Contemplations of my right brain

Buddhist temple built out of one million beer bottles

skyboltcommunications — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:52:07 +0000

Photo: BRONEK KAMINSKI/BARCROFT MEDIA

What we could learn from these Buddhist monks. Not only are they making sound ecological choices, but they have also created a marketing niche.

“Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew, also known as Wat Lan Kuad or ‘the Temple of a Million Bottles’, is in Sisaket province near the Cambodian border, 400 miles from the capital Bangkok.

The Buddhist monks began collecting bottles in 1984 and they collected so many that they decided to use them as a building material.

They encouraged the local authorities to send them more and they have now created a complex of around 20 buildings using the beer bottles, comprising the main temple over a lake, crematorium, prayer rooms, a hall, water tower, tourist bathrooms and several small bungalows raised off the ground which serve as monks quarters….A concrete core is used to strengthen the building and the green bottles are Heineken and the brown ones are the Thai beer Chang.

The monks are so eco-friendly that the mosaics of Buddha are created with recycled beer bottle caps.

Altogether there are about 1.5 million recycled bottles in the temple, and the monks at the temple are intending to reuse even more….The beer bottle temple is now on an approved list of eco-friendly sight-seeing tours in southeast Asia.”

- Telegraph.co.uk

Proposition 8 – A Gift to My Friends

skyboltcommunications — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:47:29 +0000

Prop 8 – The Musical

more about “Vodpod Firefox Extension for WordPress“, posted with vodpod

The punctuation mark on my forehead

skyboltcommunications — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:19:13 +0000

I am a person who constantly questions. I need to know the ‘why’ in life. Perhaps that stems from working as a journalist. Or maybe it’s my method of understanding my environment and solidifying my illusory comfort zone. Either way, I tend toward a dogged pursuit for an answer to try to understand all things, whether they deal with human nature or the coincidences that life brings. It is my attempt to make sense of the world and to understand the connections that make us human.

The deductible game that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plays

skyboltcommunications — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:02:27 +0000

I pay $379.41 a month for my Cobra plan. When I decided to start seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist to treat my bipolar disorder, I chose participants in my plan. That way I would only have to pay a $25 co-pay for each visit, and I would be allowed 50 visits with each doctor per year.

After enduring my third visit with each doctor – the therapist never spoke and the psychiatrist refused to alter my medication even though I was on a downward spiral toward gut-wrenching depression – I decided to fire them both. My alternative was to return to the psychiatrist who had treated me for three years and my therapist who had been with me for 10. Unfortunately, neither was on my health care plan. This meant that I had to meet a $750 deductible before insurance would pay 60 percent of each visit. I was also only allowed to see each doctor 12 times per year.

At first I thought I would quickly meet the deductible. After all, the psychiatrist was $110 per hour and the therapist was $120. Then I got my first explanation of benefits in the mail for my visit with the psychiatrist. The insurance company was only counting $55 of the $110 toward the deductible. So, in essence, I would have to visit my psychiatrist 14 times before I would reach my deductible and insurance would pay 60 percent of the visits. But I’m only allowed to visit him 12 times. Therefore, I am paying $110 the entire time I am seeing him and none of his visits get covered by insurance.

I have yet to see how little of the therapist’s fee goes toward the deductible. My guess is $60. Because I only see the psychiatrist once per month, that leaves the bulk of the deductible with the therapist visits. So if I’m calculating this correctly, I need to see the therapist at least 10 times and the psychiatrist three times so I can meet my $750 deductible. Then insurance will finally pay 60 percent of visit 11 and 12 with the therapist. And don’t forget that I have that $379.41 monthly premium to pay.

And I have health insurance why?

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. Remember the name. Avoid it.