What a BuzzKill

Just do it. I find most of Michael Moore’s films to be one-sided crap, but Sicko is far from it. I had no idea about how England, France, & Cuba (!!) manage the healthcare for their citizens (and tourists). It’s sad to see how bad it is here compared to what they do in these other countries.

I think the time has come for some serious reform in America’s medical system. Universal care looks like the best option. Let’s follow the good examples set by our friendly countries (and Cuba!!) and make it work for us.

This entry just wants people to be healthy.

A friend of mine suggested that I document all the times that Sherise (Rece’s mother) flakes out on him. So I figure that I’d just go ahead and do it here.

Rece dropped by his mother’s place this afternoon to spend time with her, but she was on her way out. He said that she indicated she’d be home around 7 or 8 in the evening and would see him then. He had to catch up on some of his chores, so I left him at home so he could do them while waiting for her to pick him up.

At around 9:30 pm he called me to let me know she called to tell him to come by her place around 11:00 am tomorrow. She didn’t call earlier, so he would know that she wouldn’t be there, she called hours after he had waited all night for her to get there. How shitty is that?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

So to keep up with the documenting part, and since I’m already in that mode now, I’ll also mention about how 3 weeks before Rece’s school year ended, she and I had a sit-down talk about what he was going to do over the summer. Seeing how she was now between jobs, she’d have plenty of time to spend with him. We had agreed that I’d give her money to pay for the additional costs this would result for her. This was supposed to begin the Monday following his last day (which was a Thursday — 6/21/07).

The weekend before his last week of school was supposed to be her weekend with him, but I hadn’t heard from her since our meeting 2 weeks earlier. The week went by without so much as a peep from her. I was worried about what Rece was going to do, so I checked into a local teen camp. A couple of spots were still open on Friday, so I was prepared to enroll him if she ended up flaking out.

She flaked out. Sunday night (6/24/07) came around and she still hadn’t contacted us. We had managed to get hold of her boyfriend earlier in the week and he said that he hadn’t heard from her since they had an argument over a week earlier.

Monday morning I drove Rece to the teen camp and enrolled him for 2 weeks.That Tuesday I got a cryptic text message to contact her on a new number (which turns out to be a new boyfriend’s phone). I do, leaving a message, to which she returned to tell me about being sick and her boyfriend woes. She says that she’ll be picking Rece up the next morning, but I inform her that since she didn’t contact me, I was forced to make other plans. At first she was very upset, thinking that I was penalizing her … but she eventually calmed down and realized that I was only acting in Rece’s best interest.

So this is the mom that my son has to deal with. He loves her dearly and gives her every benefit of the doubt when she flakes out on him, or picks him up hours later than promised. I feel badly for him, but I know that I shouldn’t try to rescue him from it. He needs to experience it and see how she is for himself.

This entry is frustrated at it all.

I just read that Fred Saberhagen, the science fiction author, has passed away at the age of 77. I remember reading his Book of Swords (and then later the Books of Lost Swords) series years ago and being captivated by the storyline.

This entry is paying its respects.

Spent Saturday with Christine, Sam, and Rece at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Even though Rece had a severe (and blistering) sunburn from the day before, we had a lot of fun. We were smart enough to wait until mid-day to get there, as it we knew it would start to cool off at that point. It turned out to be a warm day, so our choice proved to be wise.

I’ve posted pictures on my Flickr account, if you’re interested.

This entry likes wild animals!

For a time I’ve got another webcam set up in my living room. This one is extra-tasty-cool-and-shit … it’s robotic! So if you want to give it a whirl, be my guest and check it out.

Username: webcam1, webcam2, or webcam3

NOTE: This only works on Internet Explorer only. It’ll require you to allow the installation of an ActiveX component.

Robotic BuzzKill Cam

Please don’t comment on the mess, because I really don’t care.

This entry might do a dance for you, if you watch.

Some things I’ve learned over the last couple of months:

• Never give a Vietnamese guy a piece of candy unless you want to hear him smacking it loudly in his mouth for 10 minutes.
• The magic number to to say to women when they ask you how old you think they look is 23.
• Don’t trust the timer on the bathroom light, if the lights were on when you came in … unless you want to crap in the dark.
• Sunscreen doesn’t magically spread over your entire body when you apply it in under a minute.
• Always take the time to stop for a moment to enjoy the view when driving along the coast.

This entry likes to view the ocean.

What happens when a guy gets the wheels stolen off his bike and it’s all caught on (multiple) security cameras? Why make up a song and video about it!

This entry can relate.

Yep, I’m guilty of it. I’m labeling some of my neighbors. Right now I’m listening to the 13 y/o boy across the way yell at his mom. He doesn’t live there, he just comes over from time to time. I assume that he lives with his dad.

Son: “No, fuck you! I told you I’d be here with my friends, and that they wouldn’t want to sit waiting around all fucking night.”

Mom: “No you did not. You’re full of shit. Get the fuck out, right now!”

To top it off, the neighbor I share a garage with has had about a dozen boxes sitting on my half of our shared garage taking up space for going on 8 months now. They’re in the way and Rece has trouble moving his bike in and out of the garage. Every couple of weeks or every month she’ll make some promise to have them moved “this weekend” or “no later than X day” and yet they remain. “I can’t move them, I have a bad back” is the latest excuse she’s come up with. Just 30 minutes ago she detailed some big story about he sister moving and being able to move her boxes out in 2 weeks when that happens. I told her that she until July to get them out or I’d be moving them myself — into the dumpster.

Now I hear her outside, screaming, for her daughter at the top of her lungs. How lovely.

The people that occupied the complex weren’t like this when I moved in. There’s a pretty high demand for places to live in this area, so one would think that the owners could be more selective with their tenants. 2 owners ago this place was much nicer, too.

Okay, I think that I’m done whining about my neighbors for now.

The quote of the week comes from a client that claims she majored in computers in college and that she’s “very good” with them…

“Is my computer so slow because it doesn’t have enough rams?”

This entry doesn’t want to have to deal with these people as much as he does.

This is touted as being the best 5-second video on the Internet. I don’t know what else to say…

I did something wrong while trying to set up both mine and Quinn’s blogs on our new website. The result was the loss of the entire database … so I’ve lost 3 days worth of posts. Oh well. I’ve reconfigured the way the blogs are run and we shouldn’t have any problems going forward.

This entry thinks tinkering with web stuff is fun!