I lost about 200 bucks yesterday on the Packers game. Well, Technically, I did not lose anything, because I was playing with profit from prior weeks. I am still up well over 10X my initial investment. I suppose I could have taken the money out, so I guess I can only say I sorta lost 200 dollars. Hopefully I will win some of it back tonight. The bigger issue, is trying NOT to tilt, which is a gambling term used when someone tries to recover losses by playing irrationally. A few weeks ago I was on full tilt and was betting 450+ bucks on a single play during the game. My goal today is to bet small, but consistently to work my way back up slowly. I should do an article on the mentality of a gambler in tilt mode.

Anyway, so I went to the dentist the other day. Some people hate the dentist. I kind of like it. My dentist is always really proud of my healthy strong teeth, but like most people, I need to floss more. They have done this in the past, but this time again they took my blood pressure, and said it was high. I had my blood pressure taken back when I went to the ER with a busted chin from hockey, and they said it was fine. So is it possible that my blood pressure has spiked since then? I suppose. I asked her to take it again so she did and it was still pretty damn high. 160/94, which is really up there. I suppose it is possible that I could have had the condition known as "white coat hypertension", which is essentially artificially elevated blood pressure due to anxiety from being in a doctors office, or somewhere that may cause any sort of stress. She also stated that it could simply be that the cuff was to small for my large arm, or that her machine was not calibrated properly. I think I can rule out "white coat" because like I said, I actually enjoy going to the dentist.

I took it again at one of those free checks at the grocery store pharmacy, and although it was not nearly as high as it was at the dentist, it was still higher than it should be 141/86 or something real close to that. Could I have high blood pressure? I SERIOUSLY doubt it. I suppose if I do, it might be handy to know that, so I am in the market for a decent blood pressure monitoring device that has a USB connector, so that I can attach it to my computer and chart out the results. I will update on that later.

Back on track here, I cannot comprehend why people do not like the dentist. I suppose they are afraid of pain. "Anticipation of pain is usually worse than pain" is a general rule I try to live by. If you sit and dwell on something then you are suffering for no real reason, just get it over with, and most of the time, you will come out the other end thinking it was not nearly as bad as you thought it would be. Some people have a bad gag reflex, but 99% of the time, the dentists hands are not very far in your mouth, certainly not far enough to gag a person. The technology of dentistry has come a long way as well. A lot of the tools no longer look like scary death implements. Plus, most of the time, I actually do not see the tools at all. Some people don't want to go because they know they have bad teeth or some sort of particular problem. If you went in the first place, you probably would not be in this predicament.

All this leads me to believe that people who are afraid or even the smallest bit apprehensive about going to the dentist probably HAVE A BAD DENTIST!

As a side note here, I started chewing gum pretty much all the time a couple of years ago. I chew gum 4-6 hours a day. Sugarless, of course. Anyway, I noticed that after I started chewing gum a lot, that every time I went to the dentist, there was less buildup for them to scrape off, and they noticed that my teeth were a lot cleaner, and healthier. My theory here is that the gum pull all the nasty shit off of and out from between your teeth. I do not brush any more than I used to, so this appears to be the only explanation. So, forget about pain, chew gum, and GO TO THE DENTIST!!