Admittedly, you've been playing too much xbox when your controller battery dies. But still, that's no excuse for the game to NOT PAUSE AUTOMATICALLY when the controller disconnects. TWICE now I've died in the middle of a battle in Mass Effect 2 because the controller shut down. BAD ME2. NO BISCUIT.

I may have to stop reading livejournal until the paranoia dies down.

Math can hurt sometimes.

One box of Jell-o instant pudding, prepared with 2 cups of whole milk, contains 50 grams of carbohydrates.

At my insulin ratio, I need to take 16²/₃ units, or 17 since you can't shoot fractional units.

My Apidra costs, before insurance, $509.59 for 10 pens of 3cc each. That's $16.99 per CC, or $0.17 per unit.

/EATING/ two cups of pudding, while extremely tasty, costs $2.89. For the moment, it's only costing /me/ $0.58, but that's only until I hit the annual cap on prescription coverage.

Amazon Fresh carries boxes of Jell-o instant pudding at prices ranging from $1.69 to $1.99.

tl;dr: Please remind me never to do math "out of curiosity" again.

So, for managing my photos, I use iPhoto currently. Actually paid cash money for the latest iLife, TWICE, to get the latest versions, because they kept improving the flickr integration.

But it still sucks. I have lots of events and faces and places and albums and smart albums. And I want all of that meta data and relationship data synced to flickr. Right now, I just have a few events synced, because when you sync to flickr, it creates a new album-like collection which represents a set on flickr, and syncs the photos. I don't know what happens if a photo appears in more than one of those sets, but I'd bet money it'd either be duplicated on flickr OR only appear in one of them on flickr. Either way, I don't like the way it integrates /at all/, it's a pain in the ass to work with, and it's buggy as hell. We won't even get into the problems I have with the face and place management.

What I'd LIKE is something that lets me manage all the metadata about my photos - including 'mine' vs 'not mine, I just have a copy' - and integrate tightly with flickr, AND have all my smart albums, AND not suck.

I realize that I have a better chance of winning a unicorn in the lottery. But, what would you suggest?

I went into Walgreens yesterday and said "Ok, cancel all my scrips, here are new ones. Also, here is my new insurance. Let's please get my name right on my account.". More or less.

They'd been putting everything under my old name, even tho I'd updated them, because my old insurance never updated properly. Fine. New everything. Start from scratch.

Well, the girl who processed it, created a new patient record. A bit too from-scratch. New patient, put everything in, done.

This is a problem. A) All my old scrips are still on my old account, B) with their auto-refills active, C) and my quickpay, D) and my prescription history. And E) that patient record is what's tied to my website account.

Fine, so when I went in today, I said "let's merge those records, shall we?". The manager will take care of that when e's next in. Fine.

Oh, and the insurance okay'd the Lipitor, but didn't pay anything on it. What? They're supposed to cover even brand-name stuff at 50%. WTF? Ok, it's only $165 (switched from 3x10mg to 1x40mg, so it costs about half as much), I'll pay for it and yell at the insurance company.

Oh, and the doctor, when he printed up new scrips, didn't note the Lantus as being pens, so I got vials instead. Which, you know, is probably fine. I don't take the lantus when out and about, and we've got a significant backlog of syringes, so I can do a month on vials, and can switch back to pens in the next refill. Or not. Whatever.

The new scrips did NOT include a scrip for either syringes or pen needles, so I'll need to get one written for those, but other than that this was /every/ current prescription need I have. After what the insurance paid, it was $390. Not quite 4x what I used to pay, which isn't /too/ bad. Until I hit the annual limit on the prescription benefit, at any rate.

I am, in short, very expensive to keep around.

Here's one for you:
What fictional species or race would you most like to be non-fictional?

I'd definitely have to go with the Igors of Discworld.

