LMU experience

I go to the MBA orientation at Loyola Marymount University. I enter the Hilton Hall, where the MBA classes will be conducted. I did not know the Hilton's are catholic, more specifically that Paris Hilton would be catholic! I see a hall full of MBA students and quite a few white people. I get a little nervous, hardly any Indians, I see a few Asians here and there. So I quietly walk to information booth and pick up my free t-shirt and brochures. I then grab a croissant, jelly and juice and get out of the way. I go and stand beside this pretty blond girl, but I am too timid to talk to her. So I just stand beside her cut my croissant nervously doing a really bad job cutting it. I then manage to slide in some jelly and I quickly eat it. Out of nowhere some sharp looking dude comes and introduces himself to me and we start talking. After a while a couple of students see us and start talking to us. My self-consciousness goes down a bit. I now feel like I am a part of some group in hall of strangers.

We are then instructed to go to another room. In this room I go and sit beside the guy who spoke to me, so that I don't feel alone. The faculty and staff go over key aspects of the program. I notice that all the administration staff, etc. is all female. Even the advisor is female. The director is female. The faculties make some bad jokes and everyone starts laughing. I am sitting in a pleasant big room but I am annoyed with the uncomfortable chairs in the room. I am surprised that such a nice classroom hall has such bad chairs that don't even move! Later the female administration make a presentation called good student vs. bad student which I think is funny to have in a graduate program. Everyone says please excuse my French before saying stuff like I worked my butt off, etc. which I find amusing.

After the presentation we walk around campus and I see some of the undergraduate students, they are a lot of white catholic girls walking around in tiny shorts and tank tops which is always nice. It is a very pretty campus, nice new buildings everywhere, looks very scenic. Unfortunately I will be going to class once a week at night so all the undergraduate girls will be in their dorm rooms and I won't be able to see them. But still I hope to gain some good experience from the program, as I have no business background and I have always been curious about a lot of business topics. It may also someday help me with a promotion at my work. In addition, I could use the campus facilities if I ever needed to.

August last Tuesday

I would have been many blogs ahead if I continued writing my blogs without breaking the chain but oh well there's always another chance. I have never written past nineteen blogs in a month, someday I hope to break that record. This week started off with a decent start. My boss did not come in so it gave me some peace of mind from constantly being watched. But I had so much work to do I wouldn't have even noticed him.

As I rushed to my desk this morning, I wished that someday I have a business of my own, selling something or providing a service I don't what but something someday. I will have the freedom to run the business on my terms no boss to fear, I will be the boss, no dealing with annoying coworkers only subordinates who will listen to what I say. Someday I hope to make this dream come true, but in an economy like this that dream keeps getting more obscure and impossible to do.

I wonder where all my outsourcing ideas went, where I wanted to start my own firm and outsource projects. I will be the mediator between the American companies here and the Indian companies in India. I will be overseeing the projects and I will make money by making a profit of the cheap labor rates in India and selling the end products/ services to the companies here at a much higher price. The optimism and enthusiasm to make these dreams into reality has diminished. I hope the zeal to make this possible will come back sometime in the future when the economy is better and I am wiser.

Ah I have joined the rat race, another slug in this corporate prison working everyday so that I can live for the weekend. But then again I think of the other options and realize maybe it's not that bad compare to going back to school for being a doctor or law school, both of which are a lot of work. Only option for me is to make my business happen someday after I am more settled.

Not Blogging, pussificaiton

I have put off blogging for a quite a few days. I was busy with work and did not get to the blogs. I am still busy with work, but I decided I am going to start writing the blog and see where it takes me. I am feeling lazy to write a blog, but then I was thinking how I am the worst student in the class. I cannot get my expectations met. I cannot create attraction. I cannot speak well and I cannot write well. I have bad expression to top it off. Also I am the foreigner in the class, so I have the worst chance anyway. I am also the laziest and most disorderly. I only react even though I have no clue about what I am doing. I have read the least number of books. All these factors exposing how bad I am motivate me to at least try writing a blog.

As I drove into work today, I was thinking the only reason I go to work everyday even though I hate the work environment is because of the paycheck. I deal with manginas and pussified guys on a daily basis. Everything guys do at my work or talk about is how to better meet the expectations of women and trick or use different moves to get girls. If I even speak about what about getting my expectations met, they look at me weirdly like where the fuck did this guy come from. I sometimes feel the three to four hours of manhood boost that I get every weekend is not sufficient to keep me going through the week in this toxic pussification environment.

