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My Own Hero!
Sep. 4th, 2009
09:46 am - A few thoughts on Health Care
Precept: On an individual level, any form of insurance or warranty is simply legalized gambling. However, at least Vegas has the decency to clearly delineate their games and allow the odds to explain JUST how much money they're making. Health care (or insurance) as it currently stands resembles a case where the house has discovered that it has a wildly important product, and they're finding the "niche" where they can make the most money possible. In the process, people are being trampled - and I'm not talking solely about the low-earning folks or the unemployed. Because we cannot trust the house or their accomplices to make changes (they're making too much money) we have to rely on the voice of the "gamblers" -- which in this case is the government. SOMETHING must change.
I consider the people who run the current health care companies to be barely legal scam artists. I earn a comfortable living and I have little desire EVER to go to the doctor unless it's absolutely necessary. This isn't because of some fear of doctors or health problems - but rather because dealing with the health care company is a NIGHTMARE. An amusing example: My wife has a minor procedure done, and the final bill is $2000 (Is that bill fair? That's a topic for another post...). Insurance is supposed to cover 80% of it, the policy if fairly cut and dried. $1600 ... right? They decide to pay $1000. No explanation, no nothing - just a letter stating that they're only paying a grand. We can't get anyone on the phone that has a clue, we can't get anyone to explain the decision - just an endless procession of "please hold" bullshit. What are our options? Cry "We have been stiffed of $600" and sue? Yeah, right - the only person that wins THAT battle are the lawyers. We decided to add up all the money she had paid that company since she started her job at Duke and it was $1050. That's right, the insurance people decided to give her a refund on her money and nothing else -- they can resume making money on her next payment. The House can't lose - that would be un-American!!!
SOMETHING must change. I know people fear change, but what we have now is miserable. But what do we do? The options are many, the arguments are endless. A few comments on common topics...
On universal health care.... "Health care for all" is something I believe to be foolish. I am in favor of "universal" health care only for children or the honorably disabled - those who cannot provide for themselves for concrete reasons.
On our current "money per procedure" system... I believe that the best possible solution is a shift away from "per procedure" payment. Several European models provide doctors with standard salaries that escalate when their patients flourish in specified manners. Lose weight, quit smoking, etc. Surgeons whose operations are successful and without complication.
On a public option thwarting the free market... I like the arguments where people are decrying a government run healthcare option, saying "How can businesses compete with a public option that doesn't have to turn a profit???" There's an easy solution here, people... Run the public option like a business, and mandate that it makes X% money (Then put that money into schools). At least then we KNOW what percentage we're giving away to the company, rather than guessing at how much is being stolen from us by the metaphorical crooked Blackjack dealer.
As always, I remember why I have problems with journals. To truly devote the time I wish to one - I'd have no time left over to learn things or experience things as fodder for the journal!
Oct. 6th, 2008
09:48 am - Hey - no forgetting...
"The financial crisis is nothing compared with the environmental crisis," the deputy head of IUCN's species programme, Jean-Christophe Vie, told BBC News.
"It's going to affect a few people, whereas the biodiversity crisis is going to affect the entire world. So there is a risk that because of the financial crisis, people are going to say 'yeah, the environment is not that urgent'; it is really urgent."
Wall Street: trashing your economy AND your environment! Man, I hope people keep that eye on environmental concerns. All this time, people that try have been thinking, "Just get Bush out of office. Just get Bush out of office and we have a chance..." And now, the economy is listed as the top priority for some insane number of voters. Ugh! Oh well, it's not like China is going to cooperate any time soon. They'll happily nuke the globe to better themselves, IMO.
Oct. 3rd, 2008
09:19 am - Random Current Events...
Who the hell winks at a debate? Even more so if it is of the gravity that a debate between candidates for the Vice President of the United States of America carries! I realize that vast quantities of people in my country voted on "charm" and "values" to put the current moron in office, and it infuriates me that so many people are returning to that formula. Despite much hue and cry, Sarah Palin isn't a pig in lipstick, a "hockey mom" in lipstick, or a barracuda in lipstick; she's George Bush in lipstick. And attractively packaged with a pair of breasts! Now, not only can easily charmed men want to have a beer with one of our highest officials, they can want to bang selected official! (You know, gay dudes what fancy 'W' aside...)
