Why I Don’t Watch Dr. Who

This is likely the worst life story I’ll ever write about, but the more I hear about Dr. Who, the more I feel compelled to share why I don’t watch it.

When I was in first or second grade, at Beltsville elementary, one of my classmates was a tall, slow-witted blond kid. As I remember it, he was a friend of mine, but as a 6-year-old, it was apparent that he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. To give a clearer picture of how I remember him at the age of six, see Tom ‘M-O-O-N’ Cullen from Steven King’s The Stand, though I’ll admit that’s unfair and not nice.

Anyway, the teacher asked us all if we had done our homework from the night before. We all had, except for him.

“Well I had to watch Dr. Who,” he said.

And with that, I promised myself I would never watch Dr. Who.

Again, I don’t claim to have any superiority over this guy, and I certainly watch my fair share of silly television, but his endorsement of the show and the fact that he didn’t do his homework because of it awakened a prejudice within me that permanently turned me off from ever watching that show. Glad he didn’t say the same thing about Ancient Aliens.

Holding an Infant

I’m fairly certain that this is the first time in about a decade that I’ve held an infant (Jan. 1, 2012). This being the child of my friend James, holding her was less of a choice and more about him putting her on my lap, but needless to say, it was very nice. This is Sophia Chiu at five months. I’ll remind her that I held her when she’s all grown up.

New Car!

After 11 years, and after milking my ’97 Mercury Mystique for almost all it was worth, I purchased a new car. I got a Toyota Camry LE. It was pretty much exactly what I set out to get. Between the earthquake and Hurricane Irene, the car actually got partially damaged in a small hail storm. The roof had very small dents in it, but the dealership fixed it first.

 

Aetna Declines My Health Insurance Application

I applied for health insurance recently, with two different companies. Both denied me due to a ‘pre-existing condition’ which really was about an incident three years ago and routine maintenance ever since. I pose no threat to the bottom line of their company and am certain to make them income. But that’s not good enough. They want to insure people who will make NO CLAIMS. That’s business, after all.

What these two companies did will be illegal starting January, 2014.

Making it illegal to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions is probably one of the least-controversial parts of Obama’s health care legislation (unless, of course, you were an insurance lobbyist or someone who was getting paid by the insurance companies). So instead of having the law change in 2011, the compromise was 2014. So much good that does me now, huh?

Aetna’s sales staff – a company that I’ve been insured with since 2005 – was quite helpful in getting me the info to stay with Aetna after my previous insurance ran out. So I applied, and waited. Then a jerk named Erik Wheeler declined me. Aetna didn’t even bother to send me a letter to tell me – I had to find out by calling.

I truly hope that Erik Wheeler, and everyone in the insurance industry who work hard to keep taking advantage of the time before 2014, have horrible things happen to them.

These are terrible people and they should rot in hell. The law change in 2014 will help make these folks irrelevant but not until they get a taste of their own medicine will justice come.