Wednesday, December 30, 2015

End of the Year Thoughts

  2015 is almost over. Overall, it was another blah year. The only major highlight was Gen Con. Other than that it's been little more than work, home, work, home, bills and dealing with medical issues. My last colonoscopy produced only a benign polyp that was removed. The CT scan showed an enlarged lymph node deep in my abdominal region. They're going to do a PET scan to try to determine whether it's enlarged due to some minor gastric problem or cancer. Let's hope for the former. My weight's been on the rise again. I weighed 321lbs. at the oncologist's office. I have to get this under control. If I keep this shit up, I'll be over 400lbs. this time next year.
  2016 looks like it's going to be a nothing year like the rest. My whole life's been a series of nothing years. There won't be anything on the relationship front. Why would any woman be interested in a bloated fuckwad like me? I'm going to try to go to Gen Con again. I've marked off the dates for badge, hotel and event registration and put in a request to get the latter two days off. I've been paying down my credit card and shunting money into my Google Wallet and Amex Serve accounts. Hopefully everything will work out.

Christians & Abortion: More Pious Hypocrisy

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Thursday, November 19, 2015

The Meaninglessness of Life

  Life, in and of itself, is inherently meaningless. It doesn't serve some divine purpose anymore than we as a species serve a divine purpose. Claiming that life or humanity has meaning or purpose is simply a form of self aggrandizement. We do it to make ourselves feel special and important. Religion, for all its talk about being humble, engages in this sort of aggrandizement. It tells us that we were made in God's image. It tells us that we were given dominion over the Earth and its creatures by said God. It tells its believers that they're better than the nonbelievers. Instead of humility, it gives its followers hubris.
  Like it or not, we're nothing more than animals. Highly evolved animals, but animals nonetheless. And like our less evolved brethren, we can be vicious. Unlike our less evolved brethren however, we possess the intellect and skill to do some incredibly large scale damage. We have the potential to wipe out ourselves and the majority of life on the planet. And the hubris of religion can be one of the factors leading to us wiping ourselves off the face of the planet.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

#ChristianPrivilege

  The strongly right wing Tea Party fucktard segment of Christianity is getting their bowels in an uproar again. First it was the antics of Bible bigot, Kim Davis, who decided to force her religious beliefs off on everyone else by refusing to do her job and grant marriage licenses to same sex couples. Now we have the much ado about nothing uproar over Starbucks plain red holiday cup that's been initiated by con man and syphilitic brain tumor, Joshua Feuerstein. This living abortion is stirring up controversy for the sole purpose of getting the stupid, ignorant and brain dead right wing Christian religious zealots to send him money. The worst part is he'll probably get it. As the linked article states, Capt. Fuckwad here begged his followers for $20,000 in order to buy a new camera that he absolutely needed. He never bought said camera but, as you can see by the photos, he bought a lot of nice things for himself. Naturally, the fascist fucks at Fox News jumped on this story as proof that the War on Christmas is real and all those nasty secularists, humanists, atheists, Democrats and other elements of the Great Left Wing Conspiracy are trying to ruin it for them.
  The right wing Christian fucktard movement wants their privileges back. They want to be able to ram their religious views down everyone else's throats. They want the right to discriminate against anyone the Bible says they should hate. They want to plaster their religious symbols all over government buildings and land while denying other religions that same privilege. They pretty much want to do away with the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and turn the United States into a Christian theocracy.
  Update: Joshua Feuerstein uploaded a video, which has since been removed, urging his followers to use violence against Planned Parenthood doctors and staff. This fucker needs to be in prison.

Monday, November 9, 2015

It's better to have loved and lost...

