Shit happens…
May 10, 2007 Leave a Comment
Sometimes shit happens. You wash it [wipe it for the tissue users] and move on…
-Moi
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Dental mindplay…
April 10, 2007 9 Comments
Have you ever had Estelle Warren, look into your eyes and cause you unbearable pain, and say – Lift up your left hand, whenever you feel pain!
The day started off bad with the swelling as a result of an incessant toothache moving up my face when I woke up today! I decided – that’s it! I have had enough crazy days as a result of this. Today, we decide what’s the fate of the tooth! Given up2 me, I would have just yanked the damned tooth outta its socket and be done with it. Of course, I can only say such things coz i would never dare harm myself thataway!
So, I decided to visit the dentist – finally. I have been escaping this for the past 10 months for the following reasons
- I didn’t get my medical insurance in hand until a month ago
- Dental care is expensive in Germany. Yeah a tooth extraction might leave you 100-500 quid short =S!! Yeah, temme about it!!
However, the pain was not only unbearable, however I also learned that tooth infection manifests itself as various other infections in the body [courtesy: A - a Duke Bio med grad student, who loves experimenting with monkeys - no I am not kidding 
]
So, my throat infection was also getting worse. Fighting the pain, I shaved and took a shower and got ready to realize that the University Dental Clinic [Uni of Erlangen] would probably be the cheapest! So, biked till the clinic – My bus pass also expired – and got into the place.
I had to run around a bit to find the actual clinic – ZankKlinik 1 – as it was called! Now, the receptionist was smiling and she spoke broken English. I managed to give my medical papers to her and told her – PAIN!! Excruciating pain – and she smiled and said – one moment please – you can fill these [2-3 forms which were filled in hurried frenzy] and wait at the waiting room.
Thus began a wait of an hour – during which I managed to go over Inside – a girl’s mag filled with super skinny models and the products they were advertising – and slept! After about 40 mins, however, I was beginning to get frustrated – really really frustrated that 2 other people, who came after me were taken in!
I finally decided that I am gonna give the oh-so-friendly receptionist a piece of my mind, when this Estelle Warren like doc came through the door and said – You – come here…
Ok, for a moment, probably I forgot all the pain. Then another female came to me and started talking in English – asking me for symptoms etc. I made small talk with her – asking how much time it took to become a dentist in Germany – and she told me that she had friends in Bombay, who she’s considering visiting in about 2-3 years time. I said cool =)!!
The the EW like doc came and asked me – what happa? I gave her the details… and then she asked me to open my mouth and started banging around my teeth – asking does this pain? Does this pain? You would that would be a DUMB q to ask – however, none of the teeth actually pained on being hit.
Then she said – ok, let’s take an X-ray!
So, began the sojourn @ the X-ray unit, where the bubbly English speaking doc was there after a brief wait tho =|! Then she made me remove my pendant [I still dunno why] and then took an X-Ray! When the actual rays were being passed, all of them went outta the room. That was kinda scary. The x-ray images were directly passed on to the consulting doc below [yeah I write software for these people... it better have worked 
]!
After this, I went back down and EW doc asked me to get in and lie down on the first chair. What followed was an extremely professional setup of causing an excruciating amount of pain in my tooth, that probably ran all the way to my @$$!!!
Everybody was smiling – and so was I. I was informed that another RCT – Root Canal Therapy – has to be done on that tooth as the previous time, the nerve endings weren’t removed properly. Btw, this is the 2nd time that it’s happening when the RCT was done bad. I should go back n kick my previous dentist’s @$$!!
I immediately asked how long is this gonna take? She said – 3 sittings. Today one, tomorrow another and another one for checking! I was mentally calculating how much this is gonna cost me considering that my medical insurance covers ONLY 50% of dental treatment! I am gonna be robbed =(! Anyhoo, i decided that this is the price I have to pay for not checking my teeth before heading towards Germany! =|!
What followed initially was a rubber sorta thingy placed on to my tooth, which hurt – so that saliva doesn’t bother the doc working on the tooth. Then, the usual drilling, grinding and then came the disclaimer – if u feel pain at any point, please lift ur left hand. Then she did something – God knows what, those green eyes looking into mine, and gave me such a pain, which’s still lasting btw. And I am already on one Ibuprofen =(!
Apparently, today the tooth has to be left open so that “matter” comes out =S!! And tomorrow they are gonna inject some medicine into the tooth, which will prevent any further infection as a result of this “treatment”!!
Beware of dentists – they can hurt you BAD!
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Talk about service….
