So, after sending in an application and our tax forms from last year, we were approved for financial aid for The Husband's infusion. The company that makes the drug will cover everything the insurance doesn't, except for a $100 "co-pay." This is good news. Now we only have to come up with a C-note instead of the $362 per month the insurance company was leaving us with.

Of course, that's still twice as much as we were paying for that one medication before the new contract. Which means we're still in the red. And the financial aid isn't going to cover the first two infusions from before we knew we needed financial aid and asked for it, so we're still liable for those $700 or so. My fun new vocation will be trying to get the Health Center responsible for the infusions to stay off our backs while I patiently explain how the likelihood of blood being removed from a stone and handed over to them in shiny, pristine vessels decreases drastically in relation to the amount of grief I'm given over the amount of blood in those vessels versus what's left in the stone.

We'll see how reasonable they are shortly.

Today, NASA crashed two parts of the sattelite LCROSS into a crater on the Moon. By studying the dust and other material from the explosions, NASA hopes to find out if the Moon has ice water, and might thus be suitable as a way station to the stars. NASA just held a conference about their findings, according to their schedule, but there isn't anything specific out about it yet on the interwebs.

There was some controversy about the planned lunar "bombing", but most naysayings were from those who wondered what aliens would think of such violent behavior in space.

Please.

As if our puny Earth bombs could scare them.

Me: Get out of those lamb bones!

Pounce: What lamb bones? (*nibble, nibble*)

Me: Those lamb bones, the ones you're crunching in your little feline teeth. Get away from them!

Pounce: I don't see any (*gobble*) lamb bones (*snorffle*) anywhere. (*munch*)

Me: Don't make me get the hose.

Pounce: Oh, those lamb bones. (*gallops away with a chunk*) Never saw 'em.

Me, with hose: Pounce!!!!

To round out the month, I figured I'd post another fun way in which having health care is nearly as bad for the pocketbook as not having it, with one specific example of how our personal medical costs have increased, almost certainly due to the greed of insurance company CEOs and their stockholders and the like. So. The Husband needs a special medication every month for his MS, one given as an infusion by IV. It takes about an hour for the nurse to administer the IV, and then, he has to wait under observation for another hour after it's finished, in case he has any nasty side effects. Fairly straightforward if somewhat lengthy process of medication administration. And two years ago, the treatment was fully covered by the insurance we get through The Husband's employer, Pacific Source. There wasn't even a "medicine co-pay" for the infusion, although we did ask why, as it seemed strange.

Last August, the insurance company unilaterally changed the designation of the treatment, calling it "Outpatient Surgery." They said we owed a $50 co-pay for each infusion, as our portion of the cost. Far higher any medicine co-pays, that charge hurt our budget badly. We called both the insurance company and the treatment facility to complain and to challenge the decision, but to no avail. With no other recourse, and with The Husband needing the medicine, we clenched our teeth and paid the fee. (As a side note, we were not informed of the change in designation until January, when we were sent a bill for all the co-pays for all the months since August at once. As per another post, we had to put the rather large bill on a credit card.)

This August, yet another change was in order. The insurance company raised their rates so high that The Husband's employer had to revise the contract with them. Fortunately, they did not need to lay anyone off, but at the expense of reducing health benefits for all employees. Thus, the contracted coverage for The Husband's medication was revised. Instead of a flat fee co-pay, we now have to pay a "co-insurance," a percentage of the treatment's full price.

The "co-insurance" for this medication each month? $362

Yeah, that's really not going to work so well.

We just finished remortgaging the house so we could live with the health related costs we already have every month, which are already in triple digits. We were going to be "in the black" for the first time since I got laid off. And now this, this unbelievable, boneheaded felgercarb . . . it's just not fair! I mean, I know life isn't fair, believe me I know, but this is not just about fairness, it's about scamming and jamming and criminal acts of greed.

Insurance companies have no one watchdogging them, to make sure they don't raise their rates beyond people's ability to pay, or to keep them from changing the designations of procedures whenever and however they want, to best preserve their bottom lines. What about my bottom line? What about my right to receive the health care I've paid premiums for, without these ridiculous co-pays and co-insurances, rolled up and stacked like so many profit-filled blintzes on the insurer's plate?

I know it's been bad for years, but when exactly did greed replace decency in America's health care market? When did the race for profits replace these companies' legal (never mind ethical and moral) obligations to those who have paid them for coverage?

It's not cool and not couth, and really, really just not fair.

In this article in the Washington Post, T.R. Reid sheds light on five myths about what health care and health insurance look like in the rest of the industrialized world. The upshot is, not only do other countries do it better, they do it cheaper.

