Effing politics/Obamacare BS

OMG I hate politics, and yet I happily go about expressing my opinions to anyone who will listen...err, read.

I freely admit I don't have all the facts here, people.  If there's someone who has read the copious amount of crap that is Obamacare, and actually has the experience/expertise to understand it fully and completely, who can explain it to me (and everyone else) - please!  feel free to do so.  Particularly if you can come up with reasons/explanations of how/why it's legal AND a good thing.

So while I totally understand how some people are all ga-ga for Obamacare, because they think it's going to reduce costs and save all the babies and elderly, I personally just want to smack those peeps upside the head with a 2x4 and see if it knocks some sense into them.

HELLO?!?  This is the United States, and perhaps I'm not remembering my history correctly, but I thought we already put down taxation without representation or whatever the hell the phrase is, when we dumped all that tea in the harbor.  Someone put it to me like this, that you legally have to purchase car insurance in order to drive it.  Well, yeah....but it's my choice whether to purchase and own a car or not.  Who the fuck has the right to tell me that because I exist and breathe, I have to purchase health insurance?!

Okay, yeah, health care costs are high.  So come up with a plan to reduce them, not a plan to fuck everybody over without even using any lube.  For crying out loud, even I realize that oh hey, I'm NOT going to be paying the $100 plus per month when this thing goes into effect - fuck that, I'll pay the less than $100 fine with my taxes every year, plus still be entitled to my doctor/clinic/ER/lab visits, etc.  Which MEANS that EVERYBODY'S costs are going to go up - simple fucking math is going to do it.  So, all those babies and elderly this crap care plan is supposedly going to help?  In a couple years it's gonna be, sorry, costs are too high and we can't get that much medication in stock at one time so your child/grandparent is just gonna hafta do without.

I've been told that a national health care plan is a fantastic thing to have - look at all the countries that have successfully implemented one and how well they're doing.  Hmm, lemme think.....oh yeah, Canada has one - and I can read (which I guess, maybe our government can't? or else they'd know this, too) so I know how crappy their healthcare actually is.  Plus, I personally know some people who live in Canada, and they come to the U.S. for their medication and serious doctor visits.  And those countries like Greece - don't they have a national health care plan?  Seems to me they wouldn't be in such financial straits if they weren't paying for national healthcare.  Pretty sure India has national healthcare....and yet, a good number of the doctors I've seen have been Indian.  Dunno if that means anything or not, other than maybe we pay better (at least for now, lol), but kind of weird to me.  Sweden has national health care, right?  They MIGHT be okay - but I still wouldn't want to live there - holy crap you gotta be a millionaire to eat breakfast! - not to mention, I've seen wayyyy to many youtube vids of how many pre-teens being alcoholic....pretty sure those were from Sweden.  Could be wrong.

Anyway....moving along.

Barring our freedoms (omg, really?), say things get put into place so it actually is legal to force someone to purchase something just because they're breathing.   (And by the way, how do they plan to enforce this shit on the Amish people?  Some sects do not use modernized doctors, hospitals, etc, at ALL.  Do they get an exemption for their religion?)  My understanding is this stupid 'law' is not even ready to be implemented, but they're doing it anyway - at least partially.  If things aren't ready, and they're going ahead anyway.....where the fuck is the money going to be going that all us individuals who aren't exempt are going to be paying in?  My first thought is, somebody's (meaning politicians, lackeys, and special interests, duh) pockets....and the itemized bill is going to have things like, 'Processing fee', 'Implementation fee', and 'Tax'.  Hell, I see it on my electric bill already -  a line for the 'discount' I get per income guidelines that's the exact same amount as the 'processing fee' it costs to give me that 'discount'.  Anyway, the latest thing I saw about it not being ready with that Hispanics may get a delay on implementation, or a temporary exemption, due to language barriers - because the Obamacare site(s) don't have the option to be read in Spanish.  Holy shit - really?  Put a damn button on it to translate - there's a bunch of sites that will even do the translating for free.  Maybe I should claim an exemption because I'm an impoverished white female married to a disabled veteran.  Or maybe I should get an exemption because I'm an orphan with a mixed bag of heritage including Native American, Irish, and German.  Yeah - my Native American ancestors were persecuted by the whites, my Irish ancestors by everybody, and my German ancestors by their own (the Nazis) - so I'm entitled, damn it!  I bet some people actually think that's valid.....how sad and pathetic can you be?  Geesh.  Really, though, I'm entitled to an exemption from paying a tax for something I don't want, because I'm a citizen of the United States, and I damn well guarantee no one in Washington represented ME when they passed that law!   And yes, I voted, so I CAN say that.

