in California now

My Ann Arbor world is so small. Airpline flights expose me to a broader cross section of America. In particular, more old people and young people, especially families. On my first leg, the stewardess nearly kidnapped one adorable tot, carrying him on her side while checking seatbelts/traytables/upright positions down the aisle as the mother kept a careful eye. Behind her sat another family's teenage boys who also enjoyed getting the popular baby to giggle and play.

Waiting for my next segment in the Phoenix airport, I sat in front of what seemed to me a perfect family. They were rich, just enough, in that middle-class America way--rich enough for fun. The preteen daughter had a deck of cards for some clever game, "Cadoo," and a sketch of Trogdor doing a math problem, captioned, "Nanny the Nerdinator." The barely older brother had a game boy but he wasn't addicted to it, he preferred bugging his sister (this was mutual) or joking with his parents (also mutual). He pointed to something on the TV, "look pigs are flying," and the mom said, "lots of things are going to happen now." Corny jokes that are funny only in good company. Mother and son agreed they should let "Ben keep Mort." Daughter gave a scowl. Dad asked why. Mom said now they've found someone who'd really want a turtle, and suddenly Jesse's heartbroken, but not enough to change Mort's water every three days. Dad promises to let Jesse keep the turtle if she can teach him a trick in the next month. Mom and Jesse agree that's impossible, because turtle's brains aren't "tricky."

So flights are effective at nostalgia-ing me up for a home visit. At home, I find my dad's torn up the dining room carpet to install "hard-wood floor" (the shrink-wrapped slats say "laminate" which is what I have in my apartment). My grandmother finds teaching me French thoroughly entertaining. Damiana harvests a handful of calamansi, a small Philippine citrus now growing in the backyard. My mom says she's stopped going overboard on shopping/groceries but the fridge and pantries are still overflowing, in my view... and just now she's come back from Walmart (it's past midnight) and she's telling me, "you know why I like going to Walmart? It makes me nostalgic. I see all these young married people who cannot afford to spend too much on diapers..."

ha ha ha. slice a life.

Adventures, part two.

Now I've spent the past two hours obsessing about gum disease over the internet. Satiated, I want to share what I've learned.

FLOSS YOUR TEETH OR YOU WILL LOSE THEM. Actually, I knew this. I got the scare last year when the SF dentist suggested root planing. [Note, Benni had one of those and reports they're not as scary as I make them out to be.] Half or more of us have some level of gum disease, the most common cause of tooth loss. At the early stage, gum disease can be stopped (but bone loss not reversed) by better oral hygeine at home and regular dentist visits. A root planing is effective for many, but I was too busy/chicken to do this, so have been flossing religiously for the past year. Success! Except for the wisdom teeth issue, I got off easy this last dental visit; she just admonished me to floss in earnest, and make one of my daily brushings last three whole minutes, seriously clock it. But, with those worrisome 4 mm measurements, I think I'm still fighting off the gum disease—maybe root planing's still in my future—we'll see what she says in six months.

Also: soft bristles are best for gums. Harder toothbrushes can irritate gums and reduce your resistance to gum disease.

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Side note. Don't worry, I am doing more with my life than obsessing over my teeth these days (these manias come in bursts, anyway). These days I'm trying to learn topology, yoga poses, proper swim strokes, and ways to cook polenta. Actually I'm pretty much done with polenta for the time being. Oh, meanwhile, I'm also obsessing about my vision. And wedging in algebra here and there, but not too effectively. Anyway that summarizes the utterly self-centered (majority) part of my life these days.

Adventures of My Dentures

Ha ha fooled you! I don't need dentures, yet... Better news is I passed my gum test! Was afraid they'd prescribe me a root scaling (aka deep cleaning) as did the sheisty San Francisco dentist I went to a year ago. I must be right on the line--the hygienest was calling out the depths of my gum pockets, in millimeters, and I got a few fours in back, but mostly threes, with ones and twos up in front. Three is the cut-off for healthy, so she's letting the fours slide, I guess. The dentist here echoed the dentist I saw last year, that I should probably get those back teeth out anyway—one is very hard to reach, and if you get one out, you might as well lose the rest, some people feel.

Boo hoo. I sorta feel that if I let them take my wisdom teeth, I'll become less wise... but if I really believe that I guess I don't have much wisdom to lose to begin with.

Learn something new, part 2.

Several actually means few, not many. All my life I had it wrong. It's still hard for me to believe. If a few people were late and several people were early, don't you think more people were early? I can't help but feel that way.

oh this is also interesting

can't call it learning something new, since i don't understand the technical aspects, but maybe you do. http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt supposedly blocks many kinds of search engines from finding documents, according to http://old.leavesrustle.com/articles/111.html. I know I'm guilty of disseminating non-information here, because I don't know what I'm talking about, and can't vouch that it's not misinformation, but y'all are smart, maybe you know something.

insomniac insomniac insomniac

Learn something new.

Cockroaches can be trained! Towards the end of "Team America," a cockroach walks up a ramp into a getaway plane. According to the American Humane Association's web site (they award the "no animals were harmed" certifications) the cockroach was trained by an "insect wrangler," and they say it like it's a typical thing in the world of movie making. Wow.

Here's the review: http://www.ahafilm.info/movies/mr.phtml?fid=7617

I liked the animals in the movie--the sharks in Kim Jong Il's tank reminded me of the ones we dissected in high school. And kitties! [As for the rest of the movie, worth it just for the amazing puppet world--I watched all the DVD making-of featurettes after--and the story/humor is exactly what you'd expect of the South Park guys (I'm a fan.)]

Now I'm going to waste more time on the internet looking at other AHA film reviews... interesting... "The Beach" is rated "questionable." They were filming that in Thailand around the time I was there (I forget if before or after or during, but people were talking about it, about going to the island where they worked/were going to work). Well I'm going to click and find out more about "questionable"...