our new puppy

We lost Cassidy this summer at the very old dog age of nearly 15 years. That left us with one dog, Penny, who was feeling pretty lonely without Cass and the house seemed pretty empty. So in came Charlie, our new puppy. He's been a great pup with lots of personality, and he keeps Penny pretty busy. She's his favorite chew toy.

new knits

Here's a few recent knitting projects I've recently finished.. more to come soon.

redesigns and newdesigns

I recently re-designed my design portfolio, check it out! melo-design.com I'm working on getting a steady stream of freelance work, and so far so good. In the next couple of months I'll be updating it frequently with new projects I'm in the process of wrapping up.

In addition to that, I created a web-business card, melissalorenzen.com which I'm pretty proud of. I was inspired by the new trend in online business cards and gave it a go.

I'm hoping my lack of updates is slightly made up for by the twitter feed I've attached to the page. Silly links that I would originally have posted on here I've been sending to twitter.

the end of the golden year

Yesterday I turned 29. I feel a little weird about this age. I really enjoyed 28. It was my "golden" year and it was a great year. I moved in with Josh, got engaged, did some traveling, all in all I had a great time. And now I'm not 28 anymore. Its not that I'm pessimistic about being 29, I'm sure it will be another great year. Despite my resistance to planning details, I'm starting to get jazzed up about wedding planning. I'll be doing a lot of that in my 29th year. There's even a little part of me that would rather get married in the spring, rather than in the fall so I can be married when I'm 29, rather than 30.

29 is the age women jokingly say they are when they don't want to give their real age. I'm hoping it's because 29 was so great, not that being older than 29 is such a drag. I have many friends in their 30s who are having a fantastic time, so I'm not that worried about it, but still. Whats the big deal about being 29?

on health care

I know I haven't posted any political articles in a while, mostly due to the fact that I feel pretty satisfied with our president, but also b/c I thought I'd try to steer this blog to more general posts. Which would have worked had I posted more often after the election.

I've noticed that there are a lot of ads on TV suggesting that Obama's universal health plan is going to be the ultimate cause the end of the world. They're sponsored by "Conservatives Who Care" type of groups. As if opposition is coming from a grassroots level. Please. I can guarantee that most of these ads are funded by the insurance companies who are now worried that they won't make the same recording breaking profits they've enjoyed for the last several years. In 2008 many of the top insurance companies reported a slight decrease in profits from 2007, but considering that most of them saw an increase from 2006, which was even better, I don't think they're counting their pennies.

One of their main arguments is that employers will stop offering private health care and rely on their employees to take on the government health insurance. Which they also argue, won't be as good as private insurance. That's probably true, current government run plans like medicare and medicaid aren't as good as most private health insurance. Where they're wrong is the assumption that employers will stop offering private insurance. What will happen is that employers will advertise the fact that they offer private health insurance as part of their benefit package, just as they do now.
Some employers will probably stop offering private health insurance, but it won't be much different than it is now. Currently many companies are cutting back or eliminating private health insurance for their employees because it is just too expensive. As a result, many people with jobs are finding themselves uninsured.

The percentage of people (workers and dependents) with employment-based health insurance has dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 62 percent in 2007. This is the lowest level of employment-based insurance coverage in more than a decade.

In 2007, 37 million workers were uninsured because not all businesses offer health benefits, not all workers qualify for coverage and many employees cannot afford their share of the health insurance premium even when coverage is at their fingertips.

The ads are ignoring the fact that 18% of Americans, nearly 46 million of us, don't have health insurance. 80% of the uninsured are native or naturalized citizens. Contrary to what conservatives will tell you, illegal immigrants are not going to be the ones benefiting most from a government health plan.

The fact is that the more people who are insured, the healthier our population will be. Access to preventative medicine could help reduce the costlier medical treatments many people currently need. Many uninsured people put off going to the doctor because they can't afford it. Their medical problem gets worse until they can no longer wait. By the time they see a doctor their problem is more serious, more expensive, and often times the cost is too high for the patient to pay. Next step, bankruptcy and the bill is left unpaid and has to be eaten by the health care industry. To subset the unpaid bill, health care costs rise. Those of us with health insurance have to pay the higher premiums due to more expensive health care.

Consider these possible outcomes. Yes they are hypothetical, but humor me here.
Guy has diabetes. He does not have health insurance. He tried to manage his diabetes on his own, but ends up losing circulation in one of his legs. It has to be removed. He goes to the hospital, has it removed, but can't afford to pay the bill as he has no health insurance. Guy has to declare bankruptcy to get out from under his mounting bills. Guy has to go on disability because he no longer has a leg. Tax payers take care of Guy.
Lady feels tired and weak. She's had heart palpitations but ignores them because she cant afford to go to the doctor. Had she gone to the doctor, she would have learned that she had high blood pressure, and could have treated it will medication. Instead she waits until she has a heart attack. She's rushed to the ER, but oops, too late, she dies.

Again, I know these are hypothetical, but these are fairly common diseases that are treatable. Left untreated, very expensive. Had Guy and Lady been insured, even with "crappy government insurance", their medical costs would have been much less. And because their medical costs were paid for, those of us who are also insured wouldn't have had to pick up the tab.

The health insurance companies will be just fine. With a government health plan covering the uninsured, heath care costs will go down. With lower health care costs, health insurance companies won't have to pay as much to the health care providers. They'll still rake in the profits just as well as before.

oops, a month

I've been trying to find a better way to post my twitter updates on here, as I do a lot of that now too.. I have a widget on the side with my recent updates, but it isn't formatted very well.

I just got back from Austin, TX for the HOW design conference. It was great, if you're interested in print, web, graphic or multimedia design, I highly recommend going. A lot of people told me I was going to loooove Austin b/c its like Bloomington, but better. It was nice, but I think my impression was tainted by the fact that it was 106 degrees the week I was there. yuck. So I didn't really want to be outside. I'm also not a big fan of dust, and it was *dusty*. I did take a few photos around town.

my bookmarks list

it has gotten out of hand. I use folders and organizing lines to keep everything in order, but lately its grown to unmanageable proportions. So enjoy some links, i've become a hoarder of them lately. If I've already posted some of these, I apologize - I've lost control.

dailypuppy.com
Does It Work?
Unnecessary Quotations
Picture Is Unrelated - WTF Pictures
texts from last night
Urban Prankster
Neatorama