i repost herewith a comment i left on cecily's blog. for the zero people who read my blog, read the post and consider very carefully what she has to say.
and i've amplified beyond the lines and in the brackets.
---
i'm not a christian. i will never be a christian. i was raised jewish, but i'm not [really comfortable with] that either. a woman i am considering dating (who is a christian) asked me about god, and asked me to take her to a synagogue, so that she might learn [about my belief system and history]. i said that if she wants me to take her to the place i found god, i will be overjoyed to take her to an AA meeting. [as i have said elsewhere, if church is where you find god, AA is mine.]
what offends me most about cecily's experience at blissdom isn't that she felt overwhelmed and oppressed by the conservative christan contingent, or even that she recognizes that her feelings are (at least in part) self-inflicted. i feel that way as well, pretty much all the time, because i live in a place where possession of dildos can land you two years in the can, where it's illegal to sell cars on sunday, and where our state school board actively wants to bring creationism back.
what offends me most about cecily's experience is that the christian contingent is, unintentionally or not, totally oblivious to how their professions of faith affect, offend, and oppress those of us who don't share it ... even in AA meetings, which are supposed to be free of that sort of stuff. to me it speaks of a narrow-mindedness that infuses every aspect of their lives. [see the comment from "Kelly @ Wisdom Begun" on cecily's post to understand exactly what i'm talking about.]
makes me want to whump them with a clue bat.
maybe cecily judges less harshly because she herself is a stripe of [foul-mouthed liberal, feminist, fat, recovering alcoholic, mother, wife, woman, and writer, and imo totally awesome, as christians come] christian. but for those of you who have jesus as your ceo, you might consider sometime whether or not, in a just, tolerant society that respects and welcomes diversity (like, you know, the one we pretend we want to build for our children), you can keep what should be private, private, for a while.
---
when i came to AA, i learned about a merciful god who, if we let him, guides and teaches. but he's not an indian giver, he's not vengeful, he's not mean, he doesn't punish. i'm not a big fan of the "god has a plan for everyone" idea, but i acknowledge that there is sometimes no personal justice in the world. cecily and her experience with her twins, whom she named nicholas and zachary, didn't have a fucking thing to do with any kind of god i learned about in AA, or any kind of god i could ever believe in. instead, what happened to cecily, charlie, zach and nick are a manifestation of the shit happens factor."
that is now, and always has been, my biggest problem with christianity. there's no action involved. if i just believe hard enough, i'll get raptured, and tuff titties to anyone who doesn't.
i can not now, and will not ever, believe in a god who chooses to answer some prayers and not others. god loves everyone equally -- rich and poor, just and unjust, ugly and hot, gay and straight, married and single and fighting-for-marriage, stupid and smart, christian and witch, fat and thin -- or he does not. the rain falls on everyone.
the god i learned about provides comfort, not salvation, and not miracles. sometimes shit happens. humans invented gods to make sure things go right. that the sun would rise every day after its trip through the underworld. that the rain would come before everyone starved. to explain the world around us. even to give us a guide about how to live as reasonable, social people in a way that benefits everyone's survival. so that, really, the wild and crazy and scary world out there has a foundation from which we can take comfort, even when things don't go our way.
or, perhaps i might fall back to an only so-so movie starring george burns as god:
god: [answering tracy's question about why there is so much suffering in the world] i know this sounds like a cop-out, tracy, but there's nothing i can do about pain and suffering. it's built into the system.
tracy: which you invented.
god: right. but my problem was i could never figure out how to build anything with just one side to it.
tracy: one side?
god: you ever see a front without a back?
tracy: no.
god: a top without a bottom?
tracy: no.
god: an up without a down?
tracy: no.
god: okay. then there can't be good without bad, life without death, pleasure without pain. that's the way it is. if i take sad away, happy has to go with it.
and besides, i can't imagine a world i might want to create for my children where god doesn't love everyone.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
pearson education is fucked
never let it be said that i am afriad to name names where it's appropriate.
pearson education is yet another textbook publisher that tries to ass-rape students at every opportunity. this semester, i have to deal with them to take the second half of general chemistry. they provide a "custom edition" of the textbook (see one of my many textbook rants for the evils of a custom edition), and they also provide the homework site necessary to do homework and other required activities. like, you know, study for the exam i have thursday night.
so let me set the stage.
last week i started class and one of those evil homework site things is necessary. the code necessary to access the site "free!" came with the (exorbitantly-priced, evil custom-edition) textbook. the instructor supplied the other necessary code, to register for my particular section so that i can view things like, you know, assignments and the instructor can retrieve, you know, grades.
i was able to log in okay and all was well. i was able to access course content, although there really wasn't anything up yet as it was only the first day of class.
there is an exam in this class day on thursday, january 28. all the material on the exam is actually from general chemistry 1, but there is a review (supposedly) posted on the website.