My mom doesn’t respect my dad, she always insults him, several times in front of me. All of a sudden she will tell me “Mindrunner, you should respect women” I have got sick of hearing that. If I even point out how the woman caused the problem in a situation she described, she will go on with a “ she is a woman, you should respect women”. So there you go pussification at work followed by pussification at home is generally a typical day in my life.

Scuba Diving in Fiji

I love scuba diving in Fiji. It is so much fun. We go to this beautiful island full of luscious plants and tall palm trees. The people of the island seem so calm and friendly; they are in no rush, unlike the people in America. Moments like these just make me want to live here forever. We finally get to the point where we are going to scuba dive. It is taking longer to actually start scuba diving because I am spending so much time experiencing the beauty and nature of the island. I love the soothing breeze blowing across the ocean, it is so relaxing.

On approaching the Scuba diving point, I see a couple coming out of the water. Looking at the woman's shapely body in her wet suit is giving me a boner. The guy she is with looks like a douche. It makes me wonder how couples like this end up together. I head over to the scuba instructor and wear the wet suit. I feel the suit is a little too tight and I keep adjusting my suit to relieve my discomfort. I then put on the oxygen cylinders. They don't feel very comfortable either.

The scuba instructor is giving me instructions on the emergency procedures and what to look out for. I am now ready to jump into the water and experience the wonders of the ocean. I go into the water with a quick dive and there I am in this beautiful unexplored world full of water and mysterious creatures. I love seeing the little fishes of different colors and shapes. Being under water is a different feeling; you are in a whole different world. The water surrounds you like a loose blanket. I enjoy looking at the amazing white sand on the ocean floor and little creatures all over it. I then see a few bigger fishes at a distance. They just swim right in between the little fishes. I am hoping to see a dolphin so that I can play with it and give it a hug. I can ride it around and it can show me different parts of its world. But then again I am hoping for something which is very unlikely to happen. I am done looking around under water. It is time to get back to the surface. I go back to the surface and the scuba instructor pulls me out. I cannot wait to get this tight wet suit off and give it to the instructor. But I definitely want to scuba dive again. I will treasures these memories until then.

County Fair

I visited the county fair with my friends over the weekend. I am generally not a big fan of fairs but I was with good company so I went. Actually I don't mind the fairs here. I hated the fairs in India. There were too many people in the fairs there and there was too much dust. Anyways we get tickets and enter the fair. It is a cool day with the winding blowing, so I am glad I had my jacket on.

I like looking at the different little stores in the fair. It is a good break from the usual corporate stores which are so sterile. The little tent stores in the fair have more life to them. Fairs have been around for a long time and they make me think of the historic fairs in the Europe with the clowns and jesters. Fairs have always been a place of fun and activity.

I like the different rides that the fairs have. The Ferris wheel is always fun to go on. In India the Ferris wheel is a called the giant wheel! It is funny how we keep the names simple in India. In addition a man equine is just called a big doll. A tangerine is called a small orange. It could also indicate a simpleton's vocabulary. Riding the Ferris wheel feels like you are going up into the sky and then while coming down your stomach feel tight. I wouldn't go on a Ferris wheel right after a big meal. It's also fun to watch the little kids go around on the merry go round; I don't know what it is called here.

The mall also has a lot of pretty girls. These pretty girls in America grow up so quick; you would easily mistake these girls for being eighteen when in fact they are probably just thirteen or fourteen. It is fun watching them walk around in their cute little shorts and showing their legs. I wish I could go back in time and be a little boy their age so that I could be all over them.

The little ice skating ring is a cool activity that they have. I have not had too much luck with ice skating due to my bad balance. I might try ice skating again sometime. It is fun to skate while listening to the music in the background. You feel so free when you skate on ice.

After spending some time and money at the fair my friends and I returned home. It was a good experience and I cannot wait to go back to the fair when they have one again.

Cave

While adventuring in the Caribbean, I came across an unique cave on a lonely island. This was one of the biggest caves I was ever in. The cave was well lit in the beginning but got darker as I went in. The wind in the cave had a unique chilling quality and gave me the shivers. Luckily I had my backpack and so I pulled out a sweater and wore it. I was now better equipped to handle the cold cave. I then yelled something and heard my voice again; this cave was a great place to hear one's echoes.

