My Zen Arcade

So, months and months ago (I probably mentioned this), we were told that the company was looking for a new health insurance provider.  Later, they gave us form to fill out for a provider that starts with A and ends with A.  They said it was to help the A-A come up with an estimate.  These forms required a detailed medical history for anyone who might be covered, as well as basic but personal information like social security numbers.

I was pissed.  I was fine with providing the medical history, but felt it should be done anonymously.  Anything else was basically providing all the information needed to get far too far into my history than I was comfortable with from a company with whom I had absolutely no agreement.  But I’d only been at this job for a few months, I’d just completed a world class fuckup, and decided that causing waves was not a good idea.

So, middle of May, we get an email saying that there’s an informational meeting from one of the companies bidding on our business.  As it turns out, that is misleading.  It was a meeting announcing that we’d gone with A-A and that the forms we’d filled out were basically, our applications.  Further, we were told in the meeting that we were required to make a decision before leaving the meeting (there was a bit of flexibility if you raised a stink).

Finally, we were told that the change-over was happening in 2 weeks!

Needless to say, people were pissed and HR saw the error of their ways and switch she change-over to July 1.

I’m not thrilled, but its still a reasonable plan and we were able to get my Ms. Moleboy’s operation done before the change (which saved us TONS of cash).

June 30 comes and we are told that the broker we went through has yet to get A-A to give us ID cards or group numbers.  We are told that we are still covered retroactively, but any costs will have to be paid out of pocket and a reimbursement claim submitted to A-A.

1. A-A has a history of denying claims as much as possible (Ms. Moleboy has done some work with them)

2. If they couldn’t get us our memberships in 6 weeks, what would have happened if they’d tried to do it in 2 weeks?

At this point, we have to consider ourselves completely uninsured.

This entire thing, from the initial deception, to the sudden changeover, to the poor results has been one gigantic clusterfuck.

And someone on our payroll made money while screwing up everyone in the company.

glee.

Sorry, been gone for a while.  Spent a lot of time swinging back and forth between blinding rage and abject apathy.

That said, I love my new iPhone 3GS.  The internet speed is insane.  A few days ago, we were having WiFi issues and switching to the 3G network was much better.  With Edge, it was a real pain to check email sometimes, and, of coure, it created some static with other electronic devices in the immediate vacinity.  Not so with 3G.

I’m pretty pissed that I can’t tether to the phone from my macbook and use the 3G network.  I had assumed that this was an issue with AT&Ts network setup, but that is not the case.  Following the instructions here:

http://www.gadgetreview.com/2009/06/gadget-how-to-iphone-tethering-without-jailbreaking.html

got me tethered and using 3G via bluetooth, which was tres cool indeed.

However, I lost visual voicemail.  Undoing the change by removing the profile returned visual voicemail, but, alas, I’d forgotten my password.

I got it reset by dialing 800-331-0500 and going to the voicemail section and reset password.  So no big deal.

Also, tethering stayed a setting from the network screen, which I didn’t have before.  I’ll have to play around with this more now that I know how to undo it.

I probably won’t use this feature, as a rule, but I may bookmark the page in case I do need it.  Most importantly, this shows that the real issue is that AT&T hasn’t figured out how to charge us for this.  I believe there’s a hack you can get to that also shows you how to set up.

Anyhow, I really can’t recommend this device enough (like you haven’t heard that a million times this month).

edit: oops.  I went to turn tethering on again (without installing the profile) and the option vanished.  Oh well, still, well worth knowing.

Gays are rapists and we have to let soldiers be bigots

Its that we hate women!  Thats much better (btw, the below was snagged from Sadly, No, but its a quote from another article).
the premise: the primary need for marriage is the control of sexual access to women (he actually says this).  So, he wants us to realize that anti-gay marriage people aren’t homophobes or jesus nutjobs.  Instead, they just think women need to be controlled like the pathetic children they are.  The subtext, that all men are rapists and the only thing stopping them is the ‘institution’ of marriage, isn’t particularly complimentary to men either. 