so after class i logged in to retrieve it, and found that i am no longer registered for my section. i dragged out the syllabus, which contains the necessary code to register. i punch it in, and my browser even helpfully remembers it from last time. i get this error:
[code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor.
so i was able to log in last week, but not this week. uh. okay. i verified my class registration on the school's registration system to make sure i hadn't been punted from the class entirely for some reason (not out of the realm of possibility for these dweebs), and then went on to the real issue -- pearson education's fucked up website, masteringchemistry.com.
now, contacting the course instructor has two major weaknesses.
first, it's not very practical at this late date -- i should have access to this material, and i did last week. but the exam is now less than 48 hours away. the only contact i have for her is her yahoo email address, and so i can't tell how long it will take her to receive my message and answer it. if she doesn't check her email until wednesday night, which would be a perfectly reasonable timeframe, that will be entirely too late for me. i can't spend thursday studying, because i'll be spending thursday in class. i need this material now.
second, she's simply not a technical person. to be fair, she is a chemist, not a nerd. but she doesn't really have a good grasp of how to use powerpoint (slides which have been helpfully prepared for her in advance by pearson), and so i suspect that it will actually cost me a great deal of my time to explain the problem in sufficient detail and sufficiently dumbed down so that she can comprehend it, only to find that she will be unable to resolve it, both because she doesn't comprehend it, doesn't know where to go to start fixing it, and doesn't have time before class thursday night anyway, all of which are reasonable situations. again, she's a chemist, not a nerd.
masteringchemistry.com offers two support options: 24x7 email, which offers no expectation of an answer in any time frame other than "within the next business day" if you actually go all the way through entering your question, or 24x7 chat.
understanding that usually chat requires that there is generally a cold-blooded vaguely-humanoid life form on the other end of these chat things, i went for that.
a most unhelpful conversation ensued, which i reprint below verbatim except for changing my real name and editing out the website codes and my email address. with any luck, daddy google might help with some positive search ranking.
also, as you read, remember that i have more than a decade experience dealing with technical support, on both ends of the phone. i have found that while vulgarity doesn't get you your way, being a firm jackass who won't accept anything except the information you need often will. but quick "get him off the phone" responses don't pass the smell test with me. i have been trained in, and used, all of them. this hominid (if i may use the term loosely) spouted several, and every time she did, it made me even more angry. (even angrier than i ordinarily would have been at the plainly obvious international outsourcing here.)
in any event, here we go.
---
Brenda: Hi, my name is Brenda. How may I help you?
Rainbow Warrior: I have apparently been de-registered from my class on MasteringChem. I need this resolved ASAP.
Brenda: We are sorry that you have experienced difficulties in registering for our website
Rainbow Warrior: So ... what do I need to tell you to get this resolved?
Brenda: One moment please while I investigate your issue.
Brenda: Are you trying to enroll in the new class?
Rainbow Warrior: I had enrolled in it last week. I tried to log in tonight, because there is material I need for an exam on Thursday, and I am a) no longer enrolled, and b) when I try to re-enroll, I get an error that the course ID has been deactivated.
Brenda: We verified that your course compass subscription has expired.
Rainbow Warrior: Could you restate that in English?
Brenda: Unfortunately I do not have a troubleshooting tip to resolve your issue.
Brenda: I am going to advance your incident to our next level support.
Brenda: They will contact you via email at the earliest possible time.
Rainbow Warrior: BZZZT, wrong answer. New book, new code. WRONG. I need this resolved *NOW*. I have material on that site I need *NOW*.
Brenda: Can I have the course ID?
Rainbow Warrior: [code]
Rainbow Warrior: The code I got with the purchase of the textbook was: [another code]
Brenda: We verified that you have successfully registered with the access code.
Brenda: I will advance this issue to our next level.
Brenda: Your course compass has expired on DEC-14-2008.
Rainbow Warrior: And my renewal last week ... evaporated?
Brenda: You have registered for the course.
Rainbow Warrior: Yet I can't access the content.
Rainbow Warrior: [code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor.
Brenda: Can I have the text book title and edition for which you are trying to register?
Rainbow Warrior: McMurry/Fay General Chemistry: Atoms First, 1e
Brenda: We verified that you have successfully registered for McMurry/Fay General Chemistry: Atoms First, 1e
Rainbow Warrior: So logging in, http://session.masteringchemistry.com/myct, I get Join Course, which produces the error I pasted above. Assignments and Scores are greyed out.
Brenda: I have sent the login details to your registered email ID [address]
Brenda: Sorry. We understand that you are unable to view the link for Assignments and Scores .
Rainbow Warrior: I got it but I hadn't
Rainbow Warrior: I didn't have a u/p problem.
Brenda: Please contact your instructor regarding this issue.
Rainbow Warrior: Asking my instructor to help with this problem, which she was unable to do, is akin to asking a three year old to perform brain surgery with a stick and a plastic shovel. I was able to access this content last week. That isn't an instructor problem.
Brenda: What error you are getting in that/
Rainbow Warrior: In what?
