Another odd day, and so the question comes from fishmalk, who asked: What are some things that you think are worth suffering for?

I had a hard time answering this, partly because it is so open ended. (I am using that as my excuse for why I am a day late, nd it is *mostly* correct!) Like - how much suffering are we talking here? Is it like - it is worth walking around the British Museum in bad shoes for a day, knowing your feet will be killing you later? Or are we talking - leave behind everyone you love knowing you'll never see them again? Losing a limb?

In any given situation, I'd rather find ways to mitigate any potential suffering, for the most part. That said, I had my wisdom teeth removed two weeks ago and am still having jaw pain, and decided to have dinner without waiting for my ibuprofen to kick in, so apparently 'dinner' is worth some minor amount of suffering? in this case, some extra old cheddar, hummus and naan (couldn't find the pita at the store), and some cold rotisserie chicken. Ow? maybe 'pride' is a better answer, but even that is slightly mitigated. I *did* take painkillers, just too late :p

I think that self improvement can be worth suffering, to some extent - that's a thing that requires constant assessment, whether you are talking about physical suffering from physical training or emotional/mental suffering from isolation, stress, etc... You need to let yourself decide whether the threshold is of where the costs outweigh the benefits. Quitting is okay, and if you think otherwise, you risk failing even when you succeed.

Enough pith I think!

So! Dentist this morning at stupid o'clock./ To the amazement of everyone (especially certain Charlotte street dwelling awesome ladies ;) I did not have a cavity! That's right folks, my teeth are not decaying any further! I am partial to my personal theory that my cavities developed during the time in my life where I lived off pop, especially coke. Instead, my teeth are uneven, and when I close my jaw one of my bottom teeth was pressing harder against two of my top teeth, pushing them up into places where they did not want to go. This has caused the bone around those teeth to become denser. the solution was simple - he just ground down the offending tooth a bit. Then we had to make sure that no other teeth were going to cause a similar problem elsewhere. I don't know how successful we were at this - at the time it seemed fine but I think that one of the ridges on my back molar may still be a little high. My teeth are not in great alignment on the right side of my face :/ He also looked at my top wisdom teeth. They are slightly impacted, but not in a way that is likely to cause problems. The place where the top left one is poking through the skin *might* cause problems if it gets infected, but I am not too concerned about it at this point. Mygum is still kind of sore though.

After that, I went to the used bookstore with Dina, and learned that they don't take hardbacks. We didn't spend a lot of time browsing because she had an appointment herself. So I went home and chatted online for a bit with my awesome sister, who I hope will forgive me so much for talking about my teeth ;) After that I went to school to return some library books, and make sad faces until they waived my nearly 40$(!) of fines, which they did. (Phew!) Then I tried to look for some books to read by certain authors at the library, but all i could find were books *about* certain authors. However I did find a transcript of a panel discussion about Lovecraft from an LA convention from the 60's with Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, and some other people who I now forget talking about Lovecraft's work and his influence on the horror genre, etc. It was interesting. I really like old sci-fi and fantasy (and horror) because of what they say about how people from the past viewed their ties, and what was mysterious, and important, to them. Since I couldn't find any books that I could check out, I came home and read through some stuff in the horror short story collection I have here, which was fun. Oh also I went to the Indian buffet for lunch, yum!

What else did I do, after spending my afternoon reading outside? Hmmm... I guess after that I went to play D&D, which was cool. We didn't get to much further, but I enjoyed the session. We failed to fight a Drow by escaping from his darkness globe and waiting for him to emerge with ranged weapons. He escaped back through the portal he came from. We are kind of stuck for the moment, but whatever.Alas, I don't think I am gong to make it to Arcane trickster before I leave. :( But on the other hand, Sol is 5th level - I could just import him into Exia Gaiden :D Except that he's useless in a dungeon crawl - he's a talky rogue! ^_^

Ayway, I came home, and check my marks, and I'm sure that you'll all be shocked to hear that I got another A. Woot! This means I only ever got one B during this degree. I guess maybe I am halfway clever after all ;) What is strange, though, is looking at my list of classes and seeing how little overlap there is with other people in my course :o

Well, that's all I've got for now. I am going to download the eps of House I missed, and do.....something. Tomorrow is the history graduation. I am going to wear my new pink dress, and bells, and maybe jewelery. I will be shiny *and* Jangly.... alas I have no camera. I will also pick up my paper from Dr. Stewart.

From wikipedia:

The extent to which tooth decay is likely, known as cariogenicity,depends on factors such as how retentive the sugar is to the teeth.Contrary to common belief, it is not the amount of sugar ingested butthe frequency of sugar ingestion that is the most important factor in the causation of tooth decay. When the pH in the mouth initiallydecreases from the ingestion of sugars, the enamel is demineralized andleft vulnerable for about 30 minutes. Eating a greater quantity ofsugar in one sitting does not increase the time of demineralization.Similarly, eating a lesser quantity of sugar in one sitting does notdecrease the time of demineralization. Thus, eating a great quantity ofsugar at one time in the day is less detrimental than is a very smallquantity ingested in many intervals throughout the day. For example, interms of oral health, it is better to eat a very large dessert at dinnertime than to snack on a single, small bag of candy throughout the entire workday.