...than never to have loved at all. Whoever thought of this is a fucking idiot. A person who has never loved at all has no real idea what they're missing. It's the classic "ignorance is bliss" scenario. On the other hand, when you've loved and lost, you have to deal with that loss the rest of your life. I've only had one serious relationship in my life. Angela and I met online some years back due to a personal ad I placed. She was sweet and cute. She enjoyed role playing games and bondage. We communicated online for a while. I drove to Columbus, Indiana to bring her to Gen Con since it was still in Milwaukee at that time. Long story short, I loved her. Still do. But, for reasons I'm still unclear about, the relationship ended shortly after Gen Con. I have the distinctly unpleasant feeling something I did brought it to said end. There's been no one since her. Having had a taste of what it's like to love someone, I now realize what I'm missing. I can't go back to my blissfully ignorant state. I'm always going to know what it was like to be in love. I also know that I'm unlikely to ever return to that state again.

Some Updates

  At 4:42pm on Nov. 8th, I officially turned 54 years old. It's was also day one of my week long vacation. I have no major plans. My parents and I went out to eat at Dynasty. I plan on seeing Spectre sometime this week. I'm going to get the One Ring rpg book, The Darkening of Mirkwood, I need in order to have everything currently available for the game. I also want to eat at Red Lobster sometime this week.
  My smartphone downloaded and installed a patch that corrected the Stagefright bug on the morning of Nov. 6th. I'm very happy that my phone is now patched. I try to keep my smartphones, tablets and computers as updated as possible when it comes to security. That means firewalls, antivirus software and Android, iOS and Windows patches and security updates. I've installed a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection on my smartphone, tablet and computer as well in order to provide protection when connecting to public Wifi networks. Given the computer viruses, trojans, malware etc. that's running around, you can't be too careful. Credit and debit cards are being switched over to smart card technology in order to lower the incidence of hackers stealing the information on the card and creating fake ones. What I don't understand is why the U.S. took so long to implement this technology. Other countries have been using this technology for some time now.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Android Security Fuck Ups

  According to a recent article, about 90% of Android devices are susceptible to malware. The main reason for this is that most Android devices never get regular security updates. This is primarily due to the fact that most manufacturers and carriers don't bother to update older model smartphones and tablets. They want you constantly upgrading to the latest high end device. I became aware of this problem when my AVG antivirus app alerted me to the Stagefright exploit. According to this article, some 950 million Android phones, mine included, are vulnerable. You'd think, given the extent of the threat, that the manufacturers and carriers would be concerned but that's not exactly the case. They only give a shit if you have the latest devices and only if it's a high end model. If you own an older device or a low to mid range device, you're shit out of luck. One possible fix would be to install a custom Android ROM on your device. CyanogenMod and the XDA-Developers Forum provide these ROMs for a variety of Android devices. My problem is I have virtually no idea how to install a custom ROM on my phone. Zimperium has made Stagefright patches available but I'm not sure how to install them.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Keeping up Appearances

  I pride myself on being a cynical fucking human being. I enjoy it. I revel in it. It's been my main defense mechanism for dealing with my loneliness and insecurities since high school. It's been the mask I've worn to keep people from knowing too much about me. Lately though, cracks have been appearing in the facade. Scenes in movies have actually brought tears to my eyes. Why the fuck is this happening to me!?! I can't be caught letting my guard down like this. It's bad enough most people regard me as a nothing and a nobody. I'm not about to add emotional little dipshit to that list. Appearances need to be maintained.

Gen Con: Days 3 and 4

  Gen Con Saturday only had one event. It was a D&D session played out on an electronic table with a touch screen map layed out on it. The DM's laptop was linked to the table and he used a computer program to manipulate the map. I played a bard that was recruited along with the other player characters to compete in a tournament some wizard was running. We did quite well. The rest of the day spent taking pictures of people in costumes. Those pictures can be found on my Google+ page along with photos from last year's Bristol Renaissance faire and the Mayhem Festival featuring King Diamond and Slayer.

  Sunday was a bit of a bust. The d20 Modern event scheduled for early that morning was cancelled. I ended up just grabbing something to eat before heading back home.

Ding Dong...

