Apple iTunes Match: problem with many copies of same playlist

2012-05-31 19:21:00

Sadly, not all things Apple are awesome. 

While I love the idea of the iTunes Match service, it's wrought with problems. One of the most commonly seen problems is when Match creates dozens if not hundreds of duplicates of a playlist. In my case there are over 500 copies of a "On the go" playlist. This kills performance on iTunes and occasionally also on your iPod / Music iOS application. 

Luckily it's easy to clean up these copies using an Applescript:

with timeout of (45 * 60) seconds
          tell application "iTunes"
                    delete (every playlist whose name is "NAME OF PLAYLIST")
          end tell
end timeout

With many thanks to Apple Support Forum member TRujder who explained the script here.

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh,

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Shadow Era: physical cards are ready to ship

2012-05-28 23:26:00

Well crap, I buckled! :D

Three days before the final end of the Shadow Era pre-orders I've bought a booster box. I just couldn't -not- get a second set of all the premium goodies they're giving out to early backers. 

Also... Excuses, excuses: the 24 boosters will provide a nice card pool to actually build two or three decent decks.

Of course, I'm still not buying as many cards as Natalie is, eh girl? :D We should play a few rounds with Marli when our cards've come in ^_^

kilala.nl tags: games, geeky, awesome,

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Sakamichi no Apollon - Kids on the slope

2012-05-28 21:56:00

A few months ago I first heard of the new anime Sakamichi no Apollon (Apollo of the slope), a slice-of-life drama about high school kids in the sixties. Aside from love and life, these kids are also discovering jazz music which makes for an awesome show as the music is done by the brilliant Yoko Kanno. I have made no secret of my love for Kanno's work on Cowboy Bebop and the music on SnA is exactly what I was hoping for.

The great thing about this show is that it's also helping me discover new jazz, that I wasn't aware of before. Each episode contains at least one reference to a new album, case in point Chris Connor's Lullaby of Birdland. It's used in episode 5, when Sentaro suggests that jazz is best with a husky woman's voice. I fear that watching this show will lead to more than a few purchases on iTunes :)

Here's the trailer of Sakamichi no Apollon.

kilala.nl tags: anime, music,

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Japanmarkt 2012 in Leiden

2012-05-27 20:42:00

After last weekend's Anime 2012, we thought we'd do a little encore: today we visited the Japanmarkt 2012 in Leiden. We had glorious weather so it was a great day, one way or another :)

The market was basically what I'd expected of it: a few dozen stalls along one of Leiden's waterways, close to the Sieboldhuis. Some of the stalls were interesting, others not so much. In my opinion it was more a "market to gather Japanese stuff", than an event that really promoted Japanese culture. 

My favourite of the bunch was the stall of the artist who drew the picture on the left: Arie de Jong.

I spotted her stall ten meters away, because of the focus of her work: she draws classic Japanese prints, with cats instead of humans. It definitely struck a cord with me, because of my love for Nekoe Juubee Otogi Soushi. I'm really impressed with Arie's works, but there's a few that are favourites with me. Obviously there's the kendo teacher shown left which was painted on ceramics. And there's Neko no sake, which had me laughing out loud: it's hilarious :) 

We didn't go alone today: we met my sister and Menno came along as well. It's great to spend a lovely day with friends and family :)

kilala.nl tags: japan,

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Eight years, twelve years

2012-05-25 20:44:00

This weekend is reason for celebration. 

Next Monday, on the 28th, is the twelfth anniversary of the day we met. That was before I even started this website and when I was still deeply vested in the SCA (hi Esther and Remco!). Roughly four years after meeting, on the 24th of May in 2004 Marli and I were married in Nieuwegein by my mother-in-law. Yesterday, that was eight years ago. It was a great day, with friends and family, one we'll cherish for years to come. 

