Archive for November, 2008

I’ve told the tale a few times about how I went through two 360’s before the third was the charm. Well, I guess the charm wore off. Today, the system started reading all games as movies and then told me I should use the disc with an Xbox 360…uh what?

Thankfully, for me, I had a Best Buy warranty so I headed down to the store and started a rather long exchange process. The outcome was really beneficial, though. I have the Core/Arcade since I was able to get a HDD for free when I first bought the system in 2007. Now, the price of the Core has dropped drastically and the exchange wouldn’t have been even, so, to make it even I got a new warranty (of course) and Call of Duty 5 on the house.

Sure, it was a hassle to have to go get my 4th damn console, but I got a free game out of it. Not too bad, huh?

This past Tuesday, I went with Joe to see a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in the city. The show consisted of State of Shock, Papa Roach, Seether, and Staind. As you can imagine, it was a pretty exciting lineup for me, and probably the best combination of bands I’ve ever seen. The tickets were a gift from Joe for my birthday, so major thanks to him.

State of Shock opened up and, well, there’s a reason the opening band plays when few people are there. They were so generic and uninteresting that it was almost sickening. I’ve seen a few bands open at other shows that were really good, most notably, Flyleaf before they became famous. These guys (and the girl bassist) simply lacked any real depth, especially when compared to the acts they were opening up for. I was happy when their set was over.

Papa Roach was next and, let me be very clear, I love the “Infest” Papa Roach and greatly dislike most of their stuff after that. Their set, however, was great. Sure, there were a few newer songs that lulled me a bit, including one of their new songs, “Lifeline”, but then they mixed in a bunch of “Infest” tracks that really made the day. Their other new song, “Hollywood Whore” was also pretty good. The real show was put on by frontman Cory, though. He was jumping and screaming and even ran around the hall during “Dead Cell”. As a matter of fact, he climbed down off the VIP seating area right next to me in the general admission area, so I had a chance to pat him on the back. The whole performance was chock full of energy. It was great.

Seether followed and, for the first time, was disappointing to see live. It was just an odd and sometimes annoying set to go through. In between each song, there was this annoying looping guitar sound (why? I have no idea) that quickly got on people’s nerves. When there was actual music being played, you couldn’t hear Shaun’s vocals and, in the rare cases where the instruments were at a lower volume, the vocals were so horribly distorted that you couldn’t decipher what was being sung. I’ve seen Seether live before and they’ve always been very good, but this was a terrible performance.

Finally, my favorite band, Staind, had their chance to take the stage. To be honest, it was the best set I’ve ever seen them perform. The set started with a Johnny Cash song being played over the PA system after which the curtain opened and Staind started with their stuff. I honestly can’t remember the order of tracks, but there was a very balanced mix of old Staind and new Staind. It was amazing and very energetic. You could just watch the set and see why they’ve been so successful.

All in all, it was a great concert. Thanks Joe.

If you’ve been following my Twitter, at all, for the past two weeks, you would know that I had a severe tooth ache stemming from my bottom right wisdom tooth. Inevitably, it had to be pulled.

The pain actually started the day after Halloween. Because I got sick the week before, Melanie planned on taking me out to eat at Carrabba’s, an Italian Grill restaurant (think Outback with Italian food). Well, before we left, the pain was on and off, but it faded and we decided to go. Unfortunately, on the way there it was becoming worse and worse and, by the time we sat down to eat, I’m was squirming in pain. I took one bite and told her we needed to ask for the check. I felt horrible because she was really trying to give me something special for my birthday and, well, I was really looking forward to that meal.

The pain became bad enough that I decided to start looking for dentists. I have some basic coverage under my dad, so I called a place listed under the plan and made an appointment. However, there was a problem. The insurance covered the dentist, but not the oral surgeon. By the time both sides of the equation figured this out, it was too late. I wasn’t going to cancel and start looking for another place. The pain was unbearable. I went ahead with it and wound up borrowing $900 from my dad to pay to have the tooth pulled.

I’m getting better, now, thankfully. I can make it most of the day without any pain, though after speaking and eating all day, it hurts a tiny little bit at night. Nothing horrible at all, though I still take a dose of ibuprofen, just to rid myself of what becomes an annoying pain, more than anything else. Thursday, I go back for a follow up visit and to, presumably, have the stitches removed.

I just want to thank everyone who helped me out. Thanks to my mom and dad for lending me the money, thanks to Joe for listening to me bitch and thanks to Melanie for being by my side through it all and helping me through some of the worst pain I have ever encountered in my life.

The answer is simple: Get a badly infected wisdom tooth that prevents you from chewing and, at times, even talking, and let it play out.

For those of you who don’t know yet, I have a wisdom tooth that needs to be pulled. It’s right next to the tooth on which I had a root canal performed two years ago. I’ve set up an appointment with an oral surgeon for tomorrow at 3pm, but this thing has been killing me since the weekend. Since Sunday, I’ve managed to lose about 10 pounds because I haven’t been able to eat anything. I’ve been gobbing on Oragel and taking Ibuprofen religiously every 5 hours. Today, for now, it’s bearable. I’ve accidentally bitten down a few times and nearly put myself in shock, but it’s much more tolerable than it’s been the past few days.

Needless to say, this has been one more link in a long chain of really unlucky events for me. To add to it, I just found out the surgeon isn’t covered by my parents dental insurance (only insurance I have), only the dentist in the office is, so I have to pay full price. I know, I should look elsewhere, but you don’t understand how bad this pain has been and how badly I want to get this taken care of.