bruce’s posterous

A few more photos from our trip last weekend...
 
Day 1: Tom's boat a sunset on Candiani Island

Day 2: The back side of Ash Island

Day 1: Sunset on Candiani Island

Day 1: a couple miles down from Wheatland, OR

Day 3: wahwoh looks like rain

Day 2: rest stop

Day 1: in a cool part of the river, lots of eagles and osprey...

from 2007:

I hate Microsoft and their intellectual property protections. What angers me is that they are doing everything they can to convince me that the most cost effective way to use their products is to pirate them. If I pirated their software at least I wouldn't have to pay to be treated like crap. During the course of several recent tech support calls I was treated like a software pirate. Why? Because I had the nerve to use Microsoft Windows on my Mac. I had a rather interesting discussion with Microsoft regarding this, here's the email thread (I made it go from the top down to make it easier to follow):

I came from an amazing family and grew up with 3 brothers. Of the 4 of us, I'm #2.

 Les, my 6'4" 250lb oldest brother, was a gifted auto mechanic and the smartest person I knew. He owned a performance auto business and built some very cool cars. In 1983 at the age of 29 he had a stroke. He was diagnosed with a "lupus like" disease. Many guesses as to why this happened to him circled around the chemicals he was exposed to in the auto shop. During the first year of his disease he spent about 6 months in the hospital. His first year medical bills totaled well over $250k. He could no longer work. He had to sell his business for much less than it was worth and he lost his medical insurance. Fortunately we lived near UCSF's medical campus where he was treated over the next 15 years when he switched his care to another hospital. The issue of how he was going to pay for his treatment came up but the reality was that he could never pay back the millions spent. To receive medi-cal and medicare he had to be declared indigent (he was unfortunately, as the result of his illness).

 Over the 25 year course of his disease he had about 22 strokes and about 4-5 heart attacks. He divorced, met a woman he truly loved (and loved him back) and enjoyed what he could of his life, for that I will always be grateful to the doctors and nurses that cared for him. He was and will always be an inspiration to those that knew him. At 53 he died in 2007 at home with family.

 His amazing care was the result of public healthcare, socialized medicine, or what ever term you want to give it. The sad part of that story is that he had to become indigent to get that care.   

 John, my youngest brother did not have medical insurance (he was starting his own business and he couldn't afford it), he was 38, 6'2" 190lb of muscle, single, chicks dug him, and he rode a bike about 30 miles a day. I used to joke with him that if I got into trouble I'd sic my little brother on them.

 If John would have had insurance or a public healthcare plan and a simple physical, he probably would have had a doctor that would have noticed that he had an enlarged heart and told him that the worst thing he could do was ride a bike 30 miles a day. Unfortunately he didn't. On a hot June 3, 2003 at about 3pm after a bike ride his heart just stopped beating. I found him at his home several days later. On the afternoon of June 6, 2003 I was the one that got to tell my mother that her baby was dead.

 Am I bitter about what happened to John, of course. I wish he could have afforded insurance. I wish he had a doctor. I wish he wasn't so worried about the cost that he would have gone and seen one ... but he didn't.

The inflation rate on medical insurance is about 15% per year, or about 3-5x everything else. Healthcare companies make money not off providing care, but by inserting themselves between patients and doctors. 100% of what they do is administrative. So is anyone surpised that administrative costs are 33% of healthcare costs through insurers while medicare adminstrative costs are 1%. 

 To those of you that think people need to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" I ask, is it going to take this happening to YOUR family before you start to recognize that healthcare is not a privilege? Because as much as I hate those that are getting in between patients and doctors, spewing right wing talking points, and all while ignoring that 72% of Americans want a public option, I could not wish this upon them. You are the same people that don't understand that WE are currently paying for the healthcare costs for the 47M uninsured. The same people that ask "how are we going to pay for this" ignoring that we already are paying for it. How is paying $1000/mo for healthcare and administrative costs better than being taxed $680/mo for healthcare service?

This past week I heard Congressman Eric Cantor say 'we cannot have a government option, how can private industry possibly compete with that'. he seems to be missing the point, competition is not about keeping the cost up, it's about bringing them down. The reason republicans and some democrats don't want public healthcare is simple, because it actually works.

suzanne vega - predictions

jennie lewis with the watson twins- rise up with fists

warren zevon - lawyers guns and money

mark knofler - ragpicker's dream

bruce springsteen - state trooper

jason mraz - remedy

jethro tull - round

joe jackson - loving couples

conor oberst - valle mistico

tom petty - american girl

beatles - long, long, long

buck 65 - blood pt 2

beatles - all you need is love

moody blues - the balance

coldplay -rush of blood to the head

Heads up for those men who may be regular Home Depot customers:

This one really caught me by surprise. Last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies turned out to be very traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think that it can't happen to you or your friends.

Here's how the scam works: Two seriously good-looking 20 or 21 year old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to McDonald's. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen March 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th & 29th. Also April 1st, 4th, twice on the 8th, 11th, three times last Saturday and very likely again this upcoming weekend. So tell your friends to be careful out there.

P.S. Wal-Mart has wallets on sale, $2.99 each