The financial collapse is also hysterical to behold. One of the guys I play volleyball with is a professor in Duke's business school, and his whole take has been pretty funny as we've seen this whole thing evolve. Eminently practical, he sets up a chain of either/or choices that demonstrate how ridiculous the situation has become, and further point out the fact that a "bailout" is pretty much inevitable. I cannot recreate it here, because I don't remember it all and it would be belittled without the non-"verbal" communication that's so hard to include in a journal. The real sticking point is HOW the money is going to be used, overseen, etc. A very real factor in this whole mess is the obfuscation of who has what money and assets, and dumping 700 BILLION dollars into a pit of confusion is unlikely to solve the problem in and of itself. Lastly and also, Americans want blood. No no, I'm not talking about Iraq - most folks have had enough of THAT kind. What I'm talking about is almost assuredly a scapegoat. IDEALLY, we could systematically find and prosecute those whose financial practices were SO reckless that they cheated their business partners and investors - but I'm not naive enough to believe that this has a chance in hell of happening. So these financial "gurus" are boggling at the fact that they're not getting their massive check instantly and without question, JUST because people are bitter about ever single living American being on the hook for vaguely 2 grand. I'm not normally vindictive when it's not practical (and plenty vindictive when it is) ... but I totally agree. The financial professions have ALWAYS bugged me, and to a certain extent I appreciate some sectors crashing and burning. Maybe it'll get the rest of them back in line. Haaahahahaha, that was a good one.
It's interesting to me, though, that ACCOUNTANTS were taken to task in Jane Jacobs' book Dark Age Ahead as one of the primary examples of failure in the self-policing of the learned professions, as well as a factor in the failure of "transparent" government. An excellent read, here's a short summary that agrees largely with what I got from the title. Excellent book, though by no means perfectly written. I highly recommend it for substance, if not style.
I also find it somewhat mind-boggling that we have the following news coverage...
Vice Presidential debate: 4,133 articles in Google News.
Financial news regarding the "incident": 2,776 articles.
"Hey look - Steve Fossett's plane!!!": 4,318 articles.
WTFJournalism? I guess fluff and human interest is a lot easier to write than something that might involve "research" or something. Whoah!
Oh well, back to Waaaaaagh!
Apr. 16th, 2008
12:21 pm - Resume!
I was poked and reminded that I haven't written here in forever. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's more that I get distracted and don't feel like typing it all out. I will typically change my mind and think of side-points as I go, and it makes a journal a daunting task for me, because I have issues "summing up" and stopping any given post. I've considered a whole heck-ton of posts, including:
Steroids, and how we're truly seeing how prominent they have been in sports.
Nice days, and how they cause INDOOR gyms to become packed with people.
The NBA, and how awesome the Western Conference race has been - not to mention the upcoming playoffs. Go Buzzards!
T&A - the greatness thereof.
Video games, and a few ideas I had that I wish someone would address.
But I figure the one that pops up in my head the most these days is, sadly, a minor rant on a particular sin. It's not one of the 7 Deadlies - well, I guess it's a form of one - but it really bugs the shit out of me, and it is:
Reproductive Gluttony.
No joke. I can't stand reproduction way beyond sanity. I mean, why don't people see that there's really a finite amount of resources on Earth, and that each person consumes a portion of those resources ... Americans amazingly moreso than most. Why do we make reality shows out of these idiots rather than viewing them with a certain measure of disgust? They need multiple honkin' SUVs to drag around their little brood, and seem entirely focused on just "getting by" because they 8 kids. If more were like them, the world population would almost quadruple in a single generation - and all of those new people would need cars and food some slice of energy that we haven't yet figured out how to produce without melting our planet. Idiots!
Ohhh, but wait - they had fertility treatments! That's the only reason that had 8! Uh huh ... they had them AFTER the first set of twins. Hey - you had two, that's enough - stop it. No no, don't do tha ... great, 6 more. What about religious issues and the bans on birth control by God-types? Ouchy, that's a tough one. You know, though, if Godly people were really responsible, abstinence is a great birth control. Look at overpopulation and your required lack of sex as a modern trial, straight out of the old texts! I know I know, I'm being slow - God will provide for us.
