Timmerov's Blog
health care
lessee, if i was president, my health care reform thing would go something like this. a) not mandatory. sheehs. if people either don't want or don't need health care they shouldn't have it forced down their throats. b) basic care should effectively be free. like stitches, broken bones, re-hydration, etc. but only minimal cost effective treatments. c) in exchange for getting free services you give up the right to sue. d) hospitals have the right to throw your ass out if you try to abuse the system. e) people can upgrade their coverage out of their own pocket through health care providers. this pays for the freebies. f) upscale hospitals who don't want their elite clientele contaminated by the unwashed masses can pay the downscale hospitals to do it for them. yes, this is sort of a two tiered system. but effectively, that's what we already have. so might as well formalize it and make it efficient.
pumpkin
our poor little pumpkin was POOPED! after spending a week at grandpa's being run around like a maniac by mom. and capped by a weekend at joe and mary's keeping up with her two daughters. he fell asleep in the car at around 4 pm. got himself into bed when we got home a few hours later. and slept straight through till morning. was the last to rise. he was pooped.
chocolate
so the other day we were in line at the grocery store. it was kind of a she-she place. the chocolate at the cashier had brands i didn't recognize. i don't see as well as i did when i was younger. one of the chocolate bars seemed to be called guilt-tard. which i thought was a really really bad name for chocolate. eat this and feel guilty you tard. mmm yummy. ha ha! you're a guilt-tard.
pez
so the other day we were fetching milk from the grocery store. we were standing in line waiting to check out when i noticed what looked like a giant pez dispenser amongst the tabloids and chocolate. further investigate showed it was not actually a giant pez dispenser but a normal sized pez dispenser dispenser. a shrek headed device that dispensed pez dispensers. it was kinda cool in a way. and also kinda scary. in a sort of infinite progression kind of way.
closed doors
the kids were still going strong when the beautiful and talented alisa and i decided it was time to turn in. mary's youngest closed our door, in case mumble make some noise. now, i don't hear as well as i did when i was younger. i'm not sure if mumble was you or we. they are mary's kids afterall. so i'm not surprised they are familiar with the kinds of noises adults make in the middle of the night. but should i be concerned if she said we?
blt
on the way home from tahoe we crashed at joe and mary's so the kids could play wii all day and have a slumber party all night. mary asked what i wanted for dinner. so i told her. a blt on toasted sourdough with melted swiss, alfalfa sprouts, guacamole, and pan seared ahi. it was delicious.
ough
a long time ago text to speech was novel. a buddy of mine typed in a sentence and got the 128k mac to say this: the tuff cuffs as he pluffs thruff the duff. english is a stupid language. why does the same sequence of letters have five different pronunciations? sheehs. it's nuts. one would think we could communicate more efficiently. the tuff cawfs as he plows threw the doh. and once more. in english this time. the tough coughs as he ploughs through the dough. yes, that's obviously much better.
loss
i was handed a rare loss at bloodblowl last night. yep, g's chaos team defeated my goblins. though the goblin fanatic knocked down a few orcs with that ball and chain. including the minotaur. who promptly blitzed him right out of the game. heh. we had fun.
sailing
b took a sailing class. it seemed like a great idea. he likes to sail on walloon lake in michigan. however, this sailing class is on donner lake near lake tahoe. and it's cold. after the first day b was not looking forward to day two. he had never been so cold. we told him to stay in the boat. and to stop capsizing it.
wharrgarbl
i figured the etymology of wharrgarbl was based in truth. i had the faith even though i hadn't seen it with my own eyes. but sure enough. dogs will play with jet powered sprinklers. and sure enough, wharrgarbl is an appropriate onamonapia.
notice
have you ever noticed that people who invite themselves over for dinner tend to eat a lot?
40%
some ignorant fuck posted a nice long rant about why obama's health care plan won't work. one of the reasons given was that the richest 1% pay 40% of the taxes. poor them. well they would be poor if they didn't also have 40% of the income. 'course there's one more teensy weensy thing said ignorant fuck either doesn't grasp or is hiding. and that is *how* the 1% make their money. they pick stocks. from the caribbean. meanwhile, the guy who isn't getting the health care because it's expensive is selling his life in a coal mine. yeah, they're both working. but it's a totally different kind of work. reasonable people really shouldn't see a problem taxing one kind to benefit the other kind.
