Useless Conversation

[Soln]

Thank you.  Marlon Webb's corpus should be set on a gold disk and fired at the aliens.  Watermeloan is our zeitgeist.

Also, this guy (L2: Dr.Scott Galloway) is terrific.  Informative (pretty close when he discusses Amazon's strategy) and funneh. 

Scott Galloway: AT&T vs. the Hot Girls

[HaemishM]

Re: Marlon Webb - WHAT IN THE FUCK? Yes, I just discovered this thanks to this thread.

[Merusk]

I just realized the Football season is almost halfway over and I haven't watched a single game this year. I wondered if I was an outlier and just found out viewership is down 12% this year.

I dropped it here rather than the NFL thread because it's useless to those discussions. Just a funny "huh" moment for me.

[Rasix]

The product is just worse in almost every way.

[HaemishM]

The product is just worse in almost every way.

So much this. And I don't see that changing for a few years because a lot of the issues stem from the CBA.

[Nebu]

I haven't watched any NFL games and refuse to watch NCAA football until they restructure how student athletes benefit from the financial gains of larger institutions. 

[Merusk]

The product is just worse in almost every way.

I think that's part of it. I'm also fatigued by the way they give a pass to cheaters and spousal abusers and violent offenders if they're top performers. Its so transparently about the money for the owners and revenue generated by top markets it's just not worth watching anymore.

[Rasix]

I haven't watched any NFL games and refuse to watch NCAA football until they restructure how student athletes benefit from the financial gains of larger institutions.  

I still enjoy college football a lot. I won't get into the student athlete pay issue, because I disagree and don't feel like getting into it (still, there are some very common sense things that can be done).   Hell, I even enjoy this season where my team has gone through 5 quarterbacks (one QB is 17 and the other is actually a tight end) and is on their second converted WR to RB (after exhausting all existing RBs).  

The NFL just really needs to look at their product and do some wholesale restructuring to reverse some pretty awful trends. The game is just starting to become unwatchable. I haven't really enjoyed a pro game in a while.

And while I've never been in this camp, they need to fire Goodell. The inconsistency in discipline is a result of the shitty infrastructure he's set up for it and the insistence that he's the final arbiter in every case.

[Yegolev]

Just in time for no one to see Atlanta beat Green Bay.

Arthur Blank: "But we just started doing better!"

[01101010]

Welcome to being a Browns fan for the last 25 years. 

[HaemishM]

Just in time for no one to see Atlanta beat Green Bay.

I saw it.

I was not amused.

[Paelos]

I'm watching less because I don't find many teams worth watching since they are staffed with rookies and bad QBs.

I am watching more NBA because that product is actually trying to get to my demographic, and the games don't last 4 hours on a weeknight until midnight. It's over in 2.5 and I can move on with my life.

[schild]

So I spoke about it in Discord but: FUCK Health Insurance.

Make too much for subsidies.
All the PPOs were yanked out of Texas.
Terrible HMOs no one accepts on the marketplace.
No company offers a good individual plan.
No company will even offer me something good even if I throw money at the screen.

This is a fucking living nightmare.

Also, fuck uneducated hill people. Their support of conservatives is what got us here.

Fuck.

[Trippy]

It looks like BlueCross BlueShield of Texas offers individual plans for Austin:

http://www.bcbstx.com/shop-plans-and-products/2016-individual-and-family-health-insurance-plans

[Chimpy]

Don't get him started on BCBS!

[Yegolev]

Me either.

Don't worry, since the ACA is New Coke for Not Dying, we will eventually get something else.

[Sky]

ACA has been awesome here. Same bennies (improved some of the bigger ones, actually), lower copay and plan cost.

Of course, the insurance industry continues with its double digit percentage annual increases which is fucking insane. The first problem to take care of in health care is the insurance industry (then big pharma). People don't want social health care but then leave it to companies who can bump up your rates 25% a year....not just tough on the personal front, it's fucking over small business haaaard.

[Sky]

In other news, fuck people who whistle goddamned ear worms like frere fucking jaqcue. Probably all people who whistle in general.

