Migawd, no one told me school was going to be all this work. Now I’m glad I don’t have a “real” job at the moment. I’d never be able to keep up. Hell, I’m having a tough time keeping up with just the writing jobs! Of course, it doesn’t help that the fellow is bombarding me with more work than I actually signed up to do. I mean, I’m getting paid for it and all, it’s just he only advertised for, like, three to five assignments a day, and I’ve been getting 12 to 14 a day. Ack.
Wait. I just mathed. That pays bills. No shit, y’all. Okay, I’ll stop bitching, now.
Anyways, moving right along:
- Jennifer’s Body: Surprisingly good. I didn’t think it would be, but it was actually a pretty decent movie. Megan Fox is Megan Fox, but she plays a good high school snot of a demon possessed cheerleader. Amanda Seyfried did a great job, as did Johnny Simmons as Chip, Needy’s boyfriend, and Kyle Gallner as Colin the gothbear. It was funny and scary and a bit gory — definitely worth watching!
- I’m reading What Would Google Do?
, by Jeff Jarvis, for my Media and Society class, and it’s really good. The guy is spot on in his analysis of Google, both in their business strategies and their impact on the Internet and society. It’s well written and entertaining to read, as well. Worth picking up.
- I went to an all-day workshop at the Benton Center, called “Fooling Around With Words” on Saturday, and it was pretty much a waste of time. I was disappointed. The way the description for the event was written, I’d thought it was a writing workshop for, you know, writers. Turned out that most of the workshop attendees were twenty years older than me, and hobbyists. I took a dialogue class in the morning that was just sad. Sad as in, the teacher didn’t know what the hell she was doing, and the books she presented as her published works were actually self-published, and first draft quality at best. I’m not going to knock self-publishing, since that’s probably the route we’ll end up taking, but damn, these books were bad. And the dialogue was awful. The second class was better, all about organizing your novel, but it wasn’t anything particularly useful to me. Also, I think me and my horror/urban fantasy type novel scared everyone. Everyone else was doing high fantasy, chick lit, and historical biographies. I’m writing bullet-ridden, gore-soaked urban fantasy and my protagonist is a murderous, soul-sucking sociopath. I didn’t really fit in with the crowd, y’know?
- Is anyone else sick of hearing this Republican “I don’t like the health care bill because I don’t want my money going to help lazy welfare queens squirt out more babies for free” argument? It’s insulting. I’ve worked hard my whole life, dammit, and I’ve never had a job that gave me health insurance. At least, not health insurance that was worth spending money on. To the people making that argument, from the bottom of my heart, fuck you. Fuck you lots.
And on that note, it’s time for bed.
(Image from here
- Can we stop referring to it as “global warming“, please? It’s not global warming, it’s not global cooling, it’s climate change. Calling it “global warming” is a disservice to the problem. When the 90% of the American population who are unread goobers hear the words “global warming”, they think it means that we won’t get any more winters, and that every snowstorm proves global warming false. I know climate change is a complicated topic to understand, because I read about it all the time and still only ever catch about half the particulars, but what it is not is a lack of winters. “Global warming” is about catastrophic climate change. All kinds of climates. Changing for the worse. This does, in fact, mean that the east coast can look forward to some really nasty winters.
- Republican Senator Richard Shelby is blocking all Obama appointees until he gets billions of dollars for Alabama. He’s holding the presidential nominees hostage. This kind of crap is why we’re calling the Republicans “the Party of No”. The Republicans insistence on blocking every single piece of legislation they can, for no other reason than that they can, is doing serious harm to the future of America, and is directly responsible for the continuing polarization of American politics. I get why Obama is banging the bipartisan drum so hard. He is trying with all his heart and soul to heal this incredible division of ideals. But ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you, that ship has sailed. It is now literally pointless to attempt to reconcile anything with the current form of the Republican party. I mean, we’re talking about senators who voted “no” on Al Franken’s anti-rape bill, for fucksake! You can’t reason with that kind of people. Stop pandering to them, and let’s get on with fixing America.
