Interesting Read

I'm not really sure if I want Joe Klein to be right or wrong. What I do know is that it tends to suck when you have to go for extended, undetermined periods of time without health insurance, which I am currently doing along with 49,999,999 other people in this country. It may not be something I consciously worry about every day, but when the thought crosses my mind that if I were in a car accident, hit by a bus, or even just fell and broke an arm or a leg, I'd be stuck with a medical bill I would spend the next 5 years paying off. It's a sad state of affairs when people who know I don't have insurance see that I still keep my old insurance card in my pocket.

"I carry it around," I explain, "so that if I ever end up in the emergency room and they check to see if I have an insurance card, they'll find one and do whatever is necessary to save my life. I figure by the time they get around to running the numbers to check if I actually have insurance, I'll have already received the care I need."

Scummy thing to do? Yes, I suppose. But so is leaving 50 million living, breathing human beings with no way to reasonably pay for medicine and healthcare needed to survive. Seems to me that I'm just doing my part to put the screws to a system that does nothing but screw me.

I Wish This Guy Would Do More of These

Hilarious.

Good Stuff

This is depressingly accurate.

Immigration & Deportation Oh My!

Immigration is a touchy subject. We are a nation of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Many of the illegal immigrants do jobs "we" would never do for wages "we" would never accept. (As a side note, depending on what one of those jobs actually was, this member of the collective "we" would consider doing it, especially if it were under the table). They get treated like animals by those that employ them and typically work in inhumane conditions. Not always, but sometimes. The thing is, this country has always functioned on the labor of legal and illegal immigrants (and in the not-so pleasant says, the labor of slaves, who were kind of like forced immigrants rather than voluntary immigrants, or something like that).

The program they're talking about in the article, sending illegals who are arrested back to their countries of origin, even for minor offenses, really isn't all that unfair. In fact, its not unfair at all. I sympathize with the situation. You're an illegal who can't get a driver's license, so you drive to work without one. Then you get pulled over for speeding or running a stop sign and when you have no ID, they arrest you, fingerprint you, and when your fingerprints come back as those matching the prints of an illegal alien, they deport you. That sucks. It's tough luck. But there's an easy way to avoid that situation. Don't speed and run stop signs.

I'll be the first to admit, mistakes get made. I got busted for blowing a stop sign once that I didn't even know was there and got a ticket for it. That shit is going to happen. And when it does, you have to deal with the consequences. If you happen to be an illegal immigrant, the consequences might be that you get deported. It sucks, but that's life. The decisions we make have consequences.

So in all honesty, this program really doesn't upset me. If you're in this country illegally and breaking the law, even if it something like possession of a marijuana cigarette or speeding, then deportation isn't unjustifiable. With underfunded education and welfare systems and overcrowded prisons, it makes a lot more sense to kick illegal foreign nationals out of the country when they get arrested for doing illegal things.

If You've Seen Any of the Terminator Movies (or Matrix, I suppose) This Should Concern You.

It scares the crap out of me. I just hope I'm long-dead before this happens. With the pace of technological advancement and AI, I have a feeling it will happen in my lifetime and I will be forced to fight in at least one war against a race of machines. Call me crazy, but when you have relatives that work on machines that do these kinds of things, and they talk about how much it freaks THEM out, you start to wonder if James Cameron was on to something with Terminator and Terminator 2. I don't know who directed the other two, or who wrote any of them. What I do know is that I don't want to be involved in any sort of showdown with a cybernetic Governator.

The Non-Issue that is Still an Issue

The latest poll numbers I've seen show that, in one form or another, somewhere around 80-90% of all Americans want universal healthcare. As someone who has spent significant time without health insurance and has had to fork over hundreds of dollars for routine check-ups, tests and exams, I am one of those 80-90%, although no one has asked my opinion. In fact, I almost voted for Hillary based on her position regarding universal healthcare and her history with the issue. It's something this country wants and needs.

The thing is, with the kind of support this issue seems to have, how is it still an issue? With 80-90% of people saying that universal healthcare is something this country needs, why are there so many elected officials against it? With these numbers, that means even Republican voters are aching for a public healthcare option (or whoever conducted these polls has no idea what "random selection" means).