  My dick is dead. Well, not completely dead, more like 80% dead. Truthfully, I shouldn't be all that concerned. So what if I can't get it up anymore. It's not like I'm really losing anything, right? My sex life has gone from asymptotically approaching zero to zero. Having erectile dysfunction is just Nature's way of saying "You're going to remain a virgin for the rest of your miserable life, you repugnant little nobody." The problem is the desire is still there. I still want to have sex. I still want to indulge in bondage. But since women have unilaterally decided that they want nothing to do with me sexually, neither of those things are likely to happen. I wish I could kill off my sexual desires. Just end them completely. Then I could slouch my way to death like the eunuch I was apparently always meant to be.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Gen Con Day 2

  The second day of Gen Con opened with the Luchador event, Escape from the House of a Thousand Masks. In this game, I played lady Luchador Mother Mercy. I, along with King Phoenix, Red Scorpion, and the three Eviscerators, awoke to find ourselves in some sort of storage room. How we got there was unknown to us. Suddenly, agents of the Umbral Accord, a terrorist organization, appeared and attacked us. As we were fighting them, legendary Luchador the Masked Terror, busted in on the scene. He said that we wouldn't be able to save her and then attacked the group. After a brief battle, the lead Umbral Accord agent, having been pounded upon pretty badly, set off a ninja smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, our adversaries were gone.

  As we continued our investigation, we discovered that we were in the House of a Thousand Masks, the legendary home of the Masked Terror. We had quite a number of fights as we searched the house. First there was the headless motorcycle rider. I dropped kicked him off of his cycle and the Eviscerators took him out. Then some weird, heavyset serial killer type wielding a sledgehammer showed up. He was a difficult opponent but we won nonetheless. Next came a group of circus performers consisting of an aerialist, strong woman, fire breather, knife thrower and ringmaster.

  To make a long story short, the entire adventure took place inside the mind of Claire Voyant, the Masked Terror's valet and wife. It turned out that her son had become an agent of the Umbral Accord and she went into a coma because she couldn't deal with it. The luchadors' minds were linked to hers in order to bring her out of the coma.

  The last event of the day was the Werewolf scenario. I played a Bone Gnawer named Pepsi. Our pack had to investigate an Indianapolis based pharmaceutical company. It turned out that a hive of Black Spiral Dancers were trying to create some sort of drug there. 

Friday, July 31, 2015

Gen Con Day 1

  After a six year hiatus, I finally made it back to Gen Con. The first day went well. I played in two events, Vampire and D&D 3.5. The Vampire event was fun. I played Anton Wilson, Giovanni private investigator. My companions consisted of a Brujah "elder", a Nosferatu, a homicidal Malkavian, a Gangrel and a Lasombra antitribu. We had to figure out who was killing off the elders in the town of Promontory Bay. It turned out that the culprit was an Assamite antitribu named Domingo Salazar that had become addicted to Kindred vitae. He was part of a Sabbat Black Hand pack that had been trying to figure out why there were so many elders in Promontory Bay. Domingo's killing spree was threatening the operation and his pack was trying to hunt him down. We ended up luring Domingo to the Brujah's haven where we were going to have the Gangrel, in bat form, plant a C4 charge under his car after he'd entered the haven. The rest of us were lying in wait to attack him and beat him into torpor. Unknown to the rest of us, the Brujah had rigged additional charges in his haven. The plan was to kill not only Domingo but the rest of the Black Hand pack as well. The plan was both a success and a failure. While we did destroy Domingo and his pack mates, the large amount of C4 we used coupled with the explosives in Domingo's car, blasted the crap out of a large area killing everyone in our group except the Gangrel and the Brujah. The Gangrel was spared because she was outside far enough away to avoid damage. The Brujah survived largely due to his low generation although he ended up in torpor.

