I know many people that smoke. They have either done it since they were kids or they are kids and they got the habit from parents or friends. I was talking to someone the other day about how they want to quit smoking and I think it’s a great idea. Not only is it better for his health, but it will save him a huge amount of cash in the long run.

I decided he needed a little more of a push, so I averaged out the price he paid for cigarettes over the last 10 years, the amount of time he has been a smoker. If the price of a pack is $4 and you smoke a pack a day, he sometimes smoked 2, you would have wasted $13,440. Just on cigarettes alone in 10 years. My step father has been smoking since he was 15. He’s now going to be 50 so he has spent around $40,000 on cigarettes in his life time. I took 5 years off of that estimate as I don’t have the information on how much they cost when he was younger.

It’s hard to quit smokeing, but there are many products and tricks out there to help you quit the smoking habit for good. Don’t use the excuse that you will gain weight or be moody. You health should be your main concern, but right now with the cost of everything going up, don’t you want to be able to save that extra money your thowing away?

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Recently I applied for health insurance. I thought I was being taken off of my parents since I was going to be 25, but we found out 2 days ago I was not a very good thing as it’s saves me 100 a month.

I was lucky when I applied for health insurance I was covered when I was diagnosed with diabetes by the same company I applied to. So I was approved quickly and without any problems. On the other hand a friend of mine who has been diabetic since they were seven has always had problems getting insurance. Many don’t want to cover a diabetic. It’s considered a preexisting condition. There have been many times he has had to wait for insurance to kick in. He just finished school recently and got a new job. He has to wait 6 months before the insurance with this job will kick in. So he is working at both the new job and his old job just to keep the insurance. Yep you heard me, he was covered and still couldn’t get the insurance. Nice right.

I got lucky with my insurance they sent me information because they knew I would be taken off eventually. If it wasn’t for that I would have been stuck looking for insurance. I would probably have gotten onto a website like Insurance Desk that allows you to look up information on health insurance from different providers. I used a site similar to this a few years ago when I was not a student and didn’t have insurance through my job. I didn’t like it very much, but this site works a lot better. There is much more information and I would encourage you to check it out. The forms are simple to fill out and the website itself is easy to use.

I wish that everyone could have insurance. I still have a huge hospital bill I have to pay from when I was diagnosed. If I didn’t have insurance I would have had to file for bankruptcy because there was no way I could pay the $10,000 bill. I can barley afford to pay my deductible from it.

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Because Google is now running scared because there system sucks they have once again punished bloggers. My last pr 3 blog has not been dropped after doing 2 days of paid posting. Yep thats right I had only done paid posting on it for two days and bam, pr gone.

Am I giving up? Not yet, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not pissed off and extremely depressed. Thanks to Google I now can not afford my health insurance, my pills for my diabetes or to go to the doctor. At least after this month.

Thanks to Google I will probably die from complications from my diabetes because I can’t get these things and thanks to google my family will have to pay my $50,000 worth of debt. Thats what happens when you lose your job and can’t find one for 2 years. Most of that is student loans though as I’m still in school. Speaking of, I may not be able to get to school now because of Google. I can’t afford a new car, mine is now dead. I can’t even afford the gas to get there.

Yes all of this is because of google. I finally found a way to make money that our stupid president couldn’t ruin. Now Google has done it too. Yes Google and our dumb president fall into the same category now. Life ruiner’s and they don’t care because they are rich and don’t have to deal with what it’s like to pay bills and be a real person.

So even though I am very depressed and have just gotten done crying for the last hour. I am still going to keep trying. I don’t have a choice. I’m 25 years old and my life will be over if this doesn’t work. I have no future. Right now I’m fighting for my right to live. I know I’m not alone, there are many out there trying to put food on the table and keep roofs over there heads. In that respect I’m lucky. My parents have a home, but even they are running the risk of losing it now. The United states is no longer the best country in the world, it’s a sad fact, but very true. This needs to be fixed, and soon.

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Now that I’m diabetic I have found myself thinking of the future things that I may not be able to do and things that I need to do now so that I won’t be in trouble later. One of these things is to get long term care insurance. If something happens to me and my family can’t afford to take care of me that will not be a fun time in my life and I’ve already been though enough I think.

I know the reality of the illness I have, it can cause heart attacks, stroke and many more problems. I know that eventually my family will not want to care for me. Since it looks like children for me are out of the question. I would have to rely on my sisters and brother, my nieces and nephews. I don’t want to put anyone in that financial position.

Right now I can’t afford that type of insurance, but I hope to be able to soon.

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Last night I sat and watched the debate, Yes I watched the whole debate. Why? Well I thought that I might learn something and I did, but I still am not sure who I am voting for. I know who I am not.