Sadly, No! » A novel objection to gay marriage

Can gay men and women be as generous as we straight men are? Will you consider us as men who love, just as you do, and not merely as homophobes or Baptists? Every day thousands of ordinary heterosexual men surrender the dream of gratifying our immediate erotic desires. Instead, heroically, resignedly, we march up the aisle with our new brides, starting out upon what that cad poet Shelley called the longest journey, attired in the chains of the kinship system–a system from which you have been spared.

So, apparently, my blog is the first one to come up when you do a google search for cheerleaders ballbusting
LOVE IT!

So, something has been going on in twitter called microfiction or nanofiction or whatever. Stories in 140 characters. Surprisingly, there’s actually paying publications for it. Anyhow, last week, 5 of my stories ran (and one before) on PicFic.
PicFic Galley

Honestly, I can’t believe gays in the military is still an issue, however, it does appear to be a lovely depiction of the social conservatives’ view on gays in general.
Look, there’s really two reasons to keep gays out of the military:
1. They can’t do the job.
This is obviously not the case. There are gays in the military now, so we know they can do the job. Furthermore, the standards for being accepted into the military are so low that being gay would have to mean that you are actually a retarded child who has been deprived of oxygen until comatose.
2. They would cause others to not be able to do their job.
This one breaks down a bit more
a. Other soldiers will be so upset that they can’t, um, soldier.
Going this route is basically saying that we value bigotry. Its also pretty insulting to, I suspect, the majority of those serving in the armed forces would, though perhaps not thrilled about the situation, would still get the job done. Further, given that these men and women have to do their jobs while people are actively trying to kill them with guns and bombs, I think its pretty insulting to any soldier that somehow the presence of a guy with a boyfriend might keep them from doing their duty.

b. gays can’t control themselves and would be jumping every straight soldier they could.
This, actually, is the real reason, no matter what people say, and, for the most part, the core of all homophobia. The subtext is, of course, that gays are little more than animals. Oh, sure, straight guys can control themselves (which is obviously not true given the incidence of men raping women in the military, notably in Iraq). They are just gonna go try and fuck any guy that gets near them. They aren’t really human.

If anyone can come up with a different reason, please, let me know.
And if you can’t, then please, decide which camp you fall into:
Gays are weak and incompetant
Soldiers are pathetic bigots who will go to pieces around gays
Gays are animals.

Do you sleep at night knowing you risk the safety of our country with your hate?

Jury finds Wis. mother guilty in prayer death — chicagotribune.com

“We accept the situation as it is for now,” Gordon said. “We worship our God. It doesn’t mean God loves us any less. Matter of fact is, he just loves us that much more. We will continue to seek justice.”

Really? God loves you more for killing a child?

Linehan countered, saying Neumann didn’t realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could do to help, in line with the family’s belief in faith-healing.

hm. I suppose so. I’m reminded of a line from the Simpson’s. “Doc, we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!”
Just because you attach ‘god’ or ‘faith’ to an idea doesn’t mean you are absolved of responsibility.

“Religious extremism is a Muslim terrorist,” Linehan said. “They are saying these parents were so far off the scale that they murdered their child. The woman did everything she could to help her. That is the injustice in this case.”

I thought that ending on a double-standard mixed with some cultural elitism and a hint of out-and-out racism was nice.

Dear Brian Gordon,
Perhaps you are confused by the ‘lingo’.  The prosecutors ‘forced the case through’ (whatever that means), and turned the place into a crime scene because, wait for it, a crime was committed.
I don’t know did about Wisconsin, but I’m assuming that child neglect and murder are crimes there.
Including murder in the name of god.
Hm…who else kills in the name of god?
Oh, yeah, like those 9/11 hijackers, and a whole lot of jihadis all over, and religious nuts everywhere.
When your child dies because you don’t take care of them, its murder, no matter who’s name you do it in.

