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Paintballm
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Name: Daniel
Location: Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Birthday: 2/21/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Paintball, Ultimate, disc golf, cycling, mountain biking, running, fishing. Can't forget reading, writing, and arithmetic (which is a high-tech way of saying "school"). Oh, and I'm a darn good cook, too.
Expertise: Being a total geek (and lovin' every minute of it)!
Occupation: Federal
Industry: Research/Legal
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Paintballm2
Member Since:
12/4/2003
 Lifetime
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| Saturday, September 5th, 2009 - 2.99 months
It's been a bit since I've written anything. Since I'm rather bored, I figured I'd hop on here and blog a bit, and the current debate over health-care has given me an excellent topic. Based on some of the stuff I've read and some of the folks with whom I've spoken, I know that temperatures run high on the topic. To start, I'll preface this by saying I land on the left side of the political fence, in the libertarian sector. As well-demonstrated by the excellent quiz on Political Compass, I fall squarely in the middle of the bottom-left quadrant.
I feel that it's our duty to help those who are less fortunate than we are. My feelings on the matter are well-summed by the status message I saw on Facebook the other day: "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."
A common argument I've heard is that "no one should take my hard-earned money away because they can't/won't get a job with health benefits." America is the Land of the Free, after all, and we place a great emphasis on individualism. To me, this argument isn't an appeal to our individualistic spirit; rather, I think it's a cold, insensitive, look-out-for-#1 view. I agree that it's unfair for someone who's toiled for his money to subsidize the medical treatment of someone else. Heck, I almost had a heart attack when I got my first paycheck (almost became a first-paycheck Republican) and found that the $2750 gross was whittled down to $1883 net (and $1633 after my $250/pay-period TSP contribution). That's a lot of money taken in tax...but I'd argue that the money taken out helps to further the work of our great nation. In short, I feel it's my job to help make things easier for those less fortunate than I.
What about the person who's paralyzed from the neck down, cannot work (and so has no income and lacks health benefits), and needs an expensive medical procedure to keep him alive? The person has to either pay for the procedure out of his own pocket (let's say it's in-patient surgery, so he has to pay for the procedure and a potentially-lengthy hospital stay) or forgo the procedure. According to this: "A recent study found that 62 percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses." Perhaps more surprising is the next sentence: "Of those who filed for bankruptcy, nearly 80 percent had health insurance." Another (perhaps more realistic/less-contrived) scenario: consider the college student who isn't a beneficiary of his parents' health insurance and lacks the financial wherewithal to get his own insurance or pay the cost of health benefits offered by his school? Or what about the person who lacks health insurance because no insurance company will offer him coverage due to an expensive medical condition? In that case, let's say the person can afford health insurance, but not expensive medical care, and no company will cover him because of the foreseen exorbitant cost?
I have no way to respond to the argument that we ought not help those who won't get a job. The only thing I can say is that health-care is a basic human right, and it ought to be something to which everyone has access. No one should be turned away from the doctor because he cannot pay. That's a slippery slope, in my opinion: it eventually goes from an inability to pay to having a low IQ or having a disability or something else. Sure, that's extreme, but I ask the question: Where does it end?
My argument, then, is that we have a responsibility to provide access to quality health-care for everyone, and that, in so doing, we pull ourselves from the slippery slope. I know what it's like to not go to the doctor (even knowing I ought to have done so) because I couldn't afford it. Two years ago, I was (still) in grad school, and I didn't get a flu shot. I later got the flu. Instead of going to the doctor to get a flu shot prior to the beginning of the flu season, I didn't go. I didn't have insurance and couldn't afford to pay for the vaccine. It was only $25, but (I'll be honest here) I was already down to the wire financially, and I just could not afford it. No one else should have to make the choice between medical care and the rent that pays for the roof over one's head.
In short, I think that we're quite willing to lay claim to "Home of the Free"...so why don't we live up to the other part of that name and shoulder the extra financial burden needed to provide health-care instead of doing the cowardly thing and shirking our duty?
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| Saturday, June 6th, 2009 - Hope Springs Eternal
I took the plunge: ordered a TV, a few HDMI cables, and an extended service plan through Squaretrade (probably never use it). I figured since the TV is a Toshiba, it's better to be prepared...just in case.
Thought about going for one of those digital video players from Roku, and I may yet do so. I'm on the fence about it; I figure it's probably wisest to see how things look as far as power outlets and inputs before I start getting more stuff. Next on my shopping list: cable. I hope I don't get RIF-ed!
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| Friday, June 5th, 2009 - Deserving
In my past, someone christened me with the nickname, "Furious D". I've never really considered myself an angry person...until now.