  In the D&D session, I played Uki, a female half orc barbarian. She was part of a party consisting of 3 wizards, two human, one eleven, a paladin and a cleric. We were charged with rooting out a band of thieves that were stealing from travelers along a trade route. We succeeded in taking out the bandits. I got to keep Uki's write up and I'll adding her to my NPC roster.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

More Hypocritical Bullshit from the Duggars

  Megyn Kelly used a soft touch approach in her recent interview with the Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. In this interview, the Duggars repeatedly downplayed their son Josh's sexual molestation by calling it "improper touching". And apparently this sort of touching happens quite frequently among their little cult of Christian fucktards. It makes me wonder whether Christianity attracts pedophiles to its ranks or turns its followers into pedophiles. I give credit to Megyn Kelly for calling the Duggars on their hypocrisy.
  In regards to the seemingly rampant sexual molestation going on among the Duggars' cult, it seems that Bill Gothard, a fellow cultist has more than a few sexual harassment charges against him. This narcissistic, egomaniacal twit likens himself to Jesus as he tries to downplay his fondling of female staff members. In typical Christian cult fashion, he blames the victims claiming that he was their "spiritual father" and that when he turned his attention to someone else, some women became jealous.  This self righteous dipshit has a very high opinion of himself. It should be noted that this molester published a training manual on how to counsel victims of sexual abuse. In typical religious fashion, such counseling involves finding ways to blame the victim for being abused. According to the manual, a woman could invite sexual abuse because she "defrauded" a man by dressing or acting in a way that stirs up lustful thoughts in a man. Even tossing her hair could theoretically result in her defrauding a man into sexually assaulting her. This blame the victim bullshit has got to stop. These cultist morons need to put the blame exactly where it belongs, on the person that committed the assault. It's shit like this that demonstrates how religious indoctrination fucks up people's minds and shuts down reason. Yet another reason why religion is bad for humanity.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Megyn Kelly: Typical Fox Propaganda Monkey

Megyn Kelly looks like she's going to obey her corporate masters at Fox and softball the Duggar interview coming up on the Kelly Files. As per their standard format, the Fascist Fucks at Fox are going to lick the shit out of the Duggars' collective ass cracks and try to bury the heinous nature of Josh Duggar's molestation of five girls back when he was a teen. They're doing this because the Duggars are staunch, homosexual hating, right wing, religious zealot conservatives. Until he resigned, Josh was a part of the Family Research Council, a right wing religious organization dedicated to shoving their religious views down everyone's throats in the name of "decency". These people are fucking hypocrites of the highest order. There isn't a nanogram of decency among them.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Eric Hovind: Creationist Asswipe

Eric Hovind, stated that if evolution is true, then it wasn't wrong for Josh Duggar to molest his sisters.  Apparently he feels that without some absolute authority figure holding the threat of eternal damnation over our heads, mankind would act in a completely amoral and sociopathic manner. Think about that for a moment. Hovind truly believes that we're utterly incapable of acting in a moral and ethical manner on our own. He's also saying in no uncertain terms that God is a fuck up. God, a supposedly omnipotent and omniscient being, either couldn't or wouldn't give mankind the ability to act compassionately. He's saying that the only reason Christians act compassionately is because they're afraid of ending up in Hell if they don't. The funny thing is, mankind has been acting morally and ethically long before God and Christianity came along. We realized long ago that it was in our best interest as a species to act in a manner that benefitted us as a whole. That why we created a system of laws to govern ourselves. We're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we are capable of governing ourselves without having to create some divine mythical authority figure to stand in ultimate judgment of us.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Josh Duggar: Self Righteous Religious Hypocrite

