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tjbruin00
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Name: tjbruin00
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Los Angeles
Gender: Male
Interests: Kicking puppies, punching children, leaving the toilet seat up
Expertise: Being a modest and humble friend, Sharing random tales of my greatness
Occupation: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
3/10/2003
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| Let me start off by saying that I was unemployed/self-employed for a year and a half. That means I was one of those 50 million uninsured Americans which this bill was written for. I needed some kind of coverage, so I began purchasing medical insurance for myself at $50/month with Blue Shield. It had a $4,000 deductible, which means I had to pay $4,000 over the course of one year before the insurance would start covering anything at all. This is probably the worst medical insurance you can buy, but I had it in case of catastrphes that would exceed $4k.
During my unemployment, I was involved in a car accident and needed to go to the emergency room. Of course I knew I couldn’t afford an ambulance, so I waited until my roommate could get back from work to take me to the hospital. Luckily, there wasn’t any head trauma or major physical damage. A bandage and an x-ray later and I was out of the emergency room in an hour. The cost of the visit was $1,200. Being a Blue Shield member dropped the cost down to $850.
Every time a person goes to the emergency room without any insurance, they are charged that exorbitant rate (i.e. $1,200). That would be fine if everybody could afford those outrageous costs, but if they’re uninsured then they’re most likely unemployed as well. That means all of those hospital costs are pushed on to the hospital. The hospital is forced to obtain government funds to cover those costs and the government funds are essentially your tax dollars. So as the current situation stands, every tax-paying citizen is paying for the hospital care of the uninsured.
Let’s look at the alternative. If we had a government-supported health insurance option for everybody, we would immediately reduce those exorbitant $1,200 bills down to $850. Being part of this large collective would allow for collective bargaining and bring the cost down. It’s very similar to the power of a labor union. Most people who are employed are already covered by their employer-sponsored health plans and they already see the benefits of this collective bargaining in the form of lower deductibles and co-pays. The uninsured are the only ones that bear the full brunt of a medical bill.
If we had a government-sponsored plan to insure the uninsured, that alone would save us a tremendous amount of money. That’s probably the most important piece of the health bill for me. It sounds as if the Republicans are dead set against it though. I really don’t understand their point of view. It’s just stupid partisan politics. Rejecting everything that the Democrats support is not a good way to govern. Making up stories about death panels and Obama being a Nazi are not productive. We all know that major reforms must be made to our medical system. Instead of criticizing and rejecting every idea, why aren’t the Republicans actually trying to come up with solutions to the problem? | | |
| So I've been out of the blogging realm for a while now. I needed a break to focus on writing. Now that the WB writing fellowship is over, I'm working on my next script. It's going to be a "Mentalist" spec. I really like that show. It's a procedural, so there isn't too much backstory to get tangled up in. Also, it's only in its second season. I'm taking an extension class at UCLA and so I should have this script done by November or so.
I landed a new job at Fox, so I'm pretty excited about that. I've been there for a little over a week and it's good so far. The first couple of days haven't been too exciting since I'm stuck dealing with a mountain of IT issues. It always takes a while to get set up, so I'm just enjoying the down time for now.
I'm taking a quick trip up to SF for the weekend to attend a wedding banquet for my cousin. Hopefully, my flight gets in early enough so that I can party on Friday.
I'm contemplating a couple of vacations right now. Japan, Australia or Brazil. Haven't made up my mind yet, but my job will probably dictate what I'm able to do.
That's all for now. If there are any "Mentalist" fans out there, let me know what your favorite aspects of the show are.
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| "A black serial murderer picks up a pretty, white teen-aged runaway, and the two misfits form an unlikely and tragic bond as he takes her on a fateful drive from Kansas City to the Florida Keys...
...Based on the author's research as a psychoanalyst, it tells the story of Robert Allen Jones (Bobby), the son of a white mother and a black father, and his unlikely relationship with a pretty runaway named Jenny...
...Jenny falls in love with Bobby and wants to marry him so she can "make up for what your mom did," but he has other plans. The trip ends in a cove on the Florida Keys, where Bobby strangles Jenny on a sand bar as she mouths the words "I love you." | | |
| I wouldn't call it "love" because that's way too strong of a term to use for what I'm feeling for "Crystal". It is unrequited like because I'm digging her and she digs me only slightly. I'm in the friend zone even though I should know enough about such things to avoid that dreaded space between lust and like.
We've gone out a couple times and I would venture to say that she likes hanging out with me. We hang out often enough. But she pulls away from my advances. It's clear she doesn't like me in that way. The body language is loud and clear. Yet I find myself drawn to her even though she doesn't want anything romantic to happen between us. I feel like a pussy when I'm around her. She's the prettiest girl I've ever gone after and the first girl I've been excited about in a long time. But when it comes down to it, I know it's just a waste of time. It's just difficult to pull away from a girl who always says yes when you ask her to go out.
The logical side of me would have broken it off after 1 week. But here I am several fortnights later, still pining for a girl I can't have. I tried dating another girl "Jane" to forget her. Jane is totally into me and I feel guilty because I'm probably leading her on the same way Crystal is leading me on. Jane doesn't hold a candle to Crystal and I'd go so far as to say her utter mediocrity is her most distinguishing characteristic. Yet she allows me to make out with her and feel her up in ways that I can only fantasize about doing with Crystal.
I wield both roles: victim and villain. The hypocrisy is utter torture and only serves to perpetuate my self-loathing. Once I meet a new girl, I'll be able to drop these two and maybe things won't be so hard. But until then, I will continue to write pussy-ass emo-blogs to expunge myself of the drama that consumes my sanity.
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| So I think it's time to find some new people to hang out with. I always hoped my close friends would be entertaining enough for a life time, but in all honesty, people get boring after a couple years. Maybe it's just the people I'm hanging out with. It sucks having to drag somebody's sorry ass out of the house. I'm young and in LA. I shouldn't have to force somebody to come out and have fun.
So in an effort to expand my social network, I've started taking up a couple of new hobbies and I'm making a conscious effort to hang out with acquaintances more often. I hope my improv class tonight is filled with cool people.
I think I'm going through my quarter life crisis...
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