The cave was very big; it was several feet high and about forty feet wide. The cave also had long narrow pathways that lead to other mini-caves. The cave walls consisted of some grey stone. The walls looked strong but I was easily able to chip some stone dust off the walls. The floor of the cave had a sticky feel to it. The texture of the floor was like a squishy carpet. Each time I took a step it would make squishy sound, which was annoying at times. The cave was quiet in most areas but in some corners I could hear the wind howling. The howling wind did give parts of the cave a creepy feeling. It sounded like someone was whispering something.

The cave had little plants which had greenish yellow leaves. The little plants looked amazing in the little streaks of light that came in through holes in the cave. I was glad there were plants in the cave, I felt like I was getting fresh clean air because of it. As I kept going deeper in the cave, it got darker, so I pulled out my favorite torchlight. This torchlight has seen me through some wild adventures in the past. I pulled out the torch and shined it at a gigantic black wall only to see a whole bunch of big black bats hanging and looking evil. I turned off my torch light and ran right out the way I came. I know you were expecting more from the cave adventure but that is all I experienced on that occasion, more next time.

I just realized I am so freaking boring and bad at writing because I am engineer. In engineering one doesn't really look for personality conveyed or experiences conveyed. It's all about the information. I am so used to just looking for information. I have to change a life-time of bad training to write better; to add it to it the fact that English is a second language for me, makes it even harder. Engineers are boring. Nfm and KDDR would not be able to hangout at my workplace for more than a few minutes. It is full of boring nerds who think they are very smart. I have always avoided writing. Engineers dread writing, that's why they become engineers in the first place. I will have to work extra hard to improve my writing. I only took one introductory English class in my entire college education. I never wrote in India. I never read books or novels, the most I have read is PC magazine. This why I dread writing and I find it so hard to write anything. It is from years of never writing anything. I hope to read some books, practice writing more and someday slowly see improvement in my writing.

August 2nd Monday

I took KDDR's advice to get a novel and read it. But in the meantime I still wanted to continue writing a blog even though it will be bad. I will read a novel later in the evening. I read a paragraph from the 1984 and it seems like the author is very descriptive. He indicates what he is experiencing via his senses. He described the smell, he described that it was a bright cold day; he also described the time saying that the clock struck thirteen. Describing the clock striking thirteen could be considered more a chronological fact vs describing the smell which is more an experience or a reaction an experience. Sometimes I feel chronological facts and experiences can overlap. I am wondering if describing the clock striking thirteen can be considered part of the experience. Chronological facts are part of the experience but are not the experience itself. Again he is detailed in the description of his smell, for example he said that the hallway smelt like boiled cabbages and old rag mats. I would have just said that it smelt bad. I could ask myself smelt bad like what? And then answer that so that I can reference something else while describing the experience. Being more descriptive about things can help the other person get into one's experience better. I remember nfm telling me to be more descriptive.

So part of good writing includes writing about the reaction to an experience, asking oneself why one is writing something and answering that, and also being descriptive about the experience rather than making a surface level vague statement which is not very detailed and is incomplete. Using short sentences can help but then in order to be descriptive, I use long sentences; I have to learn to be detailed by using multiple sentences instead of one long sentence. And finally organizing one's writing is crucial, which is where I have a hard time, since I am so used to disorganization in all areas of my life.

Continuing, the author says 'at one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall.' Again he is descriptive. I would have just said there was a big colored poster on the wall. I could start by trying to be more descriptive about things. I remember nfm's words ringing in my mind, 'Be more descriptive, be more descriptive.'

Being more descriptive, is describing what the eye is experiencing anyway and also what the mind is processing. I need to describe more details of different parts of an experience. Again I notice the difference in description in the way I describe to the way the author describes. I would have said big colored poster, but I have to ask myself how big, that's pretty vague just saying big. The author says too large for indoor display, this a more detailed description and less vague than just saying 'big.'

August 2nd Sunday Blog

Today I decided to write a blog on Sunday. I usually skip writing blogs on Sunday, it’s like a day off for blogs for me. I feel like this day I can take off from writing blogs, as I just want to relax and get ready for next week. I should use make the blog writing a part of my relaxation activities.