three wolf moon
so at work as a sort of bonus the team all got their very own three wolf moon t-shirts. if you don't know what a three wolf moon t-shirt is, google it. be sure to read the comments on amazon. ha ha. pretty funny huh? yeah i didn't believe either. the t-shirt is pretty cool. so i put it on at home. and of course i told the beautiful and talented alisa of its mystical powers. she also didn't believe. she still doesn't. even after what happened. i think she's in denial. for sure though i'm definitely *not* wearing that shirt in public.
tax the rich
taxing the rich always sounds like a good plan. it hardly ever works out the way you expect it to. why? well the cynical explanation is that rich folks are big fat tax cheaters. well, not quite. they're greedy bastards. and they get rich because they're adept at maximizing the returns on their investments. so if you change the rules of the game. by say adding a tax on the most lucrative things those most lucrative things might no longer be the most lucrative thing. in which case the rich folks shuffle their portfolios to the new most lucrative thing. which means the guv'mint is left wondering where all their tax revenues are. which is a pretty good argument for taxing things you don't want people to do. then spend less than you bring in. ta da! timmer for president.
pay me
so i was having a little discussion with the beautiful and talented alisa about why the economy was on fire last year and a dessicated corpse this year. i tend to be kinda single minded and wooden tongued during these types of discussions. but after 17 years even an old dog like me can learn a new trick. anywho, my position was that people would rather not work than work for the offered compensation. i'd buy a dolphin boat. but it's $50k. i'm not willing to trade that much labor for a dolphin boat. i'd rather save the money and retire earlier. ie not work. now if it was only $20k i'd be seriously tempted. anywho. her position was that people don't have the assets to trade. they already traded away this year's labor for stuff they bought last year. ie they're in debt up to their eyeballs. she's right of course. let me modify my position. people would rather not work *more* for the offered compensation.
seabreacher
i'm a creature of earth a fire. don't like water much. course the beautiful and talented alisa is a fish. so it makes life kinda interesting. i'll go swimming and snorkeling and diving and sailing and boating and all that. but mostly it's to be with her when she's happy. anywho. i've got my eye on this company called innespace. they make what might be the perfect boat for me. it's an enclosed semi-submersible dolphin-shaped jet ski. it'll roll and breach. but the ultimately fantastical best part is i'd never have to actually get wet.
econ battles
compare the economic policies of bush and obama. they both spend fantastically large sums of money we don't have. both are based on economic voodoo. both suck. though if i really had to pick one over the other, i'd have to give a slight nod to obama. bush borrowed money for suicidal bombs that blow their expensive selves up and destroy whatever other people and property that happens to be around. ie wealth is directly removed from the world. obama's spending money paying people to not work, keeping them healthy, and to make more people who won't work, are unhealthy, and make more people and so on and so on. wealth is more indirectly removed from the world under the obama plan. so congratulations bho. your economic policies suck slightly less than the drunken sailor's.
new boss
we hired a guy. his job seems to be in charge of moving people from one office cubicle desk area to another. everyone was happy where they were. so he didn't have anything to do. except lobby for a reorg. so now i have a new boss. a new hire i had never met. wee. and everyone needs to move. and that move guy is busy as hell and happy as a clam. there wasn't anything wrong with the old boss. i am likely to lose my office. my nice warm office that gets lots of filtered sunlight and no glare. wee. i think i'm moving to a storage area. but i can paint the walls. man, i must have pissed someone off. heh. so my new boss is young. and he started while the ceo was on vacation. which made everyone act like total pumpkinheads. trial by fire. passed. fearless leader returns in two days. hopefully sanity will return with him.
bb and boys
a wasn't so sure the boys should be exposed to blood bowl in any way. but sheehs. it's tame compared to people being shot with laser pistols and having their arms chopped off with light sabers. anywho, they like it. and have had fun making teams. i have two championship cups made of legos sitting on my desk.
bloodbowl
bloodbowl is a violent tactical game. a pretty fun board game loosely based on football. in that there's a ball. with spikes. and there are 11 players on two teams. usually they're monsters like orcs, goblins, elves, rats, ogres, trolls, dwarves, beastmen, etc. the board game had pretty little miniatures you could paint. want to see my skaven team? i had two teams in our league. i'd beat up the other teams with my strong team. then they'd recover playing the hapless goblins. usually. or they'd quit the league. anywho, blood bowl is out for the pc. runs on a vm. buy it.