All My Love,
He-Who-Dances-While-Your-Daughter-Rots
a.k.a. He-Who-Cried-Imagining-Your-GrandDaughter’s-Final-Hours
Brian Gordon, stepfather of Leilani Neumann, reacts to guilty verdict, calls DA’s office malicious | wausaudailyherald.com | Wausau Daily Herald

A jury found Leilani Neumann guilty this afternoon on charges of reckless homicide in the death of her daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann. Gordon suggested that prosecutors had forced the case through, “creating a crime scene” in the Neumann’s hom

Guest Post by MoleWife

So I just finished watching the pilot episode of Glee.  It is a terribly hokey show in the finest traditions of 80’s underdog movies — the only thing it didn’t have is a training montage, and I’m SURE that’s coming.  But it had everything else:

1. Tiny (6-person) underfunded, under-appreciated collection of misfits drawn together by their talent and love of music?  Check.
2. Handsome, popular teacher struggling to keep said glee club alive?  Check.
3. Evil, popular, well-funded football team and cheerleading squad?  With associated evil, territorial, elitist, conformist and ball-busting coaches?  Check.
4. Incredibly talented and well-funded competition doing extreme production numbers to popular songs while we see our misfits rehashing Grease?  Check.
5. Inspiring female friend of glee club teacher who teaches him to follow his passion instead of going for money?  Check.
6. Inspiring journey of hot football player who decides he won’t let conformity and peer pressure keep him away from his love of music?  Check.
7. End on inspiring 80’s song (Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’)?  Check.

And the flip side:

1. “Misfit group” comprises aforementioned football player, beautiful diva pursuing fame at all costs, one disabled boy in a wheelchair, one Asian girl, one African-American Girl (who together make up apparently 66% of the POCs in the entire town) and one gay boy?  Check.
2. Gay kid and disabled kid bullied in completely approved ways?  Check.
3. POC in glee club sassy, fat, and hip?  Check.
4. Gay boy loves his designer clothing and sings soprano?  Check.
5. Inspiring teacher’s wife a lazy, shrill, gold-digging bitch who complains of having to work three 4-hour shifts a week and only wants more THINGS? Check.
6. Other female characters the aforementioned diva (raised by two gay dads, see what happens to you?), emasculating ball-busting cheerleading coach, and pretty young female friend teacher who cries to herself in car over love of hot inspiring male teacher, and hot cheerleader who is head of the celibacy club and bursts into prayer during makeout sessions?  Check.
7. Only other POC in the whole episode an apparently Hispanic worker at a TV “linen’s & things” who is comedically too clumsy and stupid to fold sheets?  Check.

Not to mention that the original glee club teacher is fired for molesting a singing student in an absolutely HYSTERICAL way — see, he was stroking the gay boy’s chest to give him encouragement, and the diva was pissed because he gave the solo to the gay boy SHE should have gotten, so she ratted him out to the principle and AREN’T WOMEN SCHEMING AND UNDERHANDED???

And our sassy fat black chick gets approximately three token lines in the whole episode.  Enough for us to know SHE is BEYONCE, not a BACKGROUND singer.  But she’ll meekly fall back into line for “just this one song.”  But that beats out our Asian chick, who gets one line and a “we’ll figure out what you’re good for” at the very end.** The gay and disabled boys can, quite frankly, sing circles around our hot football player, but they aren’t capable of keeping up vocally with our Diva, for some reason.  And the “next on Glee” preview shows us the shrill bitchy wife lying about being pregnant in order to manipulate her husband to get a job as a CPA instead of a teacher so she can have THREE MAHOGANY TOILET PAPER HOLDERS from Pottery Barn, because Dr. Phil says there’s nothing wrong with wanting THINGS.

And don’t even get me started on the gay ex-teacher as pedophile, or how molesting a student is FUNNY, SEE?

I will probably watch the show.  I’m a sucker for underdog stories and large musical production numbers of any variety.  And this was just a pilot, and there’s a chance the characters will be developed as something other than caricatures.  But some days I honestly have to ask if all TV studios get all their ideas from the Conservative Stereotype Vending Machine(TM).

**Oh, I just read the Asian girl is supposed to be a lesbian.  Clearly, this was indicated by her singing “I kissed a girl” for her audition, since she had no other lines or displayed any evidence of being attracted to women.