April 9, 2007 2 Comments
Call back service – Yup, punch in your phone number into the customer service centre online and in < 2 minutes, they call you back and an executive is talking to you!
Ok, I don’t know about you guys, but that blew me away =)!
This is from the DKV – Deutsche Krankenversicherung – which translated would mean German Medical Insurance. They are Germany’s biggest medical insurance company – or so I was told. I have a toothache that’s killing me and I read in my contract that only 50% of my dental treatment bills are covered.
To confirm what can I do (or not do), I went to their website to find a hot line number, which I can call and wait for sometime (a LONG time) and spend 0.12 Euro cents a minute [ .|. u Tonline]. However, this was not only a surprise but an amazing one coz they took less than 2 minutes to call me back on the number that I had punched in to the website.
Amazing – yup I think so =). It brought a smile to my face [and increased my tooth ache for an instant].
However, my happiness was limited. After this, I had to face the fact that being Easter Monday [a holiday across Europe], dentists are on vacation and there are no emergency dentists, but only an emergency general medicine practitioner =|!
Yup, I know! So, I am still nursing my terrible teeth and worsening throat infection =|! Yeah Easter hols kinda sucked =|!
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I like to move it… Move it…
April 8, 2007 Leave a Comment
Raionalizing Religion…
April 1, 2007 4 Comments
How hard … is it to reconsider all that you know [well a good majority of what you know] once you have re-formed [or formed for the first time] an opinion?
To go through and consider all that you have learned in life till now, again because you realized that some of your choices, principles etc were just derived and not formed on your own?
Is it good that you have derived all your ideologies?
Is it ok that you have different ideologies?
Rationalizing is something that’s tough if you don’t decide to assume a lot of things.
Eg gravity. Unless you remember your physics and understand gravity, you shouldn’t believe in it. This attitude should percolate into everything and anything you do..
The same is the case for religion as well. Unless I assume the teachings of my forefathers, a lot of things have to be first searched for…
What’s the difference then? =/ and why do people consider the two of them to be mutually exclusive?
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The future of computing…
March 28, 2007 Leave a Comment
Hmmm… GMail’s dead
March 27, 2007 2 Comments
How easy is it….
March 26, 2007 4 Comments
… to be absolutely comfortable about who you are, what you will be, knowing who you can be?
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Ma… Paa….
March 26, 2007 1 Comment
How did the word Amma, Mom, Mother, Maatha, Mummy and Appa, Pop, Father, Pita, Daddy come into being? Across the world, in very many languages in all probability the word for mother has “ma” associated with it and is part of the word. [Have no clue about Chinese and Japanese and other South East Asian languages =D]
Is it because that it’s the easiest to say??
I tried speaking like a baby [and also behaving like a baby to give authenticity to this claim]! I think [feel free to correct me] the easiest sound to produce by a baby is “aaaaa”… [as in arm]
And the easiest motion is to close and open the mouth! – Try it!
Now when you close the mouth, try to produce the same sound. It comes – Aaaaa – Mmmmm – aaaaaa …
Now when you close the mouth, stop producing the “aaa” sound. It comes – Aaaaa – Ppppppp (ause) – aaaa …
Maybe this is the reason why Ma and Pa are the easiest words!
I think I might need a break!
Expectations vs Objectives….
March 26, 2007 2 Comments
I am creating a new category of posts today – Inspiration Atop (a) Pot. I think the pun speaks for itself.
Expectations – what are they? Something you expect out of a situation. Something you ready your mind for to acquire, gather, gain, learn of a situation. Generally it’s human tendency [ok NOT to generalize - it is (was??) my tendency] to have pretty high expectations of something.
<noun.cognition> expectation, outlook, prospect1 — (belief about (or mental picture of) the future)
Thank you Wordnet 2.1 http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
For e.g. – I expected that I would be backpacking across Europe and have a lot of stories and experience to narrate when I was first approached with a German deputation. I expected that I would be knowing all the beer breweries of Germany by name and experience 
!
However, I realized that this is the wrong approach to any situation. Every situation should be approached not with expectations but with objectives.
<noun.cognition> aim1, object, objective, target — (the goal intended to be attained (and which is believed to be attainable); “the sole object of her trip was to see her children”)
Thank you Wordnet 2.1 http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
For e.g. – My objective of the German trip would be that i will backpack across Europe and will hence have a lot of stories and experience to narrate. I will know all the beer breweries in Germany by name and experience !
I dunno if you see the difference, but High Atop (a) Pot, I realized the difference! I also realized that without any expectations, your success / failure is determined ONLY by you, which if you are me, would make you do what you came to do =D!
