Tis the season…

NOSPAM

For my SPAM filters to get a hell of a workout!

Starting November 1 a wall of SPAM has been flooding into my system daily.

A lot of it seems to be associated with scams designed to look like insurance offers dealing with the ACA. But if you look at the links, these offers are originating in China (cn) and Russia (ru).

So Ask yourself why would ACA insurance offers be originating form either of those two countries when the US Government spent a fortune for a web site to sell you insurance?

In addition to these weird offers I’ve been seeing the offers for weight-loss, the usual male enhancement stuff, shitty bits of software, fax services, and even toilet paper. Toilet paper? Yep, some kind of coupon scam…

Clearly not targeted marketing, I have a Costco membership! I buy toilet paper on a pallet! 

I woke up this morning to 40 SPAMS and those are the ones that slipped past my SPAM filters. Checking the filters on the server showed over 100 rejected junk mails. A couple of them were in languages that I’m not even sure I can properly identify.

All of which is to say, be vigilant! There are a lot of scummy people trying to get their hands in your pockets.

No, not yet enough of a justification to run out and buy an iPhone 6 give me a couple of years.

 

 

You know, I’m beginning to think this is all a SCAM

Healthcare Insurance Logos

Welcome to Open Enrollment! Your ACA plan is serving you… UP!

As I’ve chronicled over the past year I’ve been involved with a nightmare called Anthem Blue Cross of California.

A month or two ago I was told that I’d have to wait for open enrollment to change my health care, I’m still not even sure how that works, or how they think that is going to work. I can change my health care any time I want to, ALL I have to do is not pay the bill!

And speaking of bills… I understood having open enrollment periods when I was working for a corporation. That makes sense, it tends to allow the company to budget their expenses and keeps the employees from jumping healthcare providers each time they don’t like something.

HealthInsurance Marketplace

However, since I’m paying the bill, I’m the one buying the goods or in this case services, why do I have to screw around with open enrollment at all?

caduceus

Technically, as a consumer of the insurance service, I am the Insurance company’s employer. As such, I ultimately have the capacity (Or I would in a non-socialist country…)  to hire and fire a poor provider at will. Oh yeah, but NOT under Obamacare.


Anyway, I’m shopping.

I can’t see myself putting up with more of the same from Anthem and not being able to see my primary care physician, (Even though they said I could. Then when I found that I couldn’t, they told me he must have dropped out of their network. But I have a PPO plan, networks are irrelevant… Well apparently it’s not really a PPO and My Doctor was NEVER in the plan they sold me). Or not being able to find a dermatologist. (And neither could they within 90 miles of my location.

Assurant

You see, I’ve been paying through the nose for a policy that was at best only a catastrophic plan with prescription coverage because none of the doctors I wanted to see were in fact accepting the Anthem Pseudo- PPO. I could have saved about 1/2 of my medical costs per month by just having a catastrophic care plan, and paying for everything else out of pocket which is essentially what I’m doing anyway.  By the way, a catastrophic plan is one of the options I’m looking into.

Under the “Won’t get fooled again” premise I’m trying to compare companies based on how they’re rated by consumers. As I’ve been sorting through the data I’ve discovered a couple of interesting things. 

NewHealthinsurance Marketplace2

1) Of five companies I’ve checked on thus far, only two will allow me to purchase their policies based on my zip code.

All of these companies appear to service California but apparently they don’t all service the county in which I live.  

Sorry folks I’m an all or nothing kind of guy. If you’re selectively insuring counties that means that technically I can’t move from one county to another until the next open enrollment period. Doesn’t that also mean that when I drive across county lines, I’m out of network? Either you sell in all of California or don’t sell at all. 

I recall speaking to some insurance agent last year. That person said that even though I could purchase their insurance policy, AND that my Doctor was in their network, AND that the policy and my doctor were compatible, I still would be unable to see my doctor. Their explanation for this was that since my doctor and I were in different counties, he would be considered “Out of Network”. I seem to recall not purchasing that particular policy.

2) I can’t narrow down if my county theory is correct without requesting a quote from each possible provider — this is significantly slowing down the shopping process.

More Logos

The upshot of all of this is that insurance shopping, which was always painful, has now become 100 fold more painful because there is no simple way to sort through the data to compare stuff. I have noticed that every policy seems to have an ACA metallic moniker;

Bronze, Silver, Tin, Rusted Iron, Busted Galvanized Pipe, Copper, Pyrite…

All of which mean the same damn thing…

I’m beginning to think we have no choice in policies, just a choice in the company administering them. 

