Disqus - Latest Comments for PeterAllen

Re: Just how worried are you about the Swine Flu?

PeterAllen — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:54:44 -0000

I'd chime in here, but all of the ideas I have about this shit have been posted in some form or another...hell, who am I kidding? I can yap about anything.

This whole panic is fucking ridiculous. People are being told to stay out of public places, not to greet each other with anything more than a pat on the shoulder...I saw a headline that stated "First American Dies From Swine Flu" and it really pissed me off. What about the hundreds of people all over the world who lost their lives to this stupid disease? What about the hundreds of other people who died of the more virulent and more potent seasonal flu? What about the people suffering from other diseases? Why is this woman's face all over the internet?

This is really just a way for the government and other assorted powers at be to keep us at bay. Someone out there wanted a bigger paycheck so they latched on to this shit and are having people freak out about it, clamoring for a vaccine. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy theory but this is the same kind of absurd reaction people had to all of those other flavor-of-the-week health scares of the last few years: SARS, mad cow disease, anthrax attacks...and what about all of the other bullshit that people are getting pills for? Restless leg syndrome? Overactive bladder? Fuck you. People are still dying due to an inability to afford mosquito netting and clean water, I could give a fuck about swine flu.

Also, every person has a 100% chance of dying at some point in the future. Our society, especially, needs to relax with this bullshit campaign of infinite youth with makeup and hair replacement treatment. Easy to say that while I'm young, I guess, but part of growing up for me has been realizing that no one lives forever and it's pointless to try to fight things that are out of your hands.

Re: Reverse Racism?

PeterAllen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:19:16 -0000

Racism is racism no matter what the source is. Every single time I've heard someone say "reverse racism", it's come from some white kid who's experienced some kind of menial mistreatment because of his skin color. I feel like a lot of people are taught to believe that the word applies only when it's directed towards black or hispanic people...and every time I do hear it, I want to slam their face with a dictionary and a history book.

Re: I’m More Afraid of Doctor’s Bills than Hypodermic Needles

PeterAllen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:17:38 -0000

I'm usually pretty healthy. Vitamins, rest, staying warm, diet, and exercise usually prevent/solve problems I tun into. If that doesn't work, Tylenol PM does the trick.

I avoid going to the doctor at all costs. MY last visit was only because my school placed a block on my registration since I wasn't up to date on my immunizations...which is ironic, because in all of my years as a college student, I've missed class due to sickness maybe four times. An average of once per school year (or .5 times per semester, if your feelin' squirrely) ain't so bad.

I tripped and split open my forehead. I knew I needed stitches, but Neosporin and Tylenol got rid of the pain. Fixing it myself means no doctor, no bill, no nothing. Now I have a scar. Big deal. Total cost: whatever I spent on the ointment and bandages.

A few weeks ago I electrocuted myself while modifying one of my amplifiers. I got a burn on my right palm about a centimeter wide that didn't hurt one bit. My diagnosis? Third-degree burn. Treatment? Taking Vitamin E pills and applying Neosporin. No pain, small scar. Total cost: whatever I spent on the ointment and bandages.

Where did this paranoia come from? Why would I rather get scars than visit professionals?

At the very beginning of 2008, I suffered a near-fatal asthma attack. I called 911 and was carted off to the hospital, where I was given a number of injections and left on an IV for four hours with no further attention, and could only take a piss after calling for an attendant and waiting for another half hour for them to arrive. They ran my insurance card and said that I was not insured, when in fact I was (I was listed under United Healthcare Student Services instead of United Healthcare. Morons didn't think to read my fucking insurance card properly). I was billed for my time and received three prescriptions. I paid out of pocket for the prescriptions ($95) and was told I would be reimbursed. I sent all of my receipts to my insurance company and it turned out that my deductible was $100, a little detail they failed to mention beforehand. Then, they took another ten months to process my claims, which prompted the hospital and various other companies that had been billing me to release my debts to numerous collection agencies. At one point, my insurance company said that I was no longer eligible for reimbursement because my policy had expired. The hospital would send the bill to the insurance company, who would claim they never got it; the paramedics would do the same and the insurance company would say it must have gotten lost in the mail. I finally sent them a package with all of the paperwork they'd requested (and probably already received) with a signed note from an attorney saying that he'd reviewed the list of of was asked of me and reviewed what I was sending, and had concluded that it was all there...so they should really hurry the fuck up and finish already.

All told, I ended up having to pay another $150 to two separate collection companies because I made the mistake of sending the original bills to the insurance companies and thinking, you know, that they'd do their fucking jobs. Without another copy to send back, and their refusal to accept a receipt from the collection agents, I had to bite the bullet.