The same can also be applied to any situation by you. Lower the expectations always [followed excellently by bum chum - G]. Once you have lowered the expectations, anything you do [even as part of your objective / not] will be considered as “exceeding expectation” – a sure shot way to succeed and for people to appreciate.
E.g. Lower the expectations completely. Make people believe you are a lazy selfish bugger.
Offering to help a girl with her luggage suddenly means a whole lot more. People suddenly think that you are caring as you have definitely exceeded their expectations.
Probably one of life’s most important lessons… preached – High Atop (a) Pot!
Air Guitar Nation…
March 23, 2007 3 Comments
A few months ago, I wrote about air guitaring… for the uninitiated.. And this is – professional air guitaring people… ! The quest for the ultimate air guitarist is here… I for sure am waiting for this movie =)!
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/airguitarnation/trailer/
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Performancing turned to ScribeFire…
March 23, 2007 1 Comment
Well, they have certainly changed the looks with the new Ubuntu Orange from the cool blue of Performancing, hopefully managing to put for fire into my blogging =D!
Performancing extension for Firefox has now turned to ScribeFire 1.4 Well, at least now they probably add the customizable text for blogging. I am tired of looking at the dull font, which cannot be customized, in my editor. The ONLY reason why I am not choosing Performancing ScribeFire as my blog editor of choice!
Else, it’s pretty much the same with some issues ironed out =/!
So much for my hopes of Flock buying out Performancing and gaining some ground with their cool browser =(!
</@>
February 22, 2007 9 Comments
Yup! Germany has struck again and for no fault of mine, my telecom provider, TOnline, decided to cut off my broadband DSL line and now will re-enable it ONLY if I go for a full year’s contract.
Injustice – ?? Hehe, just one of the many few I have had the experience of here… =)!
Anyhoo, getting me to appreciate the availability of net and getting used to the condition back home anyway… =)! Life’s strange…
So, IOW, </@> End of NET!
And yeah, I have been asking myself that question – Why me?? !
Specialness Issues….
February 12, 2007 10 Comments
This is something I found at The Dilbert Blog, maintained by the creator – Scott Adams himself. It struck a chord with me wrt the many things he seems to be discussing here. I may not be thinking completely rationally here, and maybe his article is just catering to a side of me that needs to be catered. But, have a read. I think it definitely will mean something to everybody!
I am putting here a few quotes that just meant something to me!
According to the experts, there are many forms of intelligence. Standard IQ tests only capture a few types. But you can also have musical intelligence, social intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, and so on.
One type of intelligence that I never hear discussed – and might be the most important one – is the degree to which you believe you are “special.” Or to put it bluntly, the more special you believe you are, the stupider you are.
Your belief in your own specialness will blunt your conventional intelligence when it comes to many types of decisions. For example, if you are an Elbonian, and believe Elbonians are extra special, your approach to a problem will be “How should an Elbonian solve it?” as opposed to “What’s the best solution?” The next thing you know, you’re boiling a newt during a full moon to cure a headache, even though you have aspirin in the cupboard and know what it’s for.
If you have the same religion or political affiliation as your parents or your community – considering all the different choices available to you – then you probably have specialness problems.
When I discussed in this blog the question of whether the universe is intelligent, the people who believe humans are special objected, although they didn’t couch it in those terms. The objectors imagine Shakespeare writing those plays – a special human just like them – while discounting the contribution of the big old unspecial universe that gave cause to him. For this group, their conventional IQ is quite high, as evidenced by the sophistication of their arguments about proximate causes and semantics and intent and quantum randomness. But in the end, their conventional intelligence is thwarted by their sense of specialness. They are skeptics, damn it, and skeptics don’t accept an intelligent universe, no matter what that dictionary says is an acceptable definition of intelligence.
You can judge your own specialness quotient by your reaction to this post. If you are chuckling to yourself because humans are indeed inconsequential in the big scheme of things, you probably have no specialness issues. But if you are already writing a comment involving free will, quantum uncertainty, proximate causes, and alternate dictionary definitions of intelligence, you probably have a specialness problem.
Yeah, I know – I have practically quoted the entire post. It may have hit upon me as a revelation, for the reason that I _did_ have specialness issues. The details are still something I am coming to terms with =)!
Trudging along….
December 15, 2006 5 Comments
It’s surprising when you are living alone, time drags with every second, and minute, but still @ the end of 5 months, or more, when you look back, you realize that you don’t even remember whatever you did!!