Lack of perception regarding this problem staggers me. I love people that note how the price of gold keeps going up -- well duh, there are a ton of women out there that all want wedding rings ... they have to come from somewhere, and we can make people way faster than we can find new places to mine gold. That's just one concrete example- but ALL resources are exactly the same.
Places like this give me some hope:
http://www.edu.ue-foundation.org/in
They seem to have the same ideas that I do, even if they haven't moved on them a tremendous amount. I'm sure these things have a lot of inertia.
Well, whatever. I suppose that's enough apocalyptic anxiety for one day, I just really hope that things like "the food riots" manage to hold off for a decent while. In the meantime, I'll continue to be disgusted by the morons with 12 kids.
See? I started strong, and then got too much to write. I started chopping bits up and using "short versions" and it doesn't come out right. Oh well.
Nov. 21st, 2007
03:23 pm - 3 things of note...
Firstly, what's better than summer? INDIAN summer. It was close to 80 degrees, today, as it was this past weekend. I was out playing volleyball ... in November. The kicker is that the sunshine made it nice and toasty - so there were sunbathers out, women were playing ball with us in bikini tops, the works! So, when it's 77/78 degrees in the summer, do you see this kind of thing at all? Heck no! Somehow a baseline of 90 and up means that 78 isn't worth the skimpy outfit, but a baseline in the 50s means that when the weather hits 78, it's time to go outside and shed clothing. w00t!
Next up - my wife has a new goal in genetics. She's declared that she's going to isolate the na-nanny-boo-boo gene. I'm typing on the internet, but you know exactly what I mean. Na-nanny-boo-boo is universal, understood by all! Why is that? These are the questions that drive her - so she's making it a research project. I theorize that this will involve lining up tons of different people, calling them into her office one at a time, yelling "na-nanny-boo-boo!" at them, and taping their reaction. Then she sequences their DNA and looks for correlations!
Finally, the writer's guild strike. All seriousness aside, we were discussing what TV will look like in 8 weeks if they stay struck. All reality TV all the time, of course, but what NEW awful reality shows can be inflicted upon us? Then it hit - of course they can't be NEW reality TV shows, that would require creativity. They'd have to be remixes of OLD reality TV shows, just slightly different. Easiest way to do this? Crossovers! Reality show genres I can think of...
Survivor type shows.
Physical abnormality shows (fat people, midgets, etc)
Lifestyle abnormality shows (holy crap we have 8 kids! Bisexual bachelor, etc)
Dating/marriage shows (The bachelor, who wants to marry ___)
"Talent" shows (So you think you can dance? American Idol)
Home improvement / surprise shows (Trading spaces, While you were out, etc)
It goes on, but it's enough to give you a part of our list...
"Who wants to dance with a millionaire?"
"John and Kate Plus 8 ... and Flavor-Flav!"
"Little People, Big World, Beauty, AND the Geek!"
You could also do Trading Spaces between midgets and fat people! This is a gold mine, people. A gold mine of HORROR!
It's gonna be GREAT!
cheerfulNov. 9th, 2007
02:02 pm - What the NFL needs to learn...
I guess, more specifically, what every media outlet that deals with the NFL needs to learn... Here, let me find my fonts and stuff so it's in big lettering and a bright color:
NOBODY ROOTED FOR GLOBO GYM.
The Patriots this year seem to be wallowing in their "villain" role, and Bostonian Fanbois are frothing at the mouth, foing to great lengths to justify the vitriol, and simultaneously trying to forget every parallel to criticism that they've levelled against OTHER sports teams in the past decade. Remember a few years ago when Peyton Manning broke the touchdown record for a single season? I sure as hell knew some NE fans that accused the Colts of running up the score for stats. That same person just gives me a blank look when I bring up the scores of New England games this year.
OK, so ... *pause*. Getting off track, Dan. How does this relate back to my main point?