Unless I break a bone, or have a stomach virus that's so bad I can't even hold down water, I may never go back to a hospital/doctor/dentist ever again...that is, until I turn 40 and need to get "the exam".

My grandfather was alive during a time where doctors would be recommending different brands of cigarettes. Apparently the microscope hadn't been invented either, and the healthcare industry was failing to see why smokers were dropping dead left and right with black goo lining their lungs. At any rate, he was given four different diagnoses by four different doctors int he last five years of his life. Every month or so he would have to purge himself from the previous prescription he'd been taking. The last doctor prescribed him medicine that suppressed his cough. Side effects included weakening his immune system to the point that his cell levels resembled that of an AIDS patient. Another prescription was for the regulation of his body heat, which would counter-act the "effects" of the other drug by increasing blood flow and increasing body temperature so he wouldn't get hypothermia. What the doctor didn't tell him (or know, apparently) was that:

A) the first drug required you to be placed in a near-sterile environment...like a hospital. He was at home, and while we do tend to keep everything clean, he very well should have been in the hospital (where he could have been given a more complete treatment). That or a bubble would have done the trick.

B) (And this is the real kicker) The "inactive" ingredients in both drugs would interact with each other in such away that would slow his heart rate. Pulmonary Fibrosis, the condition from which he was suffering, causes decreased transfer of oxygen to blood. Basically, when used together, the first drug not only rendered the second drug useless, but would exacerbate his condition exponentially by slowing his heart rate, therefore bloodflow, and therefore lower his body temperature. Within a week, he was exhibiting symptoms similar to pneumonia, but was told to keep taking the medicine. He died within two weeks of his first visit to his last doctor.

Fuck this country's healthcare system; or, dare I say, "industry".

Re: Being an Asshole: Drew Schimmenti

PeterAllen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:27:14 -0000

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/...

asgkl;jahsdg;asdgasdg I don't get this new commenting format. BAH

Re: And I’d like to dedicate this one to Gram Parsons…

PeterAllen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:39:57 -0000

Tim,

It seems to me that you only read up to the part where I called myself straight edge and stopped, skipping the part where I said, "I’d always hated when people tried to impose their ideas on me..., so I’ve never really tried to wage any kind of moral war with people for what they do to themselves." Nonetheless, allow me to reiterate.

The conversations usually go like this:

Person: Hey, do you want a beer/cigarette/hit of this joint?
Me: Nah, I'm good, thanks.
Person: You sure?
Me: Yeah, I'm alright.
Person: What are you, "straightedge" or something
Me: Yeah...
Person: Don't judge me, bro, etc.

Person: Hey, do you want a beer/cigarette/hit of this joint?
Me: Nah, I'm good, thanks.
Person: You sure?
Me: Yeah, I'm alright.
Person: You don't drink/smoke?
Me. Nope.
Person: Oh. Cool.

The second scenario happens a lot more often than the first to begin with. In neither case do I bring up being straight edge. Most people are alright with the fact that I don't drink/etc., and the ones who aren't alright with it can exercise their right to go fuck themselves. Anyone who thinks I'm judging them without actually talking to me is probably not going to associate with me to begin with, nor I with them. I don't announce anything anywhere, except maybe when I wear one of the 3 or 4 shirts I own that say straight edge on them (which I have no problem with wearing, ever, considering how many times I see people wearing shirts having to do with beer, weed, cigarettes, and whatever else).

Moreover, being straight edge doesn't mean that you "believe drinking and drugging is bad and people shouldn’t be doing it". It's a set of personal choices and commitments you make to yourself, much like a vegetarian or vegan. A lot of my friends vegetarian friends would much rather use the term than to go on to explain the boundaries they place on their diets; on top of that, even the ones who chose their lifestyle for ethical reasons never go out of their way to berate me while I eat meat in front of them, the same way I don't yell at my friends for drinking or smoking in my presence (although cocaine, heroine, anti-depressants, and others are a bit of a different story...but that's more so that I would be worried about rather than angry with them). Even then, I hardly ever use the term straight edge outside of the punk rock and hardcore community because of the negative stigma attached to it by the media and mainstream media (much like "skinhead").

Ask Neil and Drew about how much I used to drink, and how hypocritical it would be of me to belittle someone else for drinking/etc.

