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Random things which have nothing to do with each other, in no particular order:
1. Have you heard of/encountered Trop50? It's been around for a little while now. It's Tropicana orange juice, except they take out half the sugar and replace it with non-caloric sweetener (from the stevia plant, so it's not technically artificial sweetener). It's not the only product of its kind. Come to that, there's sucralose (aka Splenda).
Diet soda, sugar-free Jell-o, etc... that's one thing. But what we're talking about here is taking something which had natural sugar (or, in the case of Splenda, was sugar) and then making some or all of it undigestable. Taking orange juice and removing half its caloric content. Taking actual sugar and modifying it so it no longer has any nutritional value.
Now think about all the people on Earth who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition because their socio-economic position makes it too difficult to get sufficient food. In Africa. In Central America. In Mexico. In the streets of New York City. In just about any populated section of the globe you can name.
And here we are taking the calories out of actual food because we're too fat. How messed up is that?
2. For those of you familiar with the current state of things in the DC Universe... (Told you it had nothing to do with anything else.)
Say there's a bat family team-up. Dick, Tim, Jason, Steph, and Damien. Someone (let's say Huntress) calls out "Hey, Robin! Over here!" What happens?
Think about this.
Tim has been Robin for years. He only recently changed identities, and his "new" name still includes "Robin." (Also, he's apparently serving hamburgers. Incredibly fattening ones, at that.)
Jason's change of identity is also fairly recent, and before that he was Robin for several years.
Damien is supposed to be Robin, but he's only been at it for a couple of months (give or take; it's comic book time). I'm not sure how seriously he takes it, either.
Dick hasn't been Robin for ages, but he is the original, it was his first costumed identity, and, let's face it, he's the one who had that name the longest.
And Steph, well... she may be Batgirl now, but she was Robin before that, and probably for just about as long. She's also probably got the loosest attachment to her costumed identity (any of them) of the whole group. She's Steph first and foremost. I don't think she ever fully committed to Spoiler and she hasn't really claimed Batgirl for her own yet. And, arguably, Robin is the identity that meant the most to her, since it meant official acceptance from Batman.
3. I've had a lot of fun with my insurance company lately. Back in December, I realized that I'd be better off with a higher deductible, but had trouble getting straight answers out of anyone about how to go about doing that and whether it was too late to make the change and so on. I collected at least half a dozen different phone numbers as everyone assured me that I needed to speak to someone at an entirely different department. Spent hours and hours on hold, being bounced around. I was also told (despite evidence to the contrary) that the premium rates wouldn't be changing this year.
Well, the whole thing got sidelined for a while, in part due to the sudden death of the old printer, in part because it fell through the cracks. Picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, but realized that there was a sticky issue - plan change would now take effect March 1, and Aetna could well take that as an excuse to throw out the claims from January and February. It's just a change in deductible, but they could claim that it's a new plan and a new deductible and the old claims don't count. I'm already halfway to meeting my current deductible, and I've been holding claims back until I get things sorted out.
So... more time on hold. More time being assured that the information I was looking for was the responsibility of another department. (And of course interdepartmental communication is strictly limited. By design. To make this stuff that much harder and more frustrating. So that people give up and stop asking questions and the company can get away with fewer payouts and such.) More numbers to call. I'd call the billing department, who would tell me I needed to speak to the benefits department but would transfer me to member services where the automated system would misroute my call completely (giving me someone even more confused about why I was talking to them than I was) so then I'd be transferred over to someone else... Waiting on hold each time. Until some department closed and I had to start over the next day.
I got someone who told me that my fears were valid - those claims would be dumped. I gave up. I got a letter telling me that there will be a rate hike, after all. Effective March 1. I redid the math and realized that even if the claims were tossed out I'd save several hundred dollars this year (and over a thousand next year even if the rates stay the same). I called up again. Spent another few days being misrouted and transferred and blah blah. Got someone who told me that no, the claims would roll over to the new deductible, after all... but he seemed hesitant and had put me on hold several times to check into things. Asked if I could get it in writing. Was told to email member services.