For the celebration, Marli took the wedding card I'd designed and went to Taarten van Suus. They copied my design onto a big, heart-shaped cake. The drawing's made using marzipan and I have to say I'm impressed with the way they added detail. I can learn a lot from this! Marli suggested that I take one of Suus' classes and, while at first I was sceptical, I am definitely warming up to the idea!

kilala.nl tags: life, family, awesome,

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Dana at Anime 2012

2012-05-19 17:58:00

I'll do a proper write-up in a bit, but here's the most important part: Dana ( ^_^)

• Dana playing Mario Kart Double Dash.
• Dana saying hello to Domo-kun.
• Dana hugging Rainbow Dash.

kilala.nl tags: baby, animecon, anime 2012,

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Accessing Photstream without using iPhoto

2012-05-19 17:22:00

Finally! I've been searching for this for quite a while now and I finally found the solution!

Question: "How can I access iCloud Photostream without using iPhoto?"

Answer: "By accessing ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/ and searching for all images."

Here is the source for this information. The best thing: you can obviously store this procedure as a Saved Search in the sidebar, so you'll always have a shortcut to your Photostream. 

kilala.nl tags: apple, awesome,

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"Mathematics Girls" manga translation

2012-05-18 13:43:00

In October of 2010 I wrote a short blog post about the Mathematics Girls manga. It's doubleplus geeky, because: A) manga B) cute girls C) mathematics. At the time I was glad this book was being published, but was sad that I'd never get to properly read it.

Until now that is! Bento Books are running a Kickstarter project to get their first, officially licensed english translated volume out the door. Awesome! I'm in!

kilala.nl tags: manga, geeky, awesome, japan,

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Dana's first anime experience

2012-05-17 13:43:00

I've watched anime with Dana in the room before. K-On!, Last Exile and a few other shows, but usually she was too young to actually pay attention, or she was simply asleep. Today was new: I watched Totoro with her and she was fully aware of the movie. It was the first time that she actually watched anime :)

She enjoyed it a lot! And now she won't stop talking about the catbus, about the little dusties, about Totoro and about Mei and her friends. At first she was a bit afraid of the susuwatari ("soot spreaders", black dust bunnies), but she quickly got over that. It was a lot of fun, explaining stuff to her... How Mei was being naughty and dangerous, by walking off from home. How Totoro was having a lot of fun with the umbrella. How they all made the trees grow in the moonlight. And how the catbus ran, ran, ran and ran on his many legs :)

Let's see what we'll try next! On New Year's morning of 2011 we watched Ponyo, but by then she was still too young to understand. 

kilala.nl tags: baby, anime, japan,

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It's so weird!...

2012-05-17 08:48:00

Many of our good friends are currently in the midst of preparing for Anime 2012. Facebook is a atwitter with status updates showing stacks of crates with tech stuff, a huge trailer filled with nerdy goodness, arcarde systems and plenty of updates about going to Almelo.

This year is the first time -ever- that we're not attending the full AnimeCon weekend. Every single year since the 2002 edition we've always attended friday through sunday. And ever since the 2005 edition we've always included thursday as well. 

And now that everyone's on their way to Almelo, to build all the rooms, to hookup all the gear and to meet friends again after a year of absence... I'm at home... The weather's nice, so we'll probably enjoy that. And I can watch Totoro with Dana. But tomorrow I'll be at the office, working and it'll only be Saturday that we'll attend the Con.

It sure feels weird. :|

kilala.nl tags: anime 2012, geeky, animecon,

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Oh the irony! The sweet, stupid irony!

2012-05-17 08:46:00

Dana's kindergarten sends out a monthly newsletter, by email. This email is always sent out with all addressees in the TO: field. 

This morning, I reckoned I might give them a helpful tip. I emailed them, explaining that for both privacy and security reasons it's a good idea to put the addressees in the BCC: field, so they can't see each other's email address. 

...

I had clicked "Reply to all". (; =_=)

I fell for the oldest friggin' mistake in the book. Classic!

kilala.nl tags: meh, geeky,

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iPad 2 sound issues: headphones work, speakers do not

2012-05-16 09:57:00

Apparently, there are plenty people who experience problems with their iPad2 pertaining to the internal speaker. Specifically: the iPad refuses to play audio and the volume slider does not work. Thanks to some troubleshooting and help from the Apple support fora I've fixed our iPad.