Josh Duggar has resigned from his position at the Family Research Council over allegations that he molested five underage girls, including his sisters, when he was a teenager. A police report of the incident was recently ordered destroyed, but InTouch magazine obtained a copy under FOIA before that happened. This self righteous religious prick has the audacity to speak out against the actions of consenting gay and lesbian couples for seeking marriage equality after he's committed unlawful sex acts against minors. Even worse, other self righteous conservative religious fucktards like wannabe theocrat, Mike Huckabee, want the whole matter swept under the proverbial rug. Had Josh Duggar been a liberal, he and the other fucktards over at the Fox Propaganda Network would be calling for Josh's head on a platter. They'd rant that he admitted his crime after the statute of limitations had passed so he can't be prosecuted for his alleged crimes. They'd find ways to blame liberalism and Pres. Obama for the crimes. They'd want him branded a sex offender that should be kept away from children. As it stands right now, creationist asswipe, Eric Hovind, is using this incident as an argument against evolution. Let's be realistic here people. Josh Duggar is an admitted child molester. He should be branded a sex offender. His children should be taken away from him and everyone in any neighborhood he moves into should be informed that he is a pedophile. He is no different from any other sex offender. Stop defending this sick fuck.

  Update: Montel Williams has expressed his views regarding this incident. I thoroughly and wholeheartedly agree with him. The Duggars belong to a Christian cult known as Quiverfull.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Some Updates

  I still don't know if my insurance is going to cover that $12,889.80 hospital bill I incurred at the end of last year. The latest news is that the UFCW Insurance people wanted Aurora to fax over the itemized list of expenses to them. This is after I had to get Aurora to fax the list to Anthem. I gave them the claim number and the fax number. Aurora proceeded to fax the list to the wrong number. I gave them the correct number and hopefully the list was faxed to the UFCW Insurance people. I'm going to call them later today and make sure. I still figure that I'm going to get screwed in this matter despite all the hoops I've had to jump through. If that happens, my plans to go to GenCon this year might have to be cancelled. There's no way I'm going to be able to go if I'm stuck paying this on my own.

  On a different front, I've left both the Bondage Uprising and Sub Shop Yahoo groups. The only reason I joined those groups was because I wanted to see how the other half lived. The other half being people that actually have sex lives and indulge in bondage. The way I see it, no experience equals no opinion regarding anything posted. I also believe that Autumn and Nicole want nothing more to do with me. I've worn out my welcome. Neither one of them has responded to my emails regarding the Bondage Uprising web site. Truth to tell, they haven't responded to anything email or comment wise. Just as well, I never really belonged there. These groups are for people with experience, not a pathetic virgin and wannabe BDSMer that no woman will ever want to fuck like me. If having sex is a rite of passage in this society, and I believe it is, then I'm not even officially a man yet. That being said, I should be barred from any and all adult oriented groups.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Pseudo Religions?

  As any regular reader of this blog knows, I'm no fan of religion. I had the great fortune of being raised by parents that weren't very religious and, to the best of my knowledge, never went to church during my lifetime. Thus I was allowed to grow up free of religious indoctrination. As a result of this, I am an atheist. That being said you'll probably find it surprising that I'm an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. Here's the story behind my ordination. Back in early 1998, I sent in my $30.00 and became a SubGenius minister. The Church of the SubGenius is a parody church created by Rev. Ivan Stang and Overman Philo U. Drummond. In an FAQ file on the site, they said that the SubGenius church wasn't recognized by the government and as a result, ministers ordained by the church couldn't legally perform such priestly duties as weddings. But the ULC believes that no government should stand in the way of a person's religious beliefs. Because of this, they will ordain anyone online, for free, no matter what religious beliefs an individual might have. I've been an ordained ULC minister since Feb. 1st, 1998.

  Some time later, I found out about the Jedi Church. Based on the Star Wars universe, this religion bases its beliefs on the Force and the code of the Jedi. As I recall, it started either in New Zealand or Australia. This church has been seeking official government recognition in several countries. Joining the church is free, but you can order a Certificate of Ordainment from them. I've been an ordained Jedi minister for a few years now.

  And last, but not least, we have Pastafarianism a.k.a. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This church was formed in response to the Kansas school board trying to teach creationism in their public schools. Sometime last year, the church began selling ordination certificates and wallets cards on their site. I joined this past December.

  It should also be noted that, according to the Principia Discordia, everyone on Earth is a Discordian Pope. You can get your free Pope card here.

