Yeah, so getting my wisdom teeth out was unpleasant. The needles delivering the anaesthetic are smaller, I think, from when I got my pre-molars out in 1988, but it still hurt. Not quite like a mofo, but it wasn’t nice. Then the drilling and pushing and loud cracking sounds weren’t nice either.
My face looks fine but for a little swelling, but the pain is perfectly manageable with paracetamol and ibuprofen. I feel a wee bit like I’ve been punched in the face. And I’m back at work! I’m hard core, I am.
The worst thing? I can’t eat solid food. I’ve been eating yoghurt and soup and I am so fucking hungry all the time. I almost wept seeing Neil eat a pizza last night — pizza has never looked so good. And don’t tell me about ice cream. I like ice cream fine, but only in small amounts. I need real food.
Let’s hope the next round of wisdom teeth removal in three weeks’ time is as smooth.
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There’s good social media campaigns and there’s hilariously bad social media campaigns. Long-time friends will remember a parody I created a number of years ago to exorcise some emotional fallout (*cough*Save Michael See*cough*), and Stephen Baldwin apparently thought it was a great idea.
If you haven’t seen the film Kinsey, I suggest you do. If you’re not a prude, that is. It’s a fascinating biopic. I watched it (again) prior to reading The Inner Circle, TC Boyle’s fictionalised account of Kinsey’s career. But I’m not sure if it helped or hindered my enjoyment of the book, since Boyle took elements of the real story and attributed them to fictional characters.
(Martin, Pomeroy, and Gebhard are now Milk, Corcoran, and Rutledge.)
The story is told from the perspective of John Milk, the first recruit to the Institute (and a naïf as well). As he is drawn deeper into Kinsey’s world, he becomes a participant (sometimes willing, sometimes not so much) in Kinsey’s research into sexual activity, with the inevitable effect on his personal relationships.
This is not for the prudish. Although they’re only words, even I felt slightly uncomfortable (but nowhere near disgusted) at times, especially during the novel’s climax (ahem), when Milk is asked, once again, to choose between Kinsey and his family.
I haven’t read quite enough TC Boyle to say I’m a rabid fan, but I definitely enjoy his fictionalised accounts on real-life characters.
- Verdict: A great interpretation of a fascinating character in a more innocent time.
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I’m only going to get a TV licence this weekend, so I’m going to miss the second leaders debate (election, lah). Since I got my polling card I’ve been way more interested!
This new thing by Facebook — Open Graph — I’m in two minds about.
As I’ve said previously, this sort of data capture is really a marketer’s dream, assuming we’re smart about how we turn the data into information and what we do with it. On the other hand, I like my Web experience to throw up real surprises, to find things I never knew existed or agreed with. If this Open Graph concept takes hold and becomes mainstream, our web experiences are going to become more limited.
I’m not bothered about the privacy thing — embarrassingly, I’ve been an online ‘entity’ for long enough that anything I want to keep private I simply keep offline. I am conscious, though, that I’m really discoverable online, which is a weird realisation to have!
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I like what I’m seeing with this White House initiative to involve the American Muslim community in every day issues concerning the country. That is real engagement.
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It’s time to try out Google Buzz after my first abortive attempt — here’s my profile. Exciting, eh?
I’m no Metallica fan, but this is fucking brilliant.
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Ironic? Yes, but the Tea Partiers won’t care.
It’s taken me a week to get round to posting the few photos I snapped when Neil and I went for a long walk. I’ve hardly used the Lumix camera, and while it’s really nice, I think I would prefer either a simple point-and-shoot or SLR, when it comes to digital.
Romantic ducks
Ladybug homicide
Random rabbit
Strange, isn’t it? The Internet is a great democratiser, but it’s also helped to concentrate power in only a few hands. I’m sure this isn’t exactly groundbreaking news, but my “I built my own website!” self is really having trouble coming to terms with it (but embracing it at the same time, I know I’ve written about it before but I can’t find it).
The web is shrinking! With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter (and their apps), there are probably five gazillion more pages out there. But the information on these sites lives and dies there.
It makes my life easier as a marketer to have these huge, aggregated sites that almost everyone visits — I can plan strategies with much more ease (notwithstanding my current question on how well these applications will display on mobile devices as they get more and more complex). I’m still occasionally obliged to build and/or manage a microsite, but one thing I’ve noticed there is a real dearth of these days is the fan site. There might be one or two that are real draws, but more people are likely to pledge allegiance in their profiles or on the Facebook Pages themselves.
It must be human nature to be lazy. The Web was this Wild West-y sort of place and it still sort of is — but for the most part, the mainstream have decided to take the path of least resistance and join up with these mega sites so they are ‘hanging out’ where everyone else is. I’m betting there are fewer weblogs now that social network and micro-blogging sites have really taken off.
There are still some excellent sites, thank goodness, but I guess this is the way the world works. There may have been a technological revolution and there’s all this talk about how kids are so different because they’re ‘digital natives’, but there hasn’t been a revolution in human behaviour. We’re still lazy shits who, generally, want to enjoy the fruits of other people’s labours.
Some lovely people made my weekend. It could’ve been terrible. I’d left my bag behind at the Meadows and did not notice until it was far too late. But a couple of very nice people picked it up and not only left a message on my voicemail at work, they also called the bank, which operates a service to do with their contents insurance policy.
Then one of them actually came to the flat and returned my bag.
Unthinking me deleted the voicemail. So this is the only way I can say thank you (again).
Happy Birthday to Neil, all 36 years of him…
I’m taking him to see Jim Al-Khalili and Richard Holloway (without question THE COOLEST OLD GUY ON THE PLANET) at the Science Festival this week. How geeky are we? Heh.
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If the Digital Economy Bill becomes law, we will be presumed guilty until proven innocent. Neil would say, go read The Road to Serfdom to find out how we got here.
I think WINSTON! is trying to usurp Mr VIBe’s position as the most prolific pointless graffiti sprayer in Edinburgh.
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In order to take a photo using your iPad, you must buy two apps and link up your iPhone 3GS to your iPad. Or you could use your camera / phone camera to take a photo and not look like a complete idiot.
