I decided that we needed to rent a couple of DVD’s and so off we went to our nearest Blockbuster’s; the one on Union Street, in Plymouth.
We picked out the DVD’s we wanted to watch and went over to the counter, where there were three members of staff; one female and two males.

I walked over to the counter and put down the chosen DVD’s and said I needed to sign up. The older male sales assistant told me I needed a credit or debit card and slapped a form down in front of me, on the high counter.
Now, I’m short – 4ft 10in – and so I had to reach up to the high counter in order to fill out this form. Matt laughed about it, I laughed about it. The female sales assistant asked me if I wanted a milk crate to stand on. !!

As I’m filling out the form, the younger male sales assistant gets off the phone and mocks the person he was just speaking to – “Hi, is this Blockbuster’s on Union Street? – Yes, you called our number, who do you think you were talking to?”. The female sales assistant says “Next time, you should say ‘Domino’s'!”. All three sales assistants laugh – apparently, confusing customers is really funny?

After I’ve completed the form, “my” sales assistant takes the form off me and does whatever it is that needs to be done next, while I talked to Matt. Next thing I know, a chip & pin machine is shoved at me and I’m told to enter my PIN.
I enter my PIN, then notice that the machine is asking me to insert my card. I clear my PIN number and insert my card but nothing happens. I give the machine back, saying that it’s not registering my card. The female sales assistant walks past, saying to “my” sales assistant, “See what I said earlier about customers being retarded?”. “My” sales assistant laughs.
I’m getting over the shock of the last comment (and the reaction from “my” sales assistant) when “my” sales assistant says to me “You do know what the ‘Play’ button on your DVD player looks like?”. Seriously.

Not only did I have to put up with all of this abuse, I wasn’t given any information; I don’t know how long I can keep the DVD’s for, how much they charge for “late returns”, etc.

Needless to say, I am fuming. I’ll be writing two letters; one will go directly to the manager of the store and one will be going to the Head Office. The Head Office letter will also contain my membership card, as I honestly don’t think I’ll be needing it.

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Not only did they raise the age of buying cigarettes, they raised the age to buy any nicotine containing products and smoking paraphernalia (lighters, cigarette papers, filtres / tips, etc).

Now that 16 / 17 year old who was quitting The Satan Sticks without putting themselves through the horror that is “cold turkey” can’t…unless they talk their parent/s into buying their choice of Nicotine Replacement Therapy for them.
I’m sure that request will go down just as well as “Could you buy me some cigarettes, mum?”!

They [the Government] want us all to quit smoking. A few months ago, they were considering making it illegal to display cigarettes behind the counter of shops; the packets would be held under the counter.

They’re all for England to stop smoking but don’t seem to be helping.

The price of Nicotine Replacement Therapy products is disgusting. Britain, you really want to help your people to quit smoking? Lower the price. Remove the VAT from the NRT products and raise the VAT of cigarettes to something MUCH higher. How about almost £10 for a pack of ten (currently between £4 and £6, depending on your chosen brand)?

And, please God please, make it easier to get hold of NRT products. This is the best thing you could do! My chosen method of NRT is the Inhalator, which I can buy in a whole of three shops in Plymouth. None of which are near me.
And I’m running out.

• July 2005, my dentist bullies me into going to the hygienist
• About six weeks later: PAIN. LOTS AND LOTS OF PAIN
• Three days after the pain starts, I go to the dentist
• The dentist tells me off for not brushing my teeth for two days, I ask her what part of “SIGNIFICANT PAIN, I CAN’T EVEN SLEEP OR EAT, NEVER MIND BRUSH MY TEETH” does she not understand
• She prescribes me some drugs and tells me that it will get rid of the pain
• We find out that the drugs she prescribed me are anti-depressants
• First pill has no effect. Second pill has me up all night bawling my eyes out and wanting to die
• Mum screams obscenities down the phone to my doctor’s receptionist. Secures an appointment
• Go doctor, mum comes in with me; I can’t even speak anymore
• Mum tells doctor everything, doctor is pissed off about the anti-depressants and how they were “advertised” to me
• Told to go back to Demon Dentist and not leave until I get antibiotics
• Back to dentist next day, get antibiotics
• About two days later, I have finally had a few hours of sleep and some soup. AND I’ve managed to brush my teeth for the first time!
• Three checkups later, she tells me that my tooth is dead and that I have “another abscess” – this is the first time she mentions that I had an abscess
• In 2007, she arranges an appointment for her to perform a root canal on my dead tooth
• The first part is done but I have another abscess; will have to wait a month before the root canal can be finished
• She cancels the next appointment
• And the next. I give up.

A few weeks ago, I start feeling some sensitivity in the tooth. I worry about it for a few days, then get my mum to make an appointment. She tells me she’s made it but I won’t be seeing my normal dentist. I’m over the moon.

The appointment comes up and I’ve been thinking of ways to ask to have a new dentist; would the puppy dog eyes work best or will I have to make myself cry? Decisions, decisions!
Turns out I didn’t need to ask for a new dentist; mine has already left. Thank you, God!

I get prescribed another course of antibiotics and am told to come back on August 12th. Which was this Tuesday.

I go in, expecting to get a checkup and have my new dentist arrange an appointment to finish the root canal. Imagine my surprise when he says “Let’s finish this.”!
It was during work time and I told them I would only be a little late. I can’t even phone work and let them know I will be quite late. But oh well.

He drills through the dressing and tries to insert one of the screw-like things they use to get all infected crap out of the tooth but it hurts, so he gets out his general anesthetic injection. PANIC. NEEDLE! Will be IN MY MOUTH and I KNOW that hurts! I had to have five teeth removed before I could have braces, so I know the pain of these needles.