Money quote: "..we force 700,000 Americans into bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero."

I can only speak for myself and my family, but from where I am, this is especially frightening. Even though The Husband and I are lucky enough to have insurance right now, we spend more money per month on health care than we do on almost anything else in our budget. Part of that is because The Husband has a degenerative disease, and I have several chronic conditions which require regular treatment. But part is also due to the constantly rising costs in every aspect of health care. For example, every month we fill twelve or more prescriptions, and we also have at least one, but sometimes up to three or four office visits, plus The Husband gets one of his medications "infused," which the insurance company treats as outpatient surgery. Each of these meds and visits has a copay ranging from $10 - $50, and the copays go up almost every year. Those are on top of the monthly insurance premiums and the yearly "deductibles" we have to pay before anything is covered, and both premiums and deductibles have increased annually as well. Even with insurance, there have been times I haven't filled prescriptions because we couldn't afford to, and I've often put copays on a credit card (another reason those bills are so high) because we just didn't have the money.

We've been without insurance several times, when the company The Husband worked for didn't offer it or when he was laid off, and the bills we racked up then still make me shudder. They took us years to pay off. And if we hadn't? If we couldn't? I can clearly picture us needing to declare bankruptcy in the future, if The Husband loses his job, for instance, or if our medical costs shoot up out of reach.

There's a Facebook meme going around today which I heartily agree with and which prompted me to write today: "No one should suffer or die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick."

We can do better, can't we?

Though by no means the vanmost inveteratist, I am a word geek, and I would be pudified if, in my succisive moments, I did not call attention to such celeberrimous sites as Save The Words. There, linguaphiles are encouraged, nay, entreated to adopt such words into speech and writing as seem to be going out of style, and to use them frequently. To get them back in style, natch. One need not be sceptriferous in word lore, but it wouldn't hurt to have radicarian underpinnings to take part, though the site does require vadiation from its members.

Have fun!

Check out these 50 masterful examples of evolution's wanton disregard for sanity. Some of them are actually very cute, though more look like spiny, taloned lumps of gray flesh.

Nicked from Making Light's Particles.

Like something out of a science fiction movie -- one of those late, great Saturday afternoon monster fests of the 60s -- comes the news of flies that eat the brains of fire ants and plants that can gobble up rats, like yum.

The plant is a newly discovered addition to the "pitcher" family, and all members of that family are carnivores which secrete a sweet nectar to draw animals to their mouths. Then, for most of them, the insects that fall into these pitchers drown in a slurry of acids and enzymes before being slowly digested, Sarlacc style. But this new one, Nepenthes attenboroughii, eats flesh, from such non-insects animals as rats and mice, leaving only the bones behind. Fortunately, these plants are in the Philippines, far away from me.

The flies, on the other hand, are being introduced in Texas to deal with fire ants, which apparently cause a lot of damage to electrical equipment and newborn calves (I know, I don't get the connection either.) Now, the flies are not zombies themselves. Oh, no. They just want to eat fire ant brains! Because brains are tasty! And good for fly larval development! So, these sneaky little zombie-makers, according to the article above, "lay eggs on the fire ants, the eggs hatch into maggots inside the ant, and the maggot eats away at the pest's tiny brain," yummying down Alien style. Meanwhile, the zombified ants wander aimlessly, as if, say, they have no brains, and in about two weeks, tada! Dead ants topple over! New flies crawl out of the carcasses looking for more fire ants to turn into zombies.

So, if you're looking for a cheap and easy way to get rid of fire ants and rats, just import a bunch of zombie-making flies and giant flesh eating plants! Or, you know, call an exterminator.

Blech.

The 1960s era "Dark Shadows" series may rise again as a movie franchise. Yep, two of my favorite movie entities, Johnny Depp and vampires, are reportedly (possibly) coming together again for the first time. With Tim Burton directing, it can't help but be fun.

Or deeply weird.

Probably both.

Went to the movies yesterday, planning to see "District 9," although that's not really true. I'd forgotten that "District 9" was a mockumentary about space aliens, racial profiling and intolerance, and replaced it in my head with the animated comedy "Planet 51," due out in November. You'll understand, then, why I was surprised by the accompanying previews, which were all apocalyptish and futuristic-dystopiany, when I was expecting fun family fare to come. But once I got over my memory lapse, I was sucked into the world of "District 9" and sat wide-eyed through the many scenes of exploding body parts, car/giant-robot/foot chases, and the sounds of popping baby crustaceans. Got to say, almost from minute one, I rooted for the "prawns." Does that make me unpatriotic? Un-earthean?