Symptoms:

• The builtin speakers are inactive. Audio does not play through them.
• Audio does play through the headphone connection.
• Plugging your iPad into a USB port does give the connection bleep! noise.
• No amount of toggling the mute button helps.

A lot of people hypothesized that the problems are linked to the upgrade to iOS 5, or that you need to flip the hardware switch settings between "mute" and "rotation lock" a few times.

It's none of that. As forum member Val E Um notes, it's the dock connector: something is causing glitches, causing the iPad to think that it's dock-connected to external speakers. By wiggling a dock cable in the iPad I could make the volume slider appear and disappear. If I wedged the dock connector in at just the right angle, sound kept on working.

The solution: take an alcohol wipe, wrap it around a stiff piece of cardboard and scrape the dock connector on the iPad. Of course, first power down the iPad! After cleaning the dock connector, my sound problems are over :)

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh,

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Anime 2012 programme online!

2012-05-14 07:14:00

FUUUU!!! >(

I got my wish: Akira in the biggest theater at Anime Con 2012. Awesome!!! Just about the online thing I'd consider a "must see" during the weekend! Because honestly, when are you going to get the chance to see this timeless classic on a huge screen?

But it runs on Saturday at 2200 and we'll leave by 1800. Darn :( The fact that they're playing Battle Royal right after Akira doesn't make things easier.

The whole programme's available here.

kilala.nl tags: awesome, geeky, anime, anime con,

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Geek? Yeah, I guess

2012-05-13 20:48:00

Watching Big bang theory and Sheldon's ecstatic: "Great news. My mom sent me my old Nintendo 64.[...] Look, mom included the memory card, we can pick up where I left off in 1999 "

The audience bursts into laughter... What's the joke?

kilala.nl tags: geeky,

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A tale of two dou

2012-05-12 12:14:00

I felt a bit guilty about going to practice today (having cost us the chance of a nice party last night), so I hesitate to say this: what a great session! /o/

Aside from the fact that my messed up breathing left me winded for 2x2 minutes it went great! We started practice together with the bogu-less kouhai: warmup and kirikaeshi. We then quickly split up to practice basic drills: oki-men, hayai-men, kote-men, ai-men and then the lovely kote-men-taiatari-hikimen-aimen! The biggest reason why my ai-men is failing, is because I pull the shinai waaay too much backwards. I often make the same mistake with a vanilla hayai-men.

And that was that! The rest of class was shiai!

Tomorrow, three teams from Renshinjuku will participate in the annual Edo Cup in Amsterdam. Nick, Bob and Charel sempai will represent the Almere dojo, while Amstelveen will send two other teams. Because of this tournament, Ton-sensei and Kris-fukushou wanted to run through competition preparation again. After the basic etiquette, we got things on the road. For every team member there were two opponents, or three in Bob's case and I went up against him.

• I was designated two half-points against for going out of bounds (jogai) twice. 
• I scored two points against Bob, using the same technique. Because we'd been practicing ai-men so much, I wanted to trick him into ai-men but instead I went for his dou. That worked twice :)

They weren't the cleanest hits and I believe that Kris was reluctant to count one of them, but at least I'm happy to be showing some progress. ( ^_^) My fight against Kris went pretty well and I lost because of a stupid mistake: I thought he had landed a valid blow, so I dropped my whole guard, so he hit me again perfectly. Apparently the first blow was in fact not good enough, so that was a valuable lesson I learned: do NOT stop fighting until you are told to do so. 

The biggest problem that Ton-sensei and Kris pointed out is that nobody was 'talking' or building tension with their opponent. Just about everybody just leapt in there, trying to hit stuff. I had very conciously been trying to avoid doing that, but I need more! "Take your time and explore your oponent! Get to know him!" was the big take-away.

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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Exchanging blows with colleagues

2012-05-11 08:00:00

Misleading title FTW. /o/ For once I'm not writing about another colleague I pissed off :p

Yesterday was the annual field trip of my department at $CLIENT. After a last-minute change of plans due to the weather we all gathered at a far-away gymnasium to partake in an introductory class in fencing. Sabre fencing to be specific.

I enjoyed it, fencing's cool! :) If I weren't into kendo already, I would've probably picked up fencing especially because Almere has a rather large club. Reminds me of another company outing, which led to me trying a new sport.

