But having had so much practice over the years, I believe I’ve gotten quite skilled at being a compliant patient.

Today I had 3 of the 4 corners of my mouth frozen prepping for the installation of permanent bridges. My dentista popped the question: … while we’re here, do you want to fix the 4th corner?

… Why not.

I’m very happy with Dr. Lorenia Estrada, my lady dentist from La Paz, Baja. (I’ve written of my Stockholm syndrome for her before.)

One new thought came to mind on the death bed this time. I believe women make better dentists than men, on average.

They are more empathetic and gentle.

Male dentists are dead to me from here on in.

My cost for all the dental work I’ve had done in La Paz is about $4800.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQMwFHFGGnQ

Soccer is dead to me. … After New Zealand wins this World Cup.

I like playing it, but watching a nil-nil draw between Elbonia and Molvanîa is only slightly preferable to rotting in a coffin.

Like most North Americans, I appreciate skillful ball handling and passing. Soccer highlights, I enjoy.

But face it, watching an interminable game of soccer sucks. I don’t care how popular it is world-wide.

• a weaker team often beats a stronger
• penalty shots are absurdly valuable
• players often take “dives”
• the minutes added to the end of the game seems subjective

But the #1 reason soccer sucks is officiating. I’ve no doubt that the refs at the World Cup are competent. But it’s obvious even to an ignorant like myself that they’re not capable of making correct judgments on a field that large.

Everyone in the TV audience can see what happened in super slow motion. Soccer refs get no video replay.

Martin Rogers on Yahoo Sports – Refs must face the music for bad calls

That’s it. Soccer is dead to me.

I’m boycotting after New Zealand wins this World Cup. Boycotting … until the next World Cup.

‘We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax’

Of all the over-paid right wing radio talk show nobs, I like Rush the best. He’s got some sort of folksy appeal. Once in a while he talks some common sense.

That said, he’s a bald-faced liar, at times, distorting facts to serve his own political biases. That he’d use the suffering of innocents in Haiti just to bolster ratings … and bash Obama. That’s the last straw.

Rush Limbaugh is dead to me. I’ll never listen to the Big Fat Idiot again.

…

That’s my decision. Read other reactions on the L.A. Times Comments blog.

…

Book publishers are hurting badly.

Some feel the next big thing is eBooks. (The Kindle is sold out until February.) But I don’t want a Kindle. It’s not much better than the book I have sitting unread on my bedside table.

I don’t want to “read”.

I like audible books.

Listening to books while I’m walking, biking, on the bus.

Sadly, there’s only one main distributor of audible books …

Audible.com

And — since they were bought by Amazon last March — I’m not sure how quickly Audible is going to bring the books I want to MP3. Their selection is too limited for me.

I’m happy to pay $12 for an audio copy of a book I want … but they won’t produce an audio version of most books. No wonder publishers are failing.

I never bought anything from JVC again. And never will.

Now Canon is dead to me too.

Despite consistently good reviews on-line, my Canon Elura series camcorder was a dud. Most of the trouble involved the mechanism ejecting tapes.

I had some warranty problems with it too.

My advice is to buy Sony. Or Panasonic.

Shun Canon if you can.

Unless you make an effort to avoid them, you’ll see 5000 ads / day.

… billboards, sandwich boards, TV commercials, radio spots, posters, newspaper inserts, storefront promos, magazine ads, web banners, spam emails, product placements, infomercials, sponsorship logos, advertorials, and so on …

adbusters

Why are you wasting my time?

Advertisers, I promise NOT to buy your product if you pester me.

You might ask, “What about those ads on this blog, Rick?”

… good question.

Well, … the Google text ads are contextual. The least offensive and intrusive possible. And they are supposed to relate to topics on this page.

Or you might ask, about those video ads you post on this site. “Rick, why are you shilling the Apple iPhone?

I might say those are entertainments. Funny. Or interesting. They may or may not inspire you to purchase a product.

The things I specifically recommend are listed under my product endorsement category.

That’s the only kind of advertising I want to see. Specific advice from people who have some expertise in the area. Especially those I know personally.

If you tip me to something I might be interested in buying, I should give you a small commission.

Adbusters

Time to cut him loose. Let him sink to the bottom of the dead pool.

I’ve cancelled my RSS subscription to his blog and videocast. And will plug my ears when he happens to appear on other audiocasts.

His buffoonery is getting old.

Dvorak is known throughout the tech community as being a Troll_(Internet). His theories are far fetched and is almost invariably wrong at most of the conclusions that he draws.

Wikipedia

definition of “Troll”:

… someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding.

Wikipedia

What shred of credibility remained about elite pro cycling has disappeared as 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis of Denmark on Friday became the first Tour winner to admit he used banned performance-enhancing drugs.

… Riis said in a news conference Friday he had taken the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) from 1993 through 1998, including during his Tour victory. He also confessed to using human growth hormone and cortisone.

“The time has come to put the cards on the table,” Riis said. “I have done things I now regret and I wouldn’t do again. I have doped. I have taken EPO. For awhile it was part of my life.”

Riis, currently manager of the Danish CSC cycling team, expected to be stripped of his Tour de France title.

“My yellow jersey is in a box at home. You can come and collect it,” Riis said of the jersey worn by the Tour de France leader.

A sport caught in a cycle of cheating on ChicagoSports.com

I’ll never watch race cycling again.

source

A few years later I stopped as magazine content seemed old — I had seen some of the stories on the internet. Google News, in particular, ruined magazines for me.

In 2006 I rely much less on Google News as most stories of interest I see a day or two earlier on one blog or another, delivered to me by my RSS feed reader. Google News should integrate quality blogs.