You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Pain, Party, Movies

I had a tooth pulled out yesterday. I've been surprisingly okay with it so far.

I'd been in a fairly large amount of pain since Thursday. Getting the house and catering ready and throwing the party on Friday was not made easier by this; thank goodness it was a fairly small party, with only 25-30 people. (It does mean that I have quite a bit of leftover food, but I hope to manage to use it up before it goes off, and beer keeps fairly well. :) I'm not a great fan of taking pain medication, but I'd managed to blow through more than a box of Nurophen, as well as several paracetamol and a number of codine. The dentist had said to get in contact if the pain persisted, and this seemed to count.

I made it through Monday, though I ended up going home a half-hour early because of lack of concentration thanks to pain. (I've been quite lucky, in that I don't seem to have had many problems falling asleep.) Yesterday, as well as I learning valuable lessons about not looking at the tools dentists are putting in your mouth, I seem to be in significantly less pain. And weirdly enough, having a tooth pulled out appears to be cheaper than having it drilled.

In related costing-Svend-money news, it looks like the problem with my car is indeed a head gasket replacement, most likely caused by the age of the car -- that's $280 for the gasket set, plus the reconditioner's time, plus the garage's... so that's $800-$1k, plus the $500-odd that it's already needed for the warrant. So I guess I won't be putting that money on my mortgage after all. :)

***

Returning to the party briefly, i think it went quite well. The wind didn't encourage people to hang out in the backyard, but there were enough people to make the lounge/kitchen feel full without being too crowded. Not a very good turn-out from work -- given I ended up competing with Monthlies, that didn't surprise me that much -- but I did get the Editorial department turning up! And what's more, when asked for the makings of martinis, I was able to deliver; and they were suitably impressed by my crazy glassware. Some of them also chatted with my other friends, and said some very nice things about me.

(It also made me realise that all of the cocktails I know how to make off the top of my head could easily be My Little Pony names -- Stormy and Toffee Apple, for example, could easily slip into the Hasbro line-up. I guess I should expand my range. :)

Anyway, Editorial had arrived late, and the other people had basically left by midnight -- which meant they were able to drag me into Motel to say goodbye to a Weta person. I stayed for a couple of hours, walked home, and went to bed after a quick tidy-up (putting things in the fridge, rinsing and stacked dishes, and washing out bottles and putting them in the recycle bin). This meant that all I had to do the next morning was to mop the floor and wipe a few surfaces, and the house was actually cleaner than it had been before the party. :)

***

This Subtrate" java applet is pretty cool. Someone suggested that this is what Wellington city planners used to decide on the street layout; this gives them entirely too much credit. ;)

***

A final note about work -- it looks like we will have something to do after Kong, after all. I'm not sure how much of a challenge the Halo movie will be, and I doubt that we'll be in contention for an Oscar for our special-effects work; but as Flanders and Swan say, "It all makes work for the working-man to do." The one tricky thing is that there might not actually be that much work there -- a lot of the work at the beginning of the pipeline will have been done, and they probably don't want to deviate too much from the look of the game. Of course, they may end up coopting the Jane & the Dragon, which is the Digital Effects group within Weta Workshop, so who knows.

Still, hopefully that'll give us something to do, and The Lovely Bones will probably employ a few more people. But I hope we get something big too, since there are lots of artists that it would be a pity to lose.

Posted by svend at October 4, 2005 7:24 PM