An Interesting Picture...

That I thought I'd share with you. I captured this recently while playing with one of my pets, Josie. She's quite ferocious and precocious. Rhyme!

A Toothy Situation

The tooth; with it we can chew, talk, and bite. Without it; we sound kinda lame and can't eat much.

Teeth are something we all have or have had at some point in our life. They grow, they fall out, they decay, they develop cavities, etc. What do you do if your tooth falls out after your full set of chompers has already developed? What if there was a new way to get rid of a cavity, minus the painful drilling? Well, coming to a dentist near you... tooth regeneration! Scientist have developed a process of 'remineralizing' teeth using the enamel and dentin found in the actual teeth. Although the process is years away from available use, it's out there. The regrowth of a tooth is not impossible but so far, it's highly unlikely and unsuccessful. The miracle of remineralizing teeth and demineralizing them happens naturally. Teeth are highly susceptible to mineral erosion, which results in tooth decay (cavities). This topic struck an interest with me one night when it appeared on the 6 o'clock news. I myself have had four cavities filled and although I hope it doesn't happen again, the whole tooth regeneration process would be my choice of fixing my teeth. The only sad thing about this, is that the embryonic stem cells used in tooth regeneration are highly abundant in wisdom teeth; which I no longer have. /insert sad trumpet noise here/

2008, wasn't great. 2009, looking fine.

A simple post about my year in review. 2008 brought many things to me, whether they be ups, downs, or mid points (not to get mathematical). My year started off with a slightly dull bang, if that's possible, by being broken up with on New Year's Eve. Fun, right? I bounced back quickly and rekindled things with an old flame from my freshmen year of high school. Things went swimmingly, the first four months of the year were joyous. In April, I received my learner's permit after several long months of waiting and procrastination on my part. I'm sad to say, I still have my permit and am not a licensed driver, yet!
In May, I turned Sweet Sixteen and hosted a boisterous birthday party which got the cops called on (not for anything illegal, the music was just too loud for my volume-sensitive neighbors). To this day, the party has not been topped. In June, things were looking up. My family and I were moving out of our house that we had taken up residence in for ten whole years and summer was rapidly approaching. The week before the move, I was struck ill with a pretty bad case of the flu, it affected everything from schoolwork to social life. By the end of the week, I was feeling a little bit better and just when I had gotten back up, I was knocked down again. My some-what serious relationship was ended, bringing on typical teenage drama and heart break. That very weekend, my family and I moved. The next day, my dog Louie was diagnosed with heart failure and died. Louie was the family dog (although we have two others, Parker and Beamer) of thirteen years. It was said that Louie and I were both the same age, in human years, do I look like I'm 112? Don't answer that. Anyways, the first and second weeks of June were probably my lowest point of the year, maybe even in life. The events took place on the eve of finals week of my sophomore. Let's just say I didn't do so hot, due to emotional stress. School was out and I had completed my second year of high school at Technology High.

My summer was a dull one, most of my days were spent lazing around the house, reading tons of books. Come August, my typical day consisted of waking up too late, snacking through out the day, plowing through a 500 page book, and staying up into the wee hours of the morning. But things changed, I adopted a new routine to get me back onto my school year schedule of waking up earlier and heading to sleep a tad earlier as well. But one day, mid-August, I went on the Internet and did some lurking. I had recently become infatuated with a band most 5 to 13 year old girls obsess over, the Jonas brothers (maybe you've heard of them?), and I stumbled upon a social networking site (Facebook to be exact) and was immediately drawn to a discussion board where thousands of fans would get together and well, discuss, the Jonas brothers. I made fast friends with the site's frequent visitors and we would host weekly discussions about anything and everything (this still occurs quite often). When school came back into session, I was thrown into the routine of seeing the same people at the same time on the same days. Quite hum drum if you ask me. But this year of high school is/was my junior year, a pivotal point in my academic career... my class load was tough and I managed to trudge through it with a complaint here and there.