Doctor referred me back to my previous doctor, who has retired from internal medicine and is just practicing rheumatology now. Unfortunately, first appt available is halfway thru August, so I went with the first appt with /anybody/, which is next thursday. ::P

I don't know if this is just me or not:

When you wake up in the morning, do your knuckles click between positions? For the first minute or five after I wake up, always the ring and little, and sometimes all four, fingers on both hands will want to be either flexed most of the way (as like making a fist) or mostly extended, and moving them between the two points, they'll resist slightly, then click over to the other position, refusing to stay in between. It's just the main (palmward) knuckle, not the others. It's not like an audible click, just a.. like a toggle switch, that doesn't want to stay in the middle position, but will flop one way or the other. Does that make sense? It's not painful, and it goes away quickly. It's just a kind of stiffness, and it works itself out.

Is there a name for that?

( Like I say, it just works itself out. Except, recently, for my right middle finger. )

My google-Fu fails me. Can anybody identify the music playing in Abby's lab in the Jag S8 episode Meltdown, when she's revealing the evidence found on the hat?

No, I was wrong. I neglected to take prescription benefit maximums into account. Son of a whore, drugs are expensive. Annually, having the LifeWise insurance would save me about $3500 on my drugs, out of over $16k. Awesome. Regence would be better, as it has a $5k/y cap.

edit: And instead of a 4-5x increase in my drug costs, every insurance option I've explored will be a 10x increase, ranging from $11,358 to $14,358 $11,742 to $14,742. The net effect, taking everything else into account, means a $10-11k increase in my annual out-of-pocket medical drug expenses. AWESOME.

Why did I take up contracting, again?

edit edit: Finally got my refil on the metformin, which at $32/mo adjusted the numbers a bit. Also, I realized that I said 'medical' when I meant 'drug'. Drug oop will increase 978% to 1229%, while total annual oop (including premiums, etc) will increase 253% to 290%. LifeWise is still looking the best over-all choice at 1070% drug cost increase but only 253% over-all. Basically, it's going to cost just shy of $8/hr.

edit edit edit: And, after I hit the annual benefit limits, I should be able to use my state scrip benefit card, which should take 20% off the brand-name drugs. That'll help a bit.

It's looking like the best insurance option is going to be lifewise. My drugs will cost me about 5x what I'm paying now, but the premium will be a bit over half, so the net is an increase of $2-3k/y. Yay. ::P

So, I just did some math.
For retail prescriptions, my current insurance is $10 copay for generic, $20 copay for brand-name. My new insulin is being charged at the $20 rate. Every plan I have found so far that offers scrip coverage does brand name drugs at a coinsurance percentage rate, rather than a flat copay. Most of them offer generics at a co-pay rather than a coinsurance percentage. Half are 30% co-insurance for brand-name drugs, the rest are 50%.

The insulin I just picked up cost me $40. For $1025 in drugs, for 30 days. The cheapest insurance plan I'm looking at will cost me $307 per 30 days, just for my insulin.

The WA state prescription card can get it for $364 per 30. Or just under a grand for 90d.


Sooo.. I get to pay anywhere from half to half-again as much for my new individual insurance plan, depending how hard I want to get screwed, and in exchange, I'll get to pay anywhere from 5 to 10 times as much for my drugs. Oh, how I look forward to it so.

I happened to check walgreens.com for the status of my new insulin earlier today. Before it's been filled, they list the pre-insurance price. My new fast-acting insulin, Apidra, 30 day supply (2 packs of 5x 3ml pens)... $509.59. After, $20.

I've narrowed the shopping down to five plans (four, really, with a choice between coinsurance rates on one of them), with various script coverages. Plus, I signed up for the state prescription discount card, which probably won't be cheaper but it's good to have.

So, my COBRA coverage ends at the end of July, so I need to start finding a replacement plan. I'm a contractor working for a contractor, and while there's some chance that the middle layer might be able to start providing an employer-level plan eventually, it's best not to bank on that, especially in the short term ('cause, if I ever have a gap in coverage, I am totally completely utterly screwed). SO, I'm starting looking. My boss pointed me at an insurance broker that he talked to, tho he was unimpressed, as well as a website that lets you do comparison shopping. While I'm at it, I figured I may as well toss it out to the internet hive mind to see if anybody else has suggestions.

My specific needs include prescription coverage (my current medications run around $100/month /after/ insurance, and last I added them up were over $700 before) and somewhat more frequent lab work than average.

