Readers!

There are none of you.


I will not post for several days.


No reason.

Broken Foot!

I've managed my first broken bone. I was at work with my mind in gutter-like pit of anger and despair at not having enough time to complete a job. So, I hurried, pushed my way through, and got done putting up a bunch of tables in about 8 minutes. Mind you, these are fucking hideously heavy tables.

Imagine if you will, a wooden table that is 8 feet long, perhaps 3 or four feet across (just far enough across to make it really awkward. My idea of how to set them up involved using my feet and kicking them up, a tactic that works quite well on most small tables (these smaller tables tend to be made from plastic). So, the first one that I kicked, I didn't kick hard enough, and it came down hard, hitting the surface of my right foot. I thought it hit the toe, cause immediately my toes hurt like hell. 

I cursed in front of professors, but having learnt my lesson about necessary force, I took the next table and sent it into the air with more than enough momentum for the job, getting it into position perfectly with a good kick and some hand control. Then I walked over to set up the remaining three. I had to negotiate my way through the door, which was difficult enough, but it worked fine. The other 3 tables easily caved to the might of my legs. By this point though, my right foot was starting to hurt like a son-a-bitch.

So, I did what I always do. Ignore the problem til it turns huge. I finished up my shift, walked to Historical linguistics, called Vanessa and then tried to work on my Syntax. I didn't have my book with me, so I was going inefficiently off class notes. Needless to say, I didn't get enough done.

I noticed while I was working on Syntax that my foot was getting progressively worse. The swelling was bad and walking on it was pretty painful. My assumption though, was that it couldn't be broken, cause "a break should hurt more than a sprain" This is often the case, but microfractures are different, just a little crack in the bone.  Walking from class to the student health service though was painful. I limped the whole way, getting a relief from the pain when my advil kicked in.

Then came the interminable wait at Boynton, first for the triage nurse, then to get a room open, and then upwards of a half hour in my examining room waiting for the doctor to send me down to get an X-ray. After that I was wheeled back up, and waited another 10ish minutes for the doctor. She arrived and repeated a "poke test" I had done earlier. This showed what was damaged and was correlated with her x-rays.  She left quickly and was replaced by a nurse who wrapped it up and gave me a sort of break shoe, a shoelike thing that would more or less hold me together, prevent me from twisting the foot stupidly.

Nonetheless, I'm still alive.

Song of the day: Still Alive-GladOs

More Excitement

In the dental school this morning. I got here early, ate yogurt as I stared across the city in morning light. I ate yogurt because I thought it would be cheap. It actually wasn't, but it wasn't prohibitively expensive either. I've gotten a fair amount of preventative maintenance done. Usually preventative work in the labs doesn't draw much attention, but today I was asked what I was doing by about 5 people, maybe because I'm dressed down today in just a t-shirt and ratty old jeans. Nonetheless, it's a bit annoying to explain why these constantly used machines occasionally need replacement parts. I think it's self-explanatory.

What was actually interesting was hazardous waste. I had to manifest a bunch, maybe 15-25 pounds of human teeth that sit in cups of dried plaster with amalgam (heavy metal fillings) in the teeth. They were in a large bucket supplied to us without a top. Normal procedure for such things is to send them out in whatever container they arrive in, but without the bucket top, that's not exactly possible. Instead, I ended up having to package them in a cardboard box.

So, first I determined that putting their bucket in the box wouldn't really work. This meant I had to find a suitable replacement, so I ended up finding a plastic garbage bag to line the box with. I do this to prevent hazardous material(the heavy metals) from seeping out easily in transit. So, the next step was to actually get the teeth from the bucket and into their shipping container. I did this the most crude and easy way possible, that is, I ended up lifting up the bucket and pouring.

The bucket being not prohibitively heavy, this seemed like the easiest option. One thing I forgot was the tendency for weight to shift weirdly when being turned and moved violently. After a bit of thought I managed to lift the bucket above the cart, and with a little bit of apprehension, to pour the teeth into their shipping box. The teeth slid slowly at first, but then proceeded to tumble at an alarming rate into the box. Teeth hit other teeth hard, sending shards of human tooth flying into my safety goggles. It made me happy to have safety goggles.