Re: And I’d like to dedicate this one to Gram Parsons…

PeterAllen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:29:20 -0000

I had my last sip of alcohol at the age of 18 on New Year’s eve going into 2006. Eliminating alcohol from my life was an easy decision to make for me, and a year later I found myself being comfortable with identifying myself as straight edge due to my abstinence from cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol.

I’d always hated when people tried to impose their ideas on me ("Dude, just try this joint, it’s so cool"), so I’ve never really tried to wage any kind of moral war with people for what they do to themselves. I surround myself with good-natured people, some of whom enjoy getting shit-faced on occasion, and I’ve been known to drive my drunken friends home and wipe up their vomit-covered carpets. The negative reputation given to people who’ve adopted a straight edge lifestyle came mostly from the media, as there have been many unfortunate cases of loud-mouth kids calling themselves straight edge who would go to bars and beat people up for drinking or smoking.

Being intrusive and judgmental against other people exists in every facet of life where there are people who abstain from doing something and think they’re better for it. If they’re powerful enough, laws are made to try to instill their idea of morality on everyone. The same way Jesus Christ is documented as having wanted people to simply treat each other better, a few (very rich and powerful) bad apples gave him a bad name through years of murder, unjust conquest, and oppression of all kinds. Ian Mackeye, the man credited with coining the term “straight edge” never intended for the subsequent movement to follow, and there have been numerous instances where people give the straight edge lifestyle a bad name through violence and overzealous preaching. In many cities, having straight edge tattoos or clothing makes you a registered gang member according to the police. It should go without saying that not everyone who identifies as straight edge is in a gang.

Much like straight edge people and Christians (and obviously many other lifestyles and religions), drug and alcohol use gets a bad reputation because of many instances reported on by the media that get blown out of proportion. Once people’s behavior starts to go beyond an acceptable limit, the law steps in…but many cultures have shown that it is possible to live quite peacefully among users of drugs and alcohol. If the experience of being inebriated was qualitatively universal across the board, it would be a different story; since there are plenty of people who can use drugs and alcohol and still function properly over long periods of time, the negative experiences of a few should not make it illegal for all.

Being overweight for most of my childhood, I knew very well that eating fast food and not exercising would get me fat. I also knew that I did not like being fat, but never felt like getting off of my ass to do anything. Sheer laziness caused my problem but did not prevent the solution, as laziness is a mindset in which decisions are consciously made to avoid activities of any kind. I don’t hate overweight people, but I don’t feel sorry for them either, much in the same way that I don’t hate people who use drugs or alcohol, but I absolutely do not feel sorry for them when they face the consequences of their actions as the result of a conscious decision they made to put something into their body. Be it food, drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol, there is plenty of information out there that tells you what’s bad for you, so if anything happens to you as a result of a decision you made, it’s your fucking fault and no one else’s (and when I say “you”, I’m addressing no one in particular).

This country needs to see the legalization of marijuana for reasons that have been articulated for decades. Just because I’ve never used it and never want to does not mean that I want to see people get thrown in jail for smoking or having weed.

In short: I, agree with you, and this is coming from someone who’s never smoked (anything).

Re: New York, New York

PeterAllen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:39:52 -0000

I played a lot of baseball in my (much) younger days but grew completely disillusioned with it by the time I was only thirteen. I played sports because it was fun, because I loved throwing a ball around with my grandfather the way he used to with his grandfather. I played on teams in leagues around the city and he would come watch the games.

My grandfather was very different from my teammates. He never called me a "faggot" for not catching the ball. He never judged my character based on how good or bad I was. I thought I had made friends on those teams and yet since I wasn't always the best, none of them wanted anything to do with me. It was all about winning, it was always about winning, and it stopped being about having fun. Kids I knew were taking supplements and were being put through grueling weight training routines to make them faster, to make them "better", to make their pitches clock in at 80 miles an hour as 8th graders. And sure, losing games wasn't as fun as winning them, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Only once in my life did I have fun on a team and it was because my coach always reminded us that we were there to have fun and nothing more. We lost our championship game that year to a "better" team but we were too busy having fun to give a shit that we'd lost.

The entire professional sports industry (including collegiate sports) is designed to distract people from the mundane lives they're probably living in comparison to the players. People actually believe that they are "supporting" their team by exchanging their hard-earned money for a ticket to a game or a fitted cap. The only kind of support that really shows is that it translates into more to spend on better players, which make a "better" team, which means more championships. Regardless of whether or not a salary cap is in play, the true winners are always the ones who work and play the hardest for the love of the game and nothing else. And even that...all of that hard work, and for what? What do sports improve? How do they make the world better? For every (sometimes forced) act of charity we see from a professional athlete, we get awful rap albums from Shaq and Allen Iverson, we get rape charges, drug scandals, John Rocker, and soccer hooligans trampling each other to death (as are most of my posts, this is all tongue-in-cheek and to be taken with a healthy-sized grain o' salt).

