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26 July, 2009

Chore day and random thoughts

Anyone with me in trying to create a mandatory 3-day weekend?? I need Saturday to decompress from the week, do some shopping, go to stores that aren't open on Sundays and generally chill out. Then Sunday to get my chores done, tidy the house, get ready for the next week. If only I had an extra day to recover from my chore day.
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Ever finish an item on your to-do list only to find out it's not a "done" as you thought it was? Seems to be happening to me a lot lately. I'll call/mail/fax something as required and think "great, one less item off my list" and then 5-10 days later I'll get a call/fax/mail/pigeon telling me that "no, you need to do this this AND this to complete it" or "Sorry, we half assed our end, so you'll have to do it again". Seems like most of the mistakes are not in my favour either. All this technology and life still doesn't seem any easier.
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After seeing "Orphan" last night I officially still have "the willies". Very creepy movie. If you are a horror fan or thriller fan it's worth a look just to see what evil looks like. Right before the movie there was a preview for the movie "District 9" which looks good and "The Book of Eli", although that movie doesn't come out until January next year.

Speaking of movies. If you have netflix and enjoy a good mystery/thriller, check out "Elsewhere" which you can watch for free online through your account. Despite the average reviews on imdb it's was actually a surprisingly decent movie. I attribute the reviews to the fact that it tries to sell itself as more of a horror story (which it isn't at all) and that most reviewers on imdb are douches.

21 July, 2009

SOCIALISM alert!! (yay)

I don't know if you watch Fox news that much but this caught my eye. The LA (the other one, not that fancy Hollywood one), Congressman John Fleming pushes a bill "H. Res 615" which says that if you vote for "Teh socialist government insurance" then you will have to take that insurance and pass up on your fancy congress-style private insurance.

You may remember Congressman John Fleming from other bills such as:
"H. Res 478": If you vote for the government insurance you are "teh ghey".
"H. Res 523": If you vote for a government bailout you "smell. And you must pay all your money to those companies needing bailout."

Please let me know if I missed any out.

You may also remember his vote was significantly absent from "H. Res 183" which stated "If you vote to continue and increase military operations then you have to fight in said military operations".

My favourite bits are when Meghan Kelly says "How on earth do they justify that?" (around 2.07 minutes) and you may notice (around 2.10) that John Fleming is actually a doctor. Surely a doctor should want an end to the current health care system in which they make a ridiculous amount of money...wait...

This stinks of playground tactics to me and my response is that for those who are uninsured or under-insured will see this health care plan as "great" compared to what they have now which is "jack" and "a boat up a river sans paddle".

(Apologies for excessive "quotes".)

16 July, 2009

More health insurance blues

I received another letter the other day. I once enjoyed receiving mail but now I almost dread it. The last time I visited my GP I went for a blood test. Now, I couldn't have it in-house because my insurance didn't cover that (wtf??) so I went to another outside company. It was under my own recommendation that I have my blood tested as I wanted to check my cholesterol because a) it's nice to keep a check on that kinda thing, and b) my uncle had had a heart attack and there is a history of heart attacks in my family (he is fine now, btw). So, I figure I better get myself tested. Then two months later I get the bill from said company because apparently my health insurance doesn't cover silly tests like cholesterol testing, despite my valid reasons for it.

This shows that the health care industry isn't concerned about diagnosing potential problems early and thus saving the patient their health and their money but instead are content for people to become sick and THEN offer the specialists and treatment...at a price of course.

I saw a recent figure about where folks spend most of their money when it comes to health care and the highest percentage was on prescription drugs. Not surprising as Americans are given prescriptions to help them deal with an existing problem and can gain instant relief, or some relief. However, if you are on a tight budget, why would you pay over $100 to have a test that may or may not tell you that you have a problem if you Doctor hasn't suggested it but it may be hereditary?

09 July, 2009

Public Enemies


Due to the hotness of my house and the coolness of a movie theater I decided to check out this also quite cool movie, Public Enemies, at the new Cinemark cinema in Barboursville.

I knew going in the movie would be over 2 hours long but it really didn't feel that way. The pace was good and covered a lot of different events, spending the right amount of time on each gun fight or escape but also allowing us to see a lot of character interaction. Depp and Bale looked comfortable in these roles and really bought the characters to life.

