Are you fucking serious!? Breakdancing in the Olympics? Squash is a much better deserving sport to be in the Olympics.
No… just no…
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Category Archives: Random Thoughts
Hidden Healthcare Costs
I think that 90% or even 95% of the time, a normal person would generally figure out the cost of the service or item that they want before actually buying that service/item. Would you buy a car without first researching the car and how much it costs? Would you purchase a home also without researching the neighborhood? When you go to a grocery store, would you buy something without at least acknowledging the price first before buying?
But healthcare… healthcare is a totally different beast. A person goes to a doctor, gets a check up with blood work, and comes back in for a follow up. How much does it cost? Apparently depending on whether or not there’s insurance, the insurance company and the type of insurance coverage (Link1, Link2, Link3). All these factors will vary from person to person. The last link is pretty useful to understand the current state of what I think is a horribly inefficient system. What frustrates me is that I don’t know what anything costs. I get bills after the fact telling me I have to pay $X amount because that’s what I owe. Does this not frustrate anyone else? It’s like going to a McDonald’s asking for a Value Meal #2 and not knowing what it will cost you until after you’ve eaten it and 20 days later the bill comes for you to pay.
Now when the US presidential candidates talk about healthcare, medicare for all and single payer system, what will inevitably be part of the conversation would be discussions of “death panels” (#fakenews from Obamacare)” and “freedom of choice” (a google search has quite a few links on this topic). Why don’t the candidates frame as a “Constitutional Right” similar to the “Right to Free Speech” or “Right to Bear Arms”? Isn’t promoting the welfare of the people similar to promoting the health of the people?
In the Preamble of the Constitution… “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Something to Think About…
Hangry Much?
Lol
Conference observations
So work has sent me to a conference. I noticed that as the conference goes on the dress code becomes much more casual. More people wearing flats (women) and tennis shoes (men and women).
Yubikey-2FA
So I’ve been thinking about jumping into a non-SMS based 2-Factor Authentication route for a long time. Similarly, I’ve thought a password manager might be useful as well. So when I saw a 1Password deal of 6 months free service and a $10 discount off a 2-pack of YubiKey5 from 1Password, the combined deal gave me a little more reason to make an impulse decision to jump into both systems immediately.
So spending maybe 3 hours already on setup… I’m a little disappointed at 1Password.
- I had originally thought the interface would be a little easier. But I struggled somewhat trying to figure out how to get the Firefox and Chrome extensions to “autofill” the site information. But as I figured out how that interface worked, I started to realize that I DIDN’T REALLY LIKE having 1Password fill out my info. Call me old school, but typing in my user login and password felt like I was in control and would minimize the possibility of me forgetting my actual password. Plus I currently have my own system for managing passwords.
- I set up the new YubiKey as part of the 2FA login process for 1Password online. But do you know what’s a little odd? 2FA doesn’t kick in when I’m logging into the Windows App, the Firefox extension and the Chrome extension either. What’s the point of having a YubiKey if there’s no authentication when using 1Password on Windows, Firefox or Chrome? That’s just weird.
Finally, I’m a little disappointed that financial institutions don’t support YubiKey. They do have have their own 2FA method. But enabling there own 2FA method complicates the use of financial software like Quicken or Mint. I’m for safety, privacy, and security. But when you check Quicken as often as I do (every day), having to deal with all the different 2FA through Quicken is annoying.
Raptors win!
I only really care about NBA Finals because of one person: Jeremy Lin. Sure he might not have played in the NBA finals… but his team is playing in the finals. Sure he might be a journeyman player who’s played for 8 teams over 9 seasons… but his current team is playing in the finals. And most importantly, his team… the Toronto Raptors… just won the NBA finals.
And Jeremy Lin now has an NBA ring. How many Asian American’s can say that?
Traveling Cheap…
There are a lot of travel deals that allow someone to travel relatively cheap. These deals come usually in the form of discounts which require you to pre-pay. I’ve noticed that you can get up to 20% off of the current rate. The discounts are even better than the loyalty member rates sometimes. But remember you have to pre-pay.
At this point, you’re probably wondering: “Why not? A cheap deal is a good deal. Money saved is money earned.” And normally I wouldn’t really disagree with you. But lately, I’ve been finding that booking these discount rates are getting to be a hassle. All the fine print with their limitations and exclusions just doesn’t seem to justify the price anymore. Who actually reads the fine print? I’ve been burned a few times because of the fine print. Fortunately, it hasn’t been huge monetary loss after calling and complaining.
I’m also starting to get annoyed at the pre-payment requirement. I understand why companies would want to get paid since getting paid first is always better. Who wants to pay first in full before getting any benefit from the actual trip? I certainly don’t.
Clever
On a recent road trip, I found this hanging on the wall of a restaurant.
Interesting no? We humans can learn a lot from our four legged friends.
Airline Attendants
April has been a pretty crazy month. A personal trip followed almost immediately by a quick work trip. With all the travel, I noticed the flight attendants of different airline companies vary significantly.
On the personal trip, all the flight attendants except for maybe the head attendant were all young females… probably all less than 30 years in age. They wore matching uniforms with matching hairstyles. They also had a very similar look irrespective. Most spoke at least 2 or 3 languages fluently enough at a conversational level. Many smiled at the interaction with the customer before speaking.
In contrast, on the work trip, none of the flight attendants were young nor all female. Their uniforms varied to signify the different “jobs” each uniform performed. From what I can tell, one uniform interacted with the customers solely as a “busboy and kitchen microwave” role while the ones wearing the more traditional flight attendant uniform interacted with the customers handing them food and dealing with issues. Regardless of their roles, not all the attendants smiled when they interacted with the customer.
I think the difference is ultimately the type of culture that’s trained by the airline company.
Disappearing photos
This is a bit annoying. Half of my pictures that I transferred from my phone to my computer are gone.
A Guy and His Thoughts... 