Brenda: You have not de registered with your mastering chemistry.
Brenda: Your instructor should post assignments there.
Brenda: Then only you can view it.
Rainbow Warrior: I log into MasteringChemistry. I am presented with this URL: http://session.masteringchemistry.com/myct My options on the left are "Join Course," assignments is greyed out, scores is greyed out, eText is available, Study Area is available. When I Join Course with the listed course ID, I get: [code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor. I was able to successfully view content last week -- Assignments were available, although nothing was actually open yet. This week I can not even get that far.
Brenda: We verified that you have no issues with your account.
Rainbow Warrior: So who's going to fix this? Magic pixie dust will fall out of the sky and resolve this sometime in the next 10 minutes so I can study for my exam Thursday?
Brenda: Your error itself saying to contact your instructor.He has to post assignment in that course so that only you can view it.
Rainbow Warrior: I contacted the instructor. She sent me to you guys. Her answer amounted to, "Uh, I dunno." She's a chemist, not a website developer.
Rainbow Warrior: So since you're obviously not the right person to discuss this with, who at Pearson is?
Brenda: We are sorry. I am going to advance your incident to our next level support.
Rainbow Warrior: And I expect to have this time-critical and grade-critical issue resolved ... when? And when that doesn't happen, I contact who, how?
Brenda: I have mentioned as urgent.They will contact you soon.
Rainbow Warrior: Which doesn't actually answer my question. Should I bug the Higher Ed support people, or should I skip straight to Upper Saddle River, NJ?
Brenda: We are sorry.
Brenda: If I have the resolution I will help you.
Brenda: I found no issues with your account.
Rainbow Warrior: Whelp. Google is gonna love this one.
You have disconnected.
pearson education is yet another textbook publisher that tries to ass-rape students at every opportunity. this semester, i have to deal with them to take the second half of general chemistry. they provide a "custom edition" of the textbook (see one of my many textbook rants for the evils of a custom edition), and they also provide the homework site necessary to do homework and other required activities. like, you know, study for the exam i have thursday night.
so let me set the stage.
last week i started class and one of those evil homework site things is necessary. the code necessary to access the site "free!" came with the (exorbitantly-priced, evil custom-edition) textbook. the instructor supplied the other necessary code, to register for my particular section so that i can view things like, you know, assignments and the instructor can retrieve, you know, grades.
i was able to log in okay and all was well. i was able to access course content, although there really wasn't anything up yet as it was only the first day of class.
there is an exam in this class day on thursday, january 28. all the material on the exam is actually from general chemistry 1, but there is a review (supposedly) posted on the website.
so after class i logged in to retrieve it, and found that i am no longer registered for my section. i dragged out the syllabus, which contains the necessary code to register. i punch it in, and my browser even helpfully remembers it from last time. i get this error:
[code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor.
so i was able to log in last week, but not this week. uh. okay. i verified my class registration on the school's registration system to make sure i hadn't been punted from the class entirely for some reason (not out of the realm of possibility for these dweebs), and then went on to the real issue -- pearson education's fucked up website, masteringchemistry.com.
now, contacting the course instructor has two major weaknesses.
first, it's not very practical at this late date -- i should have access to this material, and i did last week. but the exam is now less than 48 hours away. the only contact i have for her is her yahoo email address, and so i can't tell how long it will take her to receive my message and answer it. if she doesn't check her email until wednesday night, which would be a perfectly reasonable timeframe, that will be entirely too late for me. i can't spend thursday studying, because i'll be spending thursday in class. i need this material now.
second, she's simply not a technical person. to be fair, she is a chemist, not a nerd. but she doesn't really have a good grasp of how to use powerpoint (slides which have been helpfully prepared for her in advance by pearson), and so i suspect that it will actually cost me a great deal of my time to explain the problem in sufficient detail and sufficiently dumbed down so that she can comprehend it, only to find that she will be unable to resolve it, both because she doesn't comprehend it, doesn't know where to go to start fixing it, and doesn't have time before class thursday night anyway, all of which are reasonable situations. again, she's a chemist, not a nerd.
masteringchemistry.com offers two support options: 24x7 email, which offers no expectation of an answer in any time frame other than "within the next business day" if you actually go all the way through entering your question, or 24x7 chat.
understanding that usually chat requires that there is generally a cold-blooded vaguely-humanoid life form on the other end of these chat things, i went for that.
a most unhelpful conversation ensued, which i reprint below verbatim except for changing my real name and editing out the website codes and my email address. with any luck, daddy google might help with some positive search ranking.
also, as you read, remember that i have more than a decade experience dealing with technical support, on both ends of the phone. i have found that while vulgarity doesn't get you your way, being a firm jackass who won't accept anything except the information you need often will. but quick "get him off the phone" responses don't pass the smell test with me. i have been trained in, and used, all of them. this hominid (if i may use the term loosely) spouted several, and every time she did, it made me even more angry. (even angrier than i ordinarily would have been at the plainly obvious international outsourcing here.)
in any event, here we go.