I haven't been to watch a game of any kind since I went with my grandfather to the Notre Dame-USC game in South Bend. When my grandfather died, along with him went my desire to participate as a spectator in any kind of sport. I wouldn't call it a boycott but it's been going on since before he passed. Professional sports doesn't need me or my money to go on existing and your post makes me feel like I'm not such a weirdo for that.

Re: Just Like Home?

PeterAllen — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:21:23 -0000

That was all sarcasm. I thought that the maniacal laugh bit would be enough and even cut out a part where I grew horns and a tail.

Re: Just Like Home?

PeterAllen — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:45:10 -0000

I definitely am enjoying myself, it's just much harder to do so without the veil of innocence over my eyes from when I was a kid. I've even decided that I want to hang out with my dad, who I haven't seen or spoken to in years.

Most of the poverty I was talking about was that of the indigenous people; those with darker skin. Not a single white person was asking for money in the streets, working security or police jobs, working behind the counter at restaurants, or looking like they were facing any kind of struggle. It seems only logical to infer that the kinds of jobs being outsourced down here are not quite the kinds of jobs that white people would want to work. I can't speak for everyone here of European descent, but most of my family has dual citizenship and their only interaction with the U.S. economy is through their investments. They're mostly lawyers, contractors, and architects who deal primarily with the local markets and so the effects of the American economy are only residual.

My father's side of the family is part Native and part European, and just like most of my family, the only part that shows is European. The racial divide here is unbelievable.

As for my atheism, I'm more of an agnostic, thankyouverymuch. It was kinda funny at midnight though. Here, hey set off fireworks for 2 hours straight as midnight strikes on the 25th. They have elaborate parades and most of the city's businesses shut down, all in honor of Jesus H. Christ. The entire time, I was asking myself, "What are all of these people going to do when they find out that they're....wrong?" followed by a maniacal laugh.

Merry Fuckmas, jerks!

Re: Get Em While They’re Hot!

PeterAllen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:05:25 -0000

Also, check this out. It's an article about the exact kind of douchebags who are all about money, cars, and women. What's funny is that these rich kids and their parents are the ones unaffected by the recession and they're the ones still flaunting their money.

"With the recession, yeah, I'm worse off," he explains. "I could probably go to Enterprise and rent a station wagon or something, but I think once you go Ferrari, it's hard to go below that again. Sometimes when I'm not in the mood to splurge, I'm perfectly fine with settling for a Mercedes or a Cadillac Escalade."

Sickening.

Re: Get Em While They’re Hot!

PeterAllen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:59:40 -0000

Being poor in the United States is nothing like being poor anywhere else in the world. "Poverty" in the United States, statistically, means having the ability to/actually owning up to 2 cars, a TV, 2 computers, cable, a cell phone...

With you 100% on this. People run themselves into a financial holes to keep up with useless trends in fashion and gadgetry and then have the audacity to whine and talk about how tough their life is. Among them are suburbanite punk rockers who complain about high prices of shows but will drop huge amounts on limited band merch, a Nike Dunks collection (click here for a pseudo-hardcore kid's wet dream), limited vinyl (but no record player)...the list goes on.

Almost every social issue we're facing is rooted in the great American Rat Race towards the American Dream. The internet is killing the music industry and MTV weighs in, Napster makes headlines...but no one is concerned with the collapsing publishing industry, who have seen sharp decreases of sales in recent decades. Barnes & Noble's received their own bailout when Starbucks bought their way into the company. Kids would rather play X-Box games than read a good book.

Enrollment in universities is going up, but so is the rate of graduates with business degrees. In the pursuit of money, it becomes necessary to dumb down your target market so they'll be easily coerced into handing over their paychecks in exchange for all of the products they'll buy with inherently short shelf lives. Being on top of every trend keeps people too busy to care about real issues, and next thing you know, a conservative president has our country fighting a war we can't win that will fatten his own and his friends' bank accounts. Why does no one care? Because we're up to our necks in debt that we brought upon ourselves.

Re: You Must Be The Monopoly Guy

PeterAllen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:00:18 -0000

Not properly trained in what? Getting trampled by materialist swine? What a sick world we live in.

Re: Want a free ride for life? Learn to play the tuba.