I decided to update my Microsoft Word on my Mac before I started typing my blog in Word. I skipped updating the software in the past as I felt it would be too time consuming and I just wanted to finish writing the blog. However today being a Sunday, I wanted to make sure my softwares are up to date. I like having my softwares up to date. It feels to good to have the latest and greatest software even though there may not be much difference, it has always been a habit to stay on top of the update game for me. I have noticed though during the past few months I have been lagging behind when it comes to being up to date on my softwares, playing around with new software, etc. Especially on my iphone I have not updated my applications. Also I haven’t synced my iphone to my new Mac yet! This is very rare that I do not do this, does this mean I am over the joy that I received from these activities or have I just gotten lazier. I think it is a combination of both.

For the first time in years, I have not yet installed Microsoft Windows on my Mac. I generally install it right away after getting a new Mac, but this time I have just not gotten to it yet. I generally only use Windows to play games and use some software that are only available on the windows platform. I liked playing the latest 3D games, I used to enjoy looking at the luscious graphics that my latest and greatest hardware would crunch out. Experiencing rich 3D games was a very stimulating experience. I like stimulating experiences like most people. Things have to be super stimulating for me to keep paying attention. I like virtual stimulation to a certain extent. I prefer going to Universal Studios to Disneyland. The virtual stimulation at Universal is definitely more interesting and engaging than Mickey mouse at Disneyland. The only thing I would like at Disney Land are some of the rides like Space Mountain which I haven’t tried yet, and hence curious about them.

Getting back to my word update. Something crazy happened after I installed the update. Word gave message telling me to renter my serial number. This was not good. I now had to perform research and fix this damn problem, which was killing my motivation to write a blog. Anyway I finally fixed the problem and got word running with the latest updates, I felt so good that I was able to fix this problem as it would have a big hinderance to write blogs on my home PC.

In the process of fixing this update problem, I tried apple’s pages software from the iWork 09 suite. This software is similar or Microsoft Word, except made my apple. I was impressed that the word count on the software works in real-time unlike Microsoft word 2008 which has a few seconds lag or it waits till you type all your words before it shows the count. Another feature I liked is the Full-Screen feature in iWork that gives you a white page with a black ground, hence cutting out all the distractions and helps you focus on your writing. It also shows the word count in the bottom of the screen, that’s the only information it shows along with the page no. info. I love the way apple has implemented this part of the software by giving me this blank page on top of a black ground with only page no. and word count info. which is all that I need. I am really impressed with this way of typing documents. Apple has managed to give you the simplicity of notepad but has implemented it a very polished sense. Implementations like this make me like Apple even more. I wish I had noticed this software before so that I could have experienced this cool way of typing documents. What would be killer is if apple had the blog template in pages, then I could type my blog in here and just click update, which would then update it to blogger. There would be no need to copy, log into blogger and then paste it. Microsoft Word 2007 on windows has the blog option but the word processors on Mac don’t have this option yet. I am hoping they implement more blogging tools into the word processors on Mac.

Another thing I found in iWork is that is does not have auto-save! I find this hard to comprehend. Apple creates software with some really cool features but then they forget to include simple features like auto-save. It makes me wonder what the developers were thinking when they were developing this software. Smart people can be some dumb sometimes. Features like these cannot be overlooked. I am sure it was not so hard for them to implement that, the freaking development time probably did not bother to include the feature in this version and just conveniently saved it for the next version of the software.

The other bad parts of the software that I disliked is the lack of the synonyms option on the right click menu. I find this feature handy while using word. Once apple implements these features in Pages it will be a lot better product. It makes me want to be the product tester for apple where I could tell them to make sure to include these simple and necessary features.

Overall I still like apple products and their operating system over PC and windows. My satisfaction with apple’s products has been higher than my satisfaction with any other products on the market. Sometimes I wish apple made more than computers and software. I wish they designed everything from toothbrushes to MiniVans. On many occasions when I came across certain products, I would think I wonder how apple would have designed this.

August 1st Friday

I had a little bit of an adventure getting to work this morning due to my relative's minivan getting overheated. I was driving on the freeway and I saw the heat indicator slowly creep all the way up. When this happened earlier I used to think that the vehicle might explode but I was a little more confident that the engine would not blow up this time, and just the radiator may bust but engine will not just blow up in flames. So I start slowing down but the heat indication arrow kept going up. So I finally pull over from the freeway. And I continue driving the car with heat indication just near the max! Phew I was sweating a little and a little worried since I wanted to get to work. I finally made it to a side street. I was relived to drive into to it. I parked the car by a curb and immediately turned off the ignition so that it could start cooling quickly. I waited only for a minute or two and started driving again. I could not afford to be patient since I was already late. I then continued driving and maintained a low speed in the right lane.