---
Brenda: Hi, my name is Brenda. How may I help you?
Rainbow Warrior: I have apparently been de-registered from my class on MasteringChem. I need this resolved ASAP.
Brenda: We are sorry that you have experienced difficulties in registering for our website
Rainbow Warrior: So ... what do I need to tell you to get this resolved?
Brenda: One moment please while I investigate your issue.
Brenda: Are you trying to enroll in the new class?
Rainbow Warrior: I had enrolled in it last week. I tried to log in tonight, because there is material I need for an exam on Thursday, and I am a) no longer enrolled, and b) when I try to re-enroll, I get an error that the course ID has been deactivated.
Brenda: We verified that your course compass subscription has expired.
Rainbow Warrior: Could you restate that in English?
Brenda: Unfortunately I do not have a troubleshooting tip to resolve your issue.
Brenda: I am going to advance your incident to our next level support.
Brenda: They will contact you via email at the earliest possible time.
Rainbow Warrior: BZZZT, wrong answer. New book, new code. WRONG. I need this resolved *NOW*. I have material on that site I need *NOW*.
Brenda: Can I have the course ID?
Rainbow Warrior: [code]
Rainbow Warrior: The code I got with the purchase of the textbook was: [another code]
Brenda: We verified that you have successfully registered with the access code.
Brenda: I will advance this issue to our next level.
Brenda: Your course compass has expired on DEC-14-2008.
Rainbow Warrior: And my renewal last week ... evaporated?
Brenda: You have registered for the course.
Rainbow Warrior: Yet I can't access the content.
Rainbow Warrior: [code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor.
Brenda: Can I have the text book title and edition for which you are trying to register?
Rainbow Warrior: McMurry/Fay General Chemistry: Atoms First, 1e
Brenda: We verified that you have successfully registered for McMurry/Fay General Chemistry: Atoms First, 1e
Rainbow Warrior: So logging in, http://session.masteringchemistry.com/myct, I get Join Course, which produces the error I pasted above. Assignments and Scores are greyed out.
Brenda: I have sent the login details to your registered email ID [address]
Brenda: Sorry. We understand that you are unable to view the link for Assignments and Scores .
Rainbow Warrior: I got it but I hadn't
Rainbow Warrior: I didn't have a u/p problem.
Brenda: Please contact your instructor regarding this issue.
Rainbow Warrior: Asking my instructor to help with this problem, which she was unable to do, is akin to asking a three year old to perform brain surgery with a stick and a plastic shovel. I was able to access this content last week. That isn't an instructor problem.
Brenda: What error you are getting in that/
Rainbow Warrior: In what?
Brenda: You have not de registered with your mastering chemistry.
Brenda: Your instructor should post assignments there.
Brenda: Then only you can view it.
Rainbow Warrior: I log into MasteringChemistry. I am presented with this URL: http://session.masteringchemistry.com/myct My options on the left are "Join Course," assignments is greyed out, scores is greyed out, eText is available, Study Area is available. When I Join Course with the listed course ID, I get: [code] is deactivated, expired, or closed. Please contact the course instructor. I was able to successfully view content last week -- Assignments were available, although nothing was actually open yet. This week I can not even get that far.
Brenda: We verified that you have no issues with your account.
Rainbow Warrior: So who's going to fix this? Magic pixie dust will fall out of the sky and resolve this sometime in the next 10 minutes so I can study for my exam Thursday?
Brenda: Your error itself saying to contact your instructor.He has to post assignment in that course so that only you can view it.
Rainbow Warrior: I contacted the instructor. She sent me to you guys. Her answer amounted to, "Uh, I dunno." She's a chemist, not a website developer.
Rainbow Warrior: So since you're obviously not the right person to discuss this with, who at Pearson is?
Brenda: We are sorry. I am going to advance your incident to our next level support.
Rainbow Warrior: And I expect to have this time-critical and grade-critical issue resolved ... when? And when that doesn't happen, I contact who, how?
Brenda: I have mentioned as urgent.They will contact you soon.
Rainbow Warrior: Which doesn't actually answer my question. Should I bug the Higher Ed support people, or should I skip straight to Upper Saddle River, NJ?
Brenda: We are sorry.
Brenda: If I have the resolution I will help you.
Brenda: I found no issues with your account.
Rainbow Warrior: Whelp. Google is gonna love this one.