After that, though, I needed something more light-hearted, so we checked out "Julie & Julia," which was, as advertised, funny, warm and smelled deliciously of homemade bread. Streep's Julia Child is someone I would have loved to be friends with . . . especially if she made me a chocolate cream pie everyday. Though I like to cook (when I'm not in pain), I can't imagine trekking through the whole of Julia's book on mastering French cooking, American style. But I'm glad someone did.

In "Phew! It's done" news, I spent a few hours last night and today updating the list of movies we have with the dates the films were released, in addition to previous info like genre, primary actor/actress, format (dvd or vhs), and whether it's a remake and/or special edition. I don't know why I didn't have that category before, but whatever. But Jeez-Louise, checking 450 titles in the Internet Movie Database took some serious time.

Yep, I'm geeky and proud of it.

Who said Forbes magazine has no sense of humor? Though 2 years old, this article about the best-off fictional companies of 2007, such as Cyberdyne and ACME, is funny stuff. I also salute their previous pastiche on the most expensive, exclusive fictional homes, including Pemberly and Tara, as well as Forbes' Fictional 15, an in depth review of the richest folks from our favorite fables.

Snerched from Making Light's particles.

So, I closed the last of our three credit cards yesterday, saying goodbye to Chase Bank, Capital One, and the Chase "Borders" card. Not because I'd finished paying them off -- not yet, alas -- but because I declined, in each case, to accept the changes the credit card companies wanted to make to our original agreement. Instead of continuing to lend me money which I promised to pay back a portion at a time, along with interest ranging from 8.99 - 13% a year, all three card issuers told me they were changing their interest rates to 19 - 25% a year.

They didn't do this because I defaulted on a payment, like the contract said they could. Nor because I ever paid a bill late. Nor because I went over limit on any of the cards. I did none of those, not once in the nearly 10 years I've carried each card. And I was like the best client, too: I carry a balance and rarely pay more than the minimum due. These companies were guaranteed to make lots and lots of money from me over the next few decades as I paid and charged, charged and paid.

But they got greedy. They were very clear in the letters they sent telling me of the changes: I wasn't making them enough money. The hundreds of dollars in interest I paid each of them each year wasn't enough. They wanted more. To get it, they unilaterally altered the contract we had both agreed to when I first accepted their card.

I said "No. No! You have enough. You make enough from me. I already pay you three times the rate I pay on my student loan. And more than three times the rate of my mortgage! And for what? So you can change the rules whenever you want and raise the rates? No way, jerks. I'm done with you."

The only way to "decline the changes," of course, is to close the account. I still have to pay down the balances, but they're kept at the rates we first agreed to. Obviously, I can't use the cards anymore.

If I could pay off the balances right now and not give them a penny more in interest, I would do it in a second. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to do that. As it is, with me still unemployed and our medical costs going up and up, we've had to refinance our mortgage just to keep out of the red. We've got barely any savings to speak of -- the idea of having three months worth of salary put by for emergencies is laughable. That's what credit cards were for. . . .

Which one is still around after 40 years?

Now, I'll admit the moon landing was far more exciting an event, but there's nothing uncool about these huge MoonPies, created by Chattanooga Bakery to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. With 14 pounds of marshmallow and 6 pounds of chocolate, each one is 6 inches tall, weighs in at 55 pounds, and can feed 300 people. The bakery has been making much smaller MoonPies since before World War I, and is still making them today.

Mmm, mmm, good.

On the other hand, no one's set foot on the moon since 1972.

On the other other hand, now that Google Earth includes the moon, our nearest celestial neighbor is closer than ever before. Anyone up for a trip?

...with repeats of "Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Golden Girls."

No, really. Okay, maybe the last half of that headline is pulled from the dark recesses of my . . . mind, but the first part is true. At least, that's what NASA officials are saying about why they haven't been able to produce the originals. But since a Hollywood company -- the same one that touched up "Casablanca" -- has apparently refurbished the moon landing tapes from four other sources ("...CBS News originals; kinescopes from the National Archives; a video from Australia that received the transmission of the original moon video; and camera shots looking at a TV monitor,") we don't need no stinkin' originals. Right? Right?

Yeah. Don't let the nut jobs conspiracists hit you on the way out.

But jeesh, when I ran out of blank tapes in the 80s and couldn't record new eps of "A-Team" or "21 Jump Street," I just shelled out a coupla bucks for another three-pack. You'd think NASA was underfunded or something. Regardless, here are those refurbished videos.

They're awful pretty.

Local historians and activists in Miami are doing their best to have an old cemetery recognized as an historical site. The Lemon City Cemetery, it was called at the beginning of the 20th Century, but it's never appeared on a city map, and very few people even knew it existed before this year. Over 500 people were buried there -- all of them black, many of them recent Bahaman emigrés, or the children of Bahaman settlers -- between 1915 and 1925. Most of the residents who knew about the cemetery back then have died or moved away. Only stories passed down to their grandchildren remain. That, and a few bones.

