Ben Howard 30/11/12

"Ben Howard tickets? Buy or sell Ben Howard tickets!" many a person said once we left Brixton tube station. We could find our way to the O2 just by following the voices.

Once we got there, there was the queue jump line for O2 customers and the long line for the sensible people who had switched to Giffgaff. But apparently, having a phone which loads the O2's Priority app means we could get in quickly, even if it was on Tesco Mobile. Hell, I'm not complaining!

On entering the venue, I decided to try to take a warm-up photo of the stage to set up my camera properly. I felt rather special as I turned the camera on and the screen said "No SD card inserted". Realising that my card was in the other camera, I resorted to using my phone and its fantastic ability to take blurry, low res and non-zoomed-in photos. Woop.

X-Rays are Cool

I’ve got my retainers now. I’m still going to write about it, but I’ll do that later. I think this is cooler though.

It took quite a while to get them, but a few months and £30 later (!) I have the X-Rays on a CD.

2007

This was before any braces were put in, and before any teeth were pulled out. You’ll be able to tell at that time, my front and back teeth were meeting fine, but the ones in the middle weren’t. What you can’t really see here is how overcrowded they were. I’m sure they did an X-Ray showing it, but they didn’t give it to me.

:-# --> :-D

After 5 and a bit years (on and off, and on again) I had my braces out on Tuesday afternoon, and about time too! Though it was one of the weirdest appointments I've had at the hospital...

I got in on time, Monsters vs. Aliens was showing in the waiting room, pretty standard. My orthodontist was running late as usual, but when I eventually got called in, I saw another orthodontist instead, in fact she was the first consultant I saw 5 years ago. She said that the braces were coming off today and that I would need impressions taken. I was surprised how quickly the braces came off (there was a fair amount of pain involved), and at how long she took polishing the teeth to remove the residual glue.

iThingy app – JumiMouse+

A couple of years ago, I downloaded an app for my iPod called JumiMouse+. I found it because I was looking for a remote desktop app to control my laptop, and although this wasn't exactly what I was looking for at the time, it turned out it was better than what I wanted.

In order for the app to work, JumiMouse+ requires a server application, JumiController, to be running on your PC. It can sometimes be problematic connecting the iPod to the PC, but this is usually the fault of the firewall or your router. This app works both internally and externally, meaning your iPhone could be in the same room or in China and it will work just the same.

A few months later, JumiTech released an app called JumiTap, later branded JumiRemotes, which is now integrated into JumiMouse+. This allowed the user to create their own remote controls for specific applications, or download user-submitted remotes from JumiTech's gallery. Essentially, this means you can plug your laptop into your TV and run Windows Media Center using the remote control I made for it. Or you could play VisualBoyAdvance with a Game Boy controller rather than the keyboard. Or you could present a PowerPoint presentation without the need to go and press a button on the laptop after every slide.

Help! I’m syncing!

I never had a backup schedule. I just copied my files every now and then to an external hard drive, but not nearly regularly enough. The hard drive I back it up to sits right next to my laptop most of the time. This is fine if the laptop fails and I need to get the files back, but what about if the house burns down? Both my hard drive and laptop would be destroyed without any chance of getting the data back. So I decided that I would make my computer back up the files online, because having your data mirrored somewhere else is always a good idea.

eeew, dentists

7 months after the operation

I had an appointment at the dentist yesterday, for a change. I was getting a bit concerned at the amount of tartar that built up quite suddenly on the front of my teeth, but he said there was no decay :) He wouldn't clear the tartar for fear of dislodging the braces, but in true dentist fashion, he revelled in inflicting as much pain as possible cleaning the back of my teeth. Stupid dentists.

Looks like I'll be going back there again as soon as the braces are taken off.

Pizza risotto. Yeah.

A couple of days ago, my brother asked mum:

Kieran: “What’s for dinner?”
Mum: “Risotto.”
Kieran (expectantly): “Pizza?”
Mum: “No. Risotto.”
Kieran (in an attempt to compromise): “Pizza risotto?”

Then the idea was born. Tonight, that idea became a reality.

The See-How-Much-You-Look-Like-Michael-Cera Challenge

After reading all those blog posts about my surgery, one of my friends pointed out that I now look like Michael Cera on his blog. Now after seeing Scott Pilgrim the first time, I thought I looked a bit like him, even before my surgery. However, my flatmates thought otherwise. Now my jawline looks more Cera-esque, I thought I should try to look even more like him, simply because it would be funny.

Then it actually happened.