[Trippy]

Don't get him started on BCBS!

Normally I would agree (even though I haven't had issues with my BCBS insurance myself) but given he said he couldn't find any PPO plans for individuals I figured I would at least inform him of that option.

[Samwise]

Are we going to have a party when this thread hits 1000 pages?

[Trippy]

We should've had one when it hit 888 but whatever.

[HaemishM]

Shit about health insurance

Both your state and mine refused the Medicaid expansion, which makes their ACA coverage automatically fucking worse because fuck poor people for some reason.

[Khaldun]

Memo to students, future and present: though I don't ever show it, there is nothing that cheeses me off more than a student trying to claim that a teacher or professor told him that he had permission to do a thing that the school or departmental rules explicitly disallow and thus I should have to make an exception because it's not the student's fault. 99.9% of the time when I probe further and ask, "Ok, which professor said that, and when? You don't even have to know their name, just describe the professor who said it and where you were when it was said," it turns into "oh, um, it was the tall guy, no the guy with a mustache, wait I remember it was the woman who has two eyes and hair, it was at the meeting in the building, that building that has bricks and doors on it. Oh wait no actually I just remembered it was another student who told me, but honestly I thought they were a professor so can't you make an exception?"

[Nebu]

Both your state and mine refused the Medicaid expansion, which makes their ACA coverage automatically fucking worse because fuck poor people for some reason.

It is a great political ploy that demonstrates how they care about their political careers more than their consituents.  
1. Refuse mecaid expansion to make ACA look bad.
2. Tell your poor people you want to repeal the ACA.  
3. Hope that your poor are too stupid to figure out your plan.  

Result: Poor people vote GOP and clammor for repeal of the ACA.  

[Nebu]

Memo to students, future and present: though I don't ever show it, there is nothing that cheeses me off more than a student trying to claim that a teacher or professor told him that he had permission to do a thing that the school or departmental rules explicitly disallow and thus I should have to make an exception because it's not the student's fault. 99.9% of the time when I probe further and ask, "Ok, which professor said that, and when? You don't even have to know their name, just describe the professor who said it and where you were when it was said," it turns into "oh, um, it was the tall guy, no the guy with a mustache, wait I remember it was the woman who has two eyes and hair, it was at the meeting in the building, that building that has bricks and doors on it. Oh wait no actually I just remembered it was another student who told me, but honestly I thought they were a professor so can't you make an exception?"

Here's my memo to students:  Dear Student, you are not a special snowflake.  I have 200+ students per semester just like you. 

Oh... and READ THE FUCKING SYLLABUS!

[Signe]

Didn't we have a party when it turned 666?  Or was that just me?  Regardless, I'll party 666 upside down now.  Go for it, someone.  It won't be long now!

[RhyssaFireheart]

So I spoke about it in Discord but: FUCK Health Insurance.

Make too much for subsidies.
All the PPOs were yanked out of Texas.
Terrible HMOs no one accepts on the marketplace.
No company offers a good individual plan.
No company will even offer me something good even if I throw money at the screen.

This is a fucking living nightmare.

Also, fuck uneducated hill people. Their support of conservatives is what got us here.

Fuck.

Welcome to Illinois.  We finally had something decent from Aetna, but those greedy bastards are pulling out of the marketplace, leaving us with BCBS which.. we left them because our NOrthShore didn't accept their plans anymore, which means we are back to having.. BCBS as our only choice again.  Luckily, the doctor's office is going back to accepting BCBS, otherwise about 14K patients of theirs would be SOL.

And the cheapest BCBS plan is looking to cost us about $950/mo for two adults, which craptastic co-pays and deductibles.  My employer offers some flavor of insurance which we're turned down in the past (they are based out of Maryland and it was expensive as hell) but that's looking like an option this year, if I can get them to respond to my request for me + spouse coverage rates.

Can't wait until sanity sets in and we get single payer coverage finally.