PeterAllen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:27:44 -0000

Craig, you really brought a smile to my face. Nothing about this article represents the actual view that I have (except the last sentence). I just thought it would be funny to write an article about a goofy instrument (tuba) with an equally goofy name (too-baah) that I could write over and over (tuba tuba tuba tuba tuba).

Re: Two Seperate Scenarios involving “Hit and Run”

PeterAllen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:52:17 -0000

A lot of people will try to argue that "Police are people, too. They have feelings, and the way they react is the same way that so many other people would react" or something along those lines.

The truth is, police officers are held to a much higher standard than the average civilian. Whether or not you're on duty is irrelevant: having a badge to your name does not mean that different rules apply to you, but instead means that a new set of rules apply to you on top of what's expected from ordinary citizens. Across the board, police officers are supposed to be role models with fairly clean records that set an example for the people they are supposed to "protect and serve".

The sad part is, not every cop has a boy scout's honesty and cover-ups happen all the time at the public's expense. We do have to remember that police officers are human, but we also have to remind them that people with badges have to pay a heavier price for their mistakes.

Re: Lost and Found

PeterAllen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:18:36 -0000

As I was writing this, I remembered hearing about that guitar getting stolen. It's such a dick move.

I actually almost stole a power supply from my friend at a show; gave it back to him after I remembered that my second one was broken.

The worst is when I hear about bands getting their vans and trailers broken into. Their merch, their gear, all of their personal shit just goes up in smoke. Really sucks and shouldn't happen, ever.

Re: Bittersweet.

PeterAllen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:13:46 -0000

To be fair, I did go back and slightly edit my post; not to try to discredit Drew, but I definitely didn't mean to downplay Obama's victory.

Thanks for the feedback. This post is definitely a step in the right direction for me, as I was able to say exactly what I wanted in a significantly shorter post (892) than my first one (1979).

Re: Bittersweet.

PeterAllen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:41:57 -0000

I didn’t mean that last bit as an insult to Obama, I meant to point out how happy I am that our country is tired of hiring rich white members of secret societies in Ivy league schools and are instead giving the job to someone who much more accurately represents the average American: someone who has a mixed background, who makes mistakes, who admits their mistakes, and who is willing to take everything in stride while working for a better future.

Whereas I didn’t necessarily care about Obama before (I felt that I was voting against the Republicans as opposed to for the Democrats), I was moved by his speech and did feel a great sense of optimism from witnessing his victory. I am thrilled to be part of a generation that voted in our nation’s first black president, and I am just as thrilled that he once again addressed ALL Americans as opposed to just “hockey moms” and “Joe Sixpacks”.

My disappointment came when I saw so many people voicing their support for a single piece of the voting process’ puzzle, the easiest part. It felt as though everyone was expecting that their candidate would make all of their changes for them instead of grabbing hold of the opportunity to actively take part in the process.

It wasn’t just the marriage amendment that went haywire:

Amendment 1 would have removed the discriminatory language from the constitution that restricted the rights of immigrants to own property. Added in 1926, the measure was aimed against Asian-Americans, who have since (as have pretty much all groups of immigrants) made endless contributions to our country’s well-being. The amendment was DEFEATED because the opposition “believed the law could be used to prevent foreign terrorist groups from buying real estate” (taken from MyFox Orlando's page).

Amendment 3 would make it so that homeowners who wished to add things that protect or make their homes more eco-friendly (hurricane shutters and solar panels) would not have to face a raise in property taxes. The amendment is still too close to call. It’s looking more and more like it will fail to pass, which will make people have to pay significantly more in taxes, which takes money out of people’s pockets and discourages others from making worthwhile additions to their home.

Neither of these two had any visual support.

Amendment 8 would have given each county the individual right to vote on public college funding. Any extra tax would be in place for a maximum of five years, after which it would be subject to another vote. This amendment was also defeated, in spite of having a huge presence on election day (at least in the tri-county area). Rather than allow our county’s citizens to have more control over public funding, voters decided that they wanted the entire state to treat each school as one in the same, meaning that schools in smaller areas will undoubtedly continue to struggle for funding. As a graduate of Miami-Dade College, a school whose two-year graduates regularly outperform their peers after transferring to four year state universities in their third and fourth years, I take it very personally that this was defeated. I actually heard someone in one of my classes say that she and all of her friends voted against it because they all “went to private school, so fuck public schools.” Such is the nature of the beast.

I am still angry, but now more optimistic. The fight for equal rights is definitely not over. I’m looking forward to the next four years with Barack Obama as president and hope that people will be more inspired to educate themselves and fight for what’s right instead of doing what all of their friends tell them to do.