Useless Conversation

[Morat20]

R.I.P. Rasix's gaming budget March 2015 - March 2015.   

We caught it early.  Doesn't mean it's less expensive, but it also means we don't have to rip out sections of our roof to remove hive.

Oh dang, that is gonna be pricey. :(

Ain't owning a home grand?

[Maven]

Today I learned that you can't ignore a 100 degree body temp and stress wrecks havoc on your immune system.

Living on your own sucks when you are sick. Best argument for marriage. It feels wrong to pay a prostitute for a hankie and a hand job.

[Cyrrex]

Bee infestation.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.  Why couldn't this have come a month later when we didn't have the house anymore?

Ouch. :) We had a "safety moment" in a meeting involving a bee infestation. Some guy's big outdoor grill -- he had it covered for the winter. He went to remove the cover, and hear's a buzzing sound.

It was full of bees. Big combs hanging down off the grill, just absolutely gigantic bee's nest. Idiot started to try to deal with it himself, and ended up running for the house from a swarm. (Hence the safety moment of "Call a dang professional").

Don't you work at NASA or some shit?  He should have just turned on the grill.  Worst case, you kill all the bees with no danger to yourself.  Best case...well, you just put the B back in BBQ.  Yum!

[Draegan]

Total time logged in: 25 days, 22 hours and 59 minutes.

I feel like this should be longer.

[WayAbvPar]

Bee infestation.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.  Why couldn't this have come a month later when we didn't have the house anymore?

We have a recurring bald-faced hornet problem. We kill a nest, and a new one pops up a few months later somewhere nearby. We are due for one in an inaccessible place that will require professional help. Can't wait!

Owning a house sucks. Especially when you bought it in October 2006 

[Signe]

Why do my beautiful niece and nephew chew on batteries?    

[Nebu]

Why do my beautiful niece and nephew chew on batteries?    

They get a charge out of it? 

[schild]

Why do my beautiful niece and nephew chew on batteries?    

They get a charge out of it? 

ಠ_ಠ

[Paelos]

I raffed.

[Engels]

Bee infestation.  YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.  Why couldn't this have come a month later when we didn't have the house anymore?

We have a recurring bald-faced hornet problem. We kill a nest, and a new one pops up a few months later somewhere nearby. We are due for one in an inaccessible place that will require professional help. Can't wait!

Owning a house sucks. Especially when you bought it in October 2006 

Topical video on the subject

[Merusk]

I love homeownership and all the little projects that come with it. I never understand you guys when you bitch about it. I was actually dissatisfied with my old house because we built it and had no projects for me to do.

That guy needs to get up there and caulk that joint so they don't come back.

[Nebu]

I was actually dissatisfied with my old house because we built it and had no projects for me to do.

You're welcome to come and work on my house.  I hate it.

[tazelbain]

Total time logged in: 25 days, 22 hours and 59 minutes.

I feel like this should be longer.

Some people lost time in one of the site moves. I personally lost well over 300 days.

[Rasix]

Doing some of the stuff to get my house ready was kind of fun. The rest was pretty much hell on earth.  The weather was fantastic, but all of the landscaping work was awful.  Painting anything larger than a postage stamp was terrible.  And the hell with ever putting in another light fixture.  FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

[Engels]

You could have this guy's problem.

[Morat20]

Don't you work at NASA or some shit?  He should have just turned on the grill.  Worst case, you kill all the bees with no danger to yourself.  Best case...well, you just put the B back in BBQ.  Yum!

It was one of those with the cutting tables and side tables on it, and the combs were hanging down from the tables. They weren't in the grill proper (it was closed), and they set-up there because the canvas cover provided the walls.

Also, fuck American health insurance again. I can already tell I'm going to be on the phone with Cigna more often than I talk to my family for the next three months.

[Rasix]

You could have this guy's problem.

More like this problem:

spoilered for size and squeamish folk: 

And sore shoulders.  Nothing like putting in a new fixture on a 12' ceiling.

[Engels]

Oh right. You live in that 'other' Australia known as Arizona.

[schild]

Wanna know how to nuke something from orbit?

Have a business partnership with someone, tell them not to do ONE thing, and then they go and do that ONE thing within 24 hours.

That's how you get something nuked.

[Morat20]

Okay, serious question here.

There's a medicine. Let's call it WTF. WTF costs 360 dollars, retail, for a month's supply. Because it's made of gold or something, I dunno. The tears of a phoenix or angel soul's. That's the cash price, that's cash with coupon, that's what no-insurance guy at Walmart pays, that's what I pay WITH insurance because either it's not covered or my insurance is a bag of dicks about my deductible.

HOWEVER, you can get a magic discount card that lowers the price to zero.

Magic paper card from doctor's office, good for one year, will give you a rebate of EXACTLY the cost of the drug. Up to 12 uses per calender year. So you take your little card and show it to the pharmacist, and 360 dollars becomes zero dollars. And the card auto-renews yearly.

How the fuck does that make economic sense? Maybe my insurance company pays a little I don't see, but it works for cash customers! That's 4k a year, for free. Are they gonna charge me next year? Apparently not, especially because there are cheaper alternatives. They're not quite as good, but they're good enough. And they're like 8 bucks a month. (Combo therapy with new and old is really nice, but not 4k a year nice. Not to anyone. It's not like you need it to be healthy).