spin
b's been working really hard at all star practice. all the players have. here's a quick summary of their first game. b played left field. he caught a fly ball that was hit over his head for the third out of the first inning. the other team peed their pants in a 24-0 rout.
prop 13
yeah everyone likes to blame prop 13 for everything. but sheehs. we're staddled with debt. prop 13 didn't give us debt. most debt we the voters voted onto ourselves. cause the voting majority apparently are fiscal idiots. i propose a constitutional amendment banning bonds. they're loans. that have to be paid back. with interest. sheehs. also in this amendment benefit programs have to be fully funded. a la pay as you go. either create a tax to pay for it. or cut some other program. it really isn't that hard. we just need to shed this belief that you can get something for nothing.
elephant
there's a story about blind guys that tries to illustrate something about religion and/or god. the blind guys are feeling their way around and each finds something. one says it's like a snake. another says it's like a column. another a wall. then the enlightened guy gets it. it's an elephant's trunk, leg, side. at which point everyone's supposed to just shut off their brains. no need to think about it any more. it's an elephant. we've decided. heh. i think that's dumb. cause, yes it *could* be an elephant. or it *could* be a snake, a column, and a wall.
power
a recently published study shows that positive thinking has power. but it's usually negative. heh. makes perfect sense. before you were just a loser. now you're a loser and delusional too. or at least trying to be. and failing. loser.
universality
everyone thinks the universe is expanding because everything in it is getting further apart. mouse nuts. the universe is staying the same size. everything in it is getting smaller. as it gets smaller the bits and pieces that are close together get closer together. ie gravity. we measure the universe with rulers. but the rulers are in the universe. and getting smaller. which makes it look like everything is getting further apart. in other words, the expansion of the universe is an illusion.
free info
transcripts of interviews with saddam hussein after his capture were released recently under the freedom of information act. one thing i'd like to point out is he stated he would have been willing to cooperate with the united states against al queda. which is an idea i floated shortly after we invaded iraq. it was met with derision. heh. turns out i wasn't as crazy as the loons who thought he had nukes. also in the interviews he said if he had wmd's he would have used em. good thing he didn't. and didn't.
undo
okay so i give a homeless dude $100. i can legitimately say, i gave a homeless dude $100. then i take it back. technically, i can still say, i gave a homeless dude $100. because i did. i just don't mention i took it back. but morally and ethically i really i can't say, i gave a homeless dude $100, because he doesn't have the $100 i gave him. and he didn't spend it. i can't claim it as a deduction on my taxes, for example. okay, so there was a teacher at a school shooting who held the door shut to keep the shooter away from the students. the shooter shot the teacher through the door. killing him. clearly, he's a hero who sacrificed his life to save others. what if it was claire bennett from heroes who held the door shut. it doesn't even hurt her to get shot. and she's only dead for a little while. is she a hero? sure. but not the same kind of hero. cause it didn't cost her anything. not even holes in her cheerleader uniform. she's a hero because she saved everyone. she's not a hero because she sacrificed everything to do it. i guess jesus is more like claire than like me and the $100. i originally wrote a blog claiming that yeah jesus died for the sins of the world. but he didn't stay dead. and when he came back to life the world became responsible for its sins again. but apparently i don't actually believe that. and perhaps it was too blasphemous. even for me.
secrets
i've got a secret. actually i have many secrets. but i have two secrets that are making me especially happy. that and my blog queue is empty. so i've gotta just babble something random so as not to miss a day. would be the first in long long time. go onlive!
love
i love you so much i will send my only son to be tortured and executed so you can be with me forever.
u make da call
runner on second. ground ball to the shortstop. shortstop muffs it. while retrieving the ball, the shortstop and runner collide. the shortstop gathers the ball. the runner safely gets to third. you make the call? clearly interference has occurred. but interference by whom, the runner or the shortstop? heh. don't ask me. i don't know the answer. rule #1. runners are out if they collide with a fielder fielding a live ball. i don't think this applies because the ball is no longer live as soon as a fielder touches it. rule #2. runners are out if they intentionally interfere with a catch or throw. i guess this could apply if the umpire rules the runner intentionally interfered with the fielder. the rule doesn't specifically mention activities by the fielder other than catching and throwing. but if it didn't apply then a runner should defend a non-live baseball near them so other runners can score. rule #3. runners may advance without jeopardy one base if their progress is impeded by a fielder who does not have the ball. i think this one wins. assuming the runner didn't intentionally smash into the shortstop.