The first month of school was over and then came October, which brought with it two of my favorite things... Halloween and brace-free teeth! My braces were finally removed after a grueling three and a half years at the very end of the month, just in time for the spooky holiday. Halloween was mellow for me this year and it dawned on me just how much I have grown up. I didn't dress up in costume and I didn't 'trick-or-treat' for the first time in my sixteen and three quarters of living. Once October passed, November came and oh boy did November bring a lot of fun for me. I embarked on an excellent adventure with my mother, my best friend, and my best friend's mother (who also happens to be BFF's with my mom). We journeyed to Southern California for a Disney-infused get away. For three days, I got to be a five year old again. That was fun. The trip was over, sadly so was the fun and sparkle for November.
The cold weather of December made it's way into my life and thus started the holiday season (my favorite). Christmas was great although anti-climatic at points. My family ended up eating frozen chicken soup after the power went out at my Grandparent's house, rendering us incapable of using the oven to prepare a traditional Christmas meal. I was full of Bah-Hum-Buggish spirit when Christmas was over and I was dreading what was coming next for me.

The removal of all four of my wisdom teeth, all of this happening two days before New Year's Eve... deeming me unavailable for any type of fun with the New Year's festivities. The removal of the teeth was fine, well, actually I don't know because I can't remember any of it. But the aftermath was terrible, I was in a lot of pain; probably the worst I'd ever been in. Did you know redheads have a lower threshold for pain than any other person of a different hair color? No? Well, now you do! My New Year's Eve was spent in bed, with a mouth full of gauze, and a body full of vicodin and penicillin; all the while watching Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve on TV. Woo for prerecorded events! That night capped off my year and I ushered in 2009 with the help of my dogs barking at the annoying firework noises and my parents snoring. Truly a Kodak moment. Not. This new year brings new challenges and opportunities, hopefully I will have my license soon and maybe this year will be a little better in the relationship/friendship department. God only knows and time only tells. Here is to a wonderful start of 2009 and many many more blog posts!

Life Without Tech Support

Does anyone remember a time when the way to get information was to go to a library and read? Or when the way to socialize was sitting in front of a person rather than sitting in front of a computer screen for hours on end? It's crazy to imagine what life would be like without the Internet nowadays. With so many social websites and search engines like Yahoo and Google. Teens and adults can do anything on the computer. Just imagine your own life without the computer, what would everyone do with themselves?

Nowadays people take electronics for granted, if you need to contact someone you can whip out your cell phone to make a phone call wherever you are or send out a text message. Or when you need to look something up for school, you can go on the computer and have knowledge at your fingertips. I mean, yes I'm guilty of taking these for granted, but ask yourself could you go without these simple necessities for longer than a day? For a month? Maybe even for a year?

I do realize that the technological evolution is here and many people are making the transition into a completely technology based life, but what about the people who are miles away from ‘civilization’ (or an area out of range of cell service)? The people who live their lives minus the telephone, computer, and television; things are simpler for them. Many people live the 'simple life' but many more do not. I can't name one person who I know personally off the top of my head who doesn't use some form of technology. Heck, my grandparents have their own sweet set up with all sorts of technical goodies, and they're in their 80's. Our generations are closing the gaps now, soon we will all be interconnected thanks to the vast world of technology!

Are you ready to be Barack'd?

So it's getting close inauguration day, and the presidential elect has made some big promises that he's going to have to meet. With the dwindling stock market, the country has a lot of issues that need to be fixed. Is the new president ready to change America like he says he is? Will he go through with all the promises he made? Or are we just going to fall deeper into the pit? As I'm getting older, I'm going to be on my own in a few years, so I have reason to be worried about the country and the billions of dollars in debt that we are and if I will receive health care if I can't afford it. I'm not saying I don't have faith, I'm just saying this new president has a lot of his plate and he better be hungry.

Presidents past have all made promises, some fulfilled and some left behind. It has been two full presidential terms since our country has seen the change we need and crave for. Sure, George W. Bush may have been a nice guy, but he's leaving his position as leader of the USA with our country in one of the worst economic down turns in history. Soon to be president, Barack Obama, has a big mess to clean up now that Bush will be out in just a few short days (technically hours, considering tomorrow is inauguration day). Will Obama deliver the change he's been promising? Is the four years of his first term as president of the United States going to be long enough for him to "fix" Bush's mistakes? Who knows, I'm no fortune teller. Perhaps Obama will just put a 'band-aide' on the current situations and call them fixed. Or maybe he will come through and all will be well, the country will have zero debt, and everyone's problems will be assuaged. Only time will tell.