NEED BOOKS, help!!!!

I've been checking all the facebook posts today for kindle freebies, just haven't found much of anything I liked or wanted.  I spent all my amazon giftcards and finished the King Henry Tapes series (now waiting on ANOTHER series to put out its next book!) today, so can't get any books that actually cost money....at least til I earn some more gc's.  Anybody found any freebies today they liked a lot, or think would be good?  Post a link, please please please!

Hey, it's either I escape reality by reading, or deal with it.....my way.   Which may or may not involve developing an industrial size butt wipe that can maim or kill.   Either that or devising a plan to trap someone in an invisible sound proof box.....    Or just, y'know, doing laundry and dishes and shit....whichever comes first, lol.

xbox rant

Ok, so here's the deal.  My hubby plays xbox all the time - he's a disabled vet so there's not a lot he CAN do.  I get gift cards from InstaGC which I use to purchase books for me and microsoft points from Amazon, which he can then use to purchase games.  All good, right?  NOT

His favorite games right now are sports games - nfl, nba, mbl.  He went and spent all my gift cards on games, which means I have to wait to get my books.  Jerk.  For the last 3 days, he's done nothing but play nba 2k13 - and I'm talking 14+ hours a day, here.  Ok, whatever, he's not bugging me to get him a drink or something to eat, or make him a cigarette, or engage in the same exact conversation over and over again.  All good, right?  NOT

The problem is, these games don't come with instructions, or manuals.  You have to follow the tutorials and practice to get good at it.  Some things you can look up on forums and such, which he had me do for him.  I read to him what the people on the forums have said, tips and tricks, etc.  Unfortunately, the tips/tricks, whatever, are not working for him or he's not doing them right, and he gets mad and YELLS at the game, gets all pissed off.  Wonderful - I have to listen to it.  What really really ticks me off, though, is somehow, it's my fault.  Apparently, I made something up and told him that's what the forums have posted, or the people on there are all liars, whatever.

SO ANGRY I could spit!  Acid, on him, with a burning fireball cherry on top!  >:(
I just want to scream at him to grow the fuck up, but all that will accomplish is a big fight and nothing will change.

Totally Random thought(s)? Not to me!

So I'm sitting here watching Modern Marvels with my hubby about lumber yards, and they come up with this factoid that lumber yards have produced enough wood to build a bridge from the earth to the moon at over 30 feet wide.  Here's where my totally random thought pops into my head and falls out of my mouth and of course, annoys my husband, lol.

Say someone DID build a bridge in space, somehow anchored to the moon, or rather the moons atmosphere, that reached to earth's atmosphere, but didn't enter it;  instead had a ladder or place marker that just trailed through earth's atmosphere.  What kind of path would that ladder/marker trace around the earth?

This is the kind of thing that goes through my head on a regular basis. 

That thought led to the thought that someone, somewhere, must be able to come up with some kind of computer simulation that would show that, and wouldn't it be really kind of neat to see that?  And the next thought was wouldn't it be really cool if someone wrote a sci-fi/fantasy book about something like a bridge between the moon and earth, like to a colony or something?    Only the bridge was like the transporter on Star Trek and a group of people on a trip to the colony somehow got sent to a different planet due to some glitch in the machinery and nobody knows where they went and they have to figure out how to survive on this new planet with the aliens they now know really do exist.

Which made me think about my last book idea, that I wrote about before, of a world in the future where everyone has a robot pda they access the world through and the govt has a hack into the system to cover up the existence of the paranormal until a super hacker finds the back door, gets into the system, and discovers everything and of course has adventures while joining the paranormal community and falls in love along the way, all leading to a happy ending or maybe not - cliffhanger would be the rest of the world finds out and next book would be about some govt agent who meets and falls in love with supernatural..............

Sorry, my brain seems to go a mile a minute, sometimes, lol.  I wish I could write books - I can edit pretty well, and I can come up with some awesome outlines or summaries or whatever you want to call them for books I would love to read, if only someone would write them.  I think if I really tried I could write some decent stories, but.....then my favorite form of entertainment, reading, would be work and not relaxation anymore.

So while my hubby and kids will say the random thoughts that pop out of my mouth sometimes are off the wall, etc, I can't be the only one who doesn't think so, right?  Explaining how I got from watching lumberyards  to supernatural, it makes sense to me, but my hubby still doesn't seem to get how I got from point A to point B.