Everybody watched and cheered Average Joe's when they beat Skillz That Killz. Somehow, I doubt that Globo Gym beating The Kamikazes was huge news. Lance Armstrong cheered for Peter LaFleur when they took down the Poughkeepsie State Flying Cougars (well, Gordon saved them - but you get what I'm saying). I can't imagine Sportscenter on The Ocho devoting a lot of coverage to White Goodman and Globo Gym's making mincemeat of the Las Vegas Police Department.
But -- what happens in real life?
The coverage of the NFL is ridiculous this season, what with Globo Gy -- I mean the New England Patriots and their current run. In an amazing CONTRAST to Dodgeball, 3 of 5 days this week showed "Pardon The Interruption" running TWO segments on the Pats, even though the show is all about doing a whirlwind tour across ALL of sporting news in just a half hour. It's a plain fact - watch football coverage, and you are force fed the Patriots. Everyone knows that the Pats are going to blow through the crap that is the AFC East, and everyone knows that they CAN run up the score if they want to. That's all that needs to be said - and it has been said. A lot. STOP COVERING FREAKIN' GLOBO GYM AND GIVE ME SOME AVERAGE JOE'S!!! I don't have Direct TV - so I'm stuck with what the networks show me unless I go to a sports bar or something, and every week I have to watch the Pats. EVERY WEEK. It has made me make Sunday plans other than football. I have watched less football now that I have in the past decade, and it's absolutely 100% because I'm sick of the Patriots. They are good; more weeks than not they're playing a team that is significantly less good (especially since 3/8s of their schedule is conference games) ... I don't want to see it. There has to be a competitive game around somewhere. If you make me watch the Pats, apparently I will go elsewhere ... because I have!
I know people like me. I know people who are watching less football because of this. We are watching less because it's boring. What you are showing us is boring. There has to be "not boring" out there. Show us Average Joe's versus Team Blitzkrieg, please give us a break from Globo Gym - because The Ocho didn't even show us their first round matchup!
Please?
aggravatedJul. 3rd, 2007
04:09 pm - I give in
Back in February I wrote:
"You guys have missed out on such winners as 'weddings are the most worthless creations ever vomited forth onto our plane of being' ... "
OK, you're not missing out on this one anymore. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them.
First off, I do not have a "symbolic" mind. I don't see the beauty in pairs of people that walk in step and light candles at the same time. I don't see why people that can put their butts in chairs perfectly well when it comes to lunch SUDDENLY need ushers to seat them in a half empty church. I don't get teary when someone sings a love song in the middle of the ceremony to represent the devotion that the happy couple feel for one another. The list goes on, but you get the point; I'm not an emotional enough soul to be touched by the final product that a wedding puts on the table.
Once you consider that the impact is lost on me, let's consider how the impetus was generated.
1) "Wedding" anything is twice as expensive as non-wedding anything. Pictures, flowers, candles, dresses? Prepend "wedding" and watch the pricetag soar! The money you spend is ridiculous compared to what you get back, all because the wedding industry is such a racket.
2) Never are expectations higher, and never are the people in charge (generally) less experienced. The way people bug out when anything goes wrong with a wedding is fucking phenomenal, and stuff ALWAYS goes wrong unless everything is absolutely professionally done - you can refer to point 1 to imagine how often that happens in real life. Seriously, it's the difference between a professional symphony orchestra and a group of locals that are good musicians. There are GOING to be wrong notes, and nobody will really care; in fact, most people won't even notice. Make that concert a wedding, however, and all of a sudden every wrong note is the Apocalypse.
3) Never are people more opinionated for less reason. There are a billion traditions that may or may not be exercised. There are a billion different ways that a ceremony can go down, from entrances to recessionals and right on through seating of various guests. Some are logistical, some are artistic, all are equally valid, and people never agree. Can you work out a good solution? Not logically. You may as well put a group of people in a room, and tell them that it's REALLY important that they pick their collective favorite color. There really isn't much way to talk someone out of "I like green" - the best you can do is to take a vote and hope for the losers to be mature about it. Weddings are like having that experience over and over and over.
OK, so what finally comes out? Generically, tons and tons of people put in hours and hours to reduce the cost of the wedding. Even so, you're spending a ton of money to put together a ceremony that will (let's be honest) seem faintly ridiculous (in the best of cases!) to the male half of the attendees. Those intimately involved with the ceremony will flip out whenever anything goes wrong, and often do so in a way that defies logic and common sense - which may present themselves to try and "solve" problems.
