Random randomness

[Zarathud]

Sooo serious TTG.

Waffle jokes never get old.
Burgers vs. Burrito? Brilliant!

[GreenGoo]

Waffles waffles?

Waffles.

My daughter and I spend entire mornings saying nothing but waffle waffles.

My wife hates me. Edit: but that's unrelated.

[GreenGoo]

Also completely unrelated to my latest string of long, ranty, grammatically iffy and full of typo posts, is the fact that it is more difficult than expected to wipe your butt when one leg is completely asleep.

[Daehawk]

When I was 17 I sold Kirby vacuums door to door. I cant imagine that working now days. I cant see people trusting a stranger at the door enough. We used to give potential customers a free roll of paper towels to let us demonstrate the machine. I again cant see letting someone offering me free towels into my home. Ever.

[Daehawk]

Looking at James Bond salaries it appears Sean Connery made $100,000 for Dr No in 1962.

For Spectre Daniel Craig made about $40,000,000 in 2015. Its rumored he will make $100,000,000 plus for the next one.

[gbasden]

When I was 17 I sold Kirby vacuums door to door. I cant imagine that working now days. I cant see people trusting a stranger at the door enough. We used to give potential customers a free roll of paper towels to let us demonstrate the machine. I again cant see letting someone offering me free towels into my home. Ever.

We just bought a Kirby from a door to door salesman a few years ago. It happens. Great vacuum, btw.

[Daehawk]

Yes Kirbys are fantastic at what they do but they are way overpriced and have a tendency to break belts. Or used to. Maybe they fixed that.

[Daehawk]

I just made me a dish of food and I dont think any place makes it. Let me know if they do.

Mine had peeled chunk baked potato, lightly salted, butter, thick sour cream, smothered in chili. It was VERY delicious.

Me and the wife adding in chives, some kinda cheese on top and diced tomatoes on top would make it even more wonderful.

I call it the Southwest Potato Bowl. I see KFC has a Loaded Potato Bowl but its not the same.

[Z-Corn]

Patton Oswalt would call that a "Failure pile in a sadness bowl".

[GreenGoo]

I'd eat that dish no problem. I'm not a huge baked potato fan but with everything else it would only be the delivery system for the stuff I like. I'd consider swapping out the chili for salsa, but only based on my mood.

I don't see any reason for butter or salt if you're putting chili on it. You're just upping the "how soon will this kill me"j factor without any benefit re:flavour, but who am I to tell you how fast to kill yourself?

I'd eat it. I'd enjoy it.

Z-corn, I don't take food advice from rats.

[stessier]

Wendy's makes that for you. Well, almost. The potato isn't peeled.

[Kraken]

I make a similar loaded baked potato. Split an unpeeled baked spud in half, then top with cheese, chili, sour cream, fresh ground black pepper, and scallions. There's already salt in the chili, and butter would be overkill, although I could see an argument for it if you don't use sour cream.

[LordMortis]

Wendy's makes that for you. Well, almost. The potato isn't peeled.

I was going to say, I'll make a twice baked potato with sour cream and chili and shredded cheddar. The butter and milk are in the gutted and then re-added potato guts. but that's not chunk baked potato. Twice baked potatoes are better because you get the best of mashed and baked potato all rolled in to one package.

I just need to learn how to gut a potato for twice baking without burning my fingers.


I've also tried making "potato skins" like this and discovered that I am inept at make potato skins.

[Pyperkub]

Be careful of Road Rage incidents in PA, you may get shat!

"The accused and the victim got into a road rage argument, leading the accused to defecate on the victim," Pennsylvania State Police said in a succinct news release.

[Daehawk]

Strangely a 6 year out of date opened bottle of soy sauce tasted better than my new bottle. It was more concentrated. I bought some Kikkoman Soy Sauce back in 2009 and it was best by 2012. I had used only half of it but it stayed good and tasted great. I actually finished the last half in the last month alone. So I bought a new bottle thats good until at least 2021 yet it tastes different. Weaker and different both. I know they make it the old way without chemicals so it is a different batch after all these years. But I think the old one being opened and in a fridge for 9 years made it better.

And that best by 2021 date. Wow as a kid 2021 was space travel and rockets and stuff.

[GreenGoo]

I make a similar loaded baked potato. Split an unpeeled baked spud in half, then top with cheese, chili, sour cream, fresh ground black pepper, and scallions. There's already salt in the chili, and butter would be overkill, although I could see an argument for it if you don't use sour cream.

Fresh ground pepper makes everything better.

[GreenGoo]

About to embark on another adventure in plumbing. I hate adventures and I hate plumbing (well, some plumbing) so this should be fun.

Old metal pipes corroded through under the kitchen sink, already stop-gapped over a decade ago with plastic connectors and friction fits so there's not enough pipe left for any cheap or fast solutions. I *really* don't want to replace the entire pipe (and possibly kitchen sink too) as it shoots off to the side for about 3 feet before disappearing into the floor through a hole cut in the cabinet.

I do not own a soldering iron.

Yet.