Here's some observations based on my kendo experience:

• Aside from the fact that the back leg is at an angle, the footwork is actually comparable, it's just like okuri ashi: never cross-step, always start with the foot of the direction you're going and quickly pull in the other leg.
• Unlike rapier and floret fencing, sabre fencing uses cutting and slashing movements. The targets, with sabre fencing, are all above the waist, just like in kendo.
• The en guarde position is comparable to basic kamae: hold the center, blocking access to most targets. Oddly, the tip of the sabre is at the top of your opponent's head, not at their throat.
• Like in kendo, big movements will be punished. Keep your strikes small and your blocks even smaller. Else you will leave yourself wide open.
• Holding the sword is the absolute inverse of kendo: with your thumb and index finger, where in kendo we use the other two/three fingers. In both, the full grasp is only used to "snap" the sword when making a strike. 
• When it comes to stance, fencing is killer on my neck. The muscles in my neck have always been a problem, but constantly looking hard-right was messing me up!

kilala.nl tags: sports, work,

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Lessons learned from wisdom tooth extraction, part deux

2012-05-11 07:45:00

Last time I made a short list of stuff I learned. Here's some more.

• Taking Ibuprofen 600 for a week, three times a day, can affect my stomach and guts quite nastily. Especially if I haven't eaten beforehand. Thus I stop taking it after a seven days.
• Switching from Ibuprofen 600 to Paracetamol 500 or 1000 isn't very fun. 1gr leaves me tired and dizzy, 500mg is a bit too little. Also, while it does take away pain it does leave rougher edges to the pain that remains. With Ibuprofen it's mellow, with Paracetamol it's sharp and I feel my muscles in my jaw and neck ache.
• Speaking of those muscles, despite my efforts to pay attention to it I guess I -am- still chewing incorrectly.
• The awful taste in one's mouth, that I so distinctly recalled from last time, only starts around day 7. The wound starts properly closing, thus food gets stuck as does old blood. *barf*

kilala.nl tags: body, health,

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Mitori geiko, round two

2012-05-09 05:59:00

Last night was a valuable class in Amstelveen. From the side lines I might not have been able to hear every single line from the senseis' explanation, but I did get a good hard look and I got the chance to ask questions later. Here's a bunch of things I wrote down.

• When doing suburi, don't swing back so far that you whack your tush. When striking, try to keep your position as long as possible without losing the group's pace (aka Kris' challenge).
• Any time that you do diagonal striking, be it in suburi, be it in dou strikes, be it in strikes to the side of the head, always swing straight over your head on the upswing. Over the class' last kirikaeshi, Heeren-sensei specifically pointed out that he saw a lot of people doing lateral swings behind their heads when going from left to right, right to left. No. Swing up straight, strike down diagonally.
• I asked Roelof-sensei about breathing. He confirmed my suspicion that, in suburi (and in everything we do) it's best to breathe in on the upswing and out on the strike. This does indeed mean that you'll be breathing like a madman in suburi! However, given the proper lung capacity one could also breathe in on the upswing and out on strike,swing,strike.
• I've finally learned the Japanese terms for "big men" and "fast men", which actually applies to all techniques: oki (large) and hayai (fast).
• An interesting practice for coordination and fast thinking: kote, men, blocked men to the side, blocked men to the side, men, run through. All including fumikomi.
• In hayai men, never raise the kensen of your shinai above your head. Move the tip past your opponent's face and over his head, then strike. Remember the fight over the center line! In hayai men stay low and maintain the center line! That way you can always switch to other techniques, like dou or a parry strike.
• To receive taiatari slightly step in, or sink down, with your right knee. Do NOT step backwards on your left. Also keep your center of gravity low, in your hara, by keeping your hands low.
• When performing hiki waza, don't swing your shinai backwards over your head and away. You will lose your balance. You have to feel that you're "stabbing the ceiling". By punching upwards and slightly backwards you're giving yourself momentum. Think of the movement being made in kata #1, by the receiving partner.
• With hiki kote, before the strike do not move the shinai upwards a lot. Keep it a bit higher than in kamae and keep the center line. Do not try to swing around the opponent's shinai, but instead wait for enough clearance to strike from the center.
• After your opponent has struck it is your chance to retaliate! So when he's done a hiki strike, chase after him! Especially be ready to strike when his sight is blocked by his own kote, when going back to kamae after a hiki men. This routine can be practiced as follows: hayai men, tai atari, hiki waza, ai men (both strike men at the same time).

