SuperSatellite ||

Well, I think I might be crazy. And not that good kind of crazy anymore. The bad kind that results in additional badness for me. Luckily it’s localized crazy, so I don’t think it would really affect any of you. I’ve been eyeballing the local summer bike tours (BAK, OKFreewheel). Again. I have done both, but haven’t done one since…2004? That sounds about right. I’ve been both too injured and too out of shape (more the former) to manage getting back into one of them since then.  But I’ve really been iching to get back on the road, and every year I kick back and wait for them to announce routes and think about making the trip.  I almost managed it last year, but other travel ended up taking precedent.

So what’s different about this year? Absolutely nothing. In fact, my back is probably worse now than it’s been for a while. But I have a need to prove to myself I can fight through it. In fact, I know I can. That’s not what worries me. What worries me is what I’ll be like after the fight. Ideally, if I train for the next 6 months, I should be great. Hell, the first time I did it, I had no training besides one 30 mile ride under my belt (and that hurt like a mother). But I’m not even really sure I can get through training without coming away worse off than I am now. And the longer I wait, the harder it will be.  But I hate giving up something I enjoy so much. Besides, the rides are just plain fun. Get out for a week, ride in the open air. Be out away from the cities. Relax in the evenings.

OKFreewheel is both the shorter and cheaper of the two rides. BAK is a little better supported in my opinion, but I don’t like where it’s ending this year (about as far north and east as you can possibly get in this state). They’re both at the same time too, so it can’t be both anyway, I’d have to choose one or the other. I think I need someone to talk me out of it though. Either that, or convince me I absolutely should do it. Otherwise it’ll probably just pass me by, and I’ll be frustrated with my inability to commit to it, one way or another.  Odds are it would end up being really good for me. I’ve just lost the confidence that I need, and part of me thinks I’m better off for it, that I should just stick to shorter, low impact stuff.  I haven’t done more than 15 miles in one ride in about two years, which is pretty terrible.  I did try the Gorilla Century about 3 years ago, but had to drop out about 60 miles in after the pain got too bad to fight through.

Screw it, I’m just gonna make the call.  Unless the registration fees are outrageous, or I can’t get transportation arranged, I’m just gonna do it.  Training starts tomorrow.  That will settle that.  How’s that for sudden decision making?

I woke up this morning from a good night’s sleep, and promptly saw a nightmare. MSNBC is reporting on a new project of the credit industry called “MedFICO.” Go read the article, I’ll wait for you.

Okay. So, I saw this over on Slashdot this morning. If you ever read stuff over there, I am sure you can imagine the discussion that is taking place over the whole thing. I am going to chose to ignore the part of the article that says the scores would be designed to be used only after a patient is given treatment. I do this for these reasons: there are followups, as mentioned, which could be negatively impacted, people will always screw stuff up, and there is no precedent to believe that such a score couldn’t and wouldn’t be abused. Just look at normal credit scores. Hell, landlords these days will do credit checks on people. Why? If they don’t pay, you kick them out. It’s worked for decades. Their credit has nothing to even do with it. It is inevitable that such a score would be used for unscrupulous and unintended reasons reasons. That is what happens with a system desiged to mine private people’s information and sell it to the highest bidder.

Imagine, someone goes to the ER, and gets treated. Hospital bills them and then checks the person’s MedFICO score, and finds out that they are a high risk. The person comes in for a followup, and they are gently “referred” to a non-network health group. If you don’t think that wouldn’t happen, you are clueless as to how the country works. Worse yet, they come in for a follow up, and are quietly assigned a lower priority, and end up sitting for hours waiting while the good scored people go ahead of them. A 15 minute appointment now takes three hours.

The fact that healthcare is in any way tied to a profit margin is the scariest damn thing in the world. Need an MRI? Go ask what it costs. They won’t tell you. Why? Because different people get different prices based on if they have insurance or not. So they will inflate prices by hundreds of percent to cover insurance “processing” fees. It’s gross. People are a consumable commodity for the industry, something to be milked. It’s not about actually helping them (at least, maybe it is to some doctors), because the administrators and support services have one goal: make investors happy. That’s who’s important.

“But Michael, socialized healthcare isn’t any good!” Really? That’s news to me, and Canadians, and most of Europe, and Australians. “B-b-but Michael, the taxes!” Yeah, sucks huh? Tough. You’ll appreciate it that month you’re between jobs without health insurance and are diagnosed with cancer. And that’s not to say that there isn’t a happy medium between socialized and free market health care. But look, we have socialized fire protection, law enforcement, why draw the line there? Why the push back on health? Why are the former two okay, and the latter some crazy taboo? If you screw around, cost those departments unacceptable amounts, there are ways that you can be found culpable for the bill. I’m sure the same could be done in health care. Frankly, I can’t figure out how what they want to do isn’t a violation of HIPAA. My medical billing records are as private as any charts in my opinion.

And so many people think that because doctors come out with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from school, that somehow gives them a pass on charging high amounts. Pardon the language, but that’s bullshit. The fact that schools charge so much is not the patients’ fault. It’s a problem with the system. The fact that insurance companies and HMOs are there to make money, forcing inflated costs, and not care for people isn’t my fault. The system is dangerous, and it will chew you up, and spit you out, make no mistake about it. That isn’t the burden of the patient though, and so many people accept that it apparently is! We are caught in a cross fire, and unfortunately neither side of the system sees the other, they just see us. This is true in so many other places as well. This is how capitalism fails. Money cannot and should not ever be put ahead of the moral fabric of society. When it is what we have now is the result, and there’s a lot of room for it to get worse.
Don’t worry, the first time someone is denied, or receives second rate health care because of this, it will come under serious fire. And it will happen, have no doubt. The more that you dehumanize a field like health care, the worse that speaks to us as a society.

