For the past - two? three? - days, I’ve been dealing with a bit of soreness from my helix piercing. I got it done back in April, and it healed up perfectly fine; I’ve changed the ring twice and had no problems with it.

Recently, I got some really cool skull earrings. My conch is still healing, so I can’t change that one yet, but I changed out my helix immediately. It was fine for three or four days, and then a couple of days ago it started to hurt.

I asked about this on a piercing forum on BME, suggesting that perhaps the skull weighed more than a plain bead, and I got a few different responses. The first person pointed out that the metal was 316L steel, which is a lower grade than the 316LVM reputable piercers will give you when you first get pierced; he suggested I was having a reaction to that. But I checked out the star ring I’d gotten from the same company, and it’s also 316L, and I had no problems with it. Someone else suggested the ring might have surface damage because “no quality jewelry makers have skull beads.” I asked if surface damage was visible to the eye, detectable by a finger, and could be gotten used to. The guy said you “might or might not” be able to see/feel it, and called me foolish for thinking I could just get used to a damaged ring.

So I’m left with a few ideas on what’s wrong, and only one person suggested a solution: have a piercer adjust a 316LVM ring to fit the skull bead. Not a bad idea, but I’m thinking I’ll just leave it alone for now and see if it gets better. My conch is doing nicely meanwhile; I’ve gotten used to it and I like it now, even if it’s not the industrial I had wanted.

This was going to be a poll, but I decided to get rid of it. Tant pis. Instead, feel free to check out WP-Polls, a really snazzy poll plugin for WordPress users.

Okay, let’s see what I have to over the next two weeks.

• Finish reading From Pity to Pride and write a report on it
• City project - final draft, presentation (with cheese!)
• Enormous research paper about accreditation - my own topic choice - that I am probably putting too much thought into already
• ASL vlogs for this week and next week
• Three more math classes
• Two more history classes
• Three more FYS/English classes
• Two more ASL lectures and seminars

Final exams aren’t really on my radar yet, though I know the English one will be easy (but it’s AT NIGHT?!?!), the history one has already been given to us as a take-home, and the ASL one will be a vlog, also done at home. My math teacher didn’t give us a midterm, so who knows if he’ll give us a final. My math teacher is a little unorthodox.

This is just another gripe about my in-laws being so noisy at night. My brother-in-law is really noisy by default, he grew up in a loud household and he doesn’t know how to close cabinets quietly, close doors quietly, etc. He also thinks it’s okay to talk to himself and sing to himself all the time, so he’ll blurt out all kinds of stuff to himself just walking around the house at night. He apparently never learned that doing the dishes makes noise, because he does them at 11pm sometimes. Bang clatter crash! And him and my sister-in-law have a habit of singing to each other…really loud…as if nobody else lived here. It just drives me crazy. They’re good kids, I like them fine, I think they’re great…but why do they hafta be so loud?!

I am working on my research project about accreditation. I think my thesis is going to be along the lines of “Despite the need for improvement in K-12 deaf education and despite the cultural differences between Gallaudet and other universities, we can retain our accreditation with MSCHE” etc. Something like that.

The reunion was great! I saw a lot of people I remembered. There were some people I recognized faces of but didn’t know their names. But I had a really fantastic time. A is driving home now, because I am pretty sloshed. Or whatever the word is. I didn’t really dance although I kind of did a private Electric Slide for A and whoever else noticed. I discovered I’ve mostly forgotten the dance moves though. Anyway, I loved it. I don’t know if it lived up to my expectations, I’m not sure anymore what those were, but I had an awesome time.

You know…I think I am going to try to wean myself off posting every day. I’ve missed four days so far in November and I feel bad about it, and to me that is a sign that I take it too seriously. I’m not DCist or Lifehacker, I don’t have multiple authors, there’s just me. So while I will still try to post daily, I won’t kill myself if I miss a day, because it’s not that big a deal. I think.

I had a dream last night about my 10-year high school reunion which is tomorrow. I suppose I should rent Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, too.

Right now I am searching the USA Hotel Guide trying to find hotels for Anaheim. My wife has decided that we should stay there for the first couple of nights and go to Disneyland, and then return to El Segundo for her training. I worked up the package pricing to stay in a Disney “Good Neighbor” hotel, which is $440-512, and now I have to figure out if there are ways to do it cheaper. The Los Angeles hotel guide found the Super 8 right by Disneyland for $80/nt, which comes to $446.20 including theme park tickets and parking. The Motel 6 “Good Neighbor” hotel is slightly cheaper, but there is a fee for the wireless Internet access, whereas the Super 8 has free access. They’re both walking distance from Disneyland, apparently.

I love playing travel agent.

As much fun as I’m having in school, as many friends as I have right now, I’m still afraid. It’s not self-esteem this time. My good grades have done wonders for my self-esteem. It’s plain old insecurity.

Maybe part of this stems from not living on campus, but I’m afraid of losing my friends. What’s going to happen next semester? Next year? Will I find myself back in the land of having books as my only friends? Will I study hard and get good grades but find myself alone?

It almost makes me want to run away from school so I forget about the friends before they forget about me. But really, did I come to school for a social life, or for a degree? Shouldn’t I be happy getting A’s even without the friends? Is it just that I have something now that I’ve never had before (ie, friends) and I’m afraid of losing them?

School is my job now. I haven’t had a lot of friends in my previous jobs. Can’t I get by without them? Secretly eating my lunch in the Deaf Stacks of the library, hoping nobody catches me with the food? Or will I just work a lot more hours so I forget about it all?

Why am I so scared, dammit? Maybe I am worth keeping as a friend. I’m smart and I can give advice sometimes and I try to be nice to everybody. So why do I worry like this?