Dude - none of us deserve it. Having witnessed several weddings that are likely comparable to mine when it comes to cost and manpower involved, I certainly didn't. The people whose weddings I've been involved with certain don't/didn't.
So why the heck are weddings still so rampant in society? Because they make the honorees the absolute, monumental, unbelievable center of attention for a whole day or so. These days, it's more like a whole damned weekend. It's like the most expensive, day(s) long session of masturbation ever. We deal with weddings because we know we'll get our own, and then HOLY COW will we be godlings for a day. Already had your wedding? In part, I suppose you're repaying humanity for yours, and in part you probably deal with weddings because they remind you of your own.
As someone that's grounded in the present, it's SO not worth it for me.
My wife has two siblings. The combined cost for their weddings (all three, not just the siblings) was easily 30 thousand dollars. Holy cow, the party that could have been thrown for 30 grand. Not wedding - party. Parties are every bit as varied as weddings, and people are generally a LOT more conciliatory when it comes to parties, because they view them as fun rather than "important". Yeah, it would have required three couples to get married at the same time - but 30 grand is like "Charter a heck-all big yacht in Hawai'i" money!
Ugh, whatever. I'm sad that my own wedding has been illuminated so harshly in my mind, but I'm glad I've finally ranted out loud to, like, all both of you. Later!
(Dude, the little "exhausted" face doesn't look anything LIKE exhausted! It just looks pouty or some crap!)
exhaustedMay. 21st, 2007
03:01 pm - It's the little things...
OK, so sometimes I get overly amused by life - but really it's when things happen that I'd never have predicted. I just had such an event today at lunch, and really it makes me want to go to Jimmy John's more, simply to give them money in exchange for the joy I got. Anyways...
There I am, chowing on a sub and reading a book (I was over at the bank running errands, so while I was out I figured I'd get some lunch and enjoy the sunshine) when a woman sitting just across the dining area from my heads to the register and asks if they have any plastic utensils or anything. Now, the Jimmy John's menu is entirely comprised of subs, chips, and drinks - so there's really not much call for utensils of any kind. The guy at the register says, "Ma'am, I honestly don't think we have a fork anywhere in this building." She laughs as she's leaving the counter, and the guy actually assembling subs holds up his hands and does kind of a "jazz hands" thing while yelling "YOU GOTTA EACH WITH YO' HANDS!!!" in a very playful way. It's hard for me to describe the good-natured vibe without going all authory-formal on my Livejournal - which I just won't do - but trust me, it was pretty funny. So the lady goes, "Can I have some gloves?" and the sub-guy realizes that he's assembling gloves with those little disposable plastic gloves that sandwich makers tend to wear and he laughs. Then, the register-guy notes that he's sure that the places next door have silver/plastic-wear, and one of the other customers suggests staging a raid to liberate some supplies. Things then progressed to an evaluation of the probable defenses that local restaurantiers could bring to bear, along with a lament for the lack of local French cuisine - as that would make for the perfect, minimal-resistance raid.
Eventually, the joke wound down - but I was very highly amused and remembering it still brings a grin. The ham sub was good, too. Hooray!
fullMay. 14th, 2007
02:27 pm - Oh the funny.
It should be no surprise to people that I am not a fan of the "Hallmark Holidays". I far prefer to celebrate the "big" holidays and then pass on affection, presents and such as I'm struck by good avenues through which to do so. (This opposed to following the plan set forth for me by the holiday-centric businesses) Even so - I don't tend to disLIKE things like Valentine's or Mother's Day or anything.
A did, however, have an amusing realization this weekend. Hearing the Mothers Day plans of many of my friends, it struck me how often those plans were (in essence) a negation of the typical "Mom Duties". I shall use the most striking example...
"Oh it's great! We (dan_oz: the couple in question) got a room in a hotel for the weekend and we're gonna spend the whole time relaxing together while our parents keep the kids." So ... you're celebrating Mother's Day by dumping your kids off? And, amusingly, by dumping the kids with one of your mothers? Ha!