(Does anyone else find it weird that I’m scared of the tiny needle they use for those injections, when I’ve had at least nine piercings done with a needle? And piercing needles are a lot bigger and thicker than injection needles.)

While he’s injecting me, I’m trying to make myself absorb into the chair; I’m completely rigid. He tells me to relax, I try to tell him I CAN’T. He understands.

Once the needle was finally out, he carried on using screw-like things to pull crap out of my tooth. I can’t feel pain but can feel my poor tooth being beaten up.
He made the hole bigger and I felt it with my tongue while he was doing something else. The hole was almost as big as the back of the tooth.

He carried on with the screw-like things for a little while longer. I’m now worrying that he’ll put his fingers through the floor of my mouth or he’ll pull out the screw-thing and my tooth will come out with it.

He finally finishes with the screws and then starts to put stuff into my tooth, using tiny little needles. Not like an injection; he uses these tiny needles to get the gooey stuff into my tooth; a bit like a spoon, I guess.

He then puts a tiny metal pin into my tooth and gently knocks it in using his finger. He chops off the end and uses the sucker thing to suck out the end, which is now in my mouth. He does the same thing again.

Then he puts tooth-cement onto my tooth and closes up the hole.

I’m finally allowed to leave!

I now have little pins in my tooth, to hold the tooth down; like a root would, if I still had one.

It sucks that this is my first ever filling, it’s a Big Filling and it was caused by my previous dentist.

I want to knock her teeth out.

I was in town on Saturday and thought I’d have a look around the two best known piercing shops and seeing what they had to offer. I had also planned to talk to the person who pierces me and to see what they have to say.

Sadly, Tribal Voice has been closed until this Friday because it’s been flooded. So, off I went to Blue Banana.

I was just looking at the plugs, tapers and stuff and one of the cashiers asked if they could help. So I said that I was planning on stretching my ears.

She ‘advised’ me on starting with 10g (2.4mm) CBRs. She said that my holes are 20g (0.8mm) (they’re actually at 14g (1.6mm)), so starting off with more than double the width would obviously be a good idea.

I did buy the CBRs (not for use NOW though, I’m waiting for my crescent stretchers to come through the post ) and I thought that I’d give it a go; try and get those babies into my ears. I didn’t put much effort into it but I could immediately tell that they weren’t going to just slide into my ears, so I’ve left it.

If I’d have followed her advice, I’d probably have very sore, swollen and most likely torn earlobes. I’m so glad that I’m not an idiot.

Let that be a lesson, kids – ask a professional before doing any modding to yourself.

I’ve been online for about an hour and a half and my eyes already feel like they’re going to BURST.

(I admit, wearing my glasses might have helped a little but glasses can’t make colours darker and more easy to read!)

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/187.html

They got clever this time – I looked up the DNS entries for the site and they came back as 7-dns.net (which seems to be some sort of privacy thing for DNS entries – a bit like Domains By Proxy).
I hoped I could get the IP address of the site and find out which company is hosting them that way but nooo; when I entered the IP address into Google, a bunch of guestbook entries showed up.

They’re using AdSense ads…so I’ll just have to hit them where it’ll really hurt – the wallet!

First off, those wisdom teeth of mine? They’re apparently still in the bone of my jaw. When I went to the dentist with my abscess, why did she diagnose me with wisdom tooth pain when the wisdom teeth can’t move (there’s no room in my mouth!)?
And why did she tell me I’d ground down my wisdom teeth (I grind my teeth in my sleep), if they’re still in the bone?

The teeth that were causing the pain are my second set of molars. They started coming through when I was about twelve and have only just finished.

I’m being treated for a second abscess (in the same place as the last abscess). I had a lump between my teeth and inside of my lip but didn’t think it was another abscess.

She also told me that if I don’t stop smoking, I’ll lose my teeth within ten years. That, to me, sounds like a scare tactic.

I’m sick of doctors and dentists playing on the fact someone smokes.
You go to the doctor with an inflamed knuckle or athlete’s foot and they’ll try and blame it entirely on your smoking.
My feet are itchy!
That’s because you smoke!

I’m also sick of my dentist trying to tell me I don’t brush my teeth. I KNOW she’s a dentist and knows teeth much better than I do but I do brush my damn teeth.
I have never had a filling because I have never had a cavity. If I didn’t brush my teeth, I would have had many cavities.

So, to stop her moaning at me (until I get myself a NEW dentist), I’ve decided to stop drinking tea and have cut back on the cigarettes.
I now have one cup of tea in the morning and have cut back from thirty+ cigarettes a day, to ten. And I’ll keep cutting back until I’ve quit.
I can’t use patches because they make my heart race and the gum makes me want to throw up. So I’ll make my addiction more manageable to make it easier to go ‘cold turkey’.

There have been some differences…my tongue used to be yellow and it’s now pink. My gums aren’t as pale and I’ve got an appetite! I haven’t had one of those since before I started drinking tea!

(Sorry this entry is kind of all over the place. I take my tea with sugar and the lack of sugar is making it difficult for me to think clearly. I’ll be back to normal soon. )

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/157.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/152.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/132.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/133.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/134.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/77.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/78.html – Do you see the smoke coming out of my ears yet?

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/80.html

http://news.pagesforyou.info/read/81.html

There might be more but I got bored.

I know having your feed ripped and then reproduced on some other site is a pretty normal thing for blogs, (I had it done to me when I had never-his.org) but I’m wondering if there’s a way to stop it from happening; I’ll probably be the one getting penalised in search engines for duplicate content.

At the moment, my fighting back method is to include a copyright notice, a link to the homepage of my site and a link to the actual entry but I’m thinking there’s probably a better way to fight back.
Any ideas?