  So why would a dyed in the wool atheist get ordained in three different religions? I mainly did it as a form of protest against the major religions of the world. As far as I'm concerned, these religions are just as valid as they are. Just because Christianity, Islam and Judaism have very large followings doesn't make them any truer than SubGenius, Jediism, Pastafarianism or Discordian beliefs.

The End of the World is nigh: Religious Fuckwads Rejoice!

  According to Michele Bachmann, the End of the World is nigh and all good Christians should rejoice! This poster child for mandatory lobotomies for the terminally stupid thinks that Pres. Obama's policies, gay rights and Iran possibly getting nuclear weapons is a sign that the End Times are coming soon. To make matters worse, there are a lot of people, primarily Tea Partiers, that listen to the vacuous babbling of Our Lady of the Empty Skull and believe every word of it. These insane religious fuckwads actually want all sorts of misery, pain and suffering to be inflicted on mankind because they believe they'll be magically Raptured up to Heaven before the shit hits the fan. What really worries me is that the more demented of these fuckwads might try to actively bring about the events the Bible says proceed the Rapture in order to speed the process. Won't that be loads of fun? I got news for them, if the shit does hit the fan like they want it to, they're going to be very disappointed when they find out they're not going to Heaven. They're going to be stuck here with the rest of us.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Islam: Religion of Peace?

  In Kabul, Afghanistan, a woman named Farkhunda was beaten to death when a peddler in Kabul's Shah-Do Shamshira mosque accused her of burning a Quran when the two of them had an argument because he was selling amulets to childless women. Details as to what the mob did to her are in this Journal Times article. No evidence was ever put forth that she had burned a Quran. She was not arrested, tried and found guilty of burning a Quran. The mob simply beat her to death based on what the peddler said. The police officers present at the time either ignored the situation or took an active part in her death. Muslims say that Islam is a religion of peace. How can they say that when incidences like this occur? This is what I truly hate about religion. A crowd of people went homicidal because they thought someone had burned a copy of their holy book. I don't care what you think about the Quran, it's just a fucking book. Millions of copies of it exist and millions of copies have likely been destroyed in various manners. And the Quran, like every other "holy" book written before or since, was written by man. Not God, man. And because man wrote it, it contains not only man's wisdom but also man's hatred and prejudices as well. We're flawed therefore our "holy" books are flawed as well. We, as a species, have a nasty tendency to elevate things and regard them as being above question or reproach. Religion is one of those things. Some people believe that no one is allowed to criticize, question or insult it. This is complete and utter fucking bullshit. Religion isn't holy. It's merely a bunch of superstitions that WAY too many people believe to be true. We, as a species, need to stop drinking the poisoned Kool Aid of religious belief and start letting reason and logic enlighten us instead.

Religious Freedom Acts

  Gov. Pence stirred up quite a hornet's nest of protest when he signed SB 101, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. Despite what he said, this law was nothing more than a blatant attempt to give right wing Christian bigots the freedom to discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds without having to worry about being sued. The Christian bigot portion of this country is constantly looking for ways to lord it over the rest of us and they get real whiny when they don't get their way.
  Gov. Pence initially supported the bill and said that its detractors simply didn't understand the bill's intended purpose. It should be noted, however, that Memories Pizza announced that if they were asked to cater to a gay wedding, they would refuse. Follow the link for more information on that. This is exactly what Gov. Pence said wouldn't happen when SB 101 became law.
  The backlash was swift and brutal. The NCAA announced that it would no longer hold any March Madness tournaments there if the law isn't amended or repealed. Angie's List, which is based in Indiana, has held off a planned expansion of their business there because of this bill. Gen Con, one of the largest gaming conventions going, made it clear that they will take their business elsewhere if they feel that some of their attendees will be discriminated against because of this law. Even the Disciples of Christ have made it that they will move their convention because of SB 101. So many businesses and organizations have weighed in on the matter that Gov. Pence had no choice but to add a clarification to the bill stating that businesses could not use it to discriminate against LGBT people. It should be noted that although the bill has been amended, parts of Indiana still allow people to be fired because they're gay so there's still work to be done here.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Suicidal Tendencies