[schild]

It looks like BlueCross BlueShield of Texas offers individual plans for Austin:

http://www.bcbstx.com/shop-plans-and-products/2016-individual-and-family-health-insurance-plans

HMO garbage that isn't accepted by nearly anyone.

[Trippy]

They have PPOs available. You have to click the button to have it show you all available plans. The two HMO plans they show are just the ones they are promoting. Also it looks like Seton accepts BCBS HMOs.

[Sky]

It's almost fun having automatic verbal responses to dumb questions.

"Oh, did you get rid of the thing I need to accept every morning?" (Our system network guy puts up a splash page)
"No, go in and make sure you're not using your mobile data."
"Because it didn't make me accept it this morning."
"Ok. Go in and make sure you're not using your mobile data."
"Did you get rid of it?"
"No. And you'll need to accept it, otherwise you're using your mobile data. Check and see."
"I didn't have to accept it this morning. But I'm still getting the Internet."
"It's probably using your mobile data."
"But I have Internet."
"I'm giving you the data I have and a valid solution."
"So did you get rid of it?"
"I'm not going to continue repeating myself any longer."
"Oh, ok, just wanted to let you know it's not asking me to accept it anymore."

People do not listen. Years ago stuff like that made me nuts. Now it entertains me.

[schild]

They have PPOs available. You have to click the button to have it show you all available plans. The two HMO plans they show are just the ones they are promoting. Also it looks like Seton accepts BCBS HMOs.

No, they don't have PPOs available for individual/family plans here. There are 11 very overcosted HMOs available, none of which are accepted by the most widespread hospital/doctor network in the area.

[01101010]

Both your state and mine refused the Medicaid expansion, which makes their ACA coverage automatically fucking worse because fuck poor people for some reason.

It is a great political ploy that demonstrates how they care about their political careers more than their consituents.  
1. Refuse mecaid expansion to make ACA look bad.
2. Tell your poor people you want to repeal the ACA.  
3. Hope that your poor are too stupid to figure out your plan.  

Result: Poor people vote GOP and clammor for repeal of the ACA.  

And Kasich went ahead and ate a shit sandwich when he accepted the Medicaid expansion. Ohio... go figure.

[Merusk]

It's almost fun having automatic verbal responses to dumb questions.

"Oh, did you get rid of the thing I need to accept every morning?" (Our system network guy puts up a splash page)
"No, go in and make sure you're not using your mobile data."
"Because it didn't make me accept it this morning."
"Ok. Go in and make sure you're not using your mobile data."
"Did you get rid of it?"
"No. And you'll need to accept it, otherwise you're using your mobile data. Check and see."
"I didn't have to accept it this morning. But I'm still getting the Internet."
"It's probably using your mobile data."
"But I have Internet."
"I'm giving you the data I have and a valid solution."
"So did you get rid of it?"
"I'm not going to continue repeating myself any longer."
"Oh, ok, just wanted to let you know it's not asking me to accept it anymore."

People do not listen. Years ago stuff like that made me nuts. Now it entertains me.

"How the fuck did I go 2gb over my data plan? I always have wifi on!!"

Even kids don't check. My son is capped at 5gb and hits it every month then complains he can't do anything.
"I keep telling you to turn on wifi at friends places, make sure its on here and stop streaming videos and installing apps on the bus."
"I do!"
"Evidence says otherwise."

[Trippy]

They have PPOs available. You have to click the button to have it show you all available plans. The two HMO plans they show are just the ones they are promoting. Also it looks like Seton accepts BCBS HMOs.

No, they don't have PPOs available for individual/family plans here. There are 11 very overcosted HMOs available, none of which are accepted by the most widespread hospital/doctor network in the area.

Ah I see, some of their HMO plans don't have HMO in their names and I assumed they were PPOs.

[schild]

That's how they getcha. /Palin

I thought the same thing when I went to it first.

Now, on healthcare.gov I CAN get small business PPOs, but boyo that process. What a nightmare. I've never wanted to give someone so much money so easily and everyone seems hellbent on making it hard as fuuuuuck.