I woke up at the insane hour of 4:53 AM and headed out of town to get my wisdom teeth extracted. Arriving at 6 AM, there was then a little wait before I changed into pure white surgical robes and was wheeled away to the theatre (a very strange experience, the white clothes and transportation down long halls seemed highly symbolic).

The theatre was freezing and a series of thick and pre-warmed blankets were placed on top of me before being asked another series of health-related questions. Then, with the surgeon that was supposed to be performing the operation running late, I was hooked up to numerous electronic devices that displayed their observations on LCDs, including a graphical heart beat representation with BPM, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation and many other weird statistics (all magically calculated from a sensor clipped on to my index finger).

A few other sensors were attached to various parts of my body and hooked up to other strange objects resembling polygraphs, and then a strap placed on my arm to prep the vein for the drip (which was the most painful part and not nice to watch). A few more minutes of stabilisation and having various things taped, stuck and strapped to me and it was time to begin, with an oxygen mask providing a boost while a series of syringes were injected into the drip socket, making my arm instantly feel like ice and plunging me about four seconds later into what I can only describe as "undefined sleep".

Normally when I wake up from being asleep I have a sense that time has passed. Although I often don't remember all the dreams I've had, I still have a feeling that my sleep has taken up time. In other words, although I can only remember falling asleep and waking up, it doesn't "feel" as though I'm waking up the instant after I fall asleep; it still feels like hours have passed, even if I have no recollection of what happened.

On the other hand, the state induced by the anesthetic felt very different. It was as though as soon as I felt myself dissolve into unconsciousness, I instantly awoke, in a separate room, with the procedure complete (and with a mouth full of blood, and various tubes still attached), as though no time had passed at all. I was confused to see a clock reading five hours later than the time I'd seen "moments" before in the operating theatre.

It's surreal to think that I have no memory at all of what went on during those five hours. For example, as the surgeon was running late, I never saw the person that actually performed the procedure. In addition, I simply woke up with four teeth missing, without any idea of what was involved to remove them, as well as the addition of several stitches. How long did it even take to remove the teeth? One hour, two hours, more? Another thing I have no recollection of (but was told, prior to being taken to the theatre, would happen) is the tube that was threaded through my right nostril and into my throat as a breathing and anesthetic aid (the only evidence I have of which is my sore throat and blood-filled nostril).

It truly is a strange experience. Having the drip line removed was more disturbing than watching it be put in (remember that scene in The Matrix when Neo wakes up and pulls the plug out of his arm?). I was particularly amused, as I changed back into my normal clothes, to find sensor pads still stuck to my chest that I hadn't even noticed were there.

Now I'm back home, teeth gone forever, with a little bleeding still from one of the bottom sockets. I hope that clears up over the next day or so. I'm lucky in that I'm not swollen at all (though maybe that will change) and so far it hasn't hurt very much either (but my face was still numb as late as 5 PM today). Time will tell, but I'm happy to have it out of the way.

For those that need to have wisdom teeth removed, I highly recommend doing it through theatre and general anesthetic, as opposed to the "chair" option, which I think would be a far more stressful and unpleasant than the "ignorance is bliss" theatre approach.

Now I can get back into my normal sleeping routine of going to bed at 6 AM, not waking up then.

More soon... :)



Or Friday, as it were.

Now, back to The Matrix Reloaded. Don't read this unless you've seen the movie before, or it will spoil it completely (you've been warned, don't blame me if you read on and it spoils it for you!).

OK, so Bane has become Agent Smith and is trying to kill Neo and sabotage the resistance (after Smith escaped down the phone line and into Bane's brain), The Oracle is a program (but seems to know what's happening to Neo in the real world), The Matrix we know is really the 6th version, the prophecy was a lie, Zion faces destruction in 24 hours and the maker of The Matrix (The Architect) has informed Neo that he was created as the remainder from an unbalanced equation that would add to make a perfect Matrix. There are a lot of themes in the movie and now there's a lot of debate about what it all means, particularly the question of whether the real world is, in fact, real at all, or just another layer of The Matrix (a Matrix within a Matrix). Things to consider: Neo is able to stop machines in the real world at the end of the movie, Bane/Smith ends up similarly in a coma when he sets off an EMP, and The Oracle knows of Neo's dreams and lack of sleep despite only being a program. In addition, why would the machines wish to allow Zion to be recreated each time? It'd be a lot easier if the resistance thought they were free, but were really still in a simulation.

No answers, only questions, as they say. Other interesting things to watch for are The Merovingian and Persephone. "Neo" and "Trinity" characters from a previous Matrix version? The Merovingian certainly has a lot of power and continually makes references to Neo's predecessors. Persephone mentions that The Merovingian used to be like Neo, as well as Neo and Trinity's love being "not meant to last"; how would she know? Because she's experienced the same story with The Merovingian.