[GreenGoo]

Great. The P trap appears to be soldered (I didn't do it! Was like that when I got here!) to the waste pipe.

Actually, I vaguely recalled thinking something else in my house was soldered when it turned out that it only looked that way. Aha (memory worked for once), it was the shutoff for the toilet in the second bathroom. I remember complaining and wringing my hands and when I finally had to deal with it, it just unscrewed like it was supposed to do. Fingers crossed the same applies to the P trap! But it sure doesn't look like it.

[MHS]

No wonder the doctors want me to have so many follow-up appointments. Just got my first Explanation of Benefits from one of them and for the 5 minutes they spend telling me the lab numbers (that I've already read because they get posted online right away) and adjusting my antirejection meds accordingly, each doctor bills $600. Not counting the labs! And the schedule for that was originally 3x a week, then 2x a week and now I'm down to once a week but ahead of schedule because I'm doing so well. Our medical system is so f'ed up.

[Isgrimnur]

And they will probably be paid 1/4 of that.

From talking to my ENT, the way it works is that they are legally required to bill one price to everyone. The insurance networks have negotiated with the doctors networks to reduce that. If the best insurance provider from the doctor's perspective will pay $500, they'd be stupid to only bill $400, as they'd leave money on the table.

You appear to get screwed if you have no insurance or are out of network, but can still negotiate. I called up one billing department on out of network chargers, told the lady that the bill was too high. She told me that she would take a look, and reduced it to below what my 25% coinsurance would have been. YMMV, of course.

[LordMortis]

No wonder the doctors want me to have so many follow-up appointments. Just got my first Explanation of Benefits from one of them and for the 5 minutes they spend telling me the lab numbers (that I've already read because they get posted online right away) and adjusting my antirejection meds accordingly, each doctor bills $600. Not counting the labs! And the schedule for that was originally 3x a week, then 2x a week and now I'm down to once a week but ahead of schedule because I'm doing so well. Our medical system is so f'ed up.

I just paid $64 for a flexible five foot plastic tube with rubber ends.

the same tubing sans insurance and rubber ends, still medical grade?

https://www.amazon.com/Corrugated-Tubin ... astic+tube

And now that I'm on Amazon I'm even more angry

https://www.amazon.com/AG-Industries-CP ... m+Adapters

My CPAP is "covered" by monitored usage. I will be fined $1000's of dollars in lease agreement breaking if I don't follow their prescription. And I see my "covered" $64 expense is a retail of about $9.

I just went from annoyed at my expense today to HULK SMASH considering your post.

[MHS]

It's not really the money that bothers me...I'm definitely going to hit my out-of-pocket max just with the surgery, which last I heard will run between four and five hundred thousand dollars. So I'm not actually going to be paying anything for those follow-up visits. It's just ridiculous that they can charge $600 per doctor (some visits I saw 2-3 doctors) for what amounts to 300 seconds of their time.

[Daehawk]

If the gov did one thing it should be to control health prices. They're nuts. Even in the 70s you could get normal prices. Then insurance ruined it all. Lets say a vet does something here and its $800. Overseas its still like $10. A human doc or hospital here can be $20,000 and overseas its $200.

I still fuss about my kidney blasting 'room rental' which was about an hour maybe a little longer was $10,000. I could have got an all night motel room for $60 with tv and wake up call plus shower.

[Holman]

There are Americans who believe you should just -die- rather than collectively involve them in any portion of your medical costs.

We could discuss it in R&P, but I imagine you already know who they are.

[Kraken]

I'm sure we all have stories about clashes with the medical colossus. The good news is that we know what's wrong and how to fix it, because every other advanced country on the planet has already done so. The bad news is that too many people make a killing under the status quo, and we're too pigheaded to ever fix it. Murica!

[GreenGoo]

As someone from a single payer country, I can say complaints about medical care do NOT go down, the nature of them just change.

With that said, I'm pretty happy to be in a country where I don't have to worry about maybe living and bankrupting my family or dying so they can keep the roof over their heads. Or bankrupting then dying. None of those sound like fun.

[Freyland]

No wonder the doctors want me to have so many follow-up appointments. Just got my first Explanation of Benefits from one of them and for the 5 minutes they spend telling me the lab numbers (that I've already read because they get posted online right away) and adjusting my antirejection meds accordingly, each doctor bills $600. Not counting the labs! And the schedule for that was originally 3x a week, then 2x a week and now I'm down to once a week but ahead of schedule because I'm doing so well. Our medical system is so f'ed up.

As a physician I somehow feel like apologizing for this, because that does sound pretty f'ed up. If it's any consolation, an entire hour of my time probably is billed as under a third of that (and then compensated less so by insurers, as already noted by Izzy). I feel blessed that my current job allows me to give that kind of time, if the circumstances warrant.

