i woke up this morning to go to OCB cambridge on mt.auburn street to get my annual eye exam. i wasn't sure why i made the appointment so early (8am). i went via bicycle, getting onto brattle street from craigie then to mt.auburn. the receptionist seemed to be in a bad mood, very curt with her responses, i might be too if i had to get up this early for work. i didn't wait long before i was called into the first exam room where a nurse gave me the bulk of my exam before dilating my pupils.

i then lingered in another waiting room, where soon enough i was called into the 2nd exam room with doctor hsu and another woman whom they never identified. the doctor took a quick look at my eyes with the machine and told me that basically my vision was the same as last year, and the only thing to do concerned about was my thin retinas, which could possibly tear in the future. there was nothing to do about it but monitor it, and if i noticed any sudden floating flashes of light, to call him immediately, because it meant my retina had teared and i'd need surgery to repair it. i was probably in the doctor's office no more than 5 minutes before i was set on my way, told not to come back until 1-2 years. they didn't even give me a prescription form, but i assume it'd probably the same as last time, which i still have.

i went back to the receptionist to get a sunglasses insert. i ended up waiting a while as there were 2 other people ahead of me in line. the hour since i last spoke with the receptionist didn't improve her demeanor one bit. she asked me to wait while she disappeared for a few minutes (bathroom break?) before finally (almost reluctantly) giving me my insert.

it was a little cloudy so i thought maybe i didn't need the insert; but when i stepped outside even reducing my eyes to a squint was uncomfortable from the diffused sunshine so i had to put them one regardless of how ridiculous they looked.

i went to the cafe first to give my father a ham radio catalog and to drop off two books at the nearby branch library. i finally returned home by 9:30am. sandy was already at the office while kelvin was still asleep, giving me about half an hour to properly use the bathroom. i had the asian cheese cake i bought last night for lunch.

because of my dilated pupils, i couldn't do anything on my laptop for most of the day (not until the effects wore off in 4-6 hours) as everything was blurry. the only thing i could do was surf the web on my phone with my glasses off. that's when i realized why i scheduled the appointment so early: so the effects would wear off by the afternoon and i could still function normally after that.

kelvin told me something today that i could believe: in the UK they have a tv licensing fee. that means if you want to watch television in england, you need to have a license which costs £130 annually. if you're caught watching tv without a license, the penalty is a still fine, even possible jail time. supposedly they have vans that go around the cities and towns surveilling the population for illegal tv watchers. this sounds so crazy to me, like totalitarian 1984 stuff. besides, how could they possibly know if you're receiving tv over the airwaves? the idea is that this tv licensing fee is given to the networks which use the money to produce more shows. but the problem is there are still commercials on british tv, which doesn't make sense if the viewers are already paying for the service.

kelvin figured out how to chromecast shows from a pirated streaming website (fmovies) onto the HDTV. he watched 7 episodes of killing eve before sandy came back home in the early evening.

sandy and kelvin ended up going to highland fried for dinner. they originally tried to get takeout but the ordering website wouldn't accept their card, so they decided to go to the restaurant to order and bring it back. i gave them an insulated tote bag so their food wouldn't get cold. while they left, it gave me just enough time to use the bathroom, take a shower, and make some tuna fish sandwich. they ordered the fried chicken and i tried a piece. it wasn't bad, but the crust wasn't crispy enough (more breaded) and overall the flavor wasn't as strong as fast-food fried chicken or korean fried chicken.