BeamerBikes

I tried to carefully caveat it. Specifically as long as you are able to take the time and have the capacity to be your own advocate. You can put in the work to make Medicare Advantage deliver as promised. My experience came from managing complex medical condition with skilled nursing care involved that didn't always coordinate well with private insurance. It yielded surprise bills and fights for not getting preauthorized when it was scheduled outside of my control. When I compared the even playing field of Medicare and all providers knowing what would get paid for versus what's private pay with certainty, it took a significant administrative burden off me. Kaiser as I understand it has the Western US pretty universally covered. In the Chicagoland market, there was variability at play with long standing traditional Medicare providers not being in the Advantage networks. Plus dementia care meant on boarding new providers held risk for knocking the dementia demons loose. All that adds up for me to be sour on continuing the private insurer "benefit" versus universal coverage under a single national plan as traditional Medicare is. Again, it's my experience for my situation. I found private insurance via Medicare Advantage to be way too much hassles versus everyone takes Medicare. The cost savings didnt make sense for me. Why change to save money I'll end up burning through that money spending time fighting and paying bills. My situation had a lot more provider services week to week so administration was key.

My experience from 2005 to 2017 as the long term caregiver and financial power of attorney for my mom with multiple providers. 2 years preMedicare - Absolutely HATED private employer provider group health care from BlueCross "good" benefits. Pre-auth/in vs out of network/rules In Medicare, opted for traditional A/B with pension provided supplemental including Drug benefit. It became easier. Less uncertainty and overhead what was covered and how much. Dental and Vision were out of pocket and needed to be planned for. One enrollment cycle Pension Plan switched everyone to Medicare Advantage. Promised nothing would change. Could continue to see old providers. WRONG. At home care went out of network. Quickly and forcibly had them change us back to traditional Medicare. Advised the nice lady in benefits transfer out of this department for this year. She was about to hear a crap load more complaints from others. I subsequently decided in the later years to go with the Cadillac of Supplement Plans that took care of 100% of the 20% copay. It was worth the additional premium to only worry about the initial deductible in the beginning of the year and never process another bill for $5.87 or whatever chump change billshit. Medicare Advantage may be great for low health care needs, but once you or your loved one needs more regular advanced care. Switch to Traditional Medicare and big ass supplement plan to simplify the administration. With Traditional Medicare - All you need to ask. Do they take Medicare or not? If yes, everyone knows the rules and what's covered. I only had one provider refuse Medicare.

Anyone else getting icons not rendering while in dark mode? Switch to light mode and they come back. Just started today. On an android/chrome browser.

Having come of age in the mid 90s, there are some memorable ones for me. Red Joop - I could take it or leave it, but had a few bfs that loved it. Blue Joop aka NightFlight and Cool Water - I'll sometime wear it to remember someone from my past. Eternity - holy crap if anyone ever wants to remember why no smoking in bars is a good thing? That scent was so strong it could still cut through 4 hours of a smoky bar. Wear it today - definitely a little bit will do.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.... (song just popped in my head)

Twitter may not be going anywhere, but advertisers are leaving. Users are starting to look elsewhere. Engagement numbers are up, but a trainwreck brings a crowd. Financially, I find it hard to see how it will find its way back to a $44 Billion valuation. Leaving politics aside and definitely out of this discussion. I'm finding the Mastodon fediverse a different experience than Twitter. Some learning curve with the new platform for sure. Folks are rebuilding some networks. There's definitely more content moderation occuring depending on instance joined. This may not be sustainable in the long term. At least one of infosec folks has resecurrected a forum site. Imagine that. Company of Men. Ha! Forum sites being used in the 2020s.

I'm not going to argue shit here... If it puts your mind at ease, your own doctor says might as well, and/or it's offered locally, get the shot. OR If you have doubts in the science/stats, don't get the shot right now. Either way, live your life and be kind to one another. 24hr later after 2nd intradermal shot. I have a US quarter sized red mark, and a slightly sore neck gland (could be unrelated)

Got the 2nd dose intradermal this afternoon - no reaction so far. Finished out the regimen. If it's overkill so be it, it puts my mind at ease with one less concern. My primary doc also gay agreed might as well finish it out.

As of 5pm Eastern today, a whole mess of them decided to say peace out Elon give me my 3 months of severance and good luck with your soon to be dead bird. The alternative was signing up to go "extreme hardcore", which sounds like you're going to get worked to death. Also, if you aren't cutting it, you might not get even the 3 months as a consolation prize for choosing "extreme hardcore". I agree. There's no shame in taking a spot on a lifeboat. Better to get in the lifeboat while you still have the energy/will to swim if need be. Rather than try to save a sinking ship you have no ownership stake left in.

An unexpectedly high number of the remaining 50% decided that 3 months of severance was better than whatever "extreme hardcore" meant for work life balance. Smart money is on Twitter experiencing major outages by this weekend when the World Cup piles on their infrastructure. Also reports of Twitter "leadership" locking everyone out of the office for fear of sabotage. Offices are closed until Nov 21. Also if you are an exceptional employee, you may be allowed to work remote. I'm assuming exceptional employee includes anyone left. Everything is fine over there.

I moved over my Twitter presence for cybersecurity stuff over to Mastodon because I've joined the club that Twitter will prolly implode badly in the coming months. 50% Layoff and the remaining have to sign a "hardcore" pledge by tomorrow. Outages are going to be inevitable at this point with that much brain drain.