Yard Sale

I'm having a yard sale.  Started it today, lots of stuff.  Only made $17 so far, but since I'm out in the country no permit is needed.  Already know what I'll be buying with that, too - the number of bees, wasps, and hornets I've seen so far is ridiculous.  Watched this wasp flying back and forth with bits of grass, making a nest in the corner of the siding of my garage door. 

Too stinkin hot to do anything else right now but sit in the shade and hope for a breeze.  Yikes.

My 4th of July

Yeah, so I'm up at 2:10am writing about my day, when I should be sleeping.  Been a long day.

Our plans were to get up a little early and head up to my husband's parents house for the day.  Do a little fishing in the morning, have a cookout for lunch, visit with family and nibble at leftovers all day, culminating in the fireworks display over Ross Lake.  Things didn't exactly go as planned.

Apparently, the alarm went off as it was supposed to....only my husband was already awake and didn't want to go that early, so he shut it off and let me sleep in.  He finally woke me 3 hours later.  I was a little irate, to put it mildly.  Finally, everyone is dressed and ready to go, and my younger daughter decides she doesn't want to go because her step sister isn't going to be there.  Drama, thy kingdom is teen-hood.  So we agreed to let her stay home so long as she agreed to get some housework and laundry done.  The negotiations took a little while...but we finally made it up there.  Way too late in the day to go fishing, but we still made it.  Not in time for lunch, however.  The food was pretty much cold by the time we got there, and my brother in law and his family were just about ready to leave already.   I guess they had plans to go to my sister in laws brothers, and I'm sure they did...but I can't help wonder if a tiny part of my brother in laws motivation for leaving so soon is because he knows how pissed I am.  I mean, I did give him the water heater for my house 2 months ago, and he did inform me he would be installing it for me within a couple of weeks, he just had to pick up a few parts first. 

Sorry about the tangent.  Onwards in my day - aren't you just dying to know what happens next?  roflmao - yeah, ok, my life is pretty boring.  I write because I want to and because it's a kind of stress relief.  Better than drinkin every night, isn't it? 
Another tangent, my apologies.  ANYWAYS.......where the hell was I?  Geez, had to go back and read where I was at!  
So...I had a cold hamburger and went in and used their shower - lovely lovely hot water I didn't have to heat on the stove.  By the time I came out, my brother in law and his family were leaving and my oldest daughter was lighting fireworks my mother in law had bought for the day.  Since it was just the 4 of us there for company, she decided to let the kids light off a few every little while.  I settled in at the picnic table with my kindle and my earbuds to read and listen to music, since my kids and my mother in law were busy and my hubby was across the lawn, visiting with his dad.
I thought the weather was supposed to be warm all day and I guess it was but I spent the day shivering, at least until the bonfire was lit.  Scooted up close and baked myself for about an hour and all of a sudden I was roasting my butt off and the mild headache I'd been ignoring all day was almost gone.  Guess I must've had a mild fever. 
The rest of the fireworks got set off, and the kids decided to stay at grandma's so they could go to the car show tomorrow, so hubby and I took off and came home before the main fireworks show over the lake even started. 
Hubby fell asleep about 11, so I've been watching Breakout Kings on Netflix while alternately playing on Facebook and earning points on InstaGC.  I'm alllllllmost tired enough to go to bed. 

So, goodnight random people reading my random thoughts.  I wonder if Swiss cake rolls were actually invented by the Swiss?

Fishing and totally cool random idea, what do you think?

I love going fishing.  Not the cleaning and cooking part so much, and sometimes not even the eating part, but I really enjoy sitting on or by the water, fishing.  Went all the time as a kid, then didn't ever go again til just a few years ago, and I've pretty much been limited to one place (hubby w/ anxiety and ptsd doesn't want to go somewhere new).  My mother in law got me fishin stuff for my birthday - licence, lures, hooks, some bobbers.  One of the best presents I've ever gotten, actually.  :) 

Have you ever wished you had like, a video recorder on your life all the time?  Not like 'want to be the center of attention' or because you're famous or anything, but just so you could rewind and review through the impartial eye of the camera?  I would LOVE that - it's a given that you would have total control of what other people could see from it, of course..................