You have disconnected.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
another textbook skull fuck
i have posted at some length about the unmitigated ass rape that is the college textbook scam.
it managed to bite me again today, and i am so unbelievably angry i won't even try to bother being nice (or hide the guilty party behind some "won't say their name" thing).
the book in question this time is this one. the book is decent in terms of material, but i have complaints about the course structure i'll save for another post.
today i bought a new computer i'll also save for another post. (i'm writing from it now, and it's pretty sweet.) as part of the setup for this new computer, i needed to put the electronic textbook i bought onto this new computer.
the electronic textbook is about $50 cheaper than the paper version, and being on a budget so tight i couldn't stick a straight pin up its ass, i went for it.
like all textbooks, it's drm-laden shitware. you have to download the vitalsource reader, log in, and then download your book to mess with it. (you can only print two pages at a time, or copy text two pages at a time, and when you copy, it includes citation garbage stuffed onto the clipboard whether you want it or not.)
it turns out that they only allow you to use your book on two computers at a time. it should theoretically be possible to de-authorize one computer and transfer the authorization to another.
but no.
there's no way to deauthorize within the software on one computer, and when you try to authorize the third, you get the wonderfully helpful error "you have reached your machine activation limit."
the useless faq doesn't actually say anything about errors like this. oh, no, you don't have to back up your purchases, you can re-download them ... but if your machine crashes, apparently you actually can't redownload because the system won't let you "authorize" your computer!
call support, which is 24 hours. i talk to a rep who doesn't understand the problem. i tell him i need to deauthorize one computer and authorize another.
he puts me on hold to find out how to do this.
it turns out, the way you do this is to escalate to second fucking level support. a simple, straight-forward situation that happens all the time is beyond the capabilities of their first level support team: customer with a desktop and a laptop calls in, has upgraded one computer or the other, and wants to take his textbook with him. but gotcha! we can't help you do that.
so the second level guys will supposedly get in touch either by phone or by email -- he doesn't know which -- with a resolution -- but he doesn't know when. he also couldn't explain the benefits of the product to me, when i asked -- as in, why i'd want this product now.
meanwhile, shitware ebook company that over-charges for their drm-laden, mind-numbingly broken crap has my money, while i have a book that's half-broken.
while i have lots of personality and philosophical clashes with the guys over at the free software foundation, it's true that vitalsource's shit is defective by design.
it managed to bite me again today, and i am so unbelievably angry i won't even try to bother being nice (or hide the guilty party behind some "won't say their name" thing).
the book in question this time is this one. the book is decent in terms of material, but i have complaints about the course structure i'll save for another post.
today i bought a new computer i'll also save for another post. (i'm writing from it now, and it's pretty sweet.) as part of the setup for this new computer, i needed to put the electronic textbook i bought onto this new computer.
the electronic textbook is about $50 cheaper than the paper version, and being on a budget so tight i couldn't stick a straight pin up its ass, i went for it.
like all textbooks, it's drm-laden shitware. you have to download the vitalsource reader, log in, and then download your book to mess with it. (you can only print two pages at a time, or copy text two pages at a time, and when you copy, it includes citation garbage stuffed onto the clipboard whether you want it or not.)
it turns out that they only allow you to use your book on two computers at a time. it should theoretically be possible to de-authorize one computer and transfer the authorization to another.
but no.
there's no way to deauthorize within the software on one computer, and when you try to authorize the third, you get the wonderfully helpful error "you have reached your machine activation limit."
the useless faq doesn't actually say anything about errors like this. oh, no, you don't have to back up your purchases, you can re-download them ... but if your machine crashes, apparently you actually can't redownload because the system won't let you "authorize" your computer!
call support, which is 24 hours. i talk to a rep who doesn't understand the problem. i tell him i need to deauthorize one computer and authorize another.
he puts me on hold to find out how to do this.
it turns out, the way you do this is to escalate to second fucking level support. a simple, straight-forward situation that happens all the time is beyond the capabilities of their first level support team: customer with a desktop and a laptop calls in, has upgraded one computer or the other, and wants to take his textbook with him. but gotcha! we can't help you do that.
so the second level guys will supposedly get in touch either by phone or by email -- he doesn't know which -- with a resolution -- but he doesn't know when. he also couldn't explain the benefits of the product to me, when i asked -- as in, why i'd want this product now.
meanwhile, shitware ebook company that over-charges for their drm-laden, mind-numbingly broken crap has my money, while i have a book that's half-broken.
while i have lots of personality and philosophical clashes with the guys over at the free software foundation, it's true that vitalsource's shit is defective by design.
Friday, September 11, 2009
what health care reform will do for me
i've become incredibly cynical over the last few years, about many things. cynicism is essentially my staple emotion these days. as the shouting over health care reform goes on, i can only continue being cynical.
the reason is the same as ever: there is always a gotcha, and i always get got.
cash for clunkers: the gotcha was that the old car had to be titled to the buyer for a year. i'd had my truck that long, and had a court order giving me possession that was over a year old, and i had an open title, but that wasn't sufficient. gotcha.
medical coverage: you can get medicaid for your kids, but in texas, non-disabled single adults simply don't qualify because we don't believe in public assistance here. it's not income-based anything; if you're an adult and you're not disabled, you're just not eligible. gotcha.