In dealing with all of this bullcrap, I think that I’d rather pound my own testicles with a sledgehammer, (1000 FemNazis just came in their jeans) than shop for health insurance!

I just don’t think I have medical coverage for that…

Are people getting more stupid?

Driving Salute

I find myself asking that question a lot more than I used to.

When I’m out and about interacting with people I’m often struck by the complete and utter moronic behavior so many people display.

From the idiot forcing his way into traffic to get one car length ahead, completely oblivious to the fact that he just put 30 other people at risk.

To the impatient crazy lady in a parking lot who wants the parking space you’re attempting to vacate, but who has positioned her car in such a way that you can’t back out.

People are apparently getting more stupid by the moment.

The catalyst for me writing about this is what I witnessed at a busy Starbucks the other day. 

The situation was this:

A young lady was obviously doing her homework, she had he computer out, a book and several papers scattered on a table she was sitting at.

Her boyfriend had just left. Based on the snippet of conversation between them I think he had a class. As he was leaving he picked up the young lady’s purse and backpack then placed these items on the chair he was vacating. 

The young lady was hispanic and reminded me a bit of my niece.

She plugged a set of headphones into her computer and was listening to music while she was reading a large textbook and taking notes. I wouldn’t say she was completely oblivious to her surroundings but she was very focused on what she was doing.

Clueless

After 10 or 15 minutes, a tall white blond woman walked over to the young lady’s table and without saying a word or attempting to get the young student’s attention, moved the girls backpack and purse to the floor and started to take the chair out onto the patio.

This startled the young student and honestly pissed me off.

So… well, I made a scene!

I pointed out to Blondie that she was completely in the wrong. That it was customary to ask if someone was using a chair before taking it, and that she was demonstrating the height of rudeness.

I went on to point out, had Blondie been sitting at the table and a hispanic person touched her stuff, she’d have been on the phone to 911 claiming that the hispanic person was trying to steal her purse.

At this point several other students of various ethnic origins were looking at Blondie who was very embarrassed and trying to explain herself. These folks were looking at me too, but with kindness and shaking their heads in agreement. 

Spun Up

I was pretty angry, I guess the violation of good manners and politeness on the part of Blondie really touched a nerve. I was about to really read this woman the riot act when there was a gentle hand on my shoulder.

The young student smiled and said, “It’s ok she can have the chair, thank you for speaking up.”

I nodded, quieted by this classy young lady’s kindness. 

Blondie slowly went out to the patio carrying her hard won chair.

Once there, she had a very animated conversation with another woman. There was a lot of pointing at me involved in that conversation.

I was trying to figure out why I was so annoyed. I suppose part of it was the student’s similarity to my niece. But I think a larger part of it was that the Blond woman just acted so entitled, like the young lady wasn’t important.

The blond lady demonstrated the absolute worst behavior, I don’t think it was racially motivated I think she simply was a thoughtless rude bitch.

But context is everything. Maybe it was racist, maybe the blond lady, like myself is simply tired of being called a racist at every turn and she’s generically rude to everyone.

Civics Textbook

As I was driving away I was thinking perhaps many of the problems we have in this country aren’t actually racially rooted, but instead are side effects of really poor manners and lack of respect for others.

Somewhere, there is a 8th grade Civics teacher laughing her ass off. Because in the 8th grade I was the little heathen she was trying to smack into shape.

Yeah, when I was in the 8th grade we had Civics, which was a lot more than the political aspects of living in our society. We were taught manners, and the basics of ethics, fair play, and how to be generally decent to each other. 

I don’t remember the teacher’s name, But I do remember her threatening to fail my sorry ass if I didn’t get with the program. My parents had already done a very good job of teaching me manners, right vs. wrong, etc. But for some reason in that Civics class I was a complete animal. 

I think perhaps we need to bring back those classes. 

What’s a guy to do?

Home Theater

So, you pay a ton of cash for a surround system and you decide that you’d like to enjoy it.


Ya take the dogs out to potty, settle in with your beer and fire up a movie that you’d like to watch.

Then your other half comes in.

They’ve had a long day so you give them time to settle too.

All is quiet again.

Ya press play, (it should be noted that when you’re alone in the house you don’t need the TV sound up to more than 25.) Yet with the other half in the house, you find yourself creaping the volume up, 26, 27, 30, 35, 40, 45 and you’re still missing dialog.

