Orthodox Discordianism

So, managed to trick the system into putting me in contact with someone who could give me my United States Department of Labor Office of Worker Compensation Programs claim# for my accident. This happened on Thursday.

I was injured on June 24.

I've been hounding people for that number, because the orthopedic surgeon won't see me without it. Also, the clinic where I've been getting treatment is getting itchy to be paid.

They guy I talked to was apologetic that I didn't get the claim number sooner - it was issued on June 29, the day I turned in my paperwork for the accident. It was SUPPOSED to have been mailed to me.

Anyway, it seems that, because I wasn't hauled off in an ambulance or some shit, they recorded it as a "no time loss" claim, which means they'll pay all valid medical bills. Up to $1500. Which is conveniently about the price of one of my appointments, the one where I got the X-Rays.

I'm working to get it sorted, but I'm getting really tired of having to manage every little detail. I want *SOMEONE* on the admin side of this thing to be competent.

I *REALLY* want to find out why I can't walk or stand without assistance. I'd *LOVE* to be physically able to get a job, seeing as my "sweet slave-wage government job" has come to an end.

Anywho, just a bit of bellyaching. I now return you to your regularly scheduled shenanigans.

Found this in my various Internet ramblings earlier today

An Assortment of Underachieving AT-ATs

Click it, then explore the rest of his site. Amazing.

Anyone know anyone who knows how to set up Shoutcast Server on Ubuntu Linux?

Representative Blumenauer,


My name is OMG T. Funnay. I'm a recent transplant to your district, having come to Oregon #3 from Arizona by way of Seattle.

In April 2009, I was laid off from a technology company in Seattle. I'd worked there for nearly two years and was earning a little under twenty-seven dollars an hour. In a single day, 15% of fellow employees and 40% of my department in particular were handed pink slips. We all entered the job market withing weeks of Microsoft announcing the cutting of 5,000 jobs from their Redmond campus.

I am a poster child for the collapse of the American economy. There were problems in applying for unemployment benefits, and they didn't kick in until three months after my job loss. I couldn't afford COBRA medical coverage as a result, and had to stop taking the medications prescribed to my for my bipolar disorder and ADHD. My marriage fell apart, I couldn't afford the apartment I was living in and I felt like I was in a race to the bottom.

I moved to Oregon in February 2010 after my UI benefits terminated for reasons I don't understand and I lost my second apartment in less than a year. My girlfriend worked a deal with her landlords to let me stay with her, on a rent-on-credit basis.

After applying for literally hundreds if not thousands of jobs (from jobs that would have been smart career moves in other circumstances, to a gig at a deli counter in a small neighborhood grocery), I have found work exactly twice: A 4-day gig at the Northwest Folk Life Festival in May of 2009, and an unpaid-with-a-living-stipend project in the Portland Public Schools through Oregon Campus Compact and AmeriCorps, making me for all intents and purposes a Federal employee.

On June 24, 2010, I fell down a flight of stairs while I was on the job. The incident was reported and the following Tuesday I sought medical attention for a knee injury that I sustained. I filled out the appropriate paperwork, submitted it and continued to seek treatment. Now, six weeks and a dozen or more doctors' appointments later, I have hit a brick wall - I've been referred to an orthopedic specialist, but I cannot make an appointment until I receive a case number from the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.

I have followed up with my command structure, and I have been told that there is no more information (or assistance) available to me at this time. I have been told that as soon as my paperwork is processed and a case number assigned, I "will be the first to know." I have additionally been told that actual treatment may not be approved.

Meanwhile, my project with PPS has ended. I am again out of work, out of UI benefits, and unable to find new work due to my injury. I feel like I've followed all of the rules, but that no one else in the process has any stake in actually assisting me (I know that my program director at AmeriCorp/OCCC would fix this in a moment if she could, but her hands are tied). I feel like I lived up to my end of the bargain and have been given the cold shoulder by an uncaring Process.

I know that things are hard for millions of Americans, and I know that some have it worse than I do. I need to know that you can help me, that someone actually cares about what happens to those of us that have found our lives a smoking wreck not of our own making. I urge you to speak out in favor of smart economic policies, in favor of measures that help the weak and the defenseless and those of us who have been left feeling alone and betrayed by those who seek to profit at any cost.


Thank you for your time.
OMG T. Funnay

Saint Tony would be proud of me.

I just passed my Oregon Food Handler's test without any review and scored 100%.

The calibre of questions was such that I had to ponder this gem:
""The right way to do abdominal thrusts on an adult choking victim is to grab the victim by the shoulders and shake real hard"

WTF, yo?

Just checking. Looks like I might be back, sort of. How're you doing?

I am leaving the Internet.

I've canceled my Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace accounts. I am having text messaging removed from my phone. This account is getting deleted in 48 hours.

hollyking, I need you to run the Unhallowed Seattle game. I will be unable to attend from here on out.

I will not be monitoring my cell phone or personal email. I will be reading my professional email and checking voicemail on business days from 8AM-10AM. If you need me in an emergency, you can contact sugar and ask her to pass me a message.

Edited: I will not be using instant messengers anymore, either. I am severing my connections to the 'Net as much as I can.

Hee! April 27 marks the 27th anniversary of sugar's emergence into this plane of existence

Pursuant to that frabulous joy, and seeing that it's a school night, we're having a party on April 25

The "deets":
April 25
10:00 PM
The Vogue at Neighbor's Underground
1509 Broadway, Seattle
21+
$8 cover

The Vogue is Seattle's premiere Goth/Industrial/80's New Wave club night. My very good friend DJ Eternal Darkness is one of three tremendous local DJs

Dinner beforehand is certainly going to happen, but there are no plans yet.

Please please please come and party with us!

Sugar will make the sadface if you don't!

So, who's in?

OH MY FUCKING GAWD!

I went to the Seattle U pool last night to join the Northwest Underwater Hockey League (no website, sadly) in a night of... laying hockey on the bottom of a pool</a>. It was sheer unmitigated raw awesome fun.

How to explain it.. you take a 3-pound puck, put it in a pool, and then dive after it, trying to push it into the opposing goal with a little stick. The majority of the game is on the pool bottom, you come up for air and repositioning only.

I'm a fat, out of shape son of a bitch. I used to SCUBA dive, but that ended up only helping me use the fins. I'm proud of myself- I only played for 5 minutes, but I stayed in the pool for an hour-forty.

I inhaled water. I nearly drowned. I took a chunk out of my knee on a pool tile. I forgot how to snorkel (SCUBA muscle memory screwed me). I panicked once or twice. I was so tired that I couldn't lift myself out of the pool.

I dove too deep too fast and fucked up my bad sinus. Being a good, smart diver, I blew my air and ascended... unfortunately, that's only the right procedure for SCUBA - I hit the surface and didn't have enough air to clear my snorkel, and ended up taking on water. Ah, well.

I played in the water for an hour and forty minutes. I played in the water till I was wrinkled and cold (but I wasn't the first one to get out of the pool!) and then I showered, sat in a sauna, and went to dinner/drinks with the team

It was sheer unedited joy the whole time. Even when I was exhausted, bleeding from the knee and clearing my lungs, I was having a great time. I can't wait till next week to do it all again.

though I'm thinking about registering for a swimming class to get some pool time in. Man, that was a fine workout.

Seriosuly, I think I'm going to start hating my parents.

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