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So my previous blog entry generated quite some buzz, mostly about my facial hair. But Xyon and I discussed it for some time and it might have to do with induction, because there is a metallic bar the runs below the lamp underneath the desk. I’ve taken a picture to show it in more detail:

As you can see, nothing is really touching the lamp and the lamp sits firmly on the glass desk. The only metallic parts of the desk is the frame and the keyboard tray. The electric cord is insulated and connects directly into a surge protector below. We thought maybe the static electricity jumped from the metallic bar below, through the glass, and into the lamp.

On Howstuffworks, they have an article on How do touch-sensitive lamps work? They suggest 3 methods on how touch sensitive lamps work:

• Temperature
• Resistance
• Radio reception

However, none of those methods really explain how static electricity turned it on. I’m really tempted to take apart my lamp now to figure out what’s going on.

Update: I knew there was a few things I forgot to mention.

The trick isn’t limited to just my keyboard tray. I can touch any metallic part of the desk (such as the the legs) with static electricity and it has the same effects on the lamp. However, touching the glass doesn’t have any effects. I guess the static electricity in that case never leaves me.

I also found out it was less painful to use my toe/feet to transfer the static electricity. It didn’t really hurt my fingers/hands, but I definitely felt something strong when using my fingers. Maybe the skin on my toes are just thicker or maybe my nerves down there aren’t as sensitive, but I hardly feel anything when using my feet.

So while sitting at my desk rubbing my feet against the rubber chair mat, I noticed I was building up static electricity. What’s even cooler is that when I touch my keyboard tray, it actually turns off my lamp. If I do it again, it turns the lamp back on. My lamp is one of those touch sensor type lamps where it turns on/off just by touching it. However, I never knew electricity could flow through glass like that as I have a glass table. There are metallic parts, but the laptop itself isn’t touch anything metallic.

Here’s my little video demonstration (high and low resolutions respectively):

So earlier this week, Best Buy was getting rid of their movie promotional toys: Harley Davidson 1:18 Scale Motorcycle, Dinosaur Model, Peter Pan Lunch Box – One Cent Each at Best Buy – Available for In Store Pick-Up. They were a penny each and I thought why not. Opt for in-store pickup to save further on shipping.

Got myself a dinosaur model and 4 beanie babies (Patrick and Gary from Spongebob Squarepants):

One of the Patrick dolls is a bit dirty, but I’m not complaining.

Another day without my new file server story. It’ll come… eventually.

Anyway, I had an interesting experience today, my first flat tire. Not really a desired event, but nonetheless something I’ve never had to deal with before. At first I didn’t notice anything strange, so I backed out of my garage as I would normally do, but I immediately felt something was wrong with the car. It was backing up too slowly and something just didn’t feel right. Thinking it might just be my senses playing tricks on me, I continued.

After driving about a block, I noticed even forward driving felt very weird. I did notice a semi-flat tire a few weeks ago. The tire pressure was down to 20 or 15, so I thought maybe it was acting up again. I’ve been meaning to get it looked at, but haven’t really found time. Since inflating it seems to have worked, I put it onto my to-do list’s back burner. That particular tire looked okay, so I went to inspect the other tires, just to make sure. And then I saw it, my rear right tire was completely flat.

I walked back home (since it was only a block) to get my tire pressure inflation air compressor device. I also brought along a cup of water to see if I can find where the leak is coming from. Unfortunately my cup was too big and didn’t fit in the area between the tire and the car. Trying to spray water from outside wasn’t quite as effective as I thought it would be, as the water immediately rolled off the tire.

Anyway, my tire was completely flat. The air compressor registered 0lbs. So I started to pump it to see if it would at least fill. My head went through the possibilities of what I could do: Costco, spare tire, AAA, etc. After a few minutes, the pressure reading started move, so it was at least filling. I turned the air compressor off to see if I could hear any leaks, but wasn’t able to hear anything. I continue to inflate the tire, while I went off to the side to give my dad a call. I confirmed with him that Costco would help me repair my tires. He suggested that if I was in a hurry, I could put on the spare in the meantime and goto Costco when I have time during the weekend. He also suggested that since I had AAA, I can actually call them out and have them repair my tire. I was actually contemplating on calling AAA to tow my car to Costco earlier, but seeing how my tire is actually inflating, that thought quickly left my mind.