.............totally cool idea:  make a movie about a world where that happens (picture people plucking little hovering bots from over their head or pulling out of hair disguised as barrette to use their self cams to video chat, fax, conference, etc) but unbeknownst to the public the govt has a back door to everyone's self-cams and alters them to hide the existence of...something.  Fae, vampire, shifter, mutant super power people, something like that.  Anyway, some super hacker nerd girl upgrading/fixing/souping up her self cam figures it out and sees stuff she shouldn't have so the govt is after her, sends super power guy after her to take her out but he's like, an alien who meets his soul mate, sees her inner beauty so of course we as the audience can now, too, and can't kill her so he saves her or makes her like him or something and they take out the govts back door and expose the secret to the world.  Sunset/happily ever after.  Totally bad English and grammar but you get the picture.  Please, if you like the idea, totally feel free to steal it and write a book - and send me a free copy with my name in it! 


Anyway, fishing - need to do more of it, my life is so stressed!

Some of the places I get books

Some of the places/emails/blogs I get free or bargain ebooks from...............or just check out to find new authors/books I want:

www.theereadercafe.com

www.bookgorilla.com

http://www.ereaderbuddy.com/

www.kindlenationdaily.com

www.booklending.com

http://pixie-kindlegeek.blogspot.com/

http://www.pixelofink.com/

www.bookbub.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paranormal-Reads/210602165622398?hc_location=stream

http://www.goodreads.com/


Please feel free to comment with any sites, newsletters, blogs, or forums that offer ebooks or discussions on ebooks, etc.  You never know where you'll be introduced to your next favorite author!  (Can you have 'A' favorite author?  I think I have about 50 favorites, lol!)  Amazon is a big one but it's so obvious I didn't include it, lol. 

What's for Supper?

Grilled out again tonight for supper.  Burgers, of course, rounded out with veggie wedgies, baked beans, and parmesan zucchini slices.  All except the wedgies were cooked on the grill - I must say, I was pretty impressed with myself.  :) 

What I was not so impressed with myself about today was that apparently I forgot to shut the car headlights off last night....and being a mechanic, I realllllllllly should know better.  Had to replace the battery today - only had a 4V charge on it and couldn't get it to go any higher.  :(  But the new battery has a 5 year warranty on it, so that's good.

I fixed my weedwacker today and got some yard work done.  Notice I said 'some' and not 'all'.  Maybe I'll finish tomorrow, lol.

Yay! more books!

Friend of mine on facebook shared this link today so I'm sharing it too.  Can never have too many books!

http://pixie-kindlegeek.blogspot.com/p/2013-kindle-ebook-and-game.html

Woohoo - Free Microsoft Points!

Yes, I know, every spammer out there says their stuff is free.  But this really is - sorta. 

You have to spend your time.  

No cash required, though.  InstaGC gives you points to click on ads, watch videos, download games, complete surveys, and if you CHOOSE to - make purchases from their clients.  The only purchases I have ever made through their site is through their cash back shopping option from Amazon. There are a bunch of different ways to earn points.

Point redemption can be made for a TON of different gift cards, including Amazon, eBay, Microsoft Points for Xbox 360, and a ton of others. And I can't forget to mention the redemption option of receiving a check!

If you want to check it out, maybe try it for yourself, just click the following link:

where can i get microsoft points


My Proof:
My cashouts have gone for eBay, Amazon, and Microsoft points. 

Steak and Potatoes...and other random stuff that was in my head.

I went uptown today to get some round steak from the grocery store.  It was on sale and my intention was to get a steak, a couple 2 liters of soda, and come home.  I ended up buying $80 worth of groceries.  How does this happen?  At least I won't have to go to the store again for a while - totally stocked up on bread, eggs, butter, and milk.  Still, how did that happen?  I was only in the store for 20 minutes.

Anyway, brought the steak home and marinated it in liquid smoke and onion powder for an hour before grilling.  Wrapped up some potatoes and put in the coals but waited a bit too long to take them out - ended up scooping the insides out of the crusty charcoaled skins but boy was that tasty!  Matt of course, slathered his steak in garlic A1 sauce.  He also puts katsup on everything (eggs, mac n cheese, fish, beef, pork, sometimes baked potatoes, ick!), or tobasco......I think he's weird for liking katsup so much but who am I to point fingers?  I like peanutbutter and miracle whip sandwiches, which he thinks is nasty.  And I wonder if anybody besides my sister and I like pickle sandwiches (sliced dill, cheese, lettuce, miracle whip, yum!)?  But I can't stand having pickles on other sandwiches or burgers.  Pickles go by themselves. 

eBay here I come - gotta do some research on e-cigs.  Maybe Amazon has them....  okay Google here I come, lol.   Roll-your-owns are way cheaper (comes out to about 65 cents per pack) but my sister uses e-cigs and I've tried them.  To me, it's no different than a real cig but it's gotta be healthier - no tar, just water vapor. 