Emailed member services. They wrote back with an answer that had absolutely nothing to do with the question I'd asked. Replied, telling them I was getting fed up with the run-around and the previous answer had been so off-base as to appear deliberate. Explained the situation simply and clearly. Got a response the next day telling me that I should contact my broker. (I don't have a broker. But they gave me a phone number anyway.) Wrote back explaining the situation again and insisting that no, it was a question for member services, and a fairly simple one at that.
Spent the next day fuming and thinking about how this is precisely why we need a public option, if not single payer. Not just for price control, not just because for-profit insurance has so much less incentive to actually look out for the patient's welfare, not just for all those other reasons... but because for-profit insurance includes this almost comically ridiculous level of unnecessary obfuscation. Not even the government can match the level of red tape and incompetence you find when the company is deliberately cultivating it.
The day after that, I got a simple, clear reply telling me that yes, they could assure me that the claims from this calendar year would of course be rolled over to the new deductible.
Finally.
Now to find out what happened to the paperwork I'd prepared...
4. We have snow! Lots of snow! Lots and lots of snow! Older sister's kids had a couple of snow days, so they actually came over here. Got to play with them. (And the three kids from next door came over for a while, too. I went up to my old toy closet and broke out a whole bunch of stuff that had been languishing there for at least a decade.) And tomorrow the younger of my sisters (still older than me) will be here with her two kids. So I get time with all of them! (Of course, I'm semi-nocturnal this week, but what can you do?)
5. Caprica has been interesting so far. The pilot (which I saw when they released it several months ago) looked like it had potential, but it didn't really grab me. Certainly didn't have that BSG intensity. But the episodes since then have been pretty cool. I love the opening credits sequence. And they're doing some pretty complicated things with the characters. I just don't understand why they don't post new eps on the web until Wednesday. Though they do reair them a couple of times after the original Friday night premiere.
1. Have you heard of/encountered Trop50? It's been around for a little while now. It's Tropicana orange juice, except they take out half the sugar and replace it with non-caloric sweetener (from the stevia plant, so it's not technically artificial sweetener). It's not the only product of its kind. Come to that, there's sucralose (aka Splenda).
Diet soda, sugar-free Jell-o, etc... that's one thing. But what we're talking about here is taking something which had natural sugar (or, in the case of Splenda, was sugar) and then making some or all of it undigestable. Taking orange juice and removing half its caloric content. Taking actual sugar and modifying it so it no longer has any nutritional value.
Now think about all the people on Earth who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition because their socio-economic position makes it too difficult to get sufficient food. In Africa. In Central America. In Mexico. In the streets of New York City. In just about any populated section of the globe you can name.
And here we are taking the calories out of actual food because we're too fat. How messed up is that?
2. For those of you familiar with the current state of things in the DC Universe... (Told you it had nothing to do with anything else.)
Say there's a bat family team-up. Dick, Tim, Jason, Steph, and Damien. Someone (let's say Huntress) calls out "Hey, Robin! Over here!" What happens?
Think about this.
Tim has been Robin for years. He only recently changed identities, and his "new" name still includes "Robin." (Also, he's apparently serving hamburgers. Incredibly fattening ones, at that.)
Jason's change of identity is also fairly recent, and before that he was Robin for several years.
Damien is supposed to be Robin, but he's only been at it for a couple of months (give or take; it's comic book time). I'm not sure how seriously he takes it, either.
Dick hasn't been Robin for ages, but he is the original, it was his first costumed identity, and, let's face it, he's the one who had that name the longest.
And Steph, well... she may be Batgirl now, but she was Robin before that, and probably for just about as long. She's also probably got the loosest attachment to her costumed identity (any of them) of the whole group. She's Steph first and foremost. I don't think she ever fully committed to Spoiler and she hasn't really claimed Batgirl for her own yet. And, arguably, Robin is the identity that meant the most to her, since it meant official acceptance from Batman.