After the tire reached 33lbs, I stop the inflation and waited a bit to see if the pressure reading would drop, while listening for any type of leaks. Nothing changed, so I started unplugging the air compressor. That’s when I noticed the leak. If I slightly push the valve outwards, it began to leak air like crazy. At this time, I called Derek and asked him to relay to my manager that I would either be late to work or be out for the day.

Since the wheel seems to fare well as long as I don’t touch the valve, I decided to give driving to Costco a shot since it’s only about a 10 minute drive. I didn’t want to deal with the spare tire, since I’m rather lazy. I was particularly careful when driving and didn’t encounter too much difficulties. When I got there, I did notice my tire was almost completely flat again.

I went into the tire center and told him my problems. I mentioned about the 2 tires which I had encountered problems with and he said he would inspect it and repair if necessary. I also mentioned about the valve and he goes that’s also a simple problem to fix. However, the wait time was about 1.5 hrs before they’ll get to my car. I was actually surprised by how many people were there at Costco on a weekday afternoon. Don’t these people have work? It was just as pack as it was on Saturday when I did my Costco shopping.

So I had over an hour to kill, so I decided to get a churro and a mocha freeze and see if I could find a mailbox around here. I had some stuff that I wanted to be mailed out today and I’m not sure if I would get a chance to. So I walked around all of Pickering Place (about 3 blocks worth of malls and stores), but not one single mailbox. By the time I returned to Costco, it was already 1:30pm (45minutes have passed). I asked the customer service there where the closest post office or mailbox was and they pointed to Gilman which was across the freeway. I contemplated on walking all the way there, but decided to see if they started working on my car yet. Indeed they have, so I decided to not go to the post office in the end.

It would be another 15 minute or so before they told me my car was ready. I had asked him what was wrong and the mechanic said one of the stems (I’m assuming it’s another word for valve) was broken and need to be replaced, while metallic objects (the official report says nails) were found in both wheels causing it to deflate slowly. Both of the wheels have been patched and should be in good working order.

I wonder how I got nails/metallic objects stuck in my wheels in the first place, and interestingly, on opposite ends (front left and rear right).

So Stanman invited me to play golf with a couple friends today. Yes, the new file server story will have to wait for another day. We went to play at Jefferson Park Golf Course. Met up with Joe and Saran and the park and met a new friend of theirs: Dhyanesh (I hope I spelled that correctly).

Do note, the last time I played golf was a many years ago with SueOn, Antegra and DNG. We had gone to the golf course next to Almansor Park and played at the driving range. Since we were on a higher elevation, all my balls basically went straight forward and down. Haha. I did pop a few, but the rest was pretty much a 5-10ft gain and went down. Of course I was also never able to control which direction the ball went.

So this would be my 1st time playing in the course. We started off at the driving range and got a brief lesson by Stanman on how to hold the club and how to swing. He also gave me a brief explanation about the different clubs. My balls did manage to go up now, but they always sliced to the right. So to compensate that, I tried to aim for the left, but you know what happens when you do that. The ball goes left. Haha.

Anyway, we played 2 rounds on the Short 9 (all par 3 courses). It was actually rather fun, though apparently I was holding the club too tightly and blisters appear to be forming. Saran lent me a glove and that was much better during the 2nd round.

My driving got to be pretty decent. I was pretty much able to get on the green in about 2 shots (minus some mistakes). I even got a birdie chance twice (where I landed on the green in 1 shot – 1 was even a 136yd course). My putting is horrible though. I can’t seem to control the strength of my putts and they always zoom across the green back and forth.

My final scores for the 2 rounds were 62 and 55 (a 7pt improvement during the 2nd round). Par would be 27, so yah, I’m pretty terrible.

UPDATE: Turns out I was slightly roasted (in other words, sun burnt). After entering the shower, I noticed the skin on my forearm stung a bit when hot water hit it. It wasn’t painful, but I did feel something. Looking at it, my forearms were a bit pinkish. After inspecting everywhere else, my neck was a bit pink as well as certain parts of my face. Didn’t expect that I needed sunblock on such a mild day. Oh well, I applied aloe vera just in case.

