM +

I get my shot of Local Anesthetic to numb my gum area, etc. The first needle prick was the most uncomfortable cos i could feel it go all the way in.. but it numbed up the area so i didn't really feel subsequent ones.

So after delivering me my dose of LA, they got me ready for the surgery, including draping some cloth thing over my chest (wtf? blood will spurt out one ah?) and covering my eyes with that same cloth.

And so.. the surgery began. He began cutting up the edges around my tooth (or at least that's what it felt like, i had no idea what he was doing and i didn't really feel much pain except for the pressure of him sawing around my tooth.

Ok then from this point on I am not 100% sure what he's doing cos the whole area was quite numb, i can only guess.

Then he started pulling at my tooth and of course there was some pain so I pain some small noise when there was pain and he stopped. (EDIT: you can see that when I am recalling that memory there is so much pain that i keep typing pain. I meant 'so i made some small noise when there was pain' )

I"m not sure what he did, maybe he applied more Local Anesthetic to numb it more, maybe he didn't. I couldn't really feel needle pricks.

So this just went on, the pulling around at my tooth, he'll stop abit when there's pain, etc.. I try to dahan already my clenching the sides of the seat. And he can see when my whole body tenses up so he'll stop abit.

Then i don't know what happen, i think my tooth too problematic and he getting impatient. Then he start whacking already. He took some electric saw thing and started sawing. After sawing in abit of course got pain, so i said.

THEN. I THINK TAKING TOO LONG. So he start YANKING with like full strength at my tooth from different angles.. it was DAMN PAIN. Like wtfwhereisthelocalanesthetic. The nurses had to hold my head cos i think they also know damn pain. And one was patting my arm.

And the dentist kept going "Sorry ah... sorry alan.. sorry.. sorry alan.. " as he was yanking with all his strength. The pain was f-cking intense can?? Just imagine your tooth getting pulled out of its socket. That was what it felt like.

This went on for like 5-10 minutes!!! It was freaking torture. If he had went "ok alan tell me all your secrets now" i'll probably rattle off as much as i could though i couldn't really speak to get him to stop.

So after like an eternity of tugging and yanking and more sawing and me struggling while the nurse held me down (she held on to my head so i wouldn't move too much), the dentist suddenly said " ok, your wisdom tooth is out".

THANK GOD .

Then after that he stitched me up which i couldn't feel.. even if i did it couldn't be as pain as the yanking out of my tooth.

Now

My left side of my face is still kinda numb, though the LA is wearing off. Just took the painkillers, though some of my teeth still really hurt from the trauma. Like it feels like someone is trying to pull them out. My centre bottom 2 teeth.Hope i don't lose any of my other teeth!!! Cos it really feels like that :S

Swelling hasn't begun.. heard tmr it'll swell up. Hope not too big!

Tmr i've to go back to work somemore! No choice cos the person i'm covering is leaving on Friday and I need to take over properly and learn finish everything and confirm everything.

AND, the sucky thing is i have to give tuition tmr and fri night as well!!

Tomorrow is some new kid which i just got.. so... screwed. I don't think i can talk much.. so i think i'll just throw alot of work at the kid. Hope it works out fine.

Fri is winsome which is better.

Ouchhh my teeth still hurt now. Biting down on a gauze to try to stop the bleeding.. but it hurts. :(

WTB fastforward.