Years ago, when a friend visited me during Christmas, we would go to the Stanford church to attend the Christmas mass there. It was quite a spectacle, what with all the candlelights, prayers, and chorus music. It was very "holy". At the same time, I didn't know what the big deal was in that quiet hall, where everyone looked very pious and serious.
Shouldn't Christmas be...merry?
A few days ago, my older brother asked me where church meets this Sunday so he could take his kids there. I felt a sense of joy as I detected a sense of envy coming from him. Wow...my brother waming up to my faith...to Christ the Savior!
That's what my dentist Thomas H. said after I bit down on some putty to record my sets of teeth.
Even now, an hour after walking out of his office for a crown on tooth #19, I am still heavily sedated—call it my "novocaine hangover". Really, I can't feel anything on my lower jaw! And I have a dinner date with my gf, but I worry about biting my tongue since I can't feel anything at all.
In any case, the whole procedure, under Thomas's gentle care, took two hours or so. (Thnx Tom! I'm still trying to set you up with my friend Mandy.)
I was pretty stressed out going into the procedure. I kept thinking about dentists having the highest suicide rates, me not knowing the details of crowning and the risk involved, the hi-pitched drilling sound, etc.
So what did I do? I prayed. A lot. I prayed for two hours of the procedure, prayed for Thomas, prayed for myself, all under my numbed mouth. Guess what, it worked! I felt very at ease and calm thereafter. (Great wonderful painkiller and Thomas's professional "chair-side" manners helped, too.)
Now I won't be so fretful going into my follow up in two weeks. I plan on asking Thomas what he thinks of my choice of a hookup for him. Haha.
Sshssh...whatever happens at my dentist's office stays at my dentist's office.
PROFILE: Thomas H. DDS
• 5'7 1/2"—5'10" ???
• cool, laid back, Taiwanese
• churchgoer (on and off)
• can say "autoclaves, endodontics, occlusal matrix" 10x really really fast
• lifetime supply of toothbrushes
One of the things we talked about yesterday at Corner Place after church was that "Berean is the 'Starbucks of Christian bookstores'."
Why not go to smaller places like Lion and the Lamb, Gospel Books, or go online to Amazon?
What do you think?
I had a Berean gift card given to me by Scott last year at our Christmas gift exchange and I wanted get a book. And seeing that Scott was there with me during lunch, and who also was interested in going there, it made much sense to go.
So we drove to Berean. On the way there we chatted about the upcoming Chris Tomlin concert, about a friend who recently accepted Christ (congrats chanlung!), about Knot2Us, GrX, and Sunday's sermon.
Wonderful!
Earlier that day, taking a break from work, I clicked over to my beloved site: the WSJ and obviously this breach of security warranted even the prestigious WSJ to make a report of it: Hacker Breaks Into UCLA Database—University Warns That Personal Records For 800,000 Students, Staff Were Exposed. (View article here subscription required)
Great!
The first thing that I thought of was the NOC list, you know, from Mission: Impossible. (Westwood, home of UCLA, is pretty close to Hollywood). This higher ed "NOC list" contains personal info of "current and some former students, faculty and staff, some student applicants and some parents of students or..." on and on.
That being said, the list is out there, in the open. Some disreputable guy (assuming it's a guy) is floating around with my name, SSN, DOB, home addresses, and contact info. (Ok, not just me but 800,000 other folks out there.)
What's wrong with the new ball?
Having used the new NBA mircofiber ball two weeks ago on our Sat. pick up games, I love it. It's been great for me. My 10-15 footers were going in, the new ball feels lighter, I had better grip grip. This overall resulted in better shots. With the added bonus of the new ball complimenting well with my Yao Ming jersey, too.
Where it counts though, in the NBA, everybody didn't respond well to it at all. Come Jan. 1 next year, the league will switch back to the leather ball. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2694335