It heated up again all the way to the max, but luckily I approached a traffic light. So I shut off the ignition again. Then I turned on it again just after the light turned green. Surprisingly I was still pretty calm, I did not really panic that much, even though I was a little stressed about getting to work in that car. And in this worried state I ended up driving in wrong direction since I was not familiar with that street.

Something amazing happened when I made a U turn to go back the right way. The heat indicator stayed at the halfway point on the heat meter. I was like this is sweet, I then went back on the freeway, and the engine heat indicator still did not go up! I got off the freeway and the heat indicator went up again! I was puzzled; this freaking car had a mind of its own. I decided to go behind a truck in the right lane so that my van could get a chance to cool down at low speeds and it worked. I am glad I made it to work even with all those heat problems with the car. Cars like this make people appreciate the peace of mind that reliable cars provide.

I am not content with the quality of this blog. However I tried to avoid indefinite statements. A better job could be done with respect to describing experiences and reaction to experiences. And regarding the organization, I incorporated a basic form of organization.

While writing the blog I felt like using the word at least on many occasions, but I did not. At least is a word I tend to use frequently. Also while writing this blog; I realized how indefinite I am in general even with my verbal communication with a lot of people including my parents. I need to work on being definite in all areas of my life. I need to go on mission definite. But in order to definite I have to be sure of things, so I need to work on that too.

August Thursday Blog

What is my reaction to my experiences? This is the key. I am having trouble consistently writing with this in mind. I had an expectation management issue. I am going to include the expectation management issue in the blog. I am going to list some of the reactions in here. My coworker violated my expectation of not hurrying up and catching a bus and instead focusing on my behavior and saying that I needed to calm down. I reacted saying that I did not want to waste my time waiting at bus stops, qualifying a little. My coworker violated my expectation again and continued walking slow and missed another bus at which point I said 'This is retarded' and walked away. Later one of the coworker's came to me and said that I shouldn't let others push my buttons so easily and that girls are always going to push my buttons and if I react like that I won't get any girls, etc. I said that was not the point. It makes me angry, how these guys are so good at directing the focus on my behavior and also make me look like I have a problem?

I have the worst cubicle in my office. Everybody walks by cubicle and this gives me a head ache. I can't avoid looking at people because I am facing them at all times and they look at me. I feel like I am sitting at a busy intersection, with all the traffic rubbernecking to see what's going on in my cubicle.

I have different thoughts during the day but I cannot recall them clearly during this exercise and write them. I just spoke to one of my coworker's and I spoke so fast like a motherfucker. I was not happy with the speed of my speech. I wish I could speak slower and calmer, like the god father or a double O seven agent. I speak really fast to keep the other person's attention and also I am in hurry to get stuff out. I am anxious to convey what I know to others immediately. I am very impatient at times when it comes to letting others know what I want to say to them. I feel like other people have more self control than me. I visit my coworkers' cubicles more than they visit mine. I found this interesting.

My blog for Today

It took me ten seconds to come up with that title. It is different from my other blog titles. I like to change my blog titles at least to a certain extent so that it doesn’t look repetitive. It is mainly for own personal reason, to where I have a need to come up with something at least somewhat original and different from the last time, even if it’s bad.

I am thinking about what to write about in this blog. I could write about my reaction to my experiences I experienced during the day. To start off this morning, I needed some validation so I went to this guy’s cubicle and showed him my biceps because he invalidated me yesterday saying that I need to lift weights. He invalidated me again. I tried convincing him otherwise. I don’t know why I am still so concerned with trying to meet other people’s expectations and trying to convince them that I am a cool guy. This seems to a big habit of mine, where I keep giving all these reasons so that others think I am a cool. The reason why I do this is best described by KDDR and cannot be better said. So I am going to quote KDDR on this.

