Uh huh, sure....

Karl Rove's gone at the end of the month. He wants to spend time with his familia. Uh huh, sure. Rove's been with Bushie for, what, three decades? What's another measley 15 months? I'm think some shit's hit the fan. Hmm.

Kinda-sorta semi-unrelatedish (I know that is not a word), but does anyone else out there ever wish they could live just, like, a fraction of their lives back in, like, the 40's or something? Ya know, when everything was more simple and less fucking fucked up? I do. Ugh.

What I'm Excited About!

It's been an awesome year for me so far, minus a couple of stupid things here and there, but hey, it happens. Still digging my new job, even though I suck at it half the time, ha! And my recent trip to St. Louis was amazing! My aunt is moving back from Texas to help with my Grandma, so that will be a bit of a break for my mother and I. Yay.

So anyway, the year is half-way over but I's got lots more I'm excited about - Dave in concert next weekend, Indigo Girls the following, Rilo Kiley in September! I also get to celebrate my old roomie's 30th B-day with her in West Virginia for a white water rafting excursion-thingy at the end of this month. Re-reading Potter 7 because it was that good and because I am a dork. Just got tickets to see Ani in NYC this November. Double 'yay' on that one. For real.

Rilo Kiley's new cd, excited bout that too, for sure. Crabs and beer this weekend on the river...oh and the new season of South of Nowhere starts tomorrow!

Being Unhealthy Could Cost You...Money.

For employees at Clarian Health, feeling the burn of trying to lose weight will take on new meaning. In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index [BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat] is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.

Clarian has been making headlines for its aggressive and unusual approach to covering escalating health-care costs. Rather than taking the more common step of giving employees incentives for merely participating in its wellness programs, such as joining a smoking cessation group or using a health coach, Clarian is actually measuring outcomes. And unlike most employers, it is penalizing workers for poor health instead of rewarding them for taking healthy steps.

Full article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20090986/

I mean, really? I'm all about people being healthy and shit, but that's a little ridiculous. Just a little. I'm sure by July 1 of next year, folks will be getting surcharged for being gay and not believing in God. Hey, it's America - it could happen. Damn, I'll be broke.

August iPod Playlist

Some new, some old. Sweet. :)

Starlight - Muse
Joyful Girl - Ani DiFranco
Boy With a Coin - Iron and Wine
Apologize - New Republic
Sari - Nellie McKay
Another Song About Life - Even Elroy
Secret Heart - Feist
Hotel Song - Regina Spektor
Calander Girl - Stars
Number One - Goldfrapp
Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
Speeding Cars - Imogen Heap
She's Mine - Brett Dennen
Her Space Holiday - Japanese Gum
Please Forgive Me - David Gray
Flourolescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys
Dodo - Dave Matthews Band
Closer - Travis

Is Our Children Learning?

Since early 2003, the United States has spent approximately 450,000,000,0000 buckaroos funding the war in Iraq. Yes, that's 450 billion dollars. Instead, we could have:

Hired 7,794,848 additional school teachers for one full year, or
Paid for 59,574,407 children to attend Head Start, or
Insured 269,334,450 children for one year, or
Provided 21,804,763 students with 4-year scholarships to public universities.

Quite sad, really.

To see this data broken down by state and/or county, visit the National Priorities Project Link to the right.

Eco-Friendly?

My mother got some new energy-saving light bulbs today. They are supposed to last up to three years. However, they are packaged in plastic, rather than in cardbord, which means it took a lot of gas to package them. Such a dilemma for me to get them, really. They are so much better for the environment, but they are made in China, which has taken pretty much every producing American job away from our workers. I have not bought any product made in China for almost two years. What to do on this one...what to do.

p.s. they are really an odd sort of light too, florescent-like. And it feels like I'm in a hospital...or in a house where the wacky stuff is harvested. Hmm. And they look like sex toys. Double hmm.

Recycling in Virginia

This is some 1984 shit. Seriously.

So I woke up this morning and loaded my car full of cans and bottles to make my way to our local recycling center. And by local, I mean like 45 minutes away. But whatever. Anyway, Virginia is a commonwealth, so it sucks - but the shit that I just when through has only confirmed the small idea in my head that I need to fucking move. Like yesterday.

When I took my bags up to the front, I was asked to show my driver's license. Not only did they need to see it, but they scanned it as well. Oh no, it gets better. They continued to ask a series of questions, including where I live and my weight. My weight? What the freaking frack does that have to do with recycling cans and bottles? Well, I totally lied to them about that anyway.

They told me that it was a new DMV law and they apologized and said they had to, blah blah blah. My mother and I have been recycling at this place since I was like 16 and we have never had to do this before. So I looked up this new 'law' that supposedly requires recycling centers to ask donors to disclose their weight and hand over their license for scanning. Could not find a thing. If someone out there has some better luck finding that, please please send it my way. I'm dying to know. /sarcasm.

The irony of it all, is that you don't have to do any of that when buying a gun here. Fucking. ridiculous.