A couple weeks ago, I saw the amazing documentary, Dear Jack, about Andrew McMahon (of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate)’s struggle with Leukemia. There was a Q&A after the screening and I wanted to ask him this exact question, but didn’t think it was really the time or place. I’m glad I got my answer. (via)With all of your experiences, what is your opinion on the healthcare debate?
I think it’s horrible. We’re sitting in a horrible place. I have health insurance and I went into the doctor’s office the other day and got sent a bill for $1100 after they went to my insurance company. I think there’s this crazy effort to stall, or accommodate the people who are robbing our entire society blind for the sake of profiting in the most grotesque way humanly possible over people’s diseases and illnesses. I was lucky. I had health insurance and a business manager. But it certainly was a topic of much conversation among myself, my friends and my family, that what if I had not been in such an advantageous place? I’m scared that they’re going to go “reform” the industry but make such a point to make concessions to these pigs who are robbing us blind that we might not actually get reform.
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Whoa! This is the best facebook app ever! It’s like they really know me!
The facebook poll for that Bally’s Total Fitness shoot I did a while back is finally up. So if you take the quiz as a male (regardless of if you are or not), you’ll get to see my lovely face at the end. It’s going to be a bit weird if I see myself on random people’s facebook profiles.
Edit: Take the quiz yourself.
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is killing me.
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SD: What do you think is the most troubling general misconception about introverts?via An Interview With Dr. Laurie Helgoe, Author of Introvert Power on my new favorite blog, An Introvert’s Corner
LH: Wow — it’s hard to choose. I am very troubled by the tendency to define introverts by what they lack. Introversion is a preference, not a fallback plan. Introverts like being introverts. We are drawn to ideas, we are passionate observers, and for us, solitude is rich and generative. Think of all that goes on in the playground of solitude: daydreaming, reading, composing, meditating — and just being, writing, calculating, fantasizing, thinking, praying, theorizing, imagining, drawing/painting/sculpting, inventing, researching, reflecting. You get the idea.
SD: What do you most want other introverts to know about themselves?
LH: Your preference for introversion is normal and healthy, and you are not a part of some deviant subculture. In fact, the largest studies to date document that you make up a slight majority of the population.
It’s all about energy: What appears to be the bottom-line difference between introverts and extroverts is that social interactions are energizing to extroverts but draining for introverts. This is why I might come to your party but leave long before the conga line starts. And why a stretch of interaction then requires a few days of solitude to recover. If you understand this, you will have grasped a key quality of your introverted friends and their perhaps puzzling behavior (why didn’t she come to the after-hours party?) will make more sense. — via The Inside Scoop on Your Introvert Friends
Evict Entitlement and Take Responsibility. One of the greatest myths that is pervasive in our culture today is that you are entitled to a great life and that somehow, somewhere, someone is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist. But the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is YOU. — via
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