3. I've had a lot of fun with my insurance company lately. Back in December, I realized that I'd be better off with a higher deductible, but had trouble getting straight answers out of anyone about how to go about doing that and whether it was too late to make the change and so on. I collected at least half a dozen different phone numbers as everyone assured me that I needed to speak to someone at an entirely different department. Spent hours and hours on hold, being bounced around. I was also told (despite evidence to the contrary) that the premium rates wouldn't be changing this year.
Well, the whole thing got sidelined for a while, in part due to the sudden death of the old printer, in part because it fell through the cracks. Picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, but realized that there was a sticky issue - plan change would now take effect March 1, and Aetna could well take that as an excuse to throw out the claims from January and February. It's just a change in deductible, but they could claim that it's a new plan and a new deductible and the old claims don't count. I'm already halfway to meeting my current deductible, and I've been holding claims back until I get things sorted out.
So... more time on hold. More time being assured that the information I was looking for was the responsibility of another department. (And of course interdepartmental communication is strictly limited. By design. To make this stuff that much harder and more frustrating. So that people give up and stop asking questions and the company can get away with fewer payouts and such.) More numbers to call. I'd call the billing department, who would tell me I needed to speak to the benefits department but would transfer me to member services where the automated system would misroute my call completely (giving me someone even more confused about why I was talking to them than I was) so then I'd be transferred over to someone else... Waiting on hold each time. Until some department closed and I had to start over the next day.
I got someone who told me that my fears were valid - those claims would be dumped. I gave up. I got a letter telling me that there will be a rate hike, after all. Effective March 1. I redid the math and realized that even if the claims were tossed out I'd save several hundred dollars this year (and over a thousand next year even if the rates stay the same). I called up again. Spent another few days being misrouted and transferred and blah blah. Got someone who told me that no, the claims would roll over to the new deductible, after all... but he seemed hesitant and had put me on hold several times to check into things. Asked if I could get it in writing. Was told to email member services.
Emailed member services. They wrote back with an answer that had absolutely nothing to do with the question I'd asked. Replied, telling them I was getting fed up with the run-around and the previous answer had been so off-base as to appear deliberate. Explained the situation simply and clearly. Got a response the next day telling me that I should contact my broker. (I don't have a broker. But they gave me a phone number anyway.) Wrote back explaining the situation again and insisting that no, it was a question for member services, and a fairly simple one at that.
Spent the next day fuming and thinking about how this is precisely why we need a public option, if not single payer. Not just for price control, not just because for-profit insurance has so much less incentive to actually look out for the patient's welfare, not just for all those other reasons... but because for-profit insurance includes this almost comically ridiculous level of unnecessary obfuscation. Not even the government can match the level of red tape and incompetence you find when the company is deliberately cultivating it.
The day after that, I got a simple, clear reply telling me that yes, they could assure me that the claims from this calendar year would of course be rolled over to the new deductible.
Finally.
Now to find out what happened to the paperwork I'd prepared...
4. We have snow! Lots of snow! Lots and lots of snow! Older sister's kids had a couple of snow days, so they actually came over here. Got to play with them. (And the three kids from next door came over for a while, too. I went up to my old toy closet and broke out a whole bunch of stuff that had been languishing there for at least a decade.) And tomorrow the younger of my sisters (still older than me) will be here with her two kids. So I get time with all of them! (Of course, I'm semi-nocturnal this week, but what can you do?)
5. Caprica has been interesting so far. The pilot (which I saw when they released it several months ago) looked like it had potential, but it didn't really grab me. Certainly didn't have that BSG intensity. But the episodes since then have been pretty cool. I love the opening credits sequence. And they're doing some pretty complicated things with the characters. I just don't understand why they don't post new eps on the web until Wednesday. Though they do reair them a couple of times after the original Friday night premiere.
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