  Sometimes the only answer to Life's problems is death. Between my declining health and rapidly mounting debt, I'm getting close to reaching that point. I'm tired of working and having nothing to show for it. What's the point in busting my ass only to fall further and further behind? In death, my problems would still exist but I'd no longer give a shit. The one loan I took out has a clause in it that considers it paid off should I die so it would cease to exist the moment I cease to exist. That's over $6,000.00 of debt erased in an instant. Now I fully realize that committing suicide has repercussions. My family and friends would be grief stricken by my decision. They would, however, eventually get over it. And if they didn't, I'd still be dead and thus in no position to care. You see I don't believe in an afterlife. There's no soul that separates from my body to head off to some mythical place of eternal bliss or torment. That's religious bullshit designed to force you to conform to their belief system. The only existence you have after death is the memories of those still living. When those are gone, so are you.

  Do I want to commit suicide? Not at the moment. Whether that changes of not depends on a lot of things. But I have to admit that there are times when my life seems utterly pointless and devoid of meaning. I feel the only reason I'm here is so Fate has someone to shit on. Now I fully realize that there are people whose lives are far, far worse than mine. There's not much I can do about it but I am aware of it. That doesn't change things. If my life continues to spiral down the proverbial toilet, suicide might be my response.

The NHGHs of Life Part 4: Addendum

  After calling both Aurora and the insurance people, the picture isn't looking very good. Aurora is going to send Anthem an itemized list for the procedures done at the end of last year but they informed me that I may have reached my benefit limit for the period. If that's the case, I'll be stuck with the entire bill. To top things off, Aurora informed me that one other bill wasn't paid because I was apparently not covered at the time. I had to cancel my dentist appointment. They expect the entire bill to be paid in full either immediately before or after the procedure. That's $600.00 I simply don't have. It seems very likely right now that I'll have to cancel my plans to go to Gen Con this year. With all the debt I'm buried in, it'll take years for me to dig myself out.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Results Not Typical

  Have you ever noticed the fine print in some TV ads? Weight loss ads are prone to fine print. They show you a bunch of people that lost all kinds of weight on their drug/diet plan while the fine print states that their results aren't typical. Why won't they tell us how much weight the average person will lose using their drug/diet plan? Could it be that the average results aren't all that impressive?
  Then there's the bidding sites like DealDash.com. They talk about how you can get up to 90% savings on items like smartphones, tablets and the like. But the fine print makes it clear that these results aren't typical and that the final price doesn't include the cost of the bids placed. And while the fine print informs you of how many bids a particular bidder made on a given item, it doesn't tell you how much each bid costs. Why? What are they hiding? These weight loss and bidding sites should inform people about what results the average person can expect because that's the results most people are going to get. And the bidding sites should make it clear up front how much each bid costs. I don't like the thought of paying for bids. On eBay, if you lose an auction, you pay nothing. Only the buyer and seller pay anything. On these other sites, if you lose, you're out the cost of the bids you made. 

The NHGHs of Life Part 4: The Financial Report

  I can't seem to get ahead. I spent about 4 years getting rid of my MasterCard and Discover debt. Four years. And when I finally pull this off, my health takes a turn for the worse and I'm right back in debt. I didn't get any time to build up my savings and checking account. None. To make matters worse, Aurora has billed me $12,889.80 for the time I spent in the hospital when my creatinine level went up to 6.91. So far, my insurance hasn't covered any of it. I contacted them and they said that they needed an itemized list of everything done so they can work matters out. They asked Aurora for the list on Jan. 19th but never heard back from them. I called Aurora and asked them to send the list. I'm hoping this works out. If I get stuck with the entire $12,880.89, I'm well and truly fucked. I'll be spending another shitload of years digging myself out. Hell, I may never get out from under this.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Atheist Hate Crime?

