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

San Francisco 2008 - AdobeMax

through the viewfinder

I saw an interesting idea for photos on flickr called 'through the viewfinder'. You take a picture through the viewfinder of another camera, which is a lot harder than it sounds. It made some very neat pictures, especially when I used my polaroid camera.

a few more knitting projects

photos, prepare yourself

I've finally updated my picasa account with the photos I've taken over the last 6 months or so. Here are some photos from my recent trip to Florida

big news

I went to Florida a couple weeks ago and came back engaged :) I'll try to post the photos from my trip soon, I had a lot of fun photographing pelicans and surfacing dolphins.

I've never been the kinda girl who dreamed of her wedding since she was born, so actually planning this wedding may be more difficult than for normal women.. I'm excited about the being-married part, just not the planning and organizing part. I don't care for the logistics or fine details. I woke up in a panic this morning to the realization that we'll need centerpieces for the tables, and I have no idea what "my colors" should be. so how on earth could I create centerpieces without "my colors"? and the wedding isn't for at least another year. i'm starting to understand the appeal of eloping to vegas.

a happy ending

the little dog was adopted :)

stray dogs

a few weeks ago a small stray dog showed up in our neighborhood. Of course I immediately started to spend all of my free time trying to get her to let me pet her, and when I am not doing that, I am worrying about her. She's the sweetest thing, and now lets me pet her, and even rolls over on her back for a tummy rub. She has no collar, and judging by her aversion to people, especially men, I assume she's been hurt by mean person.

Its beyond my comprehension how someone could hurt that sweet little dog. How could someone abandon that sweet little dog? Chances are, and again im just assuming, that someone dumped her in our neighborhood. Its a large neighborhood, so they probably figured that someone would take her in. Unfortunately none of the neighbors can, and instead that terrible abandoner put me in a tough position of bonding with this dog, only to know that I have to give her up too. I want her to find a good home, and she needs someone to bond with to start trusting people again. In the meantime its going to have to be me, and its going to be very hard to let her go.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Melo...

I decided to post something here, just because I can. Booyah! It's a cool, sunny day here in Bloomington today. It's a lot nicer than yesterday, when it was cold, rainy, and even snowed a little bit. To a Texan like me, snow at the end of March is still a strange, strange concept. I'm told that it did snow in Waco on Easter Sunday last year, though, so I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility. So why is this random friend of Melissa's posting on her blog about the weather, you ask? My answer is threefold: 1) Because I can. 2) Because I'm bored. 3) Because I knew you'd read it. Alright, I'm done. ;)

obama on the tonight show

He makes it so easy to love him.

happy st patricks day

this post has nothing to do with st patricks day, i just wanted to say that.

I started doing twitter a while back, and have not really found much use for it. i post some silly haikus on it sometimes... what is it supposed to be used for? I think im just too web old-school.

Hmm, some links...
I love looking at old photographs, and Shorpy has some of the coolest old pictures in very high resolution. I love finding pictures of fashionable ladies and very serious looking children.

The St Petersburg Times has set up a website to track President Obama's promises that he made on the campaign trail. So far he's doing pretty well!

knitting projects

I've made a lot of projects and never bothered to take pictures of them. Here are a couple of hats, the one that I am wearing I just finished.



The baby is not mine, she belongs to Dan and Jackie.

links, monday edition

Totally Lost I love Lost. I'm so hooked, I keep my Wednesday nights clear so I can watch it. EW has a great blog on Lost, and while it might not be as home grown as some other Lost blogs and forums, its a one-stop shop for me. Jorge Garcia aka Hurley aka Hugo, has a great blog. It isn't completely Lost oriented, a lot of it is just stuff going on in his life, and its very entertaining.

Why Would You Knit That? As my interest and skills with knitting has grown, so has my list of knitting sites that I frequent. This is a pretty funny one, I wish they would update more often, but who am I to complain?

Another knitting site I recently discovered, and love, is Ravelry. If you knit or are interested in starting to knit, I recommend that you become a member. Its free, and its an awesome community of knitters. There are a ton of free patterns. I just finished a hat that came from a free pattern from Ravelry. I will be posting some photos of that next.

starting off with my indulgences

Cuteoverload What a surprise, a chick who loves Cuteoverload. I can't help it, pictures of bunnies and hamsters, it helps me get through the day.

I can has cheezburger Same story, cute pictures with lolcaptions over them. All of the sites on the LOL Network are pretty funny.

Cake Wrecks I love pointing out other peoples mistakes. I do and its very annoying. I try to keep my comments to myself, but as people who know me know very well, I'm not very good at it. So I love this site. I often laugh to the point of crying when someone writes the full order slip on a cake, or spell congratulations "Congradlatons" Priceless.

this is what happens when I'm content

When I enjoy hearing my President's voice on Morning Edition on my way to work, I become too pleased to post. Obviously, one look at my blog categories shows my bias towards politically driven posts. To get myself back on track I'm going to start posting some of my favorite sites. I have a pretty large bookmark file and its time to unleash them. I have added a few new things to the side navigation, changed a few things around.

Late Show - Tribute to "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches"

i am gonna miss the funny. until i hear President Obama do another press conference. He is music to my ears.

Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.

I'm over the moon happy that Obama is our new president. I'm almost as happy that Dubya is not. Former President W. Bush. What a beautiful name.

What a beautiful day. It was so wonderful watching the inauguration, so many happy, overjoyed people in audience. This is truly a celebration. The nightmare that was Bush's presidency is over, it can only go up from here. I know we can't expect the world from one man, but after what we had to put up with for the last 8 years, a dead bird would've made a better president. At least the dead bird would've just smelled. A dead bird wouldn't have put us into an un-winnable war and let his other bird-buddies profit off the middle class of the country. A dead bird wouldn't have set our reputation back with the rest of the world. It would've just laid there, dead.

I am optimistic for our future. Hopefully someone buries the dead bird.

some holiday photos

View more photos >>

yes ive been slacking

And I'm sorry about it. I spent the majority of December knitting and knitting christmas gifts and now im wishing I had taken photos of them to post. I'll start taking photos, esp since I got a new camera for christmas from my very thoughtful boyfriend. I will post a few photos from the holidays to make up for the lack of posts.