Oh yeah - going to Battle Creek on the 20th of July.  Maybe.  Matt's buddy is supposed to call so we can work out the details of who's traveling where for us to all get together for the day.  I vote for their house - they have a pool.  And if we're driving 3 hours one way, I want to spend the night.  I don't drive for a living anymore so 6 hours in one day is too much driving for me to just end up back home. 

Debating with myself (an awesome activity, you should try it sometime - you NEVER lose! and it can be quite entertaining to do the different 'voices' in your head) on whether I want to read a book (yay kindle freebies!), play on facebook, or go earn some more points on InstaGC.  Matt wants me to earn enough to preorder the new NFL game from Amazon so I will probably do that first.  Can't beat the deal - new xbox game, plus exclusive content, plus a free year of NFL Draft on satellite.  I want to get it for him.............but at the same time I want to get myself some more books.  Of course, I always, always, always want more books.  I wonder if reading can be classified as an addiction?  If so, I'm totally addicted.  Completely, irrevocable, irreversibly addicted.  Crap I hope I never go blind - books on tape kinda suck.

Yay! More books!

Found another site to find free/bargain books from.  http://www.ereaderbuddy.com?ref=19g 

My Amazon wish list is rather large.....why do I keep joining sites that tell me about more stuff (99% books)  that I end up adding to said list?  

12:53am randomness

So I watched The Avengers with the hubby tonight.  Good movie, even though I've seen it before.  Spent some time on InstaGC earning some points towards amazon gift cards - love that site!  Both sites!  Been able to get a lot more books from Amazon since joining InstaGC.  Anyway, I'm pretty picky about what movies I like and it drives Matt nuts.  For me, the movie just has to click on an individual basis.  My preference is not for a particular genre or certain actors, though that may influence whether I'll watch a movie to begin with.  Ghost Rider was an awesome movie, but the 2nd one sucked in my opinion.  Pretty much all the xmen movies were good, some more than others, and Legally Blonde 1 was good while 2 sucked. 

It's been since early December 2012 that we've had to do without hot water.  The gas company switched us to a smaller pig because we don't use enough propane in a year's time to justify having the larger pig, and when the gas was shut off to switch out the tanks the water heater's check valve went out.  The heater is obsolete and parts cannot be found for it.  My mom gave me the money to buy an on-demand electric water heater as an early birthday present, and my brother in law is supposed to install it..........although I'm really beginning to think he's just totally forgotten or is blowing us off.  If I'd known it was going to take 2 months past the time I purchased the heater and he still hasn't gotten around to it, I would have attempted to install the dang thing myself.  So sick of heating water on the stove!

Just had a random thought of wishing Jim Butcher's Calderon series would be made into movies.  Those would definitely go on my dvd shelf!

Ok, maybe I wouldn't have tried to install the heater myself.   Already have one nasty scar from being electrocuted, and with my luck I'd end up frying myself.

Maybe I'll go fishing tomorrow.....gotta check the weather forecast.  Getting tired of cleaning/cooking/eating fish but it's cheap food and it's good for you.  Plus if I get to go by myself, I can sneak my kindle into my purse and if I don't catch anything....well the fish are notorious for not biting when you want em to!  lol

yay Free Ebooks!

just found this link and am saving it to favorites.  can never have too many books!

http://freebies.about.com/od/onlinebooks/tp/free-kindle-books.htm

Blog or journal?

So, is this a blog or a journal?  Since it's my 'random' thoughts - or not so random - I guess I can call it whatever I want. 

My brother and sister and I buried my mom today.  She died June 6 of this year, and she's in the Great Lakes Memorial Cemetery with my dad.  Afterwards, we went back to my sister's house, had pizza, and discussed what to put on her marker.  I feel guilty that I really don't want it to say 'loving mother', because really, she wasn't - at least not to me.  Sometimes I think I dwell on that too much, and I'm quite sure some of my entries will rant about that.....randomly, of course, lol. 

Anyway, got back home and after pretty much being ignored, as usual, by my husband, I kicked my son off my laptop so I could facebook and instagc. 


Should do some housework but I just don't want to.  :(  blah