- Okay, this is a Fox News poll, so take it with a salt block, but this poll says most Americans are unhappy with the current health care bill. Well, duh. It’s crap! Look, the health care problem in America just isn’t that complicated. People need health care. Private health insurance is a fucking scam, and we all know it. These insurance companies are taking us to the cleaners, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a horrifying state of affairs for a country that wants to bill itself as superior in every way to every other country out there. We have several options for fixing the problem. We could do like we did with mandatory car insurance — everyone has to have health insurance, and in return, we regulate the hell out of the health insurance companies and force them to make their product affordable and efficient. I mean, I have full coverage on my car, and it only costs me about sixty bucks a month. We could do the same to private health insurance. We could go single-payer, IE, a socialist medical system like Canada and everyone else with a modicum of sense does. We could go regulation plus a public option. We could even, as Jim suggested to me the other night, try reform from a different angle, and just criminalize the shit out of current health care practices. But what we can’t do is continue to ignore the problem, or provide a half-assed, half-hearted solution that in practice will accomplish nothing, if not actually make the problem worse.
It’s been incredibly busy around here this month. We’re both working a lot, and since I’m opening at the New Restaurant, we’ve also been napping a lot, which takes up a significant portion of free time. So, here’s a digest of thoughts and topics I’ve been stewing over for a month or so, in handy list format. Heh.
- Jim and I are headed back to Michigan New Year’s weekend for a holiday visit! W00t! I can’t wait to see everyone!
- Morning shift sucks. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I actually kind of like being at the New Restaurant first thing in the morning. For one thing, apparently, Oregonians don’t get up early. Like, ever. So, mornings are generally pretty quiet and sedate. I go in, I start the coffee, I putter around, I drink the coffee, I wait a few tables. It’s quiet, and the overhead radio is set to play classic rock and oldies, so even the music is pretty good. The only problem is that it all happens at Jesus-thirty in the morning, which I don’t think I’ll ever get used to.
- My desktop computer is still broken, and I’m still baffled. I have one more option to try — disabling the search index thingie, which is some bit of Windows programing or another. I have instructions on how to do it, I just haven’t got around to it yet. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to pay a bazillion dollars to have a higher-level geek look things over for me. That makes Java grumpy.
- Oregonians in restaurants actually use your name tag. I worked in several restaurants in Michigan, several of which required us to wear name tags, and never before have I had so many people read my name tag and use my name when I’m waiting on them. This phenomenon is absolutely fascinating to me. It’s like customers in Oregon realize servers are actually human beings. In fact, so far, the only customers I’ve had who’ve confused me with some other server have been people who were elderly enough that their eye sight was going and/or they were a bit confused.
- I am not overly amused with the way the health care bill is shaping up. The Stupak Amendment seriously has my knickers in a twist. And all these concessions to Republicans who have no intentions of voting for the reform anyway, and/or conservative Democrats who are fucking things up and cock-blocking the bill, too … Really, people? I mean, really? This isn’t about politics, folks. This is about American citizens dying of common-place, fixable and/or treatable illnesses and diseases because they can’t fucking afford to go to the doctor. We actually have to argue about fixing this? For fucksake. It’s goddamn disgusting, is what it is.
- And while I’m on the topic, why can’t I find a good breakdown of what’s in the goddamn bill? I’ve searched and searched, and I’ve yet to find one real article or blog post anywhere that contains a comprehensive breakdown of the shit that’s in the bill, including what it might cost and how we’re going to pay for things, written in a way that is actually readable and able to be understood by folks who don’t speak legalese. All I can find are platitudes, talking points, and Teabagger lunacy claiming Obama’s going to kill Grandma. (Hint: He’s not.) Can someone please just write something true and easy to understand that breaks this bill down so we all know what we’re getting into? Please don’t make me do it. There will be a lot of cussing and over-simplification if I have to do it, because I only understand about half this shit, myself.
- By the way, Stupak is from Michigan. Are you seriously telling me a Michigander stuck this ridiculous abortion bullshit into my healthcare bill? Man, Stupak, you are so lucky I don’t live there anymore. I would totally be camping out in your office, making your life a miserable living hell. And Michiganders, what the fuck? You’re going to let that guy get away with that shit? We’re a blue state, dammit, we don’t believe in that crap! Vote that guy out!
- It’s November 24th, and I’m sitting in my living room with my windows open. It’s a bit cool, true, but not too cool for open windows. Yet. It’s awesome. My Jim informs me we’ll pretty much be able to do this all “winter”. Although, admittedly, at retarded o’clock when I head off to work, it’s pretty brisk and crispy out, and it gets quite chilly at night. Not too chilly to close the bedroom window, though. Jim’s a Yeti, and I just pile on a couple of extra blankets. The fresh air is too nice to miss.
