Whew it's hot out here! Summer Mini-Rants

[Shot From Guns]

I am really fucking sick of caps on medical coverage that is claimed to be 100% coverage. It is a LIE that it's 100% when they have such ridiculously low caps on care. Yes, I knew it was a lie. It was this or nothing. I'm tired of being screwed no matter what I do.

1.) First and foremost, sorry you're stuck as being an object lesson in how health care is fucking broken in America.

2.) Your plan covers 100% for certain services after you meet the deductible. They do not cover 100% on everything; almost no plans do. There is no percentage they could give you that would accurately describe how much of your future care will be covered, because they have no idea what you'll need or seek. So they say they cover 100% of the things that fall under the plan, and then give limits for other things. That's how insurance works. If you had an HMO that covered 100% in-network and less than that out-of-network, would you be complaining that it wasn't really 100% coverage if you went to an OON location for non-emergency treatment and didn't get 100% coverage?

3.) Out of curiosity, do you have a yearly out-of-pocket maximum? If you're not sure, it's probably worth looking into.

 

[Lady of the Lake]

Am I allowed to wish cancer on your sister? (What if they catch it early enough that she lives?)

We discussed cancer treatments. She doesn't believe that chemotherapy and our modern medical treatments for cancer are helpful. They are...'toxic'.

So, I think she would eat some sprouts and sunbath instead of getting chemo.

I'll give you a dollar to go to her house and dispose of all her toilet paper, soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, and personal grooming tools (brushes, toothbrushes, razors, etc.). Because you can bet your ass our caveman ancestors didn't use any of that unnatural shit, either. Oh, and you might want to do your best to ensure that she travels everywhere on foot.

For reasons that I've never understood those things are all okay. So is bug spray.

Would it help or hurt if I mention that she is trying to breed?

 

[Finagle]

Facebook, I'm assuming that

"Account Unavailable
Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience." is really a euphemism for "Crap, we spilled beer into the servers again -- your account is going to be unavailable until we figure out where the cat hid the backup tapes. We don't really care if you're inconvenienced because you're not paying us any money and, hey, it's just freaking Facebook."

At least it would be more amusing if they came right out and said so.

 

[matt_mcl]

I'm watching "Parking Wars" on tv*,

They made a show about parking?

What else have they made a show about? ATM lineups? Taking the trash out?

 

[Estilicon]

Hot!
We are freezing down here

http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/imagenes_nota/389463/Nadie_quiso_perderse_fiesta_nieve.html

 

[Finagle]

Hoses -- I hate them. It's been a dry, dry couple of weeks so even though my newly seeded grass is dead, i still have to water the garden. And the damned hoses are always getting tangled in something (requiring me to walk back and untangle them) or getting kinked and cutting off the water flow (requiring me to walk back and unkink them). And not a single connection or fitting manages to be leak free no matter how many times I change the gaskets and clean the rims. So I've spent most of the spring and early summer standing out in the yard while water drips down my arm or sprays unexpectedly over my shorts, shoes and shirt.

And this rant wouldn't be complete without a call out to my expensive metal oscillating sprinkler that fails to oscillate and my cheaper plastic sprinklers that just disintegrate after a season's use.

 

[melodyharmonius]

At my dad's funeral, my 3 brothers and their families were late because they decided to go out to dinner rather than take part in the church supper provided.

I can't tell you how embarassed and steamed I was that my brothers had to pay that last little amount of disrespect to him.

 

[Nava]

But, matt! Don't give them ideas!

 

[rockle]

groupons are like... I think you sign up for this website and probably buy a subscription and then you get gift certificates (or maybe just very generous coupons) to local businesses. I'm not entirely sure, I just know that the one for my place came out recently and we've been slammed ever since.

No paid subscription required -- you just get an email telling you what the "daily deal" is, and if enough people opt in to the offer then you get a (usually fairly big) discount for local products and services. Like, $100 worth of spa services for $50, or $10 worth of cupcakes for $4, stuff like that. (Today's deal in Philly is $75 worth of home-delivered organic food for $35 -- different cities have different offers.) Here's how it works, and their FAQ.

 

[Sigmagirl]

OH GOD I am getting into it with an anti-vaxer. I say getting into it, she's stomped off after linking to VRAN and calling me a "fucking zombie" but still, OH GOD.

I really just want to call her a child abuser in 72pt blinking lime Comic Sans. I won't. It's not helpful and it's not true and I'd only be doing it because it's one of her buttons (she got into a huge slapfight after calling a fellow mommyblogger a child abuser for letting her kid cry, once, for fives minutes (in 1960!). She's one of THOSE parents. I digress), but anti-vaxers make me absolutely CAPSLOCK FUCKING FURIOUS. Self-serving goddamn back-patting pox-bringers. "I'm too SPECIAL for peer reviewed science! Facts are a tool of the PATRIARCHY! Science is made from CHEMICALS! My self-righteousness is certified ORGANIC! I'm accessing the internet with CRYSTALS! MOMMY-INSTINCT! BIG PHARMA! AUTISM! AUTIIIIIIISM!"

She even made the point that children could be adequately protected with homoeopathy. I nearly exploded.

How is it that you know my boss?

My oversensitive smoke alarm also seems to have a setting for, "Someone took a shower! Alert! Alert!"

Mine has one for "Sigmagirl is broiling turkey burgers again."

 

[Southern Yankee]

Can you buy the Greensboro ticket and just get on at Charlotte? Or are the airlines hip to that? (I guess you'd have to carry on your bag instead of checking it, but heck, that'll save you another vigorous humping from the airline in the form of baggage fees.)

Nope. If you don't check in for the first leg of the flight they cancel you. I imagine if I tried to get on in Charlotte I'd be flagged and either beaten (kidding) or made to pay the larger fare.