So I was trying to decide to talk about my broken tooth first or my file server first. Broken tooth won. Most likely because it’s a much shorter blog entry. Haha. My file server entry could probably fill up 3 or 4 regular blog entries in length. Currently I’m resizing my RAID 5 array since I picked up another Seagate 500GB 7200.10 hard drive.

Anyway, lots of people have given me suggestions and once again, thanks to Xyon for referring Dr. Im from Sunrise Dental. I had mistakenly heard Dr. Ian, but the receptionist on the phone must’ve heard it correctly since I did get Dr. Im when I got there. Most people’s suggestions were to get it taken looked at immediately, so I got the earliest appointment which was 2 days later.

It’s great to have a flexible work schedule, cause I just left work at 2pm and came back at 4pm.

Anyway, my last dentist visit was back in December. My parents have always been the ones setting up the visits for me. Haha. I don’t even go do a body checkup if my parents don’t nag me to go. However, my health has always been great, but my parents like to exaggerate things in front of doctor saying I had this, I’ve done that, making the doctor more nervous than me.

So I got in, filled out some forms, and waited for my turn. Was rather quick that I got seated. I got my round of questions and x-rays. They even had this panoramic x-ray thingy which I’ve never gone through before. Usually they just stick plastic in my mouth and shout beams of radiation into my face which is always scary. I wonder if there’s anyone who’s study for cancer/mutations in one’s face due to dental x-rays. I did noticed that the x-ray film placards they used were significantly fewer than the other dentists I’ve been to. They were also nicer on the gum as I recall 4 or 6 of those x-ray film placards previously gave me excruciating pain.

The dentist finally shows up and says from the x-rays my teeth look great. I mentioned about the hole in one of my tooth and he says that could very well be the case, since the x-rays only provide a 2D view of my teeth. He had on a pair of these funky glasses which had extended magnify glasses for each lens and starts checking each tooth. He finds the teeth with the hole and starts scraping out some food gunk. I had wanted to not each before I came, but I was too hungry, so a couple cookies had to be eaten.

He tells me that my original filling had fallen loose and now food and bacteria fill the hole. He says he’ll remove the original filling, clean it out, and fill it. He mentions that all my current fillings are metallic and the only fillings they use here are the white resin-composite. He prefaces his suggestions with that he doesn’t recommend his patients to redo their metal fillings, especially the ones in the back since they are hardly noticeable, but if I really wanted to, he would do it. I mention the fact that the current fillings have mercury and if that would be a problem. He goes mercury is only dangerous in vapor and liquid form. As a solid in the filling, it should have no harmful effects. I didn’t get a chance to ask him what if I swallowed the filling that had broken off, as that might’ve been what had happened.

RayAlome had mentioned there might be a chance that I’ll be getting a crown since the hole had already broken the outer surface, but it didn’t seem to be the case. After cleaning out the bacteria, they clamped my tooth down with a metallic ring and started inserting the filling and using what I thought was a heat gun, but RayAlome says it was most likely a UV-ray gun to solidify the resin-composite filling. Next he took what I can only describe as dental sander and sanded down the filling until it matched the shape of a regular tooth. Initially after the dental visit, the underside of that tooth was rather rough, but due to my chewing and eating and constant tongue flicking, it has not completely smoothen out

Afterwards, they did the normal cleaning (spinning toothbrush) and then went on to this drill like cleaning thing. That thing hurt… BIG time, even though Dr. Im claimed it would not hurt at all and was a new “advance” technique for cleaning teeth. Finally I got my fluoride treatment, supposedly to make my teeth whiter, and wasn’t allowed to drink or eat anything in the next 30 minutes.

Dr. Im said my teeth were in excellent condition and besides the fallen filling, there was no new cavities or anything wrong. He did mention that the tooth with the new filling may be sore for a week or two, but that is normal. I can finally eat candy and cookies and ice cream without the pain!

Since “someone” doesn’t like to have gross pictures posted directly on my blog, you can see my new tooth here: picture. The new filling is the white one stuck between the 2 teeth with metal filling.