I also got a chance to talk to Heeren-sensei about some of the stuff I've been working on. Apparently the badges are on their way to the Netherlands now (200x Amstelveen, 100x Almere) and they will be sold at 1 euro a piece!

He also asked me to work with one of our dojo's sempai to improve the kanji writing on the back of the grey shirt. Supposedly my attempt at the kanji looks too Chinese and sensei was asked by a few Japanese whether he was advertising for a new restaurant :P

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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Airport Extreme custom DNS setup issues

2012-05-07 17:55:00

Tonight, it seems that UPC are having DNS issues. I was startled that we even noticed it, because I thought we were using OpenDNS. Not so apparently. When I went to change the configuration of our Airport Extreme I found the DNS IP boxes to be greyed out. WTF?

Turns out that, in the new Airport Utility one needs to do the following:

• IP settings are set to DHCP.
• Switch to manual setup.
• Enter the OpenDNS IP addresses (shown above).
• Switch back to DHCP setup.
• Apply config and restart.

And presto! It works. No idea why the DNS boxes work that way, but they do. Oh well. At least our DNS problems are over :p

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh, internet,

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Making a cool mother's day present

2012-05-06 19:45:00

So! I thought it'd be a cool idea to put one of Dana's drawings on a shirt for Marli as a mother's day surprise. Her recent giraffe drawing was perfectly suited for the job. Now that mother's day has come and gone (this post was hidden until now) it's safe to show it here :)

I took Dana's drawing, cleaned it up a bit (color balance, stray lines) and then turned it into a vector drawing with InkScape. I tweaked the design a bit (slender neck, move spots around) and the end result is what got put onto a shirt at SpreadShirt. Marli loved it :)

kilala.nl tags: baby, creative,

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Dana is showing progress again

2012-05-06 16:19:00

A little while ago I wrote that Dana was progressing from just bashing clay and drawing swirls, into actually making stuff. Back then she made a clay snowman, with a body, eyes and a mouth. 

Yesterday she show a repeat performance. She'd asked me to draw various animals, like a lion or a giraffe. She then took my half-arsed giraffe and drew her own! Sure, it may look like a funky, bucktoothed dinosaur, but in general it's all there: long neck, eye, head, tufts of hair along the neck and plenty of spots :)

I love seeing her make these steps in forming her mind.

kilala.nl tags: baby,

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Mitori geiko at Renshinjuku Almere

2012-05-05 16:48:00

Today Marli and I decided against me joining kendo practice: I'm still aching from my wisdom tooth extraction and the medicine they prescribed me is doing me in (diziness, messed up stomach). So today was an ideal moment for mitori geiko: "learning by watching". I've got to admit that, from the sidelines, it's a whole different view! Now that I'm not actively fighting, I have all the time in the world to drink in all manner of small details. 

For starters, because I was the third one to enter the dojo, I got to watch Ton-sensei take Ramon through some of the precise details of kata #2 and kata #3. I have to say that I've always been mightily impressed with Ramon's control of the bokken: he strikes precisely and very fast and of course he stops on target :)

• On kata #2, the evasion and the retaliating strike should be a fluid movement.
• In #3, the stab against the attacker should have a diagonal blade, not a level one (as I learned in february).
• In #3's counter attack, the first two steps should be noticably individual, while the latter three are one whole. So, don't rush into a 1-4 pattern, nor should you do something like 1-1-1-2. It's 1-1-3: stab, stab, threaten.

After that I invited kouhai Sven to learn the first kata, after Ton-sensei suggested he ask someone to show him. He learned the shidachi-side of the kata pretty quickly and I hope to take him through #1 and #2 next week. Very impressive: Sven got the eye contact thing down from the get-go! Many starters focus on feet, hands or bokken, but he kept looking me in the eye! Very good!