Although this only covers a few points, I think it starts to show some of the detail that exists in the story. There's a lot of other things to think about, such as many of the sub-plots from Zion. The main interest I find in the movie is how it relates to the first movie, the new game Enter The Matrix, and its interaction with The Animatrix series of nine short films (which explain many of the other references in the movie, such as the story of the Osiris and its message and the character of The Kid who appears worshipping Neo in Zion).

But enough Matrix talk, I'm going to start sounding like a fanboy!

I've been in Brisbane since Wednesday night, for various reasons. So far it's been pretty busy and I think it will continue that way. There's been good news though :)

My coding, as always, continues!

Wednesday night I headed to the Cooloola area to meet with relatives and celebrate my Aunty's birthday. It was a lot of fun actually :)

I saw The Matrix Reloaded last night (its first day of release in Australia) and had a great time watching it. I'm so glad that it wasn't "just another 'The Matrix'". A lot happens that sets up the story for The Matrix Revolutions, coming in November (there's a teaser trailer for it after the credits of Reloaded, so watch out for that). The special effects were, of course, stunning. I think a lot of people will gloss over the story and not realise how deep it really is (especially the first half and last quarter - you have to pay attention to catch how everything interrelates). I've already seen people make the mistake in their reviews, or assuming that the story is simple. In one case, a reviewer/critic said "and then in an unrelated turn of events, a character that had only four minutes of screen time becomes pivotal to the plot". It makes a fool out of the reviewer, because to say something like that means that he missed the entire point.

But the sun is rising, I'll continue this tomorrow :)

My dead wireless card has been replaced now! This hopefully ends a long unlucky string of electronics faults for me. I've also ordered a longer pigtail cable for use with the laptop and I'll hopefully put together a cantenna some time in the near future.

I've been given the details of my wisdom teeth extraction. Theatre at 6 AM, Friday the 30th. Four teeth, no eating for 6 hours prior, no drinking for 3 hours prior, drugged for most of the day. Sound like fun? Oh yes ;)

The Matrix Reloaded... less than 48 hours! I hope people aren't disappointed that the movie seems to lack a complete story, as it is in fact the first half of one huge movie (literally cut in two; from what I hear it ends mid-scene). Should be good :)

More updates to follow.

The inverter was faulty. I upgraded to one that wouldn't overheat and also had a fan (handy, that). I think it was a design fault of the previous one. The new one works fine :)

Meanwhile the transaction system is complete! I've finished testing and all of the code is done. The money was transferred correctly, the only mistake being that the bank had entered my business name incorrectly; Firewall, instead of Firewave!

Still in Brisbane and I've just made the first live test of the transaction system. Everything seemd to work correctly! \o/ There was one little weird thing that I've asked them about, but nothing actually went wrong. Now all that's left is to wait and watch my merchant account to see if the money is correctly transferred, which happens around midnight each day. You receive a confirm/denial code immediately, so waiting for the money to appear in the merchant account (which usually takes 24 hours) is just a formality to ensure the merchant account was created correctly.

Today I purchased a 12V DC -> 240V AC inverter to allow me to have my laptop running/charging in the car for long trips. It should be handy! Plus, my brother conned me into going halves with him to buy a fog machine. What can I say, I love stuff like that and it's fun to play with ;) 70 cubic metres per minute, baby! >:D

Also saw X-Men 2 last night again and witnessed a satellite re-entering in a spectacular white fireball afterwards! I've never seen anything in the night sky so bright, fast and for such a long duration!

Now I think I should get some sleep... :)

I now officially have my merchant and transaction accounts! Both application processes, with their large amounts of paperwork and specifications (urgh, hardcopy!), wound up this week. The merchant account was activated on Thursday and the transaction server account was created today. In short, this means I now have the ability to process credit card transactions in real time on my server.

As such, I've been working through the final details of the transaction system to ensure everything will go smoothly. Once I do a little more checking it'll be time to do a live test with the transaction server :)

After a last-minute decision, I'm now in Brisbane for the long weekend, which I expect will be a busy one. I'd planned on staying at home, but I decided a change of scene would be good. Oh, my new video card also arrived; I'm back to dual LCDs again (and it was difficult to adjust to "just" one in the interim).

I saw X-Men 2 last night with two of my friends while they were in town. Seeing them face to face was great and the movie was very good. I enjoyed it so much that I wouldn't mind seeing the movie again in the near future :)

While on the subject of movies, The Matrix Reloaded is released in just under two weeks! It's astounding that the release date is so close, after having waited so long.

"Touch me... and that hand will never touch anything again."

For now, it's time to do a little coding and then get a little sleep :)