I was laid off last month and have been given the option to extend my health benefits via a COBRA plan.
The only hitch is that it costs nearly 4 times more than my former plan.
Is this really supposed to be affordable for the newly unemployed?

After 20 years working for the same company (baught and sold many times), I was finally fired. Not for wrongdoing or poor performance. In fact my boss, with tears in his eyes, told me how I had been an intregal part of our stations success. I was fired so the company could increase profitability by altering the way they delivered the product. They are making one of my co-workers do my work by doing a split shift and doubling his workload without a raise. Sounds like a great way to raise profitability!
I'm in my early 50's and had hoped to work here for many more years. But, it was not to be.
I was not alone in this streamlining of the company. Near 600 individuals lost their jobs.
It has been a long steep slope for Radio Talent the last 12 years. And I suppose it will only get worse. More people will lose their jobs as the new paradigm of the minimum of locally generated product becomes the norm. The minimum...
I actually don't feel scared or sad or even nervous. My wife and kids keep me grounded. Experiance tells me that life is always filled with these challenges. It is time to step up in a calm and honorable manner and get a new job. Really...I'm too old for this shit.

My apologies...I just had to vent.

to understand why people risk their lives. Without these types of personalities we would certainly be up shit creek whenever the aforementioned substance hits the fan...as it tends to do every now and then. These Seekers of Thrills are for the most part the People who make up the "A" teams here and around the world.
For the most part society is made of of sheep...tame little mammals calmly chewing their patch of grass and doing their best to obey the shepards and avoid the big bad wolves.
Then there are the other "Stupid" "Selfish" guys...you know...the ones who rush into burning buildings...jump out of planes into war zones...jump into flood waters to see if they will live...
You can disdain them all you want and place a value on your sheepish life...
But, in the end, these are the men and women that are really alive...
I'm fairly certain not one of them would want your sympathy...becouse they probobly don't care too much about what other people think.
If all you do in life is to avoid Real Danger...then you've never really lived...
I don't feel sorry one bit for these guys...or for that matter Mt. Climbers et al...but I do admire their gumption...a mad flooded raging maelstrom...jump right in with just a small raft and an oar? I see that and maybe give them a 50/50 chance of living...
I respect the fact that they liked those odds and took the leap...in the moment of that leap of faith they ceased being sheep...most people are not capable of understanding that.

1.Go to San Francisco China Town and order Sea Cucumber in a clay pot and some Crispy Duck!
2. Go to Huntington Beach on Saturday Morning and go Body Surfing
3. Spend a Day at the San Diego Zoo

http://www.sandiegozoo.org /

4. Eat lunch at Nena's Resteraunt on Valley Blvd in El Monte
5. Spend a Day at Disneyland
6. Go drinking at any Dive Bar in Hollywood on Santa Monica Blvd
7. Go to the San Gaberial Mission

http://sangabrielmission.org /

9. Take a cruise up Azusa Canyons and take a hike in the Angeles Crest National Forest

http://www.ci.azusa.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=3...

9. Go to Santa Anita Racetrack

http://www.santaanita.com /

10. Go to the Arboritum near Santa Anita

http://www.arboretum.org /

11. Spend a day at Knott's Berry Farm
12. Go to the Whiskey A-Go-Go on Friday Night in Hollywood
13. Check out the House of Blues
14. Go to Redondo Beach and check out the Pier

http://www.redondopier.com /

15. Go and spend the day at the Museums at the La Brea Tar Pits

http://www.tarpits.org /

16. Walk up and down Olvera Street

http://www.olvera-street.com /

17. Take a tour of the Winchester House in San Jose
18. Eat at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank on Riverside Drive

http://www.bobs.net /

19. Check out just how Squalid Beverly Hills Really is!
20. Go See a Movie at the chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Hope you like it!

Now that I've figured out how to post on u-tube I can be really annoying!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKWUo7H07c4

shucks all the years seem to have melded together...

The mist shrouds the early morning
As box store parking lots fill with cars
My children chime a strategic warning
The dinner time is not too far

Repeat the gesture of daily vice
Suburban life of Deja View
And so I add a little spice
To make it seem like new

It's easy to embrace a dark black demeanor
surrender to emo style and liquer drugged angst
Tis better to cook outdoors...the burger and the weiner
I propose to give Gaia humble thanks

In perfect flight a bird will fly
In total character a bear will eat its cub
In this blemish of life we can try
And find the imperfect/perfect meaning of love

My shirt is wet with the wave of you
Skirting the bottom and the darkness of Perdition
Turned like a lizard and seemingly dazed by the light
The bottom is upside and the iniquity of my soul is confounded

Swept like an ant, upended and displaced
Like an image of yin and yang circling the brim threatening to fall
The black pit vanishes and sky blue blinds my eyes
you are the wind that blew me upright as the mud flowed beneath and settled

Corneal white and smells of Butterflies
Salty foam and the cool breeze of soft delight with laughs loveliness
I have been floated upwards away from confusion
Delighting in innocence and the Highness of my soul

Delivered and led from the sadness that is the human condition
Heaven sent you to free me, becouse i could not do it myself
Like a Mastodon in a tar pit...sinking
I required you to be there and without effort like an angel you raised my heart

Reach for paradise and you may fall short
Neigh impossible to aspire in loneliness for Shangi-La
Aided by Angels, paradise is within all our grasp
So I traversed the wheel from darkness to heaven and never looked down...for the rest of my life

Our Hubble Love
by Steerpike

calmness in a pool of beauty
reflecting starry nights of cold stillness
with hands in gloves
we stroll amidst the leaves and asphalt
wandering in the storybook brightness of impossible charm

it sways these hips of roses red with the ruby kiss of love
like falling from a building hoping you live all the way down
and you bounce
and you sway
and the squirrels speak to you chattering lost secrets

We all drink a glass of deep profundity
wallowing in our happiness like a child with a plate of cookies
the sad and lonely hate us for our solidity
and we bind
and we smile
and the universe expands fleeing constantly

Birds from your Heart
by *MichaelOrtega

What secret leaves your heart?
The wings of passion fleeting pass...
Is it craft or is it art,
required to make love last?

Fatigue passes, leaves light faded
your hair lays softly over your eyes...
blinds your soul and leaves you jaded
unbinding long bound ties

If ever you look up to the skies
and talk to birds as they fly
forget all the tears and the lies
remember, love only works when you try...

You Left me For Another Girl
by *MichaelOrtega

I loved to touch your little pearl
The deepness in your song and heart
You left me for another girl
I was the wrong guy for the part

We met in school in Santa Fe
You played guitar and sang
You wore your clothes like in a play
It seemed you had a plan

I fell in love in spite of logic
You seemed to love me too
But really it was biologic
The one you loved was Sue!

Sue was crazy…that I knew…
She belched and loved to twirl
Inevitably you fell in love
And left me for a girl

I look back, now and then, and think of us
And what it might have been
I laugh and think, "What was the fuss?"
You were fat and had bad skin!

So I tell myself it wasn't meant to be
I really didn't want you
But that's a lie I tell myself
Because I cannot face what's true

It's your differences that made me love
You danced to a different drum
It's your spirit I was in awe of
You made me tremble and succumb

Just some pencil on paper

More hours into this revision...