Month: December 2015

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Okay, Enough!

The cold from hell is still hanging on.

It’s to the point now that if I’m on the mend, I feel like increasing my activity and then it comes back.

I’m in bed again coughing my fool head off, with a slight fever.

Whatever this bug is, it’s a stone bitch. It’s not like I’ve been doing a lot of stuff. It doesn’t take much at all to cause a set back.

If you’ve got this thing take it easy and give yourself time to heal.

I’m hoping that this weekend is the last weekend I have to put up with this crap. The other half is in worse shape than I am. I keep expecting to see a lung laying on the floor.

When I picked up my car the other day I saw a brand new 4 series that was honestly sex on wheels.

I went to the BMW site and built one for me. Uhh, WOW am I expensive! I noticed that automatic transmission was apparently the only option for the machine.

On a related note, when I returned the loaner car it was shifting much better. I think the transmission just needed to have more than 100 miles on it.

I’m still not a fan of automatic transmissions but I could break my rule for a new 4 series convertible. Maybe I should start a gofundme page?

Hope you have a great weekend.

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Insurance!

As all of us in Amerika know. It’s open enrollment for our mandated healthcare plans.

I’m not overly fond of ACA, but it did actually do some good.

According to a friend who is an actuarial, there was a net gain in the number of people who previously couldn’t get health insurance now being insured.

I don’t know if that is still the case. It was true in 2013 – 2014. However it looks like the young people that ACA is dependent on, are staying away in droves in 2015.

Anyhow, I absolutely dread open enrollment. I hate having to revisit all the plans and really do miss the days when I just paid the bill and had insurance with an 80/20% split. I paid 20% the insurance company paid 80% and it was easy to figure out what was what.

Due to changes in the other half’s employment picture and my less than stellar year freelancing, this open enrollment has been particularly stressful.

We decided that we needed help. Changes in what is being phased in and what is being phased out confused the situation so that we weren’t sure if what we were doing was actually in our best interest.

SO we went to an insurance specialist who came highly recommended. Bottom line…

WE SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS SOONER!

Part of my insurance nightmare was that there were too many cooks in the soup. This guy called all the parties on the phone and declared HE is my agent and he had the ball.

Suddenly, Covered California, and Blue Shield were working together smooth as silk. Suddenly, I was paying a bit less for the same quality plan. Now instead of having to call one person, then another, and another, and get transferred to yet someone else, I call my agent. He takes care of everything.

The other half… is suddenly paying less than half what they were paying for much better coverage.

I’m still suspicious of something being too good, too easy, or too simple. We’ll see come January if our insurance is really straightened out and everything is on track for the year.

Based on the paperwork I have in hand… It looks like it really pays to have someone who knows how Obamacare works in your pocket.

That in itself speaks volumes about Obamacare and it’s complexity.

If the Republicans succeed in gutting ACA I fear we’re all going to be horrifically screwed. The insurance system is not capable of absorbing another significant disruption. Much as I hate to say it, Obamacare is here to stay. Congress should be forced to concentrate on fixing the parts that are broken.

 

 

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Huh… OSX Update this morning

There was a large (2GB) update this morning to El Capitan, and Xcode.

My computer notified me of this right after Sophos Anti Virus (Which is a great AV program, by the way) told me that there was a trojan virus of some kind on my machine.

Lovely!

The trojan was in an email and had been sent to the Junk folder, in addition to Sophos quarantining it. I love it when software does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

For those of you who may be interested, the mail containing the virus looks like it’s a zipped invoice. The text is terse and looks for all the world like someone is sending you a copy of an invoice that you either need to pay or that you’ve already paid.

In other words it looks innocent and as busy as we are this time of year I could see any of us opening the thing, thinking it was something to do with a gift.

I have to admit, I have a grudging respect for whoever created this little bit of nastiness. It’s simple and innocuous. No logos, or florid attempts to fool anyone into believing anything. It’s simply, “Here is your invoice, thank you for your business.”

The Xcode update was also 2GB.

My computer was a busy little camper!

Apple says the OS X update is about security and stability improvements. I can say that it “feels” snappier.

My system is currently backing up 12GB of changes, apparently caused by the updates so obviously I’m not going anywhere for a little while.

Anticipating a big backup, I connected my computer via hardline to the network. Gigabit Ethernet should make this a little bit quicker than WiFi. Even so, the time estimate is about 2 hours.

Well off to work on Job applications. If just one application is on the Taleo site, two hours should be just about right. Then I’ll see what other trouble I can get into today.