So I did something rather stupid a few days ago. I was using my scissors and I noticed some sticking thing got attached to one of the blades. It was probably from the packaging tape was cutting apart earlier, so I thought I’d just rub it off. After a few rubs, most of the sticky stuff was removed and I was happy.

However, a few hours later, I noticed that the skin on my thumb felt funny when I was rubbing it. Looking at my thumb, I noticed line after line of what looked like paper cuts. There were about 6 of them in all. However, they weren’t painful. The skin on my thumb is rather thick, giving it some more protection I suppose. Anyway, I applied some Neosporin to it and decided to put a bandage after I showered since it didn’t really bothered me (unless I rubbed my fingers).

Anyway, when I was about to take a shower, I noticed some dirty spots on my sink and decided to clean it a bit. I’ve been meaning to clean the whole bathroom for some time (actually for a few months already) and thought since I had some time this weekend, why not do it now. Boy was that the wrong decision. I had forgotten about my thumb and the moment the cleaning solution touched my thumb, OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD DOES IT BURN!

I immediately started to wash my thumb and the only thing left was just a mild sting. Immediately after taking a shower (I tried my best to not use that thumb to shampoo my hair or lather the soap), I put on a band-aid and all has been well ever since. So yep, the bathroom cleaning task has once again been postponed.

I would post a picture, but I fear Derek would stop reading my blog since he had warned me about posting gross pictures after I posted an image of my mouth and broken tooth.

Today I saw a ball on my way to dinner. It’s one of those bouncy balls you can get at Target which are filled inside a big cage. After seeing the ball, I was more alert to see if there were any children playing around. The ball was just sitting next to the sidewalk in the gutter.

This started a train of thoughts which led back to my memories of playing ball when I was younger. We live on a hill and whenever the ball (be it tennis ball, basketball, cherry ball, baseball, or even super bouncy ball) went over the fence, we had to chase it as it would keep on rolling downhill. That’s why I was especially wary of children around when I noticed the ball. This led to the memory of water running downhill along the gutter in our neighborhood.

This eventually led to back in the days when my mom was watering the plants or we were washing the car, we’d end up with a stream of water flowing along the gutter and into the sewer. When we were small, we would build these little paper boats and see it flow along the stream. We would follow it to right before it enters the sewer hole, which was usually a few blocks away. Sometimes along the way, there could be some obstructions like leaves or rocks, and we would have to give it a little push for it to continue.

Those were some fun times.

I always thought these were some very stupid signs. Washington has this concept of road construction costing people just nickels and telling them to go watch what their contribution is doing. However, road construction already creates traffic delays in that area and you’re asking people to go there to check out the construction?

So a few days ago, before leaving for work, I noticed my glasses were a bit dirty, so using Costco’s Kirkland Signature Multi-Purpose Lens Cleaner, I started wiping the lens. Unfortunately, somehow the screw that held the frame together for the right lens came loose and the whole thing fell apart. So my glasses didn’t literally “break”. I scamper around looking for some tiny screwdrivers. The smallest screwdrivers I had that I used for my computer didn’t work with these tiny screws.

I went downstairs to my storage area and found another small screwdriver, but they turned out to be too big also.

I was thinking about what my options were:

• Go to work without glasses and purchase screwdrivers on the way home
• Go to Costco and have them fix my glasses then go to work
• Keep searching around for something that I could screw in these tiny screws

Since these glasses were Costco, that looked like my best option at that moment. That’s when I noticed my razor blade and thought to myself, “it just might work.” It did take away for the screw to get threaded and took a lot longer if I was using a proper screw, but a few minutes later, my glasses was back in one piece, with some minor scratches on the frame where the razor blade scrape when I was twisting the screw.

Anyway, I took my glasses to Costco today and had them take another look at it to make sure it was okay. Lady was really nice and even mentioned about adding something to it so that it’ll be harder for the screw to come loose on its own. As I was walking away, I noticed the Kirkland Signature Eye Glasses Care Kit that I had purchased (the one that came with the lens cleaner) apparently came with a eyeglass screwdriver keychain. However, I recall looking at it at home and didn’t see any screwdriver.

After I got home, I looked at the package again and it turns out the screwdriver was hidden behind the microfiber cleaning cloth. Sigh…