“You do know why. I talked to you about this last night. It's because you're a socially awkward Indian guy who craves validation. Since you can't get positive validation, you'll settle for invalidation. That way at least you're getting validated by with attention, even though it is at the expense of your self-respect.” – KDDR

I cannot get positive validation so I just settle for invalidation. I even further justify this by thinking that they are not invalidating me very badly so it’s not that bad. Maybe they are invalidating to validate but nothing can be far from the truth. They are invalidating to fucking invalidate. It’s funny I still don’t think I am socially awkward but when I approach girls or I am in situation where I cannot get my expectations met I am awkward.

Anyways, my boss called later and told me to sign the time sheets, etc. I felt good since he bestowed that responsibility on me. I am now stuck again thinking about what to write.

I had to go training with my boss. I found the training interesting in the beginning but after a couple of hours, I found the software that I was training on, not all that I expected it to be. I found the software tool limiting in its capability. I also found the tool old school. In fact I find most of the software and technology used at my company is old school.

I shouldn’t expect much since my company is a public company. I feel that we have old infrastructure and inefficient ways of doing things. Also I think my company does not invest in technology the way private companies do. I sometimes think that people at my company prefer to keep it inefficient. I find that no incentive is given for innovation at my company. All they focus on is an image of people working. As long as an idiot is sitting at his desk glaring at a screen or looking at a design, they assume they are being efficient. I find this finding of thinking very archaic.

I try to do my work with some innovation and efficiency but my boss does not even understand my work enough to see it! I find this pretty amusing and annoying at the same time.

I want to shed some light on the contrast of my experience at Edison (private company) to my government company. I walk into Edison they have nice lights, nice carpet, nice cubicles. I just the feeling when I worked in Edison. I felt like yes I am in corporate America. Even the people working there seemed more sophisticated and cool. Now let us more over to my experience at my public company. I walk in and the carpet is old and a nasty grey color. It reminds of the carpet used in the control centers in the 1960’s to land the spaceship on the moon. Everything gives me such an old vibe at my company. Old people, old carpet, Old cubicles. The people at Edison even looked better.

I feel that government agencies in LA seem to attract all the fat ugly women. I have seen much better looking women in private companies. I was later on the told that I could thank the civil services for having all these fat women in our buildings. Apparently this is expected in civil service jobs. It makes me think do they have somewhere in the requirement that the women have to be ugly and fat? I don’t think so. But how does this happen, it boggles my mind. I was thinking that maybe all the private companies hire all the pretty women and also these women don’t want to work in government establishments.

In fact I never pictured myself working in a government company but that’s were I ended up.

“As for your writing, in your next blog entry take out all indefinite statements. No more: "I guess this... I wonder why..." Make definite statements about your experience.

The reason you are guessing is because you aren't taking the time to ask yourself "why". Go back to doing the same exercise you did in your last blog using the "why" tool. Instead of discussing what you might know or don't know, figure out what you definitely know and write about that.”

I agree with this. I need to cut down the use of vague words like that. These seem to be my favorite words, I guess, I wonder why, I don’t know why. This also an indication of laziness in my thought process and an unwillingness to think beyond what I perceive on the surface.

I need to continue doing the why exercise so that I am surer of things.

First Monday of August

Why did I title my blog as the First Monday of August? I did it because it is the first Monday of August. I thought including chorological information like the time period of the blog would be important. Also I needed a title for my blog and this was the easiest way for me to come up with a name without much creative thinking or thinking too hard. Why did I think it was important? I generally feel that chronology of events is important to me. Why do I feel that chronology of events is important to me? I am just used to looking for the chronology of events in most things like articles, etc. But there are some areas I don't look for chronology, which is when I read or see something very creative. Actually I still look for chronology to a certain extent, but if the content is really good I forget about worrying about chronology.

I flossed my teeth this morning. It felt nice flossing this morning. My teeth felt clean and sanitized. I like removing all that gung hidden in between my teeth. The clean feeling that one has after flossing is priceless. I was also thinking about how I was making up for the years of not flossing. Why am I saying this? I said it because it felt important to me, it was like a breakthrough. I tried flossing with regular line floss but that was too hard for me to pick up. Then my dentist gave me a flossing device that he said I could find in the 99 cent stores. I tried it but it was too hard on my gums, it was convenient to use but not as pain free as I would like it to be. Then I started looking for flossing devices in drugstores like CVS, etc. and I found one made by Oral-B that glided easily between the teeth and came in a packet consisting of several flossing devices. So there it was two birds in one stone, I was so happy and proud of myself. I should have given myself a pat on my back, a 'self pat'!