Food

I feel better today, although my tooth still hurts when I put too much pressure on it.  Hopefully this won't last.  But it means soft foods only for the time being.  Like today - soup for lunch, pasta for dinner, and if I had any then ice cream for dessert.  The last time I went to the supermarket, I couldn't get hold of any mince - so I bought a protein-based substitute instead.  Which is what I used to make the pasta sauce this evening.  And it was weird, to say the least.  The "meat-substitute" didn't brown like normal mince, so I wasn't sure if it was cooked through properly.  And it had an entirely different texture and tasted very strange, overly seasoned.  I thought the actual pasta sauce might dominate the flavor, but nope it didn't.  I think this will be a one off.  And I am clearly never going to be a vegetarian.  As I write this, not long after finishing my meal, I feel alright - but I wouldn't be surprised if I have some sort of "digestive reaction" to it later.   

Root Canal

So.  Much.  Pain.  I don't think it's going to be a comfortable few days.  I had my root canal today - a 3 hour traumatic ordeal which involved my being strapped down to a chair, being pumped full of gas, having my jaw held open and then having my teeth attacked as I lie there helplessly.  Oh boy, those drill sounds. I'm going to have nightmares for ages.  I think the actual surgery went okay, but the work isn't complete - I still need to get a crown.  But that will have to wait until the restrictions on dentistry are lifted.  But for now, my mouth is in absolute agony.  I can't eat hard foods, it hurts too much.  Particularly where the work took place, but my whole jaw hurts from being held open for so long.  Hopefully the pain will subside in a day or two.  I don't want to go back there anytime soon.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I thought I might run out of topics in this blog, but a few things came to mind today.  These include taxes (I did my tax returns today), my neighborhood (since I've done so many local walks in the last few weeks, I've become quite familiar with it), Mario Kart (I think I have genuinely broken my controller playing it this morning) and how soul-destroying social distancing is.  But instead of these - which I may revisit in the week ahead - let me instead mention a film I watched last night - Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  A sci-fi classic nearly as old as me, I had surprisingly (shockingly?) never seen it before.  And it is maybe one of the very few Steven Spielberg films that I haven't seen before.  I didn't know what to expect - maybe something closer to War of the Worlds?  I also surprisingly (shockingly?) haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I think I was expecting something more Kubrickian.  So what did I think of Close Encounters?  Well it started slowly, but the last 30 to 45 minutes is absolutely stunning.  Who cares about minimal plot and character development, when you have special effects that are so good that they hold up even 40 years later, accompanied by an amazing John Williams score.  Also good to finally put context to that iconic 5 note sequence.  I don't think it is a stone cold classic - it's not a film that I'm going to go out of my way to watch again - but I'm glad I can finally cross it off my list.  3.5 stars.

Lego Fail

For me, putting together Lego models is supposed to be calming and relaxing.  Unless you finish putting together the model and find something is horribly wrong and it doesn't do what it is supposed to do.  Then you boil over with rage and frustration, as it dawns on you that you've got to follow all the instructions in reverse to take the model apart, and then try again.  Infuriating.  And so it goes with me - I put the model car together, and then find out there is a major flaw in that the wheels on each side of the car go in opposite directions so it can't actually go anywhere.  Insane.  I could have sworn I followed the instructions in exact detail - I had to, because the model build is so complicated.  But even then, I must have missed something.  Oh well, at least I've got some time to kill to fix this. 

A Musical Interlude

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums.

Background TV

In the office, I tend to listen to podcasts when I'm working.  Now I'm at home, my preference seems to be to turn on the TV and have that on in the background whilst I'm working.  I can't see the TV screen from where I work, so I don't get too distracted.  A lot of the channels have changed their schedules so that you can just binge watch one episode after another of particular shows - it seems my favorites are The Office, Star Trek: The Next Generation and South Park.

Us

Time for another brief film review - I watched the 2019 horror film Us last night.  Written and directed by Jordan Peele, the same person behind the critically acclaimed Get Out.  And this is very much in the same vein.  I'm on record as not being a big fan of Get Out, contrary to popular opinion.  And I feel similarly ambivalent about Us - had some good ideas, but tonally was all over the place and just felt too contrived.  There was probably a good movie hidden under the horror cliches, but this just wasn't for me.  2 stars.