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Dec. 24th, 2009 @ 02:14 pm
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Hey guys ! I never write here anymore, right?! Welp, here's to changing that, right? :]
This october, 4 months after I finished my EMT class, I passed the written portion of Massachusetts OEMS certification and obtained my license. Since, I've applied to one or two ambulance services, namely Cataldo. I've done pre-employment testing with them twice, and am currently 'ready-to-hire.' I'm so excited about this opportunity, you have no idea. It's like, what I want to do, what I want to be doing. I want the money and I want the career.
UNFORTUNATELY, in much more saddening news, this spring will be my 2nd semester since going to Japan I've missed out on school. My school's financial department is as shitty as always, late notices, letters to my old address I never received (who's to blame? I don't know. Why can't the school just do this electronically, where my address never changes. They have my information.) and lack of reminding me to mail things to my mother in Florida to have them signed. Stupid crap makes me want to bitch and moan about it constantly, I should be in school.
Anyway! I am currently working at a grocery store, which sucks, but treats it's employees really surprisingly well, in some ways. So well, in fact, I may continue to work for them after obtaining an EMT position. For whatever reason he may have, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) guilwolfie, who got me hired, abruptly stopped showing up and quit, not 4 days after calling out for having "cold, wet socks." Since, I've been heckled and bothered about him every shift I've worked. It's very discouraging to see the guy, so.... discouraged, but, hell man, get your act together and decide on what you're doing. I've worked at about 8 businesses, including Boston University, and I've never seen a company provide paid time off to it's part time employees. Meanwhile, smartiepants over there quit this job without saying a thing and now, who knows? This company is so big he may not be able to get a position at places like CVS, Stop and Shop...
Welp, enough raging about that. I am eating fried broccoli and potatos, living with lovely watermagequu and going to see her family for Xmas next week, and am really, really happy, as always! Probably the only thing that upsets me is seeing the people I live with, and my family, unhappy, which unfortunately happens way too often. Cheer up people. Enjoy the life you're living, what's the point in not having fun?Current Mood: The Energy - Audiovent |
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Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 06:07 pm
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WOW!
What an amazing film!
I went going not knowing what to expect at all. I think it will become a classic among geeks for sure.
My take on it is. "Pocahontas meets Fern gully".
Just eye candy after eye candy and seeing it in 3D made it that much better.
Certainly a movie for those who adore fantasy (WoW Players etc).
So yeah, go see it ;)
(Blue Icon chosen because it was as close to an avatar as I could think ;) ;) )Current Mood:  Amazed |
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Dec. 17th, 2009 @ 03:57 pm
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Dec. 17th, 2009 @ 02:18 am
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I guess this is a sequel to Witch Hunt
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President Obama, Senators, and Representatives:
Fuck all y'all, right up the ass, with a steel-spiked dildo covered in herpes. You are, once again, failing the people you're supposed to represent, to the point that those people would now rather see you fail than pass something that is worse than nothing. I speak, of course, of "health care reform".
First, let's review a few points about why we need reform in the first place, shall we? I know, you've heard it all before, but I just love to share these facts and figures. This year in the United States, 45,000 people will die because they cannot afford health treatment. Just think about that one for a minute -- 120 people die, every single day, because they don't have enough money. And that's just the ones who can't afford insurance; don't forget about the ones who have insurance, but cannot get their necessary and life-saving treatments covered because the insurance company death-panel says no, the profits are more important than your life.
In Arkansas alone, there are 8,000 bankruptcies filed every year by people who cannot pay their medical bills. They sell their houses, their cars, everything they own to pay the bills, and still come up short. Do you know how many medical bankruptcies are filed every year in Australia? Canada? Japan? The entirety of Europe? Fuckin' Cuba? ZERO. None at all. In any of those countries, and plenty others. Nobody has to lose everything they have, then take a huge hit to their credit rating, because they want to, y'know, keep living.
