The eternal Thompson gunner still wanders through the night

[rolanni]

So, one doctor visit, numerous phone calls, and two reviews later! The insurance will graciously allow Steve to have a diagnostic echocardiogram. Damned big of the insurance company, says I, and we’re having that done tomorrow morning early, before the mail can deliver yet another form letter, this one saying that they’ve changed their mind.

In other news, it’s damp and chilly; the zombies in charge of the Maine state government are set to pass a budget that will defund Headstart, slash MediCare funding, and gut prescription drug assistance for the elderly. The zombies will of course be making massive donations from their own bank accounts to those private sector organizations that already serve these communities, so that those in need of education and health care will not unduly suffer.

*cue laugh track*

In the broader apocalypse, Yet Another Idiot Republican is sponsoring Yet Another Idiot Idea — this one an amendment to the United State’s Census Bureau’s budget, forbidding the agency from conducting the American Community Survey, calling it “an unconstitutional breach of privacy.” A link to the data generated by this same survey can be found on YAIR’s website, because the data generated by the American Community Survey is an important tool for businesses that are trying to determine if a particular community is a good match for their business.

The stupid — the meanness — it is too much, and I am weary.

*Deep breath*

*Another deep breath*

Pursuant to our conversation of a couple days ago, it turns out that what people read really does influence them in real life. Who knew, right? Here’s the article.

Also, Teh Intertubes, which has fostered in us all a fevered need for instant gratification, is forcing some writers to write more in order to maintain their standard of living. Here’s the article. I’m not sure exactly where the one novel a year measure comes from, myself. It was said to me when I first started publishing, ‘way back in the Paleolithic, that “one novel a year was a career, but three novels a year was a living.”

And, ending on a high note, here, the Maine Marriage Equality movement got a nice boost in funding.

That’s all I have, so I’m going to go brood, now.

No, wait — I’m not.

I’m going to go finish writing a short story.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joy of dealing with health-insurance companies...
My best wishes to Steve.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Yet Another Idiot Republican is sponsoring Yet Another Idiot Idea

I have to admit that having your right-wing idiots take the lead from our right-wing idiots (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harpers-census-push-months-in-the-making/article1651526/) is a bit of a change.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

You are what you read--- more bold pursuit of the obvious!

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

There, there .... Have some calming tea, lest you also need an echocardiogram ...

[welhar.livejournal.com]

I read the article on the internet forcing writers to write faster for less money. I didn't see any facts quoted. As a reader, I am largely paying the same for ebooks and paperbacks. Over the past year, year and a half many of our local Barnes and Nobles are either not carrying new books, or putting them out up to a month after publication date. I figure they are helping to push me to ebooks. Given the lower overhead on ebooks, someone is making money, and it sounds like it is not the writers...

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

And my own response (http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/in-the-e-book-era-writers-may-feel-pressured-to-write-more/) to that "Oh noes, we must write teh moar!" article.

It's funny; they really do seem to have pulled that book-a-year figure out of thin air, don't they? There have been some really amazingly prolific writers in the past, such as Walter Gibson or the amazing John Creasey. They certainly didn't need to be coerced by e-media into writing more!

And indeed, I suspect a lot of people writing more is not down to feeling coerced by electronic media so much as having the opportunity to publish more. Take short stories. Until the last few years, there were a very limited market for publishing them—if you weren't one of the lucky few dozen who could hit genre magazines every month, you were out of luck. (Unless you had a devoted fandom who would happily buy a chapbook every year, at least. :) And practically nobody would take a too-long-for-short, too-short-for-long format like a novella. But now, thanks to Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others, there are plenty of new self-publishing opportunities for both short stories and novellas that don't require that kind of luck.

Maine/Surprised

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Could guess as happened in many states that the Maine state legislature was taken over by the Right in 2010 when only 40% of the electorate more or less came out and no one was paying attention. Once those folks got in a la Wisconsin for example, they started up what with ultrasounds, war on women and the rest of their fave agenda. On the federal level once these nut cases protected the taxes of the millionaires, billionaires and also Defence funding they are now going after food stamps, WIC, education, Medicare and such. Looks like these same charmings are out to slash up the safety net in Maine.

There is something that might be able to be done in Maine to counter all this. It's the Nov election. It would be nice if Maine can vote these nasties out. I've heard there are a lot of independents in Maine. Just vote the bastards out.

In my own state of UT nothing is possible. It is the most right wing of all states where voters vote against their own interests along the lines of the book "What is the Matter with Kansas". The right likes to live within a bubble of its own facts anyway which bubble is mostly not penetrable. But perhaps in Maine something can be done.
Good luck.

Health Insurance

[patt demetri (from livejournal.com)]

Do you really think you are finished ? First you take or have the test after they OK it and then they deny payment and you fight for payment and then they go after your credit score for non payment and then the insurance company requires you to be reevaluated by 2 or 3 independant MD's which are 150 miles away and only accept apts pon the 5th tuesday of even months between 6am and 6:15 am. Then the insurance calls you non complient and cancells you but only after charging you for 3 extra months they say you did not pay. You go in ever increasing circles and get nowhere.