I don't get how they make money on this. I've seen it with other drugs "Free after blah-blah" -- it has to cost money to make. I think 360 for a month's pills is goddamn bullshit unrelated to it's cost (or the cost of research), but it didn't just shimmer into existence ontop of bars of pure gold with a sign that said "Feed me to the masses in return for gold".

According to what just happened at a pharmacy, I just got 4k in drugs for free until at least 1/15. And supposedly after that, too. Exactly how do they plan to make up whatever their real loss is? Where's the money actually come from?

[Signe]

I take one drug that cost's $800 retail, my insurance pay's all but $60 and I have a card that brings it down to $20.  I can't use the card unless the insurance covers it but once it does, even if the cost is still very high, it brings it down to the $20.   I have another that costs $430 and isn't covered by my insurance at all but I have a coupon that let's me get it for free.  I don't understand, either.  Between the evil pharmaceutical companies and the evil insurance companies, I don't care who pays all that money as long as it's not me.

[HaemishM]

Oh, no, it's probably you - very likely through taxes or some such shit. Don't think for a moment pharma companies are giving that shit away for free without a subsidy somewhere.

[Lantyssa]

I was actually dissatisfied with my old house because we built it and had no projects for me to do.

You're welcome to come and work on my house.  I hate it.

I'm with Nebu.  You're welcome to come over and do all my housework.

Also hope you don't mind it being 85-100 degrees outside for nine months of that work.

[Nebu]

Okay, serious question here.

1. The medication is expensive primarily because the development of it was somewhere between $600-800M and they want to make that back before it can go generic.

2. It's probable that the pharma company negotiated a price with your insurance company and has some agreement with Walmart.  That's why the price became more affordable.

[Sky]

Contact your doctor if Neb's post caused confusion, nausea, diarrhea, hemorrhaging or hemorrhoids. In some rare cases death may result.

*year later*

If you or a loved one has had complications or death from Neb's post, call 1-800-SCUMBAG.

[Morat20]

Okay, serious question here.

1. The medication is expensive primarily because the development of it was somewhere between $600-800M and they want to make that back before it can go generic.

2. It's probable that the pharma company negotiated a price with your insurance company and has some agreement with Walmart.  That's why the price became more affordable.

I get why it's expensive (although that's generally bullshit, since most of the expensive research is built on government funded research. NIH grants are the bread and butter of research. Drug companies pay more for advertising than research).

And I can see it used wholesale -- it's primary use is for type-2 diabetics. So that's a big ass market, although I'm sure a big chunk of that is or will be on Medicaid/Medicare. (Older boomers, you know).

All I can think of is that maybe the rate my insurance company paid was, say, 400 and the 360 was my quote, and so they really got 40 bucks a month in actual pay. That I got rebated my insanely high copay for this stupid ass drug.

I know that if you jack the price of something up and then slash it back down and mark it as "on sale" or "discount" or otherwise make people think they're getting a deal, they'll want it more than if it wasn't discounted. (In fact, you see places that mark stuff up, discount it back but not all the way, and end up selling more at a higher price because it's got 'sale' on it).

[KallDrexx]

Welp, I think I have all the tools and equipment to hardwire my house for ethernet. 

Never done a home improvement project like this before.  Wife is scared shitless and waiting for something to go wrong.

Let the games begin!

[Samwise]

Low voltage wiring is much less scary than the alternative.    You'll be fine.

[KallDrexx]

Low voltage wiring is much less scary than the alternative.    You'll be fine.

She is more worried about me putting g holes in the walls, ceiling, and trusses :)

[Chimpy]

Why would you put holes in trusses to run ethernet cabling?

[Merusk]

Welp, I think I have all the tools and equipment to hardwire my house for ethernet. 

Never done a home improvement project like this before.  Wife is scared shitless and waiting for something to go wrong.

Let the games begin!

I started doing this last fall. It's not half as hard as you'd expect but it takes longer than you think. The hardest part is getting a long enough paddle bit so you can go from the hole you cut for the outlet down to the floor plate and knowing exactly where you're coming from on the floor below.

My bit was about 6" too short to get a good angle, so I just to cut all the way to the floor and patched it.  Be sure you have some wood shims, screws and spackle in case you need to do the same. If you have a 2-story house and are doing outlets on the 2nd floor, then the hole you have to do in the first floor ceiling for the fish tape needs this anyway.

Another fun challenge is making sure you know the structural layout of your place. You don't want to be drilling through door, window or opening headers but I'm sure you've already planned your wiring routes.

I've now got my loft, dining room and some roughs in the basement wired.  I've got plans to run another 4 for the Kitchen, Master Bed, Master Bath (near the whirlpool tub) and Living room now.  I've got a 24 port switch the office didn't need anymore in the basement they all plug in to. It's so much nicer having the cable modem, network storage and all that garbage in the basement now instead of needing to find a place for it in the cramped computer room. Once the last 4 are done I'll get the streaming PC set-up.

Good luck!

Why would you put holes in trusses to run ethernet cabling?

I know, trusses HAVE holes.    I know, he meant joists, still amusing.

Everyone has an inner plumber and a need to drill holes through structural parts of their house?

[Pennilenko]

As someone who was a plumber first and then moved into home automation years later, the recent discussion is disturbing. I am not entirely sure that some of you should be allowed to use power tools.

[Ironwood]

My bit was about 6" too short to get a good angle,

When the world of DIY Ethernet meets the World of Softcore Porn.

[KallDrexx]

Woops, yeah I meant joists, to get cable into the frame c cells

[Signe]

Fuck your joists, lets talk about your bits.