One downside for me was that Michael Mann assumes you actually know something about Dillinger. Which I really didn't. I knew some basics, but the movie starts off from the point that you knew a little about public opinion of him and the state of the country at the time as it doesn't go out of it's way to drive these home. At times this meant that I felt disconnected to Dillinger and really just rooted for Purvis trying to capture him.

A solid crime drama movie that recreated the 1930's beautifully but do your homework on Dillinger first (apparently Mann really went to town with his research particularly accented by the fact that the "woman in red" wears orange) and then you may enjoy the movie more.

Glorious Air

Yay! The A/C man is finally here and finishing up as I type. It was up to 84 degrees last night when I went to bed so it is not a moment too soon. I expect to crank the air down to about 50 and enjoy the chill.

Then promptly complain about the cold and put a sweater on.

08 July, 2009

Missing out


It looks like WV actually ended up in the black last Fiscal year. A surplus of 2.5 million-ish. My idea is to loan it to California at a ridiculous interest but who knows when would see that again. Regardless of the surplus, I think WV can do better. We could start with license plates. It seems to be some sort of payment dodge that a lot of people take advantage of. When I walk out into my parking lot I see North Carolina plates, Ohio plates, I see South Carolina plates, even Florida plates but precious few West Virginia plates. I'd kinda understand if I lived on the border of any of these states but I'd say even Ohio is an hours drive. It irks me when my plates are Wild and Wonderful and my money is going toward Joe Manchin's pockets Wv roads and the folks next door are funding some other state to save a few bucks.

At least with dem tolls going up we can get some of that out of staters money heading our way.

07 July, 2009

Michael Jackson

Where are you AC?


No, I'm not referring to the much loved character from Saved by the Bell (who really should have had a spin-off...perhaps one where he ran for congress... "AC in DC" anyone? no? ok). I'm talking about the other A/C. The one that keeps me nice and cool and at a constant 69 degrees all year round no matter what it's like outside. It went out a couple of days ago and I'm still struggling to cope with it's loss. It's weird because in England we never had A/C. I didn't know anyone who did, no matter how rich or fancy their house was. There just really isn't much of a need for it. It can get to be very hot during the summer but often it's just for a few weeks and then it's back to more comfortable weather...or rain. The other reason was that most houses there are made of brick and so at least the downstairs of my house would actually be fairly cool even on the hottest days. We didn't even have ceiling fans though (nor did anyone else) so night was really the worse. It felt like the heat didn't abate any during the night and opening up my windows just let in the moths rather than the cool air. These past few days here without A/C have brought some of these less than fond memories streaming back. I've just become to accustomed to living in a climate controlled house.

The repair guy showed up today to take a look at things. Looks like the compressor is no longer working. We had problems on July 3rd with the same thing but I managed to "Man-up" and fix it by flicking a few breakers till the compressor jumped to life, but now it's completely packed in. He should be back any minute to tell me either a) he got it started or b) it will be another two days of hotness and bare-chestedness around the house (by me, not Ms. Allclick).

Well, at least the cats seem to be enjoying the heat.

01 July, 2009

MGMT - "Kids"

Heard this the other day and thought it was worth a share. This video has a pretty interesting story too. From the Youtube site:

"Just to set the story straight: the facepainted kids in the video are a boy and girl from Los Angeles, two friends of mine, names Raf and Abby. MGMT was not involved in the making of this video, however, they became involved down the line.
The story goes like this:
December 2007: Rushing to make a due date for a USC Music Video class, I ask my friends Raf and Abby to appear in my video. I like the way they bounce off of each other despite completely different personality types, and think they both have interesting faces. Raf didn't want to shave so I didn't push him. We shot in one night, I cut overnight, turn it in and call it the worst thing I've done so far.
January 2008: On a whim one night while visiting home in Austin, Texas, I throw the video on Youtube just for kicks.
April 2008: Ray Tintori, who has directed 3 official videos for MGMT, finds my fan video online and invites myself and my two actors to come to New York to appear in MGMTs next official video for Electric Feel.
May 2008: We go to New York and have a great time on the set with the band and all their friends. "