 

[Shot From Guns]

We have a simple system of footers to track documents. So (a) why isn't there one on this fucking MCA, of all things, and (b) why does nobody involved in creating it seem to have a copy of the final version?

Why does someone throw their life away by gunning down police officers when whatever crime they committed isn't likely to have earned them the death penalty? [...] Stupid!

Looks like you answered your own question there.

 

[Shot From Guns]

Perhaps you can enlighten me: where in that quote is the "mis-punctuation"? I'll give you a hint: it ain't there.

In the U.S., periods and commas go inside of quotation marks.

No, it's there - "mis-punctuation?" Punctuation goes inside quotation marks.

Actually, that one you did there was wrong. In that context, it was correct with the question mark outside the quotation marks.

It's perfectly acceptable usage.

Not by any U.S. style guide I've ever seen. And I've used quite a few. Care to cite that?

I find it odd that she who rails against prescriptivism would engage in it herself when it suits her.

Spoken language and written language are two entirely different creatures, comparable to, say, walking and driving a car, respectively. You can make much better arguements for standardization in writing than you can in speaking.

Also, note, I was simply pointing out the irony of someone who takes such umbrage at contracting a word making an error in their punctuation. One that, apparently, they don't view as an error, despite much evidence to the contrary.

 

[wolf-alice]

OH GOD I am getting into it with an anti-vaxer. I say getting into it, she's stomped off after linking to VRAN and calling me a "fucking zombie" but still, OH GOD.

I really just want to call her a child abuser in 72pt blinking lime Comic Sans. I won't. It's not helpful and it's not true and I'd only be doing it because it's one of her buttons (she got into a huge slapfight after calling a fellow mommyblogger a child abuser for letting her kid cry, once, for fives minutes (in 1960!). She's one of THOSE parents. I digress), but anti-vaxers make me absolutely CAPSLOCK FUCKING FURIOUS. Self-serving goddamn back-patting pox-bringers. "I'm too SPECIAL for peer reviewed science! Facts are a tool of the PATRIARCHY! Science is made from CHEMICALS! My self-righteousness is certified ORGANIC! I'm accessing the internet with CRYSTALS! MOMMY-INSTINCT! BIG PHARMA! AUTISM! AUTIIIIIIISM!"

She even made the point that children could be adequately protected with homoeopathy. I nearly exploded.

 

[rockle]

I think iPhones are bit overrated myself, but why is it stupid to own one when you don't have a computer?

You can't update the software without connecting to iTunes. (I don't think, but it is possible that I am so brain-damaged with rage that I am incorrect.) You also can't download some big apps (which are of course the ones she wants) without being connected to either iTunes or WiFi. She does send emails and texts from time to time, but they are mostly unintelligible (and not in the LOL-speak sort of way, either). She is 60-something and she can't see the screen that well, or work the touchscreen with any proficiency. And she always complains about the stuff she wants to look up, because 98% of the time it is something that requires Flash to work (stupid animations, etc.), and so she can't see it on her iPhone anyway.

My big thing with her and the iPhone is that, basically, she doesn't need it. Of course she is perfectly entitled to spend her money on whatever she wants to, as that is The American Way N'at -- but she's spent hundred of dollars on apps she doesn't need and doesn't understand, and then she asks us to help her out with her bills because she spent the rest of her paycheck on an iTunes gift card (and I don't even know how she uses it, honestly, when she doesn't have a computer with iTunes on it, although I suspect my husband and his laptop enable her in some way).

And since she got her current iPhone, all she's done is bitch about how it doesn't do this or that or the other thing, and send my husband links to other people on the Internets bitching about what they hate about their iPhones and whatever. "Whaa whaa! My iPhone doesn't take video!" Video of what? She never does anything, and she doesn't want to do anything. She's just One Of Those People and she gives me seizures and apoplectic fits.

 

[Avarie537]

Avarie, that well and truly sucks. While some things are replaceable, I know from experience that musical instruments are not. After being hit not once, but twice in the space of a single week (probably by the same assholes) I think I'd want to move.

They've lived in the same house for 30+ years; they just renovated a few years back; and it's fully paid off. They're not going going anywhere.

 

[Cat Whisperer]

Isn't that exactly how the U.S. DNC list works (I checked, and yes, it is; although businesses are limited in how long they may call you after the interaction, and I can't imagine that Canada's law wouldn't have similar restrictions)? Presumably you can also still asked to be removed from individual lists.

So we have presumably the same Do Not Call legislation as the US, and yours is working wonderfully and ours is not (judging from the endless calls I'm still getting) - I guess we have different values for "works great."

 

[woodstockbirdybird]

Is it really contracting a word? I could see "san'ich" as a contraction, but AFAICT there's not a single "m" in the word, so there's a substitution, which is what makes it sound so infantile - it's the kind of word a child would use when they couldn't pronounce the real word properly. Sorry it hurts your pussy so much that I think it sounds utterly retarded, though.

 

[Dung Beetle]

From us to 19 year old stepson:
Rent-free room and utilities
Internet
Food and snacks (eaten in room despite house rules)
Laundry service (wash, dry, fold)
Household supplies (medication, toiletries, etc.)
Maid service
Health insurance coverage
Motorcycle storage
Interest free loans and occasional gifts of cash
Assistance with minor legal troubles
Blind eye to drug use

From 19 year old stepson to us:
Assurance of attending adult education classes daily throughout the next school year in pursuit of final credits needed for HS diploma (unless he’s too tired or doesn’t feel like it)
Daily lies and household disruption

 

[Squink]

And this rant wouldn't be complete without a call out to my expensive metal oscillating sprinkler that fails to oscillate

Have you run some vinegar into it? They build up mineral crud, just like coffee pots.