"Many people are saying... Believe me" hahaha let's keep the politics out of this thread. It has its own forum. Its a finance forum and the topic is recession advice for those, who haven't gone through any significant downturn. Another identifier - when they suddenly cancel all company travel around specific dates. Meaning they don't want to potentially strand someone away from home if they are about to turn off the company credit card.

I was in my early 20s and spent more than half of 2002 unemployed. Then in 2007 - 2010, I waited it out doing caregiving by choice. My advice 1) Don't assume you're safe ever. 2) Build an Emergency fund AND evaluate all spending before you NEED to cut back. 3) if the office plants go missing, banker boxes show up in the hallways, budgets get hard frozen for even small things, those are signs somethings coming. 4) Getting laid off in the first wave has its perks. Sticking around to continue your job AND the folks who just got canned for the same pay is a bad deal. You don't have to go down with the ship either. 5) if the company doesn't pull out of it, the retention and severance packages likely will get worst! 6) Living through Termination Tuesday's and Fuck You Fridays is soul crushing. Yes, companies will gradually and regularly shed staff on the way down the drain. Watching Survivor is better than being a contestant.

Saw this in a tweet "Tech workers who didn't live through the dot com crash, you have no idea what's coming. Prepare yourselves." Opening up this up - what's some concrete advice you'd give your younger self to "prepare yourself"?

Colon Blow Skit referenced above Colon Blow on SNL

I got some good traffic. I have a younger neighborhood sandwiched between an elementary and middle school. Now I'm looking at too much leftover candy and thinking this isn't going to be good for any semblance of a diet.

I first read that as Colon Blow the SNL skit! Metamucil is a friend in my 40s and after a few GI surgeries.

So update the intradermal site on the 1st dose formed a dime size raised red skeeter bite. Isn't too bad. Still curious what a 2nd dose would likely look like. Would the reaction be more pronounced or less. Fun times.

Also there's a better chance the fixed rate may inch up from the current fixed 0% at the next rate adjustment. Finding the bright side for those a smidge late. You could have a higher fixed rate for longer. The variable rate tied to inflation adjusts every 6 months.

I mask up at airport lines, airplanes, healthcare facilities that mandate it. As it turns colder again in the Chicago area, I'm reminded how the mask actually feels better if I forgot my scarf outdoors. LOL. I also n95 masked up regularly indoors in the weeks ahead of my recent surgery. Didn't want to risk having to reschedule that. Mask or don't mask. For me - it's personal preference and local site rules. I vax'd up now covid 3x + 1x bivalent. 1 dose of Jynneos waiting 2nd one. Flu shot as well. Cause fuck it why not? How many times did I eat or drink to excess in my life? It's a little late to get self-righteous about me being healthier than others. Also, I trust vaccines when applicable so let it rip.

Got my 1st shot intradermal Jynneos today(Oct 18th) in Chgo burbs. Oddly, the public health nurse mentioned it will likely be just a single dose for me. Unless direct exposure or being immunocompromised, that agency is only doing single doses. I didn't read through the entire thread, but haven't heard of other places going single dose only. Also never been smallpox vaccinated, would it be more likely or less likely to have a local site reaction for the 1st dose? It's been 12 hours and so far just feel a little headache but no sign at injection site.

So updates - summer is starting to wind down. The provider has now gone silent but hopefully is in a treatment program. He went off the rails with full on delusions. The buddy who drank himself into some brain damage now is facing a possible eviction. He's also having cash flow problems because he's purposefully flowing cash to a P.o.S on/off again bad news ex-bf/hubby who's toxic af. With that, I have to walk away. Buddy won't come clean about that being where the money is going, won't accept help with his finances, doesn't want to face facts about the landlord situation. Best I could do was involve his family and let them know I'm out of options as his "in case of emergency"/poa. Power of attorneys only work if the person wants the help. Otherwise, I'd have to pursue declaring him incompetent. I don't have it in me to fight that hard even if they may not be fully in control of their cognitive functions. I have done a helluva more than others would have, and need to make peace with walking away. Lesson for all - the lies we tell ourselves are the worst of them all. Love yourself enough to cut out toxic exs and never let them back in your life. No matter how much you may be lonely. It's cheaper to get a pet. Sometimes the only thing left to do is set your own boundary not to get sucked into the eventual train wreck. Recognize when you have done all you could, and jump off before you get entangled in it any further.

Curious to see if anyone is heading out to Vegas for Blackhat or Defcon next week? Open for suggestions as this is my first Hacker Summercamp - BH/Defcon. Usually did more SANS/ midwest cons prior. I'm headed out that way as part of my day job. Not sure if there's others in the security space here. Debated if this should be in tech or travel section - admins move as appropriate.

Medallion stamps open the bank to additional liability. Notaries only attest that you are the person in front of the notary. Medallion stamps in my understanding attest that both the person is who they say they are AND the documents are in proper order - non-fraudalent. Hence Medallion stamps are so hard to get processed unless you are a customer of a brick/mortar branch. The bank wants a known way/contact information to put any liability back on the individual rather than eat it themselves as a cost of doing business.

Yeah by denomination $100s avg life is 20 years. The latest style came out in 2013 so that tracks. Link below includes other signs to check for validity by year. By feel is still my favorite quick check. https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100