  As some of you may know, Craig Hicks has been accused of killing three Muslim students in North Carolina. Some reports say that the killings were over a parking space dispute. Other reports say that Craig, a self professed "gun toting" atheist, murdered the three Muslims because of a deep seated hatred of religion. Whatever the reason, what Craig Hicks did was wrong and if he's convicted, he must pay the penalty. What worries me is that he might actually have committed a hate crime. We atheists must stay out of the hate crime business. Let the religionists slaughter each other over differing religious beliefs. It only demonstrates to the world how truly fucked up they are. Atheists have to remain above this level of genocidal idiocy. Craig Hicks is hurting the atheist cause.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The NHGHs of Life Pt. 3 - The Health Edition

  My health has been pretty crappy lately. I spent the last four days of 2014 in the hospital due to my creatinine level jumping up to 6.91. Normal range is 1.0 to 1.3. It seems the trial drug (which was most likely Celebrex) and the metformin I was taking were the cause. A blood clot in my right calf was also found at this time. On a more recent note, I just got back from the hospital again. This time my INR was through the roof. Since the discovery of the blood clot, I've been taking Coumadin a.k.a. warfarin. It's an anticoagulant. I was also taking a faster acting anticoagulant, Lovenox, for a short time until the Coumadin in my system reached the therapeutic level of between 2 and 3. The amount of Coumadin I was taking was periodically adjusted in order to achieve this level. Right before I had to head back to the hospital, I was taking 12.5mg on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10mg the other days of the week. This past Wednesday, I wasn't feeling well. The right side of my jaw ached and I was told I looked rather pale. Every time I blew my nose, the mucus was bloody. That night, I couldn't sleep. I had chills and my jaw still hurt.
  The next day wasn't any better. My appetite was gone which turned out to be a good thing because my stomach became upset. I went to the emergency room and checked myself in. Over the course of the next few days, an infection was discovered in my jaw and my INR was found to be a stratospherically high 10.1. If I had cut myself during this time, I would have bled rather profusely. If I had suffered a more serious injury, I could easily have bled out. So more time in the hospital. More work days missed. More medical bills. This shit's happening far too frequently. I'm a pessimistic, cynical son of a bitch when things are relatively normal. This isn't improving my mood. I find myself waiting for the next crisis. It seems whenever things start looking up, NHGH comes along and bitch slaps the taste out of my mouth.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Fox News: Peddlers of Misinformation

  A recent study reported on by the Daily Kos, makes it clear what I've known for quite some time. Watching Fox News makes you stupid. What else did you expect from lying, fascist, propaganda monkeys? These misogynistic, homophobic, racist, sexist, hemorroids on the ass of society are only interested in spreading right wing lies and disinformation. They want their viewers to be ignorant and fearful because it makes them easier to manipulate. These fuckers needs to be culled from the rest of us and killed. 'Nuff said!

Terminal Virginitis

  I'm going to be a virgin my whole fucking life. Not by choice, mind you, but because women find me utterly, wholly and completely repellent. I'm not at the bottom of sexual desirability totem pole, I'm several miles beneath it. I'd have to put in considerable effort if I want to move up to the lofty score of zero. It makes me wish that I could excise all the sexual thoughts, urges and fetishes from my brain. All they do is remind me of things I'll never have or experience like an intimate relationship, kinky sex or even vanilla sex for that matter. Not that I deserve any of that being the worthless piece of shit that I am. I'd be better off as a sexless, lobotomized freak. Odds are I'd be happier or at least so brain dead I'd no longer care. Hell, I'm already part way there because like about half the men my age, I suffer from some degree of erectile dysfunction. My cock just isn't what it used to be. But since I'm never going to have sexual relations with a woman, it hardly fucking matters. It could shrivel up and fall off and my sex life would go from virtually nonexistent to simply nonexistent.