The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

From the outset, I admit to having been quite leery about Twitter. An old friend of mine suggested I give it a gander 4 years ago, so I tentatively did, but once I created an account, I kind of shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Okay, now what?" I had just recovered from a 2 year health battle, had started getting into writing again, but had no real plan of what my next steps were going to be. So I simply tweeted random humorous thoughts of mine, kept in touch with friends and their seeming need to show me everything they ate and regularly update me on their sleep schedules. I finally reached a point where I thought there was really no point to tweeting and I'd be better off not condensing my thoughts and writings to 140 characters, and instead writing on a blog and Tumblr. Three years later, after appearing on a radio show to promote my written work, being mentioned on another, and writing like a madman who's been given a lifetime supply of speed and only one year t...

It was anything but easy, but after four months of sporadically trying, I'm finally enrolled in "Obamacare," and will be saving approximately $1,200 a year due to it (in comparison to my old plan). I created my profile in late December of last year, and while the site was running slightly better than it had been in early October, it still wasn't cooperating with me very well, so I decided to give it up until the new year. Slowly, but surely, I started filling out the application, which was taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. Then, as of March, I had finally gone through all of my 27 healthcare options and made my decision. Unfortunately, after I clicked on my selections for both a healthcare and dental plan, once I clicked "review and confirm," a screen popped up, which said, "$0 premium - click confirm." While I had wished that was accurate, $0 is a far cry from $246, and I knew something had gone awry. When I clicked "confirm,...

I love the rock band Muse. They cause me what I call eargasms quite regularly. In light of their releasing an upcoming album in less than a week - The 2nd Law  - I've been on a Muse kick of late and have even tuned into their homepage and read some members' comments in the forum. Thanks to the band and iTunes, I was able to listen to a free stream of the new album in its entirety as of yesterday morning and have heard it twice all the way through now. I will refrain from providing a review until after I purchase the CD next Tuesday and turn it up full blast on my stereo. For the time being, though, I'll provide it a four-word description: Diverse, crazy and awesome. Excited about the new album, I was curious to read fellow fans' thoughts, feelings and reviews of it, so I went to the band's homepage and forum to read such commentary. I became a semi-regular on the site between one and two years ago (reading, not as much when it came to posting), when I saw the ba...