I also need dental coverage, something with decent coverage rates on things like crowns and root canals, since my 20-year-old fillings continue to decay and need replacing, and they don't have a good track record for leaving anything good behind.

I'm expecting to end up paying somewhere between $300 and $600/mo for this, when all is said and done (my current unsubsidized COBRA is a bit over $400).

So, you remember my deep fryer? This one. Well, it developed an electrical problem. I disassembled the relevant bit, but there's nothing glaringly obvious with it. Which puts it into the realm of "I can't be bothered to try to fix it". SO, if anybody would like it, and wants to fix it themselves, it's yours. My original thought was a loose connection or something, but I'm now thinking it might actually be a fault in the switch. But, again, dunno. If you want it, let me know.

Meanwhile, if you have a recommendation for a replacement, I'd be happy to hear it. The thing I loved about this one, besides the aesthetics, was that everything except the electronics and heating coil could go into the dishwasher. Easy-to-clean is a Big Damned Deal to me, so if the cooking container itself can't be submersed, it's a non-starter. My last fryer was like that and I hated it.

I just marked jugulr.com, gottatext.com, gottatext.net, hotfierydeath.com, and hugsandpuppiesfairyland.com as for-sale with my registrar. I don't think I'm ever likely to do anything with them.

Assuming I decided I was willing to part with them, would anybody have any interest in either an Eee 900A or a Dell Mini 9?

My (relatively new-to-me, this was only my second time seeing him) doctor suggested maybe I should go over to swedish's diabetes education center to see about updating my edumacation and insulin setup. I've been running basically the same insulin regimen for over a decade and a half. So, met with an RN, discussed options, discussed continuous meters, discussed pumps. Decided to switch to a basal/bolus system using Lantus and Apidra. The nurse said that most people use Humalog or Novalog, because they know about them, so I decided to be different.

I'm waiting for some marketing paperwork to arrive before deciding on a continuous monitor and asking or a scrip for one. Will probably also wait until I get a new insurance company, which I need to do soon.

At some point in the dim dark future I may consider a pump. Or maybe islet transplants will become mainstream before then.

Heading to the airport in just over 5 hours.
Flying to San Francisco in just under 8 hours.
Will be back Monday night.

[was originally going to be a comment elsejournal, but decided no]

And no, I'm sorry, but just 'cause it's passé to compare people to hitler doesn't make all comparisons to hitler wrong. Bullshitting your people so you can conquer another country /is/ pretty damned hitleresque. Bush just did it the easy, lazy way, while Hitler had to work at it for a little while first. Also, as far as I know, Hitler believed his bullshit.

So, is it okay to compare Bush to Hitler? Yes, it is. He's not a lot like him. Too lazy, too much a liar.

Is it okay to compare Obama to Hitler? Yes, it is. He's not a lot like him. Tho he does look pretty good with that funky little moustache. Some of the recent decisions by his administration /might/ be looking a little gestapish. But, you know, he came into a situation, he's got certain tools available to him (many of which were created, or at least made more accessible, by the previous administration), and he's doing what he thinks needs doing based on the information he has available to him. I've only been paying attention to such things for a few presidencies, and there hasn't been one yet that only did things I agreed with. I don't expect there will be, until I get a few nice big rocks in the right orbits.

Is it okay to say Bush is Hitler, or Obama is Hitler, on the basis of the say-so of a talking head on TV? No. If you do, fuck you, die in a fire. You've got a brain, and if you aren't willing to use it, and understand the facts, and enumerate the REASONS YOU HAVE, based on facts, preferably those which have not been REPEATEDLY PROVEN FALSE, then no, you don't get to say that and expect to be taken seriously. You don't deserve an audience.


And if you ARE a talking head on TV, and you're spewing bullshit that's KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED as bullshit? If you are LYING, and KNOW YOU ARE LYING, in a public forum, with the expectation that people will listen to you, and believe you? Then you're the reason I regret the first amendment. You're the reason I'd /favor/ a benevolent dictatorship as an infinitely preferable form of government, where a secret police /could/ come and take you and show you JUST EXACTLY what you're claiming will happen.


And, preferably, broadcast it during your time slot.
On a different channel.

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