- Oregonians are really friendly and nice. It actually makes me a bit suspicious. I’m not used to all this friendly and pleasant and happy all over the place. Random strangers will say “Hi!” and wave on the street when they wander by, and kick up conversations with each other over whatever is going on. “Hey, how you doing? Really? Awesome! Beautiful day, huh? Cute dog, where you going? What are you doing? We’re going up to the mountains!” They’re just fuckin’ happy, everywhere they go. It must be because of the good weather and all the natural beauty. It’s damned hard to be grumpy here. I mean, you really have to work for it. By way of example, look at me. I’ve been crabby, curmudgeonly, and generally cantankerous pretty much from birth, and I really have to work at it to keep that up, here. If I’m not careful, I’ll wander around in a good mood all day, feeling all optimistic and shit. It’s weird.
- Plants vs Zombies is made of pure, refined crack, y’all. Jim’s sister Kaci gave us copies of it. I may never get anything else done again.
- People don’t seem to cuss as much around here as Michiganders. I keep having to watch my mouth. It’s weird. In Michigan, people use “fuck” as punctuation. Here? Not so much. And not in the restaurant, either, which is just goddamn strange. All the restaurant people I’ve ever worked with have cussed like sailors. At the New Restaurant, I actually hear people saying things like, “Oh, sugar!” I swear, the other day, one of the servers messed something up and yelled “Son of a biscuit!” I nearly died laughing, seriously.
- I just finished reading Waiter Rant: Thanks For The Tip (Confessions of a Cynical Waiter) a couple of days ago, and it was fantastic. Steve Dublanica of WaiterRant.net is an excellent writer, and really nails the business of waiting tables. In one chapter, he describes a night at the restaurant where he was managing/waiting tables. The POS computers take a shit, the credit card machine dies, the A/C craps out on the hottest night of the year, he’s short-handed, slammin’ busy, and his waiters are being useless shits. The restaurant nearly does a crash and burn. He describes it so well, I started getting the sweats just thinking about it. Good book, people.
- I’m currently reading The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. I’m about two chapters in, and it’s already scary. Buy it and read it. So far, it’s great.
- Yesterday, I bought all the goodies for some holiday baking. I have the stuff for my mother’s famous sugar cookies (best sugar cookies ever, so good, they could bring peace to the Middle East, seriously, y’all). I’m doing up a hella big batch, so I can freeze some and have them for Christmas, too. I also have the stuff for chocolate-covered peanutbutter balls, and I started to get stuff for lemon snowdrops, but halfway through, Jim suggested an alteration to the recipe which would turn them into S’mores cookies. So, we’re going to try that, instead, and see how that works out. Today and tomorrow, baking!
Alan Grayson (D), Florida senator, is the guy who said, yesterday in a speech before Congress, that the Republican health care plan is, “Don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly.” The Republicans had a fit of sanctimonious outrage over this, of course, and demanded an apology. So, Grayson got up and apologized — to those who had died due to a lack of health care. Then, as if that weren’t enough, he went on TV, held his ground, and continued to attack the Republicans for stalling health care and the public option, and has thus far refused to back down. I think I have a little crush on this guy. I wish more Democrats had balls as big as Grayson’s. If they did, they might get more done.
How many politicians would walk onto a set of a TV show out of the blue and eviscerate the entire pundit panel? Alan Grayson strolled out onto the stage of CNN’s The Situation Room and took on their crew including Blitzer, Carville, Johns and that whack job Alex Castellanos over his remarks about the non-existent GOP health care. He started by saying “they have no plan!” and by not having a plan, they are hurting Americans. Blitzer was so shocked that Grayson actually said something nobody in the media wants to talk about. [With video.]
From Orcinus: Why I Missed Obama’s Speech.
This is actually a test post for the WordPress “Press This” application, which lets me blog about a neat webpage right at the webpage. Test or no, though, you should go read this post. It’s a description of the blogger’s experience with the evil Canadian health care system.
True confessions: I missed the health care speech. While the whole lefty blogosphere was watching and blogging and tweeting, I was sacked out in my attic bedroom high on a mountainside in Vancouver, sleeping off a narcotic haze and the exhausting aftermath of a long night spent in the emergency room at Lions Gate Hospital.
Four things in particular stood out about the hours that followed — things that show just how different medicine is when the patients trump profit as the main priority, things that Americans need to understand if they’re going to see through the chaos of this moment to the kind of future that’s possible.
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