by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 18, 2009 | Blog
So, I’m paying my credit card bill today — I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay it off in full, every month — when I noticed I had a finance charge of $31.70. Which seemed odd since I _pay it off in full, every month_! So I called the company. Apparently when I was typing in the amount on last month’s bill my finger slipped, and I failed to pay the full amount. I was off by $1.32. For which I was charged interest of $31.70. I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 15, 2009 | Blog
Andrew Sullivan, editor of The Atlantic has written a stunning open letter to George W. Bush. You can read it for free here. He eviscerates the torture apologists, and lays out in clear language the horror of what we did.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 15, 2009 | Blog
This is small and unworthy of me, but I can’t help but hope that Jay Leno’s new prime time show fails to deliver. I’m a drama writer, and I hope to do television again someday. When NBC does away with five hours of dramas it’s a bad day for television writers. Cable may be our only salvation, and at least on cable you can be a niche show that finds it’s audience even if that audience is small by network standards.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 13, 2009 | Blog
I’m becoming increasingly alarmed by the level of vitriol coming out of the unhinged right. Some of it seemed laughable. The Birthers, the Death Panels, the Tenthers — dear god, the governor of Minnesota argued he could use the Tenth amendment to block heath care reform in his state and _he’s a friggin’ lawyer!!!_ This isse has been definitively settled by the Supreme Court, and by a little event that you may have heard of — The Civil War. I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 12, 2009 | Blog
Went and saw 9 last night. It looked really great, and it was a wonderful premise, but ultimately it was a disappointment. If you don’t have a story and a script you ultimately don’t have anything. I realized the movie was in trouble when the script kept sending the little rag dolls running off to various locations, and then back to those locations. All the while the rag dolls kept ignoring THE REALLY BIG CLUE while they ran to and fro. And once again you have a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 8, 2009 | Blog
Here is a link to Matt Taibbi’s brilliant article in Rolling Stone about the destruction of true health care reform in this country. I strongly recommend that people give it a read. I’m so depressed that I think I’ll go drown myself in the bathtub. Actually, I ‘ll make some lunch and go deal with the horses. At least I can forget how I won’t be receiving meaningful health insurance anytime soon.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 5, 2009 | Blog
Sorry it took me so long to file this final trip report, but better late than never. So here are final days of my amazing trip to Turkey. Pergamon was the final great ruin site I visited. In Walter’s Rome campaign George and Jane and Daniel had been busy raising a new legion in Pergamon to help fight Mithradates so I was anxious to see this site. It was nothing like what I imagined. The city was built on a high promontory, and over the years it grew and grew until it...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 5, 2009 | Blog
I was reading a science article, and scientist studying the brain have discovered something really interesting — you can’t fool the brain. Here’s the Time version of the research. If you’re drinking diet drinks your brain knows this isn’t food. But the sweet taste makes you hungry. The upshot is that people who drink diet drinks end up eating more when they sit down to a meal because their brain knows it was cheated. I’m no fan of high...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 5, 2009 | Blog
Yesterday Vento had his first treatment to try and heal the tendon in his hind leg. It’s called “Shock Wave Therapy”, and they use concentrated sound waves. Rather like an ultra-sound, but much stronger. The vet told me if I held my hand in front of the machine it would hurt. As he explained it, tendons don’t like to heal because there isn’t enough blood flow. They heal partway, but never all the way, and since they are weaker than they...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 5, 2009 | Blog
After years with a local ISP I decided it was time to move to a more robust platform. Or rather the amazing Corie Conwell decided it was time to move. I had been having trouble with Joomla — uploading photos, getting bumped out, etc. Corie suggested it was time to move. So as of today Hostgator is handing my website, and my email has moved to Qwest/MSN. Rather than having a website email, and a personal email, I just decided to have one email, so folks...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 2, 2009 | Blog
I got some bad news on the Vento front. He’s been just a bear to ride, refusing to get in front of my leg. Doing the piaffe or the passage, and even the levade to avoid going forward. We thought it was something in his right low back and hip, but yesterday we discovered that his right rear suspensory tendon is inflamed. The ultra sound revealed no lesions, just inflammation, but he has to be off for two to four months, and then I have to bring him back slow. The...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Sep 2, 2009 | Blog
I’m late on a movie review, but here are my thoughts on DISTRICT 9. Overall I liked the movie, and I found it enormously disturbing. It really was the banality of evil during the early part of the film. Ty mentioned that it seemed like old fashioned science fiction, and I know what he means. Setting a particular ill in an unusual setting to make it more visceral is a standard trope in S.F. That’s what this movie did — fear of the Other, despising...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 27, 2009 | Blog
I’m linking to a terrific editorial in the NYT. Mostly because it holds the thoughts and reflections of a heath insurance industry insider, and it helps clarify the actions being taken by insurance companies. It’s no longer about spreading risk, it’s about maximizing profits.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 27, 2009 | Blog
The death of Ted Kennedy hit me hard. Not only because I fear for our chances to see real and fundamental health care reform without him, but for personal reasons. My dad was friends with Ted Kennedy. I was pretty little so I don’t remember the details, but apparently after the plan crash and Kennedy’s terrible back injury he did some rehab out west after being released from the hospital. Someone contacted my dad, and told him Teddy was lonely, and would dad...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 24, 2009 | Blog
I have a strange and upsetting situation. I’m the president of my small home owners association. Once of our member (who happens to be the vice-president of HOA) is retired military and somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. He is also a stone cold racist. He has been sending me these horrible racist emails that show the President as a dancing monkey, and one entitled Why Do Blacks Think They Deserve a Free Ride? I have asked three times, nicely and then...