That got me thinking though, what the heck IS Mother's Day about these days? Gender roles are blurred enough, now, that the role of "mother" isn't really a solid concept. I think that the point is simply to show appreciation for those caregivers that saw you through your early life - which is a worthy sentiment - but the whole thing is so hijacked by businesses looking to capitalize that it's not worth acknowledging.
I'd much rather go shoot virtual zombies with Mom at an arcade sometime than worry about carving out specific time on May 13th to make sure that she knows I love her. Really, if she's not sure I love her then I was doing something wrong - and if Mother's Day appreciation ... stuff ... was going to be enough to make the difference, then she's incredibly fickle!
Whaaaaatever. I'm rambling now - but like I said, it struck me as incredibly funny that the so many celebrations of mothers seemed to revolve around relieving them of that stigma.
amusedApr. 23rd, 2007
12:35 pm - I Am Jack's Tech Support Curse
First off, I suppose that it's impossible to completely avoid the subject of the Virginia Tech killings if you bother to blog your feelings, even occasionally. Allow me to say that events of this magnitude strike me as oddly uncommentable. You're either saying the obvious, using the issue for a personal agenda, or working preventatively ... which tends to get tangled up in that second part. Examples:
1) "This is a great tragedy and I'm sorry it happened." Obvious. Who says anything else? Who's GLAD that random people were gunned down for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Does random sympathy from a random guy on the net really help anyone in Blacksburg/Christiansburg? Personally, I don't see where sympathy ever accomplishes anything - but I realize that that is a personality quirk.
2) "This horrific event just shows that our gun control sucks" or "This is a great tragedy - and it's amazing that we react so strongly to this while when more people are killed every day in Iraq." Both examples of spin. Give it some time before using the event to champion your pet political cause, folks.
3) "Terrible events like this make us wonder about our public areas and what can be done to address increasing incidents of violence/suicide." Preventive, and looking to accomplish something. Useful, if it didn't inevitably devolve into things like gun control, privacy rights, and complex excercises in civil engineering.
But enough of that. This is a great tragedy and I'm sorry it happened, however nonproductive and obvious that is. On to more amusing pastures.
I've been documenting network issues within my apartment complex for a few reasons. (1) I do actually work there, and I want to make sure that network suckitude doesn't get in the way of my being able to accomplish things. (2) My complex charges a mandatory fee for network service in each apartment, and I want to be able to clearly show what network issues exist and why they are bad if I decide to get a cable modem and contest the network service fee.
First step - inform the office on the off chance that they're actually going to be useful. The first lady I spoke to gave me a look like I was speaking Martian as soon as I dropped the first technical detail. I tried NOT to use technical terms and explain generally - but she pretty much asked for it. She hurriedly pushed me onto another guy who realized that I was speaking over his head also, but had the wherewithal to USE my skills. He gave me the account information for the complex, and suggested I talk with Time Warner directly to see if I could figure out what our issue was.
I had a sneaking suspicion that I KNEW what the issue was, but I agreed because that's a pretty forward-thinking thing to do for an office dude.
So I call up Time Warner and manage to speak Tech-Supportese in the appropriate way. You know - the particular dialect that says "I realize I have to go through the front line stupid questions, but I assure you that I know what I'm doing and have taken care of checking the obvious stuff ... there really IS a problem here". The TW tech guy (Eddie, who was swell to deal with) quickly gathered some basic information and told me he'd put me through to engineers for a higher level ticket.
Next up was Ari - who was also pretty swell to deal with from a tech support perspective. He quickly realized that I was technologically savvy and had me run some internal network tests while he ran the same externally. The bottleneck was clearly at the uplink from our complex, and indicated that we were maxxing the connection. It's what I had figured, really, but it's nice to get confirmation.
So now I have to ways to go. Ari said that TW was contacting the leasing office to inform them that residents were experiencing > 10% packet loss at prime time due to network flooding, and that TW would, of course, propose a solution. I can wait on that, but my hopes are not high. I can also get my own connection and challenge the mandatory network fee based on the fact that I (literally) proved that the service is not adequate. What to do? I hate dealing with red tape, but I likes my intarweb ... especially when this issue screws with my ability to game online.
The important part here is that I was given our complex's account information so I could do tech support. Ha.
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