Once class started I relegated myself to the sidelines. It's funny, the things you notice from there.

• How in suburi Aaron has the same problem I do, where the upswing isn't straight but angled to the right.
• How Martijn keeps his back nicely straight when sitting down into sonkyo, where others are slouched a bit.
• How Hugo missed a floor-pot cover by a hair. Ouch! I quickly raced in to close the cover properly.
• How splinters were flying from Jeroen's shinai, which we quickly replaced with one from the dojo's collection. 
• How Aaron's self confidence appears to suffer from the fact that he can't properly put on his uniform and bogu. Simply because he's not comfortable in his gear he gets distracted so much.
• How Hugo's self confidence seems just fine, now that he's started wearing bogu. Initially I was a bit worried, thinking he'd back out, but it looks like he's taken a shine to it! Great to see!
• How Ramon shows pretty nice, leaping footwork when practicing fumikomi.
• How none of us are yet capable of building proper pressure on our opponents and how Kris-sempai thus becomes an indomitable brick wall.
• How important it is to step in, while attempting maki waza. The fact that your body is pushing the shinai forward is actually a driving force in spinning your opponent's blade away. If you don't step in, you're simply trying to twirl the tip of the shinai, instead of the whole blade.
• How I'm not alone in needing to learn that I should practice kihon at my own pace: it's not a race! Compare Lucas-vs-Aaron and Vincenzo-vs-Peter. Lucas is almost running trying to whack Aaron, while Peter is forcing Vincenzo to hold back so Peter can practice his strikes properly. 
• Speaking of Peter: I love the precision in his strikes.

There's just so much :)

Tuesday I'll do mitori geiko once more in Amstelveen and by next Saturday I hope to be back in armor again. I'm also planning a social night for some of the guys from Almere, to talk but mostly to do maintenance to our equipment. I'm sad to say that many people never take their shinai apart and only do rough checks along the edges once every while. It's for our friends' safety that we have to check our swords very regularly. 

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, health,

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Two down, two to go(?)

2012-05-02 20:42:00

The image to the left, borrowed from the aptly named TeethImages.com. These are not my teeth.

Today was a fun day: I went in for my second wisdom tooth operation. The plan was to go and get my upper-left WT removed, because it'd been causing me some grief. I was nervous, scared to some degree even, but there I was. I'm proud that I didn't let my anxieties get the better of me, so I didn't run away :p

When I was led in, it turns out that my dentist had requested all three remaining WT to be removed. Youch! But, as I've said a few times the past week: I should've had the others removed last time, because they're coming back to haunt me. So hey, let's get this over with!

Oh boy, the anesthetic! Because of my nerves, my fear and the pain of the needles I cried like a little boy (;^_^) The nurses were awesome ladies and pulled me through it. 

As Marli remarked before about her own tooth operation the anesthesia took longer than the operation itself. Once I was doped up the surgeon came in, I didn't even hear him as I already had my headphones blaring "Ace of spades". Didn't do much good though, because it was being drowned out by the drill. 

Having gone from one tooth, to three I was surprised when I got a tap on my shoulder after the first one: bottom right. 

The surgeon deemed that both of my upper wisdom teeth should be left alone. Only the lower right one was impacted, while the top two were growing straight down. They were also this high up into my jaw that removing them would require quite some destructive work on my jaw. He didn't want to needlessly go through with that. It was obvious that I am having issues with the upper left teeth, but he'd like us to have a consult about that as he suspects a muscular issue instead of wisdom teeth. 

TLDR: went through a rollercoaster to have a wisdom tooth pulled, ended up with another tooth gone than planned. 

EDIT:

Having to spend the day in bed often leads me to discover cool podcasts that I wasn't aware of before. Case in point, yesterday i listened to a few episodes of Nerdivores (an MtG podcast) and The Instance (a WoW show). Both were quite well made and rather enjoyable. I might download some more episodes :)

It's a shame that the Dragonpage - Winging It show was cancelled years ago. I loved those guys and they introduced me to 7 Seconds of Love.

kilala.nl tags: health, body,

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