I've joined civilisation

I finally have ADSL at home!!! Anyone who has put up with dial up for as long as I did can feel my relief. Its one thing to have broadband at work and be happy to be able to browse the web at reasonable speeds (although we’re still a lot slower than Europe and the US), when you are supposed to be working. But for all those times when you’re at home and wanting to check or download something, if you’re on dial up, you are constantly reminded of how bad it is.

The main thing that put me off broadband for so long was the price. Working in IT and still having to dial up to get to the Internet was also a secret shame. Finally I just gave in and bought a modem and got it DSL provisioned. Sure the novelty of having ADSL at home as well as work will wear off soon enough, but for now I’m riding the wave baby!!

Oral Adventure

I went to the dentist the other day and it actually wasn’t too bad. Of course, it was no ‘sex with Angelina Jolie’, but as far as having someone rape your mouth with sharp metal implements it could have been much worse.

After sitting in the waiting room for only about 10-15 minutes, the cute dental hygienist approached me with what looked like a menu. She informed me that I had a choice of tv or music while I was having my teeth cleaned! 'About time I started getting something back from the dental experience', I thought. With my tv show chosen, a short time later I was in the chair and found a flat screen tv in front of me, as well as one on the roof for when the chair was reclined. Thanks to my not really thinking ahead, the episode of the program I’d chosen had the words, ‘pube’, ‘tits’ and ‘testicles’ mentioned within the first few minutes, as well a featuring a somewhat PG rated sex scene a bit later. I wouldn’t have normally batted an eyelid, but I couldn’t help wondering if the cute hygienist who was examining my mouth thought I was some kind of deviant, for choosing this show. At the end of the exam she commented on my gums and how well I’d been treating them. ‘She wants me’, I thought, while trying to remember if I had ever actually done anything to consciously enhance my gums. I was also curious if she complimented everyone who didn’t have a gingivitis riddled mouth, but I didn’t ask. While we waited for the actual dentist, I queried her as to whether she had seen anything to be concerned about. She worried me a bit by saying evasively that she had mostly been inspecting my gums (what WAS her obsession with gums?).

When the dentist arrived and had a look, he asked her what she had been concerned about when she came to look for him (I knew she was lying!) and he started poking around at the back of my mouth. After more prodding, the dentist let me out of the chair. He then informed me that the thing they were conferring about was a small dark spot on one of my teeth that was likely decay…..however it was not very big and he was happy to let me decide what to do. Option 1 – fill it now? Option 2 – wait 6 months and see if it gets any worse? Then the hygienist chimes in and says that she and I had discussed that the next visit would be in a year. The dentist said that would be ok too! I was a bit stunned and asked if a year would really be fine before the small hole was checked and he told me he wouldn’t consider it reckless. Naturally I said, ‘Screw getting it filled in now if I can leave it and not shell out over a hundred bucks plus the pain of getting it filled’….. or words to that effect. Any dentist who tells me that I can put off dental work for another year, is ok in my books. Then off I went to the local fair to buy some fairy floss and jaw breakers.

Merlo REVEALED!

A lot of people come up to me in the street and ask, “Why is your blog called Merlo’s Blog, when you go by the name Javatari?”

And I always respond the same way, by saying, “How the hell do you know who I am?”

Often they respond by saying, “Well I was standing behind you in the internet café where you were just posting on your blog and a read a bit of it.”

Sometimes I yell in reply, “Get a life you git and stop following me.”

But to all you kind readers out there…all two of you, I thought I would explain the phenomenon behind the name of this little hillock in the landscape that is the intermijig.

It all started about two years ago I believe, when a couple of thespian (actors, but not gay) friends wrote a play to perform in the comedy festival. It was about these two loser guys who were getting advice about women from another guy who was just as clueless as they were. One ended up unsuccessfully hitting on his interior decorator, and the other was used as a doormat for an attractive blonde. Throughout the play, at certain points the phone would ring and the audience would hear a voice on the answering machine who was basically just calling up to chat with the guys for no reason and even though he specified in the message that it wasn’t important, he declared that he would call back later. The two guys never did ring him back and it turned out in the end that the phone guy was stalking the interior decorator chick. That phone guy was referred to as Merlo and I did his voice!! Yes the masked Merlo has finally been revealed! My buddies had no faith in my acting abilities so they recorded my voice to be played back as voicemail. No respect I tell you. The play was funny, but the whole Merlo thing was a bit of an in-joke, so I decided to use the name in my blog title. Mostly cause it amused me and also I wasn’t in the right state of mind to come up with anything clever when I name this thing. So there you are, mystery solved. Go about your business.

Death

There has been a lot of death going around recently. I found out on Monday that my mentor from my previous workplace had died. I took up his old job after he left when it was discovered he had cancer and that was around a year and a half ago. He pretty much beat the cancer but died of emphysema in the end. He was the complete opposite to what you would except from an IT guy. Firstly he was in his sixties, secondly he was a rough looking guy, thirdly every second word that came from his mouth was ‘f***kin’ and he was loud, fourthly he had previously had careers in the army and as a truck driver. The main thing about him was that at the top of his personality, he was a good guy. If you were up front and honest with him you’d gain his respect, but if you were a slacker or someone who is too scared to the bend the rules now and then to get the job done, chances are he wouldn’t have like you much. The thing I respected most about him was that he was never afraid to speak his mind, even when he knew that others would disagree with him. Bob you’ll be sorely missed.

Of course everyone knows about Steve Irwin’s death and there are already many blogged comments about it. All I want to say is how sad I am for his family; you can only imagine the void that they will have in their lives with him gone. I for one liked his crazy energy and I hope the Irwin family can find the strength to deal with it and continue the work that he so loved, as I’m sure they will.

The third death related item is that my family’s eldest cat ‘Benson’ had to be put down the other day as he had become very sick and was in a lot of pain. He’d contracted feline AIDS from fighting with other cats in his earlier days and his condition only would have gotten worse with time. It was still a very tough decision for my family particularly my mum to have to come to. A lot of people who have never had pets or don’t feel any kinship with animals won’t know how real the grief of losing a beloved pet can be. But for anyone who does know, it can be just as painful for some as the loss of a human friend. A previous cat that we had got hit by a car, and while mortally wounded he crawled into a neighbour’s backyard where he died alone which I found very distressing, but at least Benson was with my mum when he passed away. He was a real tough guy character of a cat and we’ll miss him dearly.

I have never had to deal with much death before and when you are faced with it, be it human or animal it really makes you realize that even though someone may be full of energy one minute, we only ever have a tenuous grasp on this thing we call life.