I just got off the phone with the electric company. I initiated an auto-draft from my bank account 3 months ago in February (right after I moved into this place). I was wondering why, after the current bill's due date, the current draft was not showing in my bank account history. The reason: I had a draft returned 2 billing cycles ago for insufficient funds. It was in the amount of $5.92, and it occurred soon after I closed my Wachovia account. I didn't change the bank draft information in time, apparently. The bank draft last month didn't happen either, but I didn't think anything was wrong, as I had paid the bill online before the draft date, so of course the draft was $0.00. Since nothing had come up this month, though, I got a little worried, so I hopped on their website, only to discover that my bill was due June 2nd. I immediately called their customer service number (which was a pain to find), whereupon I was immediately greeted by an automated system that eventually connected me to a real person. As an aside, yelling, "PERSON!" at an automated, infinitely patient speech recognition system neither works nor relieves anger. After a short discussion, the pleasant customer service rep informed me that since a previous draft ("electronic check") had been returned, I was ineligible to use my bank account to pay the bill for 12 months ("your bank account is under 12-month probation"). That means I can either pay the thing in person (costs me $1 to go pay my bill) or pay it online via credit card (which costs $3.95). Note that I can't simply mail a check in for two reasons:
a.) I don't get a paper bill; and
b.) I can't use my checking account to pay my bill for 12 months, remember?
So my options are that I can walk up to a house of financial ill-repute (a "payday checks cashed!" place) and then pay for the privilege of shelling out for my bill...or I can pay online via credit card and get charged $3.95 for the convenience of not having to pay $1 by paying the bill in person. I just tried to pay by phone, and the doggone system hung up on me after I fat-fingered one digit of my credit card number in my current fit of rage.
I am now worthy of the aforementioned nickname. Put simply, I hate Dominion Virginia Power.
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| Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 - We All Scream
I've been a bit lax as far as writing. My bad on that: you try starting a new job and juggling six zillion different things along with that bowling ball!
I've been on an ice cream kick the past few weeks. I've got an ice cream maker, and I got my hands on a Ben & Jerry's ice cream recipe book, and I've been going to town. A month ago, I made my first batch of coffee Heath bar crunch, which I followed up with another batch of the same thing a week later. The week after that, I made some strawberry ice cream, and last week I made some Cherry Garcia. If you don't know what that variety entails, I pity you  I'm going to do cookies-and-cream this weekend, which will be great.
Speaking of this weekend...I'm going to check out the new Star Trek film! I'm rather excited about that, as I'm told it's a good movie, even beyond the special-effects eye candy. I'm told it's actually got a plot and decent dialog, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Work's been OK. I thihnk I'm starting to get the hang of it. The way it works is that you have a docket filled with patent applications, and they measure your performance based on how many applications you take care of each pay period. As a GS-9, I have to do at least 4 per pay period. What really sucks at the moment (and for two years after 1/21/2009) is that I'm a probationary employee. What that means is that I can be "let go" without any reason and without any notice. Imagine going home from work on a Friday and coming back in on Monday, only to find a letter on your desk saying that you've been terminated, effective at the close-of-business last Friday. Such a nightmarish scenario could in theory happen to me, but I'm doing my darnedest to exceed expectations so I don't foresee it being a problem. Kinda scary to think about it, though.
The best thing about having a job and not having to worry about school is actually twofold:
a.) I have a paycheck and awesome benefits; and
b.) I can get caught up on my non-textbook reading.
I've been reading like a fiend since I got up here. I've been here for...4 months as of tomorrow, and I've read an insane number of books. I live just down the road from the library, which healps support the habit. One thing I've found is that people nowadays don't write like the folks of yore. That's not at all surprising (evolving societal norms, changing lingual habits, etc.), but it is rather unfortunate.
I need to find some food so I can eat dinner. I got home about an hour ago, and I'll be back at it in less than 10. As such...later!
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| Saturday, April 4th, 2009 - The Bad Thing
I have something to confess: I used to play a lot of World of Warcraft, back about 2 or 3 years ago. I stopped, though, as it occurred to me that I was paying continuously to play a game. Paying to play a game continuously is an old concept; after all, when one buys a copy of a game for <insert console type>, that's what is happening.
Continuously paying for the privilege to play a game after one has already paid the initial cost of buying said game is something relatively new. I can't believe the folks at Blizzard get paid on a regular basis to create, host, and keep up a game. I mean, holy moly, 3 million folks pay $15.99 monthly (or a lump sum for a specific number of months of gametime) to play, so we're looking at just under $48 million bucks...monthly...for a game!
I had this epiphany a while back, and it made me question the sanity of playing the game, so I killed off my subscription...but now I've done The Bad Thing and renewed my subscription and picked up right where I left off.
It's the sort of thing that might be interesting to give up come Lent next year...
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