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work

I've been doing some different work lately, which is useful to the company, but not particularly enjoyable to me. It's just not really my cup of tea. In addition, my other work hasn't decreased at all.

People ask me how I like it all the time - management people who normally don't really talk to me. I know I should have a great attitude and say, I love helping out the company!! This is great, great, great! That wouldn't probably be better for my career and what a good employee would do. But, I just can't bring myself to lie. So I mumble and grumble something about it being OK. The asker always looks a bit crestfallen and wanders off, and I feel like a bad employee.

Maybe I should just lie. It'd make most people feel better.

8:16 a.m. - Oct. 09, 2008

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debate

I enjoyed the debate, the part I listened to, anyway. I thought both candidates had moments when they spoke well.

I find McCa*in's health plan basically indefensible. Maybe I just don't understand it, but as far as I can tell he's planning to dismantle or jeopardize the employee-based health care system, through which most people are currently insured, in favor of a 5K tax refund. 5K, from what I have read, is not enough for a family. (How much do singles get anyway?) In addition, I don't want to be taxed on my health care benefits! Health care currently is not perfect, but it's very good for a lot of people. And what about people with pre-existing conditions, like my sister? As it currently stands, as long as she's employed, she's fine. With M's plan, she might have to go on some highly-priced plan. I'm willing to help subsidize people like her at work in case I sometime become someone with a pre-existing condition. That's what insurance is all about - insuring yourself in case things go wrong.

Obama's plan sounds better. I highly approve of mandating that people by insurance for their kids. Some people who don't can't afford it. Others can and choose not to. Those people should be taken to task. Health care may or may not be a right, but it is certainly a responsibility as far as your kids are concerned. I also approve of having a nationally recognized income standard below which health care is subsidized, rather than doing it piecemeal and somewhat arbitrarily from state to state.

However, from what I've read, providing the highly generous plan that senators have available to them to all low-income people is completely financially unrealistic. If that's an unrealistic and most likely empty promise, how much more of what he says is completely unrealistic? If I were him and I got elected, which he most likely will, I'd pick my high-priority things and get working on them pronto, because when people realize that many of his promises are completely unrealistic given the current financial situation, the Dems might get voted out of Cong*ress.

7:49 a.m. - Oct. 08, 2008