Within a minute the ordeal was over, the box was properly labeled for pickup and sealed. It felt good to have the bucket empty and no longer a threat to me.

After that I walked around with the song "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eye Cherry stuck in my head. I didn't mean for that to happen.I heard it not with their singers voice, but rather Jamie Stewart, the lead singer of Xiu Xiu's

Spurning UDS

My decision to spurn University Dining Services and all associated snack shops, has proven to be far easier to deal with than expected. Their deal with Aramark and Coca-cola is vaguely evil and stupid, leads to low quality food and disenfranchised workers. Because of that, I've given up on them.

So, if I really want something to eat while at school, I have to walk to a non-UDS affiliated restaurant. I thought this basically meant Dinkytown, or the fast-food nexus of stadium village. Luckily, I was wrong. In fact, I've found a place that beats UDS on quality, price and view.

I work in the Academic Health Center, the School of Dentistry specifically at the U of M. Connected to the AHC is a Fairview Hospital. On the 8th floor of this hospital is a cafeteria, with ridiculously good prices. I spent 1.50 on a salad and drink this afternoon, and was completely, utterly satisfied with it . The view is amazing as well, since it's situate so high up above the river, one can see much of the city, St. Paul and Minneapolis.


I suggest going to this place.


Song of the Day: None.

A new truth

I will no longer buy any snacks from the University of Minnesota. My decision is due to their continued (12 year) relationship with Aramark. Also, it has to do with the fact that I waste too much money on disposables.

Internet Meme Overload

Heaven and Hell...

If only a lolcat was also involved.


Tay Zonday...

Chez Robot

I'm wasting a bit of time before work, browsing my various news sites, checking basically anything, everything that catches my eye today, when I learn about an interesting new restaurant.

It unsurprisingly comes from the same nation that produced the hit pop song "Die Roboter" or "The Robots" back in the 70s, a nation renowned for it's high-tech innovation. Of course, the nation in question is Germany.

But, you really ought to read the article, so here it is.

Robot Restaurant BBC story on a robot-run restaurant
this Web site.

Rain!

Well, it appears that I just got rained on for the first time in 2008. It's April 4th. The first April shower has arrived. I love it. What I don't love is the potential for snow that it brings. I don't want to see any more snow. I don't care for it anymore. It's bored the crap out of me for weeks. The snow feels like the leftovers that no one has the guts to get rid of. A good rainstorm will do exactly that, it will get rid of the god-awful white mess on people's dead lawns, in our streets and on our sidewalks.

I like that kind of cleansing. It's my favorite. I don't mind at all that it leaves behind all sorts of nastiness. Decayed plant matter, chaotic arrangements of things and the like are simply to expected. Imagine dropping tons of chopped up leaves on the ground, then covering them with something cold and wet for several months. Whatever emerges from that experience is bound to be different from it's beginning.

The smell of pre-rain is intoxicating to me. Of all weather phenomena, pre-rain jumps at me. It's hot. I like it. It makes me happy for a ton of reasons. Mostly the aforementioned clean feeling. But the smell itself is indescribably amazing. I can't explain exactly why I like the taste of raspberry iced tea, nor can I explain why I like tearing apart gummy snacks with my teeth, so there is no way that I can clearly explain why I like the smell of pre-rain. And then the experience of the beginning of a rainfall. The instant bonding of strangers to the idea of shelter.

I think the possibility of instant bonding between people is why, in spite of the clear ability to wipe out all life on the planet, humans still make their way. Homo Sapiens have yet to outgrow our use, as Homo Superior is not here for us to make way for.

Song of the Day: "Oh you pretty things"-David Bowie

Or...

"Chasing Eden"-Tay Zonday (New song, not terribly funny but pretty interesting, moving a bit)