Last night I had Dr. Chin remove my Implanon. I’ve had it for just over six months. (Here’s the insertion story, if anyone wants to relive it.) NO, I didn’t get it taken out because I want to have babies. The truth is just that the level of hormones it delivers wasn’t right for me.* I knew at about the 4-month mark that I wasn’t happy, but I kept going in the hopes things would right themselves. They didn’t. Okay, so what was it like getting it removed? Much easier than getting it put in, actually. I laid down while Dr. Chin prepped and sterilised my arm. Then he injected some local anesthetic to numb it. After a minute or two, he started prodding and all I could feel was some dull pressure. It felt weird, but no real sharp pain. So then he made a nick (apparently about 5mm) and started manipulating the rod to get it lined up with the opening. After a minute or so, he had the head exposed and was able to grab it with some forceps and pull it out. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. “You wanna see it?” he asked. “Ooh, is it gross?!” I said, fascinated. I looked. Frankly, it was disappointing. It’s just a little white plastic stick. I was expecting it to be all gross and barnacled with human flesh, but it wasn’t. “What, you thought it was going to be like something from an alien?” he laughed. “I’ll put it in a jar so you can show Rodd.” (I love Dr. Chin.) Then he put multiple layers of dressing on my arm (tape to hold the cut together, then bandages to keep any germs and water out). I have to keep it dry for a week. Then one last step – getting my trusty old Depo Provera injection. I told you it wasn’t to have kids! So that’s the story. I’d still recommend it, especially for anyone who needs a low-cost, low-effort method of birth control. But as every woman knows, sometimes what works for one person doesn’t work for another.

* I won’t go into any more specifics than that, but if any women are considering it and want to know my experience, drop me an email.

Neat! Steve Wiebe has reclaimed the Donkey Kong world record from Billy Mitchell. Go Steve!

Today was my third day of attempting to purchase an iPhone 4. Monday and Tuesday were both completely sold out. Today I got there when they opened at 8am to see a queue stretching around the building. On one hand, YAY, they must have stock! On the other hand, MASSIVE QUEUE. I joined it and hoped for the best. Not long after, Apple employees came along it telling folks that they’d reached the limit of contract handsets, so those of us at the end wouldn’t get one. “What about outright?!” I asked. “Oh! Just head right in,” he said. Giddy, I ran for the entrance. I joined a much shorter queue of 7 people. Fifteen minutes later, I had my phone. I paused only to send the Snook an email from one of the Macbooks announcing that I’d got it before heading off to work. After the ceremonial unboxing, I put in my SIM, plugged it in, and synced it up. And now it’s all back to normal, just like it never left. Phew.

So what did this whole debacle cost me? In real money, only $100 (assuming that my insurance claim goes through, which it should). Several hours of panic and frenzy on Sunday morning as I tried to recover it before and after the race. An hour or two of hassle as I had to change all my passwords. And 74 hours of frustration as I had to live without a device that’s come to be an integral part of my daily routine. (Spider-Phone was a poor, poor substitute.)

I realise this is hardly the worst thing that can happen to a person. It’s just STUFF. Stuff can be replaced. In the grand scheme of things, I’m LUCKY to have problems like losing an expensive phone. But within my own personal frame of reference, these three days really sucked. I’m so relieved to have it back now.

I love every one of their videos. This one is fantastic. Theoretically simple and cheap, but actually really difficult to execute. I don’t know how they did it without smiling the whole time.

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