mental health: in texas there is a patchwork of mental health "systems" because we don't actually believe in funding such things. in this case i did eventually get in, but because of their protocols i can't get the medications that would be most helpful, and it took literally months -- which is a long, long time when someone is debilitated by depression -- to actually get an appointment to see an actual doctor. besides that, it's about the most unprofessional office i've ever been in -- my sessions with the doctor get interrupted, sometimes four and five times in a 15 minute session. gotcha.
food stamps. if you don't work enough, you can't get them. if you can't find work, you can't get em. and when you do apply, be ready for a long, long wait. despite federal law requiring that food stamp applications be decided within 30 days of receipt, texas consistently lags. my own appointment for interview is 112 days after application receipt -- and if they want documents, it'll be even longer. meanwhile, they direct you to food pantries. this sad state of affairs, a result of texas's republican legislature's unwillingness to fund services for its citizens, has spawned a class action suit. gotcha.
as i hear debates about co-ops and subsidies based on income, i believe ever more firmly that it'll wind up being the same old song: just like the mccain plan, where you'd get a $5,000 "tax credit" with which to buy health insurance (that costs, on average, $13,000 a year -- where does the other $8000 come from?), there will wind up being some kind of subsidy, but there won't be a corresponding plan that will cost only what the subsidy pays.
if the subsidy is, say, $10,000 per year for a family of four, that still leaves a a deficit of $3,000 to be paid by the family. in 2008 the united states census used a figure of $21,834 as the definition of poverty for a family of four with two adults and two children. for that family, that $3,000 deficit represents almost 14% of their income, or $250 a month.
i don't know anyone living on that kind of income who can afford to shell $250 a month.
what does that mean? even with subsidies, health insurance will still be out of reach for people who, like me, don't qualify for programs like medicaid.
i did some calculation based on the texas health pool rates, which seem to be semi-reflective of private market policies in the state. that $13,000 figure above assumes a group policy. so if we calculate for a family of four -- a man, a woman, a male child and a female child, ages 35, 35, 0-18 and 0-18, none of whom smoke, who live in the Dallas area (it's rated by zip code), we get a grand total of $21,888 a year -- for a $1000 deductible policy that then pays 80% to an out of pocket max of $4,000 not including medication.
the total of premiums and out of pocket limit (again, without buying any meds) is 118% of the income of our family of two adults and two children.
amusing note: the state pool has a 1 year pre-existing condition clause, and acceptance isn't guaranteed. need asthma medication or insulin for your diabetes and haven't had insurance for a while? gotcha.
another amusing note: the pool provides coverage for kidney, pancreas, heart, liver, lung and bone marrow transplants, with a lifetime limit of $300,000. so if all you need is a pancreas or kidney, *AND* nothing goes wrong, you might get lucky. otherwise, you're fucked. gotcha.
the rates i used, by the way, are effective 1 august 2009, and represent a 6.3% increase from the previous rate table. it's amusing to note that the 2008 rate of inflation is 3.8% (so the increase in pool rates appears to be about 180% of inflation, if i did my division correctly); in 2009 it's -2.1% (that's right, negative).
i have seen lots of bluster and lots of promises, and i want to see good things happen. i want to believe.
but do i?
gotcha.
the reason is the same as ever: there is always a gotcha, and i always get got.
cash for clunkers: the gotcha was that the old car had to be titled to the buyer for a year. i'd had my truck that long, and had a court order giving me possession that was over a year old, and i had an open title, but that wasn't sufficient. gotcha.
medical coverage: you can get medicaid for your kids, but in texas, non-disabled single adults simply don't qualify because we don't believe in public assistance here. it's not income-based anything; if you're an adult and you're not disabled, you're just not eligible. gotcha.
mental health: in texas there is a patchwork of mental health "systems" because we don't actually believe in funding such things. in this case i did eventually get in, but because of their protocols i can't get the medications that would be most helpful, and it took literally months -- which is a long, long time when someone is debilitated by depression -- to actually get an appointment to see an actual doctor. besides that, it's about the most unprofessional office i've ever been in -- my sessions with the doctor get interrupted, sometimes four and five times in a 15 minute session. gotcha.
food stamps. if you don't work enough, you can't get them. if you can't find work, you can't get em. and when you do apply, be ready for a long, long wait. despite federal law requiring that food stamp applications be decided within 30 days of receipt, texas consistently lags. my own appointment for interview is 112 days after application receipt -- and if they want documents, it'll be even longer. meanwhile, they direct you to food pantries. this sad state of affairs, a result of texas's republican legislature's unwillingness to fund services for its citizens, has spawned a class action suit. gotcha.
as i hear debates about co-ops and subsidies based on income, i believe ever more firmly that it'll wind up being the same old song: just like the mccain plan, where you'd get a $5,000 "tax credit" with which to buy health insurance (that costs, on average, $13,000 a year -- where does the other $8000 come from?), there will wind up being some kind of subsidy, but there won't be a corresponding plan that will cost only what the subsidy pays.