This past April, some of those bones were unearthed during construction of the newest northwest Miami housing project, the only real reason the city is now aware of Lemon City Cemetery. But the city has "... speculated that there may be little they can do in the way of historic designation because there are no historic structures on the site and that no one of historical note is buried there."

After moving the cemetery's contents properly, I'd think a little marker noting its existence on that land would be the least the city could do, regardless of who was buried there.* But because the cemetery holds some of Miami's earliest settlers, upon whose labor the metropolis really came into its own, I'd think they could maybe do a turn better. But maybe that's just me.

*Not to mention, it would keep poltergeists to a minimum.

At 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4AM tomorrow morning, the time and date will be:

04:05:06 07-08-09

Also, it will be four hours, five minutes and six seconds into my eighth wedding anniversary.

Yay, geekiness! And a bigger YAY for me and he!

This article in the Wall Street Journal is about a cryptologist who recently solved a coded message sent to President Thomas Jefferson 200 years ago, a message no one had solved until now.

Coolness.

I've always found cryptology fascinating, but I've never been enough of a math geek to solve (or develop) such codes myself. Oh, I paid my dues as a kid, getting one of those special "Detective Kits" available in the backs of comic books, where for only $1.99, I could become a Super Sekrit Detective! And Solve Crimes! And Decode Codes! The super decoder thingy was a piece of plastic, of course, a wheel with the alphabet inscribed on two concentric circles. It was made for "substitution" ciphers, where each letter in a message is replaced with the one it lined up with on the circles . . . like the "Little Orphan Annie" decoder, in the movie "A Christmas Story." After all his anticipation, the thing just translated an Ovaltine advertisement for poor Ralphie.

Those are the easiest ciphers to use, and the easiest to decode, too. The cipher in the message sent to Jefferson was so complicated, though, I'm not even sure I understand the solution. No Geek prize for me.

On Thursday, an Iowa woman took a photo of what might possibly be a new category of clouds. Since forever (or 1951, if you'd rather), there's been three types: cumulous, cirrus, and stratus. Cirrus clouds are high, icy clouds. Stratus are layered, low-lying, rainy-day clouds. Cumulous are those with upward development and are the dark, thunderstorm type of cloud. Each of these categories has its own sub-classifications based on the specifics of formation.

The clouds in Jane Wiggins' photo look kind of like stratus clouds, but also have characteristics of the cumulous variety. According to Wiggins, the clouds were undulating, with lights and shadows and a greenish-yellow backdrop. A debate is raging now in meteorological circles, fueled by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, author of "The Cloudspotter's Guide," and his England-based Cloud Appreciation Society, who are determined to establish a new variety of cloud based on this photo. But Brant Foote, a longtime scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, said the clouds in the photo fit into the existing cumulous classification.

Honestly, I don't care who wins, but it's just pure fun geekery that a debate about cloud formations is happening at all.

I know this post of Neil Gaiman's is about a month old, but it's still a cogent missive that readers of series' should take to heart. Writers write because they have to, because they have a story to tell, because they both need and want to tell it. Sometimes, though, the stories just don't flow, whether as a result of health issues or personal issues or story problems or a million other things.

Writers are not working for the readers, Gaiman (not so gently) reminds, and gives some advice to those waiting for the next installment of a long series. Rather than complaining that the writer has a life outside of writing, he says:

"Wait. Read the original book again. Read something else. Get on with your life. Hope that the author is writing the book you want to read, and not dying, or something equally as dramatic. And if he paints the house, that's fine."

Amazingly, guilt trips from readers don't make the stories flow better.

Also, Pouncey posted again. He wants me out of the house, apparently, but guilt trips from the cat don't get me a job any faster.

Not only is today the 65th anniversary of D-Day, but it's also the 25th anniversary of Tetris! Created by Alexey Pajitnov while a student at the Soviet Union's Academy of Science, Tetris was named for a combination of the Greek prefix tetra and Pajitnov's favorite sport, tennis. Even though, according to this article, "it's the best selling cell-phone game and one of the top 10 iPhone apps of all time" and "sold a staggering 35 million units for the Game Boy alone," Pajitnov never saw a ruble for his creation. He only received profits from this addictive game -- reportedly, even Pajitnov could not stop playing long enough to finish the program -- once the rights reverted to him in 1996. But the royalties were in greenbacks; he'd moved to the U.S. in 1991.

So, June 6th: one step forward for the Allies, one giant leap for gamerkind.