• 0 Posts
  • 63 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

help-circle


  • Yep. My wife and I are in our thirties and have good whole life insurance policies that will supplement our retirement accounts nicely in our old age. I’ve been paying into mine for almost two decades (maybe longer, my parents started it for me and locked in good rates when I was young), my wife’s is newer. We also both have matching retirement accounts and are making sure we hit our matching totals each paycheck to draw as much from our employers as we can.

    It’s not ideal, but with good planning (and stable income) you can still do well. Now, stable income is the important part. I’m a software developer, my wife works for a non-profit, so my income is generally a bit more stable than hers.

    I recommend finding a financial advisor. Our life insurance guy is great and because he gets commission on the life insurance plans he doesn’t charge us for advisory services (and also doesn’t try to sell us on other stuff, he actually recommended we NOT move our old 401ks from other jobs over to him because we’d end up paying him more than we’d make, he recommended we roll them into our current employer plans).



  • It is but no educated person qualifies themselves by that name as it means nothing.

    People seek to label themselves in the most accurate category not the broadest one.

    I’m not sure that’s true. If you ask someone what they do for a living and they say, “I’m a doctor,” you don’t say, “I doubt it. A real doctor would say, ‘I’m a cardiovascular surgeon,’ or ‘I’m a pediatrician.’” We adjust our labels for our audience.

    I wouldn’t be surprised to find a biologist or a climatologist who might just say, “I’m a scientist” to a broad audience. Not that they couldn’t use the more accurate label, just that they don’t necessarily have to.



  • The way I handle this is to parse them differently. They mean the same thing, but “I couldn’t care less” is sincere and “I could care less” is sarcastic.

    Sort of like, “I suppose it’s possible that I could care less about that” reduced to the phrase.

    Because both phrases obviously communicate the same meaning, a lack of care, the issue for me isn’t in the understanding but in the parsing. So I had to come up with a way to parse it as sarcasm so it doesn’t bother me.

    Like when someone says, “I’ll try and be there” my brain, mildly traumatized by really good English teachers in my youth, screams, “YOU’LL TRY TO BE THERE.” But lately I’ve been making an effort to interpret the “and <verb>” following “try” as an alternate form of the infinitive, since it’s so readily accepted and common in spoken English. We already construct other verbs that way anyway (eg. “I’ll go and do that”).

    I…might have a touch of the ‘tism. It wouldn’t surprise me. 😅




  • On the other hand, road bikers are fucking annoying, stay in your goddamn lane and stop slowing down traffic. I’m not reading your dumb hand signals, either!

    I sometimes road bike. If there’s a bike lane I’ll stay in it. But I am entitled to a lane if there isn’t a bike lane, so on a four-lane road with no bike lane I will not go to the shoulder, I will ride in the center of the right lane to maximize my visibility. It’s infuriating how many dickhole drivers give me like a quarter of the lane when they pass me unless I take the center of the lane.

    (It is legal for me to ride on the sidewalk in my county, but I cannot maintain my preferred 40kph (25mph) on a sidewalk. Too bumpy, and too many pedestrians. It is also legal for me to ride on the road.)

    Hand signals aren’t hard. There are, as far as I know, three important ones. Arm straight out means I’m turning that direction. Arm bent up means I’m turning the opposite direction. Arm bent down means I’m stopping, though my bike has brake lights so I don’t usually use this one.




  • Don’t worry. I’ve had a lot of work done on my front teeth due to an accident when I was a child. Eventually needed root canals on both.

    Honestly those root canals weren’t even as bad as cavity fillings.

    Most painful part, as others have said, will be the numbing injections. If you still feel pain, let them know and they’ll give you more (different people have different levels).

    Make sure to ask for a bite block so you don’t have to hold your mouth open, that’ll help a lot.

    They might even let you listen to music, audiobook, or podcast, depending on your dentist.

    Here’s what you’ll experience:

    They’ll put you in the chair, and they’ll use a q-tip to apply some local anesthetic to your gums. They’ll give that a bit to kick in, then they’ll inject your gums with a tiny little hypodermic needle to really numb them. This is the only part that hurts. I find if I grip the arm of my chair and focus on that, I get through it easier.

    They’ll likely do 2-3 injections around the area, depending on the tooth and where the nerves are located. But the first is the worst, because the numbing agent will start to take effect for the others. Also your body is gonna flood with endorphins because of the pain, so the injections following the first won’t be nearly as bad. Then the dentist will probably leave the room for a few minutes while they let that kick in. If the assistant is there, strike up a conversation! In my experience, the relief that the injections are done, along with the aforementioned flood of endorphins, almost feels like a mild high.

    The dentist will come back and ask how you’re doing. Your lip will feel huge right now (though it isn’t, it’s just the way the nerves interpret not being able to feel what’s going on).

    Here, if they haven’t given you one yet, ask for a bite block. Seriously, it makes the process so much easier.

    They’ll start working by drying the area with some air. Then they’ll probably begin drilling. If you feel any pain at all, let them know. They’ll be looking for it, and may even ask you. I’ve only ever had to get an additional injection once or twice. By this point, the injection won’t really hurt because the area is so numb.

    When they’ve drilled in they’ll begin using tools to clean out the inside of the tooth, clearing as much of the infected tissue as possible and removing the nerve. The work and the drilling all feel kind of weird, because the area is numb but you can still sense pressure in other parts of your mouth. You can also hear it, unless you choose the music route. I actually find this kind of fascinating.

    Once they’ve cleaned the area, they’ll put in what’s called gutta percha, which they use to plug up the canal. This will feel funny, you’ll definitely feel the pressure. It won’t hurt though.

    Then they’ll plug the hole with some bonding material or cement or something. This will probably be UV cured.

    And then you’ll be done! Unless you’re having the whole tooth replaced with a crown. In that case, they’ll have made a mold beforehand for a temporary and permanent crown. They’ll drill away more of the tooth and put a post in to hold the crown in place. Then they’ll put the temporary crown on while they send the mold out to make a proper one.

    Then you get to go home. Take a sick day if you get them, not because you need it but because it’s a good excuse and your co-workers will all feel sorry for you. 🤣

    Don’t fret! You’re gonna do great. If you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to ask!