So why are so many Republicans in Congress against it? Why are they trying so vehemently to kill the plan? Probably because they want free-loading, jobless losers like me to hoist myself up by my boot straps and magically make money appear to pay for my own medical care. That way the government can take taxes out of my income to pay for all of the members of Congress' healthcare. I mean, who am I to think that they should share their sweet medical coverage with the rest of the country. I'm just some unemployed deadbeat who can't find work in the worst economy since the Great Depression. That doesn't mean I shouldn't have to pay for my own insurance. This ain't no sissy-pants socialist democracy like them fags got in Euro-land. This is America. Americans pay for their own shit. Except when they are famous and don't pay for their own funerals. Or are in government and don't pay for their own: homes, cars, construction on homes, flights around the country, taxis, limos, vacations, gold outings, suits, second homes and any other sort of kick back they can get out of lobbyists and corporations or they can expense to the government, which I'm paying for with taxes.

God forbid I might want some medical coverage in return when I lose my job because the same Congressional members "forgot" to regulate the financial world. Boy, what a selfish prick I am.

New Stuff

New work up on my interim portfolio website.

One of these days when I have money again I'll have a real, big-boy website.

Planning on submitting this and other work next week for an internship in Boston (that hopefully pays). Wish me luck. I will most likely need it.

Also wish me luck because I'm going to start advertising in the classifieds and any other place I can think of as a freelance copywriter for local businesses. And I'm going to try to pitch a trivia night idea to my favoritest bar in all of Nashua, Penuche's, to try ti pick up business there on nights like last night, where it was my brother, myself and 4 guys playing darts in the entire place. It was a depressing sight for my favorite watering hole, made worse by the fact that I was DD and have no money to spend on anything at all.

That being the case, want to hire me to write some shit for you?

Or clean out your gutters?

Or mow your lawn?

I Just Find This Funny

The government will pay for famous people's funerals, let them go free when they drunkenly mow someone down with their car and kill them (see:  Donte Stallworth), acquit them of accidently shooting an unarmed limo driver (see:  Jason Williams), give them a slap on the wrist for running over someone while driving drunk (see:  Lindsay Lohan, Halle Berry), or just plain ol' let em get away with murder (see:  OJ Simpson) and producing/participating in child pornography and statutory rape (see:  R. Kelly). 

But if you're some broke schmoe who gets hit by a city bus while crossing the street, your poor relatives, family members and friends are stuck with footing the bill for your funeral and services. They get to go broke paying for casket or urn, for the cremation, for the wake and the funeral home and all of that bullshit. But if you're the King of Pop, the City of Los Angeles will put up $1.4 MILLION for your memorial service. Michael Jackson dies, taxpayers get boned.

The Most Boring Three Days of the (Sports) Year

The time has come once again for the most boring three days of the sports year, when absolutely none of the four major sports are being played and I have nothing to watch on TV at night except reruns of Law & Order and whatever happens to be on Comedy Central. The time where I actually might be forced to interact with family members and go outside into the mosquito-infested wild known as the front porch. Many a baseball fan salivates over the Mid-Summer Classic, the Home Run Derby, the Futures Game. I could care less. Because none of it means anything. I can read the headlines of tomorrow's paper who won the Derby. And if I really missed a shocking moment, I'll be able to watch it about 7 or 8 more times this week when ESPN re-airs with far fewer commercials. And the game...a snooze-fest just like every other all-star game. Sure, home-field advantage is decided during the All-Star Game, but that is in no way compelling enough a reason for me to watch, especially since I am a Pirates fan. My team hasn't had a shot since 1993, and hasn't been to the World Series since I've been alive. It's not like this game will decide where the Pirates will be playing in October (nowhere). So thus, I will be forced to do other things over the next three days. Like write blogs, have a beer or two and read books or something.

PetSmart a pain in the balls

Aside from them making me take a 34-page personality test online and waste 45 minutes of my day, I had to bust out the prehistoric 20-lb laptop I own that barely runs to apply online because their application only works with Internet Explorer and Netscape.

What the fuck, Charles? There are people that might want to apply to work at your store, myself included (please hire me), that are on a Mac. Get a third-party web team that knows their shit and make it Mozilla and Safari compatible. 