What would House say?

Well, I asked for it, and I got it.  After two days of various running, exercises, and now swimming, I definitely feel like I’m working out.  I was fine until yesterday afternoon, then some of the running soreness started setting in to my thighs.  Then I went swimming, hehe.  Now pretty much everything is sore.  My nagging left knee, which recently has been well behaved, is back to its old tricks.  My solution?  A daily, triple shot of glucosmine chondritin (sic?) and more exercise.  I may be sore, but everything is still moving properly.  I am hesitant to toss on the knee brace, since I am trying to strengthen it.  I don’t want artificial support to detract from that.

So I continue full steam ahead.  I expect to revisit Day 1’s routine today, except this time add one more stretch to the running and increase the push-ups and sit-ups by 10%(ish).  We’ll see, I might overestimate my ability a tad, but no reason not to try.  Feel the burn…

This might have been a New Year’s resolution, I don’t really remember.  If it wasn’t, I’m sure as hell adding it to the list.  I have decided that by year’s end, I will be able to pass the equivalent of an Army PT test.  "But Michael," you might not be asking yourself, "why would you be interested in doing that?"  The answer is because I feel like I owe it to myself to really start improving myself physically.

So, the bare minimum goals are 50 sit-ups and 40 push-ups each in two minutes, and run two miles in 16:36.  I think this is absolutely doable.  If I can make it to 80/75/13:00, that’d be a "perfect" score, but I don’t know yet if that’s a realistic goal.  We’ll see.  If I think I can make it, you bet I’m shooting for it. 

I’ve already started daily sit and push-ups.  I’m starting slow, but I can already go up to 25 sit-ups before I start wearing out.  Sad yes, but I also haven’t really done anything like that since my freshman year of high school.  Push-ups I didn’t keep close count of, we’ll say I did 20 yesterday.  I bought some Nike Free running shoes and went jogging yesterday.  Went for a little under a mile, felt like my shins were catching on fire, hehe.  But I don’t feel bad today, which last time I jogged, the next day I didn’t feel so 100%.  I’m trying to pay attention to my pace and such, not jump in over my head.

Let me comment on the shoes.  These are some of the strangest shoes I’ve ever worn.  They’re really light and have a sliced up sole so that when you move, they react to your feet much more.  They were designed to mimick barefoot runners.  Launch more from the ball of your foot when running.  So far I really like them, though I hate Nike.  I also splurged and ordered a 4Gb iPod Nano to run with.  Apple had good prices on refurb iPods, and I wanted the 30Gb iPod Video, but I decided that wasn’t worth it since you can’t jog with hard drive based players.  Plus I really don’t think I’d watch any video on it in the long run.

So that’s that.  I’m gonna be a mean mofo by the end of the year.  I still need to buy a weight bench.  Anyone got one to get rid of?

I have learned something.  I used to complain about getting gray hair already.  In reality, I guess that’s not so bad.  Kind of distinguished, you know?  And if I’m going gray in my early 20’s, that means I’ll never lose my hair.  At least that’s what I’ll tell myself.  But you know what I have decided is a bigger bitch about growing old?  Shaving.

When I was a freshman in highschool, facial hair was awesome.  I was one of two guys that was able to grow honest, real hair that wasn’t just peachfuzz.  Granted, it took a couple weeks to fill in, and even then, I looked like a 14 year old that was growing in what facial hair he could to be cool (ironic, since that’s what I was, sadly, and I don’t think I ever really succeeded).  But that’s the thing, it was a slow process.  These days I can’t even go two days without shaving.  It’s just a constant, unceasing responsibility now.  As I sit here, I look scruffy because I haven’t shaved since Friday.  I should have this morning, but I was lazy.  But by tonight, if I have any regard for how I look in public, I’ll be shaving.  It’s silly, I know, but it occured to me when I was watching The Patriot, and I noticed how baby’s ass smooth Heath Ledger’s face was, and I found it completely unrealistic.  I couldn’t stay that clean shaven on a day to day basis unless I carried an electric razor with me and used it regularly.  I’ll just start growing a wild, Mel Gibson beard, since I’m just as crazy as him.  I think I could get away with it, what do you think?

Well, I have finally, officially, sold my old car.  I have cash in hand, and title signed over.  A relief, to be sure.  I hated having that thing hanging around.  Never even had to list it in the paper.  Basically the first guy that looked at it bought it.  I have really good luck selling vehicles out of that yard.

I need caffeine.

I cleaned the piss out of my shower yesterday.  No, no, not literally, I mean I scrubbed the hell out of it, also not literally.  My drains are slow because I keep forgeting to call Roto-Rooter to clean all of the disgusting Pittsburg essence out of the pipes, which caused my drains to move so slow, that like sediment built up in my tub.  It was not a pretty sight.  Anyway, it was a pain in the butt, but I got on that sumuhnabitch with a scrubby…thing…and some Scrubbing Bubbles, and now it’s sparkly clean again.  And by god I will call Roto-Rooter today.  The worst part is that I can’t just let my washer drain normally.  If I do, it will back up on to the floor.  I have to stand there on the drain cycles and let it drain, open the top, let it drain, open the top, and I do that for like 5 minutes so that I can get the water out safely.  Yarrr.

Yeah, I need caffeine.