Right now I am leaning more toward the Democrats, but I don’t know who I am going to vote for. All of the candidates made great points that I agree with. One being that health care in the united states is broken and needs to be fixed. What surprised me was that I agree with the Republican way to do it, and the democrat ways of doing it. Do I think government should take over health insurance. Yes, but they need strict regulations and if they can work with the insurance companies already here then maybe we can get both cheep health care and keep the good health care we have.

The Economy was another topic that interested me, I don’t think they covered it enough though. I have been saying for the last 3 years that the United states was going to go into a recession. Our president has ignored the signs and now we are in trouble. Yes he is now trying to find a way to stop it. But I think it just might be too late. The candidates all had some great ideas and of course many would probably help fix the economy. I loved it when one candidate asked “what happened to the democratic party? They use to be the party of the people.” I agree that the image has changed, but some of the ideas for the economy prove that these people still see the core values of there party. Tax cuts for the middle class and more taxes for the wealthy, the wealthy have money, they can afford to eat and pay there bills. Middle class people cant. My family is struggling again after just being able to get on their feet for once. My mother thought she might be able to retire by the time she is 70, but now it doesn’t look like it. She may NEVER be able to retire. Thats a sad thought, but a truth.

They of course covered the war, the Republicans in support of what is going on the Democrats against it. I agree with the Democrats that the solders need to be brought home as soon as possible, but with a plan and without causing ciaos in Iraq. I have said before that the only way to get Iraq to do anything and start taking responsibility for their own country is to pull out our troops and show that we will not be there forever.

I found the debate enlightening, but still not helpful for me. Of course I will not be voting in the Michigan primary because we have been told that unless we vote for a candidate our vote will not be counted. I am a Hillary supporter but at the same time, I’m not sure she is the one I want in office yet. I like her views but there are others I like as well. Having one choice is not right. Knowing that my vote will not matter is a huge turn off in this election. Michigan has had enough problems, why punish us for something our government decided to do. We didn’t vote to have the primary’s moved. The government choose it.

That is why I like that some candidates have come to the conclusion that the people need to be more involved in government and feel like they are more involved. If not the whole foundation of this country is being ignored and could be lost forever.

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This is not completely new, most of the US presidential candidates have a my space account and you can leave your comments on their page, but what if you could ask a question and get a response. Well you can now, kind of. There is a pretty cool website out there called AskTheCandidates2008.com - Talk with AI presidential candidates. This site will allow you to ask a candidate a question and the computer will give you an answer based on quotes from the candidate themselves.

I know that sound weird and like it wouldn’t be accurate but the system uses artificial intelligence to answer the question, so it learns from you and from others.  The following is a question I asked and the response I got. It was interesting, but needs a little fine tuning I think. This can be done by suggesting a better quote for an answer.

Hillary Clinton’s Answer:

What do you plan to do about health care?

Well, let me start by saying that all of the ideas that you’re going to hear about in this campaign are very important to get out to the public so that people can actually think about them, examine how they would affect their lives because I do have the experience of having put forth a plan, with many of the features that John and Barack just mentioned. And people were enthusiastic about it initially, but then after the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies got finished working on it, everybody got nervous and so politically we were not successful. Well, I’m ready to try again, and there’s three things we’ve got to do. We’ve got to control and decrease costs for everyone. This is not just about the uninsured. Yes, we have nearly 47 million, but we’ve got many millions more who have an insurance policy that they can barely afford and that they can’t get the treatments they need under it. We have to cover everybody but we’ve got to improve quality. We can save money within the existing system. I am not ready to put new money into a system that doesn’t work until we’ve tried to figure out how to get the best outcomes from the money we already have.

South Carolina Democratic Debate, April 26, 2007

I was happy with the answer since I know they can’t actually talk to me, but I can find out what they have said about an issue and decide if I like it or if I don’t. That I think is the best part about this website. I still am not sure who to vote for, I know who I’m not going to be, so this site may help me to learn more about these candidates and their view on the issues that affect me.

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As many of you know I’m diabetic. I have been looking for the last few months for an ID bracelet that I actually like, that doesn’t cost $300. Yes medical jewelry can be that expensive.

I think I found one I like and it’s only $29 but I still don’t have that much to spend right now. I could just add it to my Christmas list, but no one has that much to spend right now. My little brother gets everything so theres no money left. No I’m not mad about it, I understand where my mom is coming from. All of us girls got TV’s and game stuff, even though my older sister and I got it from our father and my sister took it all when she moved out after graduating. Yes I am mad about that!

Anyway. I know it’s a health issue if I don’t get it. So should I cut down on the gift spending and buy it, or wait and see if I get it for Christmas. There is a slight chance.

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