[Paingod]

I'm working with a medical company right now, and can safely say that doctor stacking patients like sardines on the schedule and working 5 days a week can rake in well over $1,000,000 per year for the practice, even with the limitations on what insurance will pay. That's a substantial amount of money generated by one person. Slower or part time doctors bring in less, though the billing is the handled same. It might pay to shop around for a doctor that's more interested in patient care than patient billing. I try to. I like it when I feel like I'm not just herded into a room to wait for 45 minutes so I can speak with a technician for 5 minutes and a doctor for 5 minutes and then charged hundreds of dollars for it.

There's often leeway in billing as long as you're willing to ask, but generally only applies if you're self-pay. Always ask. I've never once had that offered out of good will. It's always been something I had to inquire about.

[Zarathud]

I'm working with a medical company right now, and can safely say that doctor stacking patients like sardines on the schedule and working 5 days a week can rake in well over $1,000,000 per year for the practice, even with the limitations on what insurance will pay. That's a substantial amount of money generated by one person.

I can bill $900,000 in a year but I support a secretary, paralegal and a host of admin staff. And that's not all collectible even after writing down 20% of my time. Expertise and infrastructure are expensive.

I spend 2-4 hours of background work on a project for every hour of client facing time.

[Daehawk]

Pretty awesome. And I should buy up all kinds of food local and cheap and sell it on Amazon. one bag at the store cost me $1.50 and Amazon has 4 bags for $25 + shipping. I love Amazon but I hope to hell they're never my only choice to buy anything.

[Isgrimnur]

Food items on Amazon are hit and miss, mainly because you're relying on affiliates to offer them.

[Daehawk]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/health/f ... index.html

IQ scores are falling and have been for decades, new study finds

I knew it!


https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/health/c ... index.html

Why the old way of parenting no longer works

Still say whippings but thats me. Worked well. If you dont what control do you have over a kid that refuses you?

[stessier]

Still say whippings but thats me. Worked well. If you dont what control do you have over a kid that refuses you?

Spoken like someone without kids.

[GreenGoo]

Probably related to high quality diet or lack there of.

[ImLawBoy]

Still say whippings but thats me. Worked well. If you dont what control do you have over a kid that refuses you?

Spoken like someone without kids.

Seriously. If the only way you have to control your kids is the threat of violence, you're a pretty bad parent.

[stessier]

Besides, mind games are a lot more entertaining.

[Rip]

Still say whippings but thats me. Worked well. If you dont what control do you have over a kid that refuses you?

Spoken like someone without kids.

Seriously. If the only way you have to control your kids is the threat of violence, you're a pretty bad parent.

Nine would volunteer for a whipping to get their phone back so yea, violence totally unnecessary.

[Daehawk]

Yep no kids but I was a kid once and got spankings and turned out ok. So did most people. Now look at the world since they dropped so much. What do parents today do when a child refuses top listen or obey a parent? "Pwz honey be nice to mommy and daddy."? Seriously what does a parent do? Call the police? Ignore it and hope it gets better? If you have good kids great. But those with bad kids? Kids that do wrong? How will a child learn right and wrong if they are a stubborn ignorant willful child and not a normal caring understanding child?? Punishment is there for learning. Not saying beat a child to death. Children are smarter than other animals and will understand what a whipping is because of. If not then something is wrong with the child. Dont spank a good kid. Me though as a kid if I was told not to do something Id done before but thought it was nothing big Id do it again. Spanking stopped the next go

[MHS]

No wonder the doctors want me to have so many follow-up appointments. Just got my first Explanation of Benefits from one of them and for the 5 minutes they spend telling me the lab numbers (that I've already read because they get posted online right away) and adjusting my antirejection meds accordingly, each doctor bills $600. Not counting the labs! And the schedule for that was originally 3x a week, then 2x a week and now I'm down to once a week but ahead of schedule because I'm doing so well. Our medical system is so f'ed up.

As a physician I somehow feel like apologizing for this, because that does sound pretty f'ed up. If it's any consolation, an entire hour of my time probably is billed as under a third of that (and then compensated less so by insurers, as already noted by Izzy). I feel blessed that my current job allows me to give that kind of time, if the circumstances warrant.

I really don't blame the doctors, I blame the system. And I like my transplant team of doctors; I feel pretty confident that if I needed an hour, they would spend it with me, but I'm an easy patient. My numbers are great and I don't ask many questions because I stay *very* informed, I read everything they give me, I do everything they tell me, and I'm very actively involved in my own healing. So, it's my choice sort of, that they only spend 5 minutes with me, and obviously they can't bill in 5 minute increments.

It might pay to shop around for a doctor that's more interested in patient care than patient billing.

Yeah, like I said above, I don't think it's them. They've never kept me waiting, frequently fit me in early (I have to have labs sometimes 4 hours before the clinical visit so they try to reduce that waiting when they can), and seem willing to spend more time if I need it. Plus, there's a pretty limited number of hospitals/docs who do kidney transplants and this team has outstanding success rates (99+%), that's not something I'm willing to go with the B Team on.

I'm just venting. I currently have higher kidney function than I've had in 20+ years and have at least doubled my life expectancy, it's all worth it.

[Kraken]

obviously they can't bill in 5 minute increments.

I bill in 15-minute increments. Why can't they? Not obvious to me.