if the subsidy is, say, $10,000 per year for a family of four, that still leaves a a deficit of $3,000 to be paid by the family. in 2008 the united states census used a figure of $21,834 as the definition of poverty for a family of four with two adults and two children. for that family, that $3,000 deficit represents almost 14% of their income, or $250 a month.
i don't know anyone living on that kind of income who can afford to shell $250 a month.
what does that mean? even with subsidies, health insurance will still be out of reach for people who, like me, don't qualify for programs like medicaid.
i did some calculation based on the texas health pool rates, which seem to be semi-reflective of private market policies in the state. that $13,000 figure above assumes a group policy. so if we calculate for a family of four -- a man, a woman, a male child and a female child, ages 35, 35, 0-18 and 0-18, none of whom smoke, who live in the Dallas area (it's rated by zip code), we get a grand total of $21,888 a year -- for a $1000 deductible policy that then pays 80% to an out of pocket max of $4,000 not including medication.
the total of premiums and out of pocket limit (again, without buying any meds) is 118% of the income of our family of two adults and two children.
amusing note: the state pool has a 1 year pre-existing condition clause, and acceptance isn't guaranteed. need asthma medication or insulin for your diabetes and haven't had insurance for a while? gotcha.
another amusing note: the pool provides coverage for kidney, pancreas, heart, liver, lung and bone marrow transplants, with a lifetime limit of $300,000. so if all you need is a pancreas or kidney, *AND* nothing goes wrong, you might get lucky. otherwise, you're fucked. gotcha.
the rates i used, by the way, are effective 1 august 2009, and represent a 6.3% increase from the previous rate table. it's amusing to note that the 2008 rate of inflation is 3.8% (so the increase in pool rates appears to be about 180% of inflation, if i did my division correctly); in 2009 it's -2.1% (that's right, negative).
i have seen lots of bluster and lots of promises, and i want to see good things happen. i want to believe.
but do i?
gotcha.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
they're coming to take me away
i've never laid out the courses i selected. i guess i should.
chemistry 1111. this is general chemistry for science majors, lab.
chemistry 1311. this is general chemistry for science majors, lecture.
physics 1100. "the fun of physics." i've been to two of these classes and still have no idea what the class is actually about.
geology 2406. this is the real reason i'm living this semester -- this course. geoscience methods. geology is a field science, so during this course they're marching us out into the field for ... field trips. including shit like camping.
precalculus of some stripe or another. yet another fucking math class.
so far, so good.
chemistry 1111. this is general chemistry for science majors, lab.
chemistry 1311. this is general chemistry for science majors, lecture.
physics 1100. "the fun of physics." i've been to two of these classes and still have no idea what the class is actually about.
geology 2406. this is the real reason i'm living this semester -- this course. geoscience methods. geology is a field science, so during this course they're marching us out into the field for ... field trips. including shit like camping.
precalculus of some stripe or another. yet another fucking math class.
so far, so good.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
no you can't
yesterday i had a brain wave. ordinarily i pick the kids up for a day or two every other weekend. this coming, when i'm moving, would ordinarily be my weekend, but as i'm moving and will have my living space torn up in preparation, i decided this was a bad idea. so i sent a text message to sue telling her that i wouldn't be picking up the kids because i'm moving.
her first reply was snide: are you moving the bed bugs too?
this is of course something i've come to expect from her. she always has a rude comment to make when the opportunity presents itself. she is completely unable to cooperate or simply act in a professional, business-like manner when it comes to dealing with me. i decided against saying that i'm taking only my three favorites, sue, cunt, and bitch.
then she sent me another one: she wants to see where the kids will be sleeping in the new place before she lets me take them over there.
the immediate answer was the one i sent: i'll still be doing visitation at my step-mom's, and they won't be coming to the new place. this is actually true; i don't have the space for three kids of their age in my new digs, and my landlord was ... less than enthused ... about my bringing them over. so if they do come over, it won't be for longer than an hour or two.
the more correct answer, which i'll probably offer next time the issue comes up, goes like this:
not just no, bitch.
you lost the right to pass judgment on my living arrangements when you filed for divorce. i don't ask to inspect your double-wide, and in fact have never been past the front door. i don't make noise about the boyfriend/fuckbuddy you live with (that our court order prohibits you from permitting to live there). if you think the kids would be unsafe, call child protective services. otherwise, talk to the hand.
it bothers me, obviously. not so much that she's "concerned for the kids' welfare." really, that's bullshit. she was never able to trust that anything i could do would work, and now obviously she thinks that, again, everything i touch will turn to shit. while i cheerfully admit that i am not perfect, i've never taken my kids anywhere that's actually dangerous.
but it bothers me that she seems to want to continue to be the bitch and act like she somehow has an interest in the decisions i make. this is why i don't discuss my life with her, although in truth i'd like it if we could be at least friends. but that's not going to happen any time soon.
her first reply was snide: are you moving the bed bugs too?