Your other half is reaching into a bag of snacks, over and over and over again and the crinkling of the mylar bag is swamping all the midrange dialog from a beautiful seductive actress, and most of the dialog from the softer spoken men.

Then one dog starts panting, the other dog decides it is time to drink half a bowl of water and does it for the next 3 minutes

MartyMcFly Speakers

slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,crinkle,crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,crinkle,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp,slurp, slurp.

Maxell Man

Once you push the volume above 60 ya realize you’re fighting a losing battle and the first gunshot or explosion in this movie is going to cause something that looks like the Maxell commercials or Marty McFly hitting that chord on his guitar.

So in complete frustration, ya shut the shit down. Give up.

I actually went and had my hearing checked because of shit like this. Turns out my hearing is fucking fine in fact it’s better than most men my age. The problem is that I live in a noisy environment.

And the moment, the very fucking moment you kill the shit you were trying to relax with, silence reigns again. The dogs shut the hell up, the other half looks at you like you’re a fucking madman and then has the audacity to ask why’d you turn it off?

Zen

You’re still frustrated and you say exactly what’s on your mind “Because I couldn’t fucking hear a damn thing with all the noise. Did it ever occur to you to put that shit in a bowl?

Yeah, I’m sleeping on the couch tonight. So the fuck what?

At least it will be quiet in the living room!

I Hate Verizon, I Hate Verizon, I Hate Verizon!

Indian Call Center guy from Transformers

I hate Verizon for ohhh so many things but today I especially hate them for the following. 

I’m paying for 3372 / 768 DSL I think that’s the right number combination. I’d look it up to be exactly spot on, BUT Verizon’s web page is behaving like I’m using a dial-up connection.

The speeds I’m getting on my DSL connection are varying from 1024 to 2112 / 500 to 860. (First number is download speed, the next number is upload speed)

As I said I’ve tried to access their web page to figure out if there is a way to report the problem without having to wait on hold for 45 minutes then speak to someone who sounds like an episode of SouthPark. You know the sounds… dirka dirka bla dirk neeig hhhaaa dis is johnny coon I dirka you?

Fried Chip

Then be run though a series of dumb assed “TESTS” that prove nothing about the quality of their shitty service but everything about their condescension to their customers.

After all, what part of; “Your service was working this morning, then degraded, then quit, and my router is saying it can’t see a stable DSL connection. The router is indicating the failure by the display of RED indicators on it’s front panel and its control interface which I am looking at via my internal network, is saying that the DSL Carrier signal is dropping at .5 second intervals,” don’t these morons understand?

“Well sir your network cannot work unless you have your computer directly connected to our DSL machine.”

The Riddler

Really? then riddle me this… how am I supposed to print to a network printer?

“Sir, you would connect the printer to the computer.”

Then how would I be able to print a web page? The computer and the printer only have ONE ethernet port.

“I don’t know sir, I can’t advise you.”

BUT YOU JUST DID! You just told me to disconnect my DSL modem from my fully functional internal network and connect my computer directly to the DSL modem in order for your service to work. I’ll tell you what, let me speak to a supervisor.

“Certainly sir, one moment… “

I sigh in frustration, all I want to do is report that they’ve got a problem with DSL in the area.

Hitler on Hold with a call center

Thinking about it this is exactly why I left Verizon Cellular. (I think) Aside from them overselling their network to the point that I couldn’t have a conversation along the 91 Freeway that didn’t drop the call every 30 seconds, I called them to report one of their cell towers had part of the antenna array hanging by its wires and blowing in the wind.

I knew it was their tower because Verizon Signs were all over the fence surrounding the base of the antenna mast.

Hitler NEIN!

But the idiot that answered the phone wanted to put me through a phone diagnostic instead of listening to what I was reporting; “Hey your have part of your antenna at this location swinging in the wind you might want to get a repair crew out here.”

After realizing I wasn’t getting anywhere I hung up I figured, “Fine, let 150,000 dollars worth of equipment crash to the ground from 80 feet up. Not my problem!” The moron called me back to complete the phone diagnostic.

Click, Click: “dirka dirka blingbla dirk neeig hhhaaa dis is Ronny coon I dirka you?”

Me after dealing with Verizon

ARRRRHHHHHGGGGGGGHH!

After 45 minutes, I suit up…

I’m gonna go collect me some Skulls!