There are lots of ways to improve health care, and every one of them works better than our system. In Germany, the private health insurers are regulated a lot like a public utility company here (each company has to offer standardized basic policies for example), and everyone has to buy coverage (with subsidies for those who can't afford it). In the UK, the government actually owns the hospitals and pays the doctors' salaries (just like the VA system in the US for veterans). In Canada, the provinces run their own insurance companies that have to meet minimum federal standards, and you pay a monthly premium of $50 on average (just like Medicare/Medicaid in the US for seniors and poor people). In every single country with some kind of universal coverage system, life expectancy is longer and infant mortality is lower than in the US. Because treatment is given based on necessity, wait times for some things like hip and knee replacements can be longer, but wait times on everything else (from ERs to doctor visits to cancer treatment) are much lower, on average, too. Imagine being able to walk into a neighborhood clinic with no appointment and be seen in under an hour! That's a reality in many, many other countries.
Universal coverage is cheaper across the board than in the US. There are a lot of reasons why it's so much more expensive in the US (hint: tort reform isn't one of them, though it's not necessarily a bad idea). One of the biggest is that everyone isn't insured, but ERs are required to treat everyone regardless of ability to pay, so the costs of those who don't pay are added to those who do. (You didn't really think that aspirin cost the hospital $30 a pill, did you?) People in countries with universal coverage pay on average less per person AND less in taxes, no matter which system, than we pay for insurance right now in the US. When the bills actually get paid every time, there is no need to inflate the costs to cover those who can't pay. (Also, did you know we're one of only two countries in the world where drug companies can advertise on TV directly to consumers, and that US drug companies spend 1/3 of total profits on advertising?)
We're supposed to be the richest, most powerful, greatest country on the face of the Earth, right? So we should be able to make this work better than any other country, covering everyone cheaper than anyone else ever has with an even better system. And yet, what has happened with health reform in Congress? Well, the obvious choice of expanding Medicare to cover everyone was off the table from the start, a fundamentally stupid move. But you pressed on, knowing that a strong public option was better than nothing, especially when adding regulations to stop things like pre-existing conditions, denial of coverage, cancellation of policies, and employment lock-in.
And through meaningless "negotiation" it's all been washed away. Now what we have is basically a big government subsidy to the insurance companies, who are pretty much free to continue as before. Except now you have to buy their product, or pay a fine (and go to jail if you don't pay), whether you can really afford it or not. 17% of your income every year, at least to start, but with no kind of real competition the price will only go up. And all the companies can compete nationally, but that means just like credit card companies they can set up the HQ in the state with the laxest consumer protections, so they can continue to screw people over. And what's the point of negotiation anyway? Republicans wouldn't vote for this bill if it was nothing but tax cuts, because they're like petulant little children throwing a fit that the Democrats are in charge. And the Democrats are like shitty parents who try to stop their toddler throwing a tantrum by offering all kinds of treats and special things, which just teaches the kid that misbehaving can get him what he wants.
It's time to scrap the whole thing. The bill has become something that will actually make things worse for people with and without insurance (which is funny, because opponents have been saying that this whole time, and it's actually turned into that.) Put the public option back in -- hell, why not just put real single-payer back in? -- and let it go up for a vote. The Republicans won't vote for anything anyway (remember, 75% of Senate Republicans voted in favor of rape!). And if the Democrats won't play hardball with their own people, they deserve to have this all fail on their watch.
Mr. President, it's also up to you to show leadership on this policy. You've sat back for too long and let this go in Congress, and now you have to tell them that this policy is unacceptable, and you will veto any bill that does not include the public option. Then you need to do the legwork to get those votes in the Senate. You campaigned on "hope and change", and we've had "more of the same".
So once again, if you soulless greedy pigfuckers can't do the right thing, fuck you all. I'm done with you guys. I have no problem voting for third-party candidates for the rest of my life, and encouraging everyone I know to do the same.
Finally, here's Olbermann's special comment on the whole thing. IAWTC.Current Mood:  angry |
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Stupid song. I love it and hate it at the same time. It plays every single year on the radio around Christmas and ALWAYS.. _ALWAYS_ ..makes me cry. I broke into tears almost the second I heard the tune this year.. I guess there has been a lot of my shoulders compared to other years, though.
I should be more open with my feelings instead of bottling them, I think.
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Dec. 15th, 2009 @ 01:52 pm
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Dec. 14th, 2009 @ 02:58 pm
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