this is of course something i've come to expect from her. she always has a rude comment to make when the opportunity presents itself. she is completely unable to cooperate or simply act in a professional, business-like manner when it comes to dealing with me. i decided against saying that i'm taking only my three favorites, sue, cunt, and bitch.
then she sent me another one: she wants to see where the kids will be sleeping in the new place before she lets me take them over there.
the immediate answer was the one i sent: i'll still be doing visitation at my step-mom's, and they won't be coming to the new place. this is actually true; i don't have the space for three kids of their age in my new digs, and my landlord was ... less than enthused ... about my bringing them over. so if they do come over, it won't be for longer than an hour or two.
the more correct answer, which i'll probably offer next time the issue comes up, goes like this:
not just no, bitch.
you lost the right to pass judgment on my living arrangements when you filed for divorce. i don't ask to inspect your double-wide, and in fact have never been past the front door. i don't make noise about the boyfriend/fuckbuddy you live with (that our court order prohibits you from permitting to live there). if you think the kids would be unsafe, call child protective services. otherwise, talk to the hand.
it bothers me, obviously. not so much that she's "concerned for the kids' welfare." really, that's bullshit. she was never able to trust that anything i could do would work, and now obviously she thinks that, again, everything i touch will turn to shit. while i cheerfully admit that i am not perfect, i've never taken my kids anywhere that's actually dangerous.
but it bothers me that she seems to want to continue to be the bitch and act like she somehow has an interest in the decisions i make. this is why i don't discuss my life with her, although in truth i'd like it if we could be at least friends. but that's not going to happen any time soon.
Friday, August 14, 2009
and now the wait
for school to start.
apartment: rented.
actually, it's a bedroom and rest-of-house use rights in a house. it'll be me, the landlord, and another tenant. rent is $500/mo abp. nice neighborhood. i'm pre-paying through the end of december.
now i have to pack, and disinfect everything i own so i don't take bed bugs with me.
i am ... excited.
textbooks: bought.
only one book available on amazon. the chemistry book is bought as an ebook. i dislike ebooks generally because they're drm crap. but they're cheaper (though often not by much) than the hardcover ones. of course they're never available used, and often they expire.
this one appears to not expire, which is a good thing. if it does, i'm going to be wildly pissed.
but as with all of these products, it's essentially an ass-rape and you're unable to save any significant money.
the hard textbook and access to the homework site costs ... $200. if you buy the ebook a chapter at a time, it costs a total of ... $200. if you buy the ebook and homework site together, it costs ... $150. if you buy the ebook separately from the homework site, you spend a total of ... $150. do we see a common thread here?
of course, it's a first edition of a new book, so no used copies are available. your only choice is to buy new. you could, in theory, buy from another place, but ha! you don't get the homework site code, so you'll actually spend more doing this than you would just buying the package from the student bookstore. isn't the student bookstore a "
oh, and you know of course that there will be a new edition next year or the year after, so that everybody has to buy new again, right? even though the basics of an introductory chemistry course haven't changed in 30 years, it's vital to update the books ... so publishers will still have jobs.
i can not emphasize too much what a skull-fuck i think the textbook racket is. yet students are pretty much powerless to stop it.
even with all that, i'm cautiously optimistic. i have absolutely zero wiggle room in the budget, but i might be able to make a go of this. hopefully with some side income or maybe a part time job i can swing it.
apartment: rented.
actually, it's a bedroom and rest-of-house use rights in a house. it'll be me, the landlord, and another tenant. rent is $500/mo abp. nice neighborhood. i'm pre-paying through the end of december.
now i have to pack, and disinfect everything i own so i don't take bed bugs with me.
i am ... excited.
textbooks: bought.
only one book available on amazon. the chemistry book is bought as an ebook. i dislike ebooks generally because they're drm crap. but they're cheaper (though often not by much) than the hardcover ones. of course they're never available used, and often they expire.
this one appears to not expire, which is a good thing. if it does, i'm going to be wildly pissed.
but as with all of these products, it's essentially an ass-rape and you're unable to save any significant money.
the hard textbook and access to the homework site costs ... $200. if you buy the ebook a chapter at a time, it costs a total of ... $200. if you buy the ebook and homework site together, it costs ... $150. if you buy the ebook separately from the homework site, you spend a total of ... $150. do we see a common thread here?
of course, it's a first edition of a new book, so no used copies are available. your only choice is to buy new. you could, in theory, buy from another place, but ha! you don't get the homework site code, so you'll actually spend more doing this than you would just buying the package from the student bookstore. isn't the student bookstore a "
oh, and you know of course that there will be a new edition next year or the year after, so that everybody has to buy new again, right? even though the basics of an introductory chemistry course haven't changed in 30 years, it's vital to update the books ... so publishers will still have jobs.
i can not emphasize too much what a skull-fuck i think the textbook racket is. yet students are pretty much powerless to stop it.
even with all that, i'm cautiously optimistic. i have absolutely zero wiggle room in the budget, but i might be able to make a go of this. hopefully with some side income or maybe a part time job i can swing it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
