Sunday, June 12, 2011
Just In Case
In case you've come here from Kayla's blog, I can do nothing but apologize for having absolutely nothing to say! I'm working on a new little project which should be up and running on Monday - I hope you'll take a look!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Reform This
I've talked about this a little before, but here is yet another document discussing how rich health insurers are getting while health care costs are rising. Every company this looked at saw a profit from 2008-2010, while the average American paid substantially more money for the same coverage. Bogus.
Health Care for America NOW
And in case you're not a big public health nerd who has actually read most of the new reform bill, there's a section that requires insurance companies to put between 80 and 85% of the money collected through deductibles, premiums, etc toward paying health care costs and increasing other health ventures. That means only 15 to 20% can go toward employee salaries.
Which is good, considering these are the 2009 salaries for some CEOs:
Health Care for America NOW
And in case you're not a big public health nerd who has actually read most of the new reform bill, there's a section that requires insurance companies to put between 80 and 85% of the money collected through deductibles, premiums, etc toward paying health care costs and increasing other health ventures. That means only 15 to 20% can go toward employee salaries.
Which is good, considering these are the 2009 salaries for some CEOs:
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Antilamentation
Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook, not
the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication, not
the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punch line, the door or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the living room couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the window.
Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied of expectation.
Relax. Don't bother remembering any of it. Let's stop here,
under the lit sign on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.
Dorianne Laux
to the end just to find out who killed the cook, not
the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication, not
the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punch line, the door or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the living room couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the window.
Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied of expectation.
Relax. Don't bother remembering any of it. Let's stop here,
under the lit sign on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.
Dorianne Laux
Thursday, January 20, 2011
He Loves Me
I write this stuff down because a) I like to show off, and b) good things are nice to remember on not-so-good days.
We've had issues with our fire alarms since we moved in. First, the previous owners of the house left us with non-functional alarms, which besides being a pretty major no-no in the real estate world, has turned into this huge inconvenience.
We bought fire alarms somewhere shortly after we moved in. They didn't work. We returned them and did what we should have done in the first place: bought them from Costco (<3). Now, these alarms run through batteries in record time. We changed all the batteries out within the last 2 months, but last night at 3am one of the alarms started beeping. The beeps were less in the vein of oh-crap-its-a-fire, but more like the I'm-slowly-dying-and-taking-you-down-with-me.
By the way... why do fire alarms always start this at night? It happened at our last apartment too.
Anyway, D got up to address the beeping at 3am last night. He tried to be super quiet. He got a flashlight and changed those stupid batteries in the dark so I could sleep. It totally woke me up, but I appreciated the effort enough to pretend it didn't. He is adorable. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a grumpy monster in the mornings.
We've had issues with our fire alarms since we moved in. First, the previous owners of the house left us with non-functional alarms, which besides being a pretty major no-no in the real estate world, has turned into this huge inconvenience.
We bought fire alarms somewhere shortly after we moved in. They didn't work. We returned them and did what we should have done in the first place: bought them from Costco (<3). Now, these alarms run through batteries in record time. We changed all the batteries out within the last 2 months, but last night at 3am one of the alarms started beeping. The beeps were less in the vein of oh-crap-its-a-fire, but more like the I'm-slowly-dying-and-taking-you-down-with-me.
By the way... why do fire alarms always start this at night? It happened at our last apartment too.
Anyway, D got up to address the beeping at 3am last night. He tried to be super quiet. He got a flashlight and changed those stupid batteries in the dark so I could sleep. It totally woke me up, but I appreciated the effort enough to pretend it didn't. He is adorable. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a grumpy monster in the mornings.
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