Braces of Doom

For years and years and years, Daniel has had perfectly healthy teeth. He never had a single cavity and he usually brushed his teeth. That was until a dentist checkup about five months ago, where the dentist told us that braces might be necessary. Now, we all know that dentists are told by orthodontists to prescribe braces if even one tooth is just a millimeter out of line, but we went anyway.

The orthopedic professional told us that Daniel needed braces. He told us when, how much it would cost, and how long Daniel would have them. Before we left, he put some spacers in between some of Daniel’s teeth. He said there would be soreness. For the first day or so there was no pain, but then on the second and third day, there was some soreness. For the rest of the two weeks he was fine.

On January 17th, a snow day at school, Daniel went and got his braces put in. Apparently he didn’t even know that the bracket were in until after he left the room and saw them in the mirror. He got a swig of water and returned to get the wires put in on the top and bottom teeth.

For the first day, there was no soreness, just moderate discomfort. However, Daniel could not eat anything except soup. The second day, which was touted by the orthodontist as being the worst day, was dulled by some ibuprofen. On that day, Daniel was allowed to eat ice cream for dinner, and he did it with great pleasure.

His teeth were sensitive and unable to bite down onto any food until this morning, when he successful bit into a banana at breakfast. No more ice cream for dinner, I told him. By the way, the before-and-after picture is not of Daniel, because he doesn’t wear lip gloss…

Oxymorons… Part 2

Okay, so I’d say my last oxymoronic post was a success. But I only did half the alphabet. Now I’m back with letters O-Z…

Original reprint, old news, one choice, ocean shore, one hundred percent chance, one person crew, outer core, once again, obedient defiance, obviously concealed, open minded, opposite attraction…

Let’s keep moving right along…

Partial success, plastic glasses, previous history, player coach, pool table, perfectly normal, quickly slowing down, quick fix, quiet noise, questionable answer, real potential, retired worker, recorded live, required donation, running idle, realistic fantasy…

On to the plentiful S…

Sad smile, single pair, study break, seriously funny, student teacher, still moving, sun shade, small fortune, small giant, sit up, soft rock, solo ensemble, sure bet, serious fun, somewhat destroyed, talk show, tremendously small, tentative conclusion, terrific headache, turkey ham, true story, thinking out loud…

And now to round it up…

unacceptable solution, unsung hero, uninvited guest, upside down, voodoo science, virtual reality, week day, withheld contribution, war games, young adult, zero deficit…

Well that wraps up the second of my oxymoronic posts. Feel free to add a comment with some of your own!

The Great D-Bater

Eighth grade is tough, I know. We were all there once, and for some of us, once a long, long time ago. Kids these days are worried about a lot. Basketball, keeping grades good in six classes, getting two hours of homework done each night, having to make time on the weekend for things other than projects and homework, talk with friends, and play video games each night to mix it all up.

Well, the other day, Daniel-son brought home a D on his midterm exam. That’s a 66 to be more accurate. If this had been some little quiz or homework assignment, he would have gotten off with a small lecture at dinner. But this was a test, and clearly something was wrong. Over the past weeks, D-for-Daniel’s grades had been dropping from consistently high A’s and B’s to consistently lower C’s and D’s. The test was not a standalone incident.

This is what we decided at dinner. Daniel was to have all of his video games taken away for two weeks. At the end of two weeks, if his grades improved, we would allow him only to play one hour per night on weeknights. Like any good gamer, he whined and complained and tried the guilt trip and told us he was depriving him of his only source of joy. We told him that all of this complaining was a sign of addiction. He adamantly disagreed, but scaled back on the whining.

Instead, he turned very lawerly, and started defending his right to play video games. He told us it would not happen again, and gave us several pretty good reasons why he needed to keep at least one or two of his favorite games. At that point, as weak parents, we felt that we were a bit harsh on him. That does not mean, however, that he got the games back. We compromised, and Daniel was allowed to keep Guitar Hero and Madden NFL ‘o8, provided that he only play after all of his homework was done.

Procrastinators Unite… Tomorrow!

For quite some time, I’ve been putting off writing a post about procrastination. In fact, I saved this post as a draft quite some time ago, but have neglected to publish until now. So, what is there to write about procrastination? Well, in this post, I will teach you to identify whether or not you procrastinate, the rich history of procrastination, and finally, how to stop it.

Well, it’s really quite easy to identify yourself as a procrastinator. Do you ever say to yourself, “I’ll do it later?” That is an obvious sign of procrastination. Pretty much everybody does it at some point, usually with school or work-related projects. Acknowledging that you have this problem is the first step to beating it.

Next, I think about how much time I think the task will take. Then I ask myself what I would rather be doing. If I can think of something I’d rather be doing, like watching TV, I go and unplug the TV. If I can’t think of anything better to do, I know that I need to do it.

But what if I still don’t want to do the task? One strategy I have found useful is to write down the different components of the task. For instance, when my son has to do a book report for school, he breaks it down into writing the summary, drawing a picture of the significant scene, and gluing it to posterboard. Suddenly the ominous book report doesn’t seem quite so big, huh? Make a list, and gradually check things off. The sense of accomplishment will keep you going.

If the above still doesn’t work, I diagnose you to be an extreme procrastinator, and recommend counseling. And no, you can’t put that off until next week!

Is It Physically Possible to Be Bored?

Maybe if you lived during the stone age, when the greatest form of entertainment was rock-throwing, it would be possible to be bored. But in this day and age, it’s a shame not to find something to occupy yourself with. There are video games, computer games, iPod games, Movies on Demand, movie theaters, board games, Rubik’s cubes, mind-benders, books, songs, footballs, radios, and television. Chances are, you have at least five of those things listed above. How is it possible to be bored?

Okay, sometimes you might not be in the mood for some electronic gaming. That’s okay, you can go play monopoly, or watch a movie on demand. There are free ones, too, so you don’t have to necessarily spend four dollars. None of that floats your boat? Go out and toss the football (or a baseball) around with somebody. The best thing you can do is to stay occupied, because boredom is not very productive.

There’s a world of entertainment options out there, both electronic and non-electronic. One of my favorite ways to cure boredom is to drive around town and stops wherever I feel like, usually someplace I’ve never been before. On a boring Sunday afternoon, I might stop at five different places, and just spend a few minutes looking around. Getting out of the house will increase your mood level.

All I’ve talked about so far is how to deal with home boredom. But what about if you’re bored at school or work? Say you’ve been called into a meeting or a class that you have absolutely no interest in. Next time, bring along piece of paper and pretend to be taking notes, when in fact you are doodling, or making some kind of dream house plan. Or bring along one of those “livestrong” rubber bracelets and fiddle around with it for a few minutes.

Or, for a quick fix for boredom, you could also go and check out the latest post on Rolly Dollar!