I’m with you.

Never have I needed to work so hard to advocate for myself to get the care I needed as when I was with UHC.

By comparison, this year has held two major surgeries for me, neither expected, and my current insurer just shrugged, asked ONCE for proof of medical necessity, and paid the bill.

Also, let’s not forget the breach at a UHC subsidiary in recent months that brought down pharma payment systems for weeks…

And here I thought orange just pulled this out of his ass to malign immigrants.

This is a damned shame to say the least but I’m as guilty as anyone.

My own ostrich coping mechanism has been long term personal goals and wondering what I’ll do when I can no longer work and SS is gone.

It’s put me in a shitty state of mind lll admit, and I have no excuses. Overwhelmed is a statement of fact, not an excuse.

I’ve been remote since 2014. Plenty of friends made. Wouldn’t date at work as a general rule, it creates unnecessary risk IMO.

Certainly wouldn’t eg move in with someone I worked with, etc.

Then again, being poly and happily married, risk calculus is part of my mental process before attempting to date a particular person. If it goes south, will they show up naked and screaming on my front lawn in the middle of the night?

Since an angry ex doesn’t have the option of along me look bad to my wife (who also dates), any serious crazy could escalate quickly and creatively. I want nothing to do with that.

$25 a month, US, MVNO on Verizon network.

Had to bring my own phone, which is in bad shape and I’ll have to replace eventually, but I basically don’t think about my service at all.

That MVNO also has a program to heavily discount service for up to three months due to loss of job or temp disability, because, yknow, you need a phone number to look for a job.

That discount was damn nice when I had a couple of surgeries this year.

Make sure that it can be backed up, somehow.

Save your recovery codes in an organized and secure fashion.

Offhand, Ente does backup I believe.

Bitwarden does export (save on encrypted drive, or print and put in safe deposit box)

• Fuck these greedy, utterly insensitive, bastards.
• Malls are generally owned by large corps in the business of owning malls. Anyone know offhand who owns this one so I can avoid their other properties?
• How many “housing first,” programs could we run using a year of the company’s profit?

While we can’t say for sure, I’d certainly be wargaming some possible outcomes and how to respond to them.

Wouldn’t surprise me if disability for mental health reasons was high on the list of things to cut. It’s effectively an “invisible” disability, which makes it somewhat easier to cut while limiting loss of political capital.

I wish you all the best getting through the upcoming difficult years. You’re a genuinely good person for caring and thinking far enough ahead to realize the question needs to be asked.

For other folks reading this, now is an excellent time to review your payroll deductions and ensure you’re paying for private disability coverage - both short and long term. It’s one of the least expensive ways to hedge against the crazy of the next four years.

TBH, I’m mildly surprised that this is a recent change. Signed binaries are neither new technology nor all that difficult.

Compared to all of the other crazy things that government does, this seems like relatively low hanging fruit.

PS don’t give our orange leader to be (or congress) any ideas…

• this is terrifying.
• This does not sound legally permissible, see posse comitatus.
• Members of the military have an obligation to refuse illegal orders. I am neither in the military nor a lawyer, so I can’t go too deep on that.

Even if we see (likely) “act first, let it wind through the courts later,” I’d expect there to be a substantial number of refusals.

If memory serves, the first version of the administration used “acting” department heads with some regularity.

If they are “acting,” there isn’t a confirmation hearing because no one has yet been nominated to fill the role.

Last month, I had a shoulder replaced that I injured in March. Seven months to get the surgery, another month before PT could start.

Waiting while in pain is brutal, but this is not a DIY project.

Not to mention, if this affects multiple limbs, there’s a very real possibility you could e.g., fall while exercising and dramatically worsen the situation.

Prices look decent at a glance as well.

I miss my BB keyboard something fierce.

I’ve worked side by side with RU devs who were both personable and damned competent. Never were their tech skills in doubt, and I retain quite a bit of respect for those individuals.

I’d not do the same today explicitly because of the political and compliance implications. It’s unfortunate, but necessary.

Feel ya, no job is perfect. My giant employer is great about WFH for those hired as such during a particular period of time, but they’ve outsourced HR entirely to a third party - a simple inquiry becomes a three day saga, abd if I’m talking in real time to HR, voluntarily, it’s because I’ve a concern of some immediacy.

WFH plus great benefits > downsides, but it’s always a balancing act of priorities for sure.

IOS presently, partially to simplify de googling.

Configurable, though, to use many other engines and results.

Lots of overlap, but there are a couple other indexes out there.

What Google password?

I don’t intend to browse RMS-style, but I have zero need of a Google account, nor of the major search engines directly.

I just add layers between myself and that particular company. I still can get their data, but without the creep factor.

Mostly.

It’s an imperfect solution, but I’m more comfortable with access by proxy than direct access.

Been looking for this sort of device for my Pantech laser.

The cartridge is good for 1,600 pages - no more, no less.

All well and good, they’re cheap, except.. the vast majority of my printing is in A5 size (roughly half-letter, or exactly half-A4).

Those half pages count just like any other page against the total, and I get shorted by the better part of 800 pages or so.

1. Suffer through working life
2. Retire, downsize, go see the world without having to convince a gf/partner

Nothing wrong with disliking dating, it’s a screwy social ritual intended to use a short series of interactions to determine if this is a person you could trust and genuinely like enough to share everything - including tough mornings - and compromise with for the next fifty years.

Works for some folks. Doesn’t work for others. I’m happily married, took a couple false starts and youthful indiscretions to get here - as well as the magic of the internet and some long discussions about relationships/commitment/poly/nonstandard stuff.

Works for us, maybe not for most.