Bush Administration Watched You Take a #2

Well, maybe they did. It wouldn't surprise me if they did. They listened and/or watched people do everything else, why not watch people use the lavratory facilities? Lots of things go down in bathrooms:  mob hits, drug deals, an insane number of porno scenes, apparently. Which makes me wonder:  if art imitates life, and a lot of porno movies have public bathroom sex scenes, doesn't that mean that just about every time I walk into a public bathroom, two or more people should be doing it? Of course, then you get into the question of whether one considers porno to be an art form. I do not. There is very little that can be artistic about a guy banging some girl in the butt while she calls him "daddy." But that's my opinion.

Back to the original topic here:  Bush's domestic spying bullshit went way beyond wiretaps. This is bad. And it seems no one know how much useful information was gathered illegally this way, but the government is keeping all of it, regardless of whether it is actually useful. According to the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence and security agencies, information gathered from more traditional methods was far more specific and accurate (see article linked above). Which begs the question, why is the government still doing all of these warrantless surveillance? Awesome.

First Person Shooter Disease. It's a Serious Problem

Thanks for this, Andrew.

Funny stuff. Check it out.

We Are Country Mice EP!

I am counting down the days until I get mine in the mail. We Are Country Mice is putting out an EP later this month and I plan on spinning that in my CD player until the thing is so worn and scratched that it won't play anymore. If you hang out with me any time after it shows up in my mail box, you will be forced to listen to it. And then I'll badger you until you buy one for yourself! Because this band is fucking awesome!

Sadness consumers me every time I think that I won't be able to see them play live for a while. But then I get excited again when I think I'll be able to blast them all around Nashua in a few weeks. And when someone asks me who that awesome band is playing in my stereo, I'll say "It's fucking Country Mice!"

I'm a PC and I love Pornography

Came across these two weeks ago but didn't think to share them until now. They are childish and immature, yes. But they are also hilarious and necessary. This campaign sucks and I'm glad someone had the good sense to skewer it with a couple awesome parodies. Check them out below.

Jake

Jennie

And while you're at it, check out Vinnie Jones' new work out tape.

Thanks to the GF and Andrew for finding these.

Life in the Fast Lane (of NH)

Having been home a full week now, I'm realizing there are things I need to reacquaint myself with. For example, I'm not used to having so much space to roam around while inside. It's amazing how quickly and seemingly uninterrupted the process of going from full-size house in the suburbs to small NYC apartment can go. I have all this space now. It's a good thing. Just different.

I'm also not used to this "drive-to-go-get-things" business they have going on here. It was a pain in the ass sometimes, but I still kind of liked walking to get groceries/food/to the subway/bar/restaurant/cafe/wherever. It meant I was outside. It meant I was moving. It meant I was burning calories. It meant I wasn't polluting (except for the occasional gaseous release). Relying on a car, especially when you don't have one, is far more inconvenient than waiting for a subway or bus. Sure, waiting sucks. But having to coordinate trips to apply for jobs or to see your girlfriend around your mom's work schedule causes a few more headaches than showing up late for work because you were sitting on the Queens side of the Queensboro Subway Tunnel for 5 minutes because the Dispatcher said so.

There seem to be these things called insects that fly around and do stuff in NH. I don't recall having to constantly swat flies in NYC unless I was near a pile of garbage or a particularly stinky bum on a particularly hot day. And even then, the flies stuck to the garbage. I smelled way too good for them to leave the trash heap. Here, bugs aren't so discriminating. They like to land on your head and face and eyes and ears and occasionally fly in your mouth while you're talking so that you have to stop, choke, cough and spit in a futile attempt to keep from swallowing a live bug. It's not that your body can't handle it, but that fly was probably on a garbage heap not too long ago. Gross.

There are a few things I am enjoying, though. Easy access to the beach. Home-cooking. A porch where I can read and enjoy a frosty brew. Air that doesn't smell like exhaust and sewage. Being near my girlfriend. The nice, gentle breeze that whisks its way through the open windows in the house. Getting to hang out with my mom and dad, which will get old, I'm sure. But for now, it's nice. They're supportive and understanding. They don't give me shit for not having a job. 

Hopefully I will strike a balance that can be maintained for a little while. I miss NYC. And with any decision like this, there's second guessing (especially since I can't find too many comedy venues around here). This stuff takes time. And can get impatient. Hopefully that won't become a recipe for disaster.

Apologies to the Reader(s)

My life has been a bit hectic, but normalcy may be returning soon. Which means more posts on a much more consistent basis. I hope that excites you.

For the time being, enjoy this piece. I sure did.