For those of you who were just reading Wendy's 11/21/08 blog entry...
This is me wearing the same outfit James wore last Sunday. I am with my Uncle Stephen in this picture, taken around Christmas in 1984, when I was almost the exact same age James is now (a wee bit shy of one year).

My blog is liberated!

My Persuasive Writing class is over now, which means I can post whatever the heck I want to on this blog. The class required the maintenance of a blog with three entries a week about certain topics. I will keep this blog now as a personal blog, like everyone else has.
So, I don't have too much time right now since I am in the midst of final exams, but I want to tell everyone what happened to James yesterday. This girl named Cristiana (?) at church, who is about a year and a half old, was hugging on James and patting his head. Then suddenly she grabbed his cheeks and kissed him on the lips! My boy got his first kiss at the age of four months!
Oh yeah, she also tried...grabbing him. Yeah, I'll leave it at that. Little kids are so funny.

Introduction to the paper:

Enthymeme

Okay, I've decided I really don't have an enthymeme after all. I can't come up with any really good idea of how to resolve my issue. I'm at a complete and utter blank. This is quite the inopportune moment for it to happen, also, since tomorrow is Enthymeme Day. I will have to leave early because of some wacky geology field trip I need to go on (trust me, I wasn't planning to leave early because of enthymeme lack- my work schedule changed, and I couldn't go with the group on Saturday as I originally planned).
Hmmm, since the pharmaceutical companies supposedly don't like prescription drugs from other countries, what could be done to help curb that? For me, it would help if I could get some sort of discount while going through the waiting period before a new insurance company's plan would cover my meds. If I have to wait that long, I am still going to get my drugs from somewhere. It would most likely be Mexico. If they don't want me doing that, I could get a reduced price on the medicine so that I will still buy it here. I mean, even if it still ends up being a bit more than the Mexican price, per se, I would be willing to pay it here in order to avoid the hassle.
I'm just rambling, and I don't care that neither this nor the last entry qualifies as FW, TA, or RA (or whatever the categories for entries are).

Waiting periods

Waiting periods for pre-existing conditions are what I want to write about (I think). I talked a bit about this before, but I have looked some more into it. Most insurance plans, far and wide, will make you wait anywhere from 3 to 6 months or more before they will cover any pre-existing health condition you have. Now, I can understand that an insurance company would not want to have to suddenly pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of surgery or treatment immediately when that person gets the insurance policy. People could definitely take advantage of the system in such a situation. You have something really bad coming, and the procedures are going to be really expensive. You decide to get X-Company's Insurance to pay for all of it about three days before you actually plan on having the stuff done to you. Insurance companies have to protect their financial butts somehow. Insurance companies can also decide whether or not they want to treat a person who they know is going to charge them $1.84 bazillion and soon.
However, not every pre-existing condition is going to be like this. I, for example, have epilepsy, and I need to take a certain drug twice a day. It is a 200mg caplet that went for around five bucks without insurance four or five years ago. I am sure that number is up now, though I don't know by exactly how much. Anyway, my medicine completely controls my seizures. In fact, today "celebrates" my last seizure, 1 April 2001. I cannot miss a single dose of my medicine or I risk having a really big seizure, possibly to the point of death. Because of how long and strong it was, my last seizure actually probably should have killed me, seriously. Anyway, if I can just take this pill twice a day, I am totally fine and fully functioning. Fortunately my current insurer through my employer requires no waiting period. I'm learning that is the exception and not the rule. When I quit my employer (and believe me, I will quit working at Macey's when I'm done with Provo), I will have to go to another insurance plan. I think, though, that I will have to wait before they will cover my medicine costs. Three to six months is a long time to go without medicine coverage. Unless I get a HUGE refill right before I quit, I will most likely have to get my drugs from Mexico. I did it before, and they worked just fine. (Yes yes, we had that discussion about the reliability of Mexican pharmaceuticals) I will be kind of forced into doing that, though.
I gotta stop rambling. How do I shape my paper to address this issue? I need help.

My wife and I were just talking about a recent news item about a guy who microwaved his baby. We were both sitting here and wondering what could ever have crossed that man's mind to even give him the idea to do that. Unless he was absolutely out of his mind and seriously had no control over what he was doing, he's a sick hell spawn who shouldn't have children in the first place. His child was two months old, by the way. How can you think to do anything so dastardly, so malevolent, as to torture your child that way? I can understand that itsby bitsy children can be frustrating. When I am alone with my son and he starts absolutely freaking out and gets into an "I only want Mom right now and nobody no one nothing else now now now," I have to take a step back and get my head on straight before reacting. He is so sweet, though, so innocent, as I know without a doubt all babies everywhere are. Anyone that can torture/molest/kill a child certainly deserves the treatment the Lord Himself prescribed, hanging them by a millstone and casting them into the depths of the sea. Some don't realize what a millstone is. It is a huuuuuge heavy rock that is used to grind stuff, like flour, wheat, shoddy college papers, etc., and it weighs thousands of pounds. Tie one of those around your neck and fall into the sea, and then tell me how you fared.
It's funny that some people say, "Oh NO! Be 'Christian' with the person! Don't punish him!" Hah. Read the New Testament, and you'll see for yourself.
I don't mean to become judge and jury right here. Well, maybe I do, but I don't want to declare that everyone who is suspected of mistreating a child should be tossed into jail for 1.3 bazillion years. Give a fair chance, but when it is found that that person has violated a child, give 'im the rock.
I think this has turned out well for what is officially my first entry done completely under the influence of Nyquil. Time for bed now.