After healthcare.gov

The strange and annoying healthcare.gov error
that no one understands and which is keeping me from enrolling.

I've spent a month, off and on, trying to get past a site error and #getcovered. I've talked to about five official HealthCare.gov workers. I haven't spoken to any unofficial ones but I have posted to the Facebook page and tweeted. Don't bother. Whoever is running the online presence is stuck in broadcast mode.

Anyway, I managed to get on the call-back list today. This means I am now a number on what I presume to be a very long list indeed. I no longer have to worry about the deadline because healthcare.gov will call me back at some point to enroll in healthcare.

The application is finished*. I got that far before the website crapped out with some weird error that no one understands or knows how to fix. Asking for a supervisor got me to "send us income verification." I mean, come on, this is the FEDERAL government. They have a record of my income going back to my first job ever. I sent it in, though. Gotta cross all those T's and dot those I's. heh

Friday I was on hold twice before giving up. Once for 20 minutes after which the call spontaneously aborted. Then for 30 minutes and I hung up. It just wasn't happening.

Meanwhile, I wonder just how good my coverage deal will be. I'm am discouraged by hundreds of reports from those at the Facebook page about high deductibles ($12,000 per year) and high premiums. I keep thinking about the poor soul who continues to pay cash for medical care in addition to having (basically) useless healthcare.gov coverage. Because they can't afford a non-insurance penalty on top of all the bills.

Thankfully, I've worked through to the point where I can do no more. It's all on the government now.

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*It's a two-part process. You apply, after which you get a notice of eligibility, and then you enroll in coverage.  I'm stuck at the enroll part because I get a tax credit which generates the above error.

Lunar New Year in Farmville 2

There are a lot of animations in FV2 that go largely unmentioned. The new Lunar New Year lantern stand is an example.

Here's a couple of screen shots of the kick off for the Lunar New Year lantern tasks.

Free lit lanterns bobbing on the river in the night.

The lanterns rise up into the sky and fly away.

Also, every time you make a lantern in the lantern stand and a neighbor "buys" it, they take the lantern to the river where it floats and then flies away.

But wait! There's more! There are other many little animations that no one seems to mention. For example, you can hover over mushroom lamps (if you have them) and they light up. There are a couple of wood fires that light up when you hover over them. As a remnant of an owl task, there is an owl tree with a tiny owl house where the owls peer out when you hover over the tree.

And there are constant special animations to kick off new tasks. A recent reward animation was a sleigh ride with four friends. The entire screen was animated with my farm in the background.

As an old school computer user I am amazed by the work put into this free game to make it fun and attractive. They should win an award.

The Elaine Report: Feb 7 2013

Nothing to report because I watched this video 
and all the headlines seemed terribly ridiculous and petty afterwards.

However, I do recommend this post if you have an interest in letting a living award-winning author know your opinion on the reselling and lending of ebooks and audiobooks.

You can log in but you can never leave

Bumped! A standard occurrence since I got my free Linden home and land.

I still have a paying account in Second Life (SL) due to the weekly bonus being enough to cover my quarterly dues. I also have a free alternate account and thought that having a paid account stopped all the spurious logouts. I was wrong.

Regional density of my home in Second Life. Every grayed square represents a house.

I availed myself of the free home and land deal which comes with any paid account. I chose an Asian theme thinking that I would be online while most of Asia was offline. I was right about that. What I hadn't realized from the enticing images of free homes is that the homes are packed in. Every square inch of available space is crammed with houses. No yards, no gardens, no public areas – in short, no free space at all. How many 512 parcels can you fit into a region? The Linden answer: too many!

Continental density of my home land. Obviously the servers weren't made for this kind of greed.

The set up process was easy, if a little funky. I had to log in from the email notification and not the online landmark to actually log into my home. However, once at home, it's nearly impossible to leave. 90% of the time when I try to teleport elsewhere I end up logged out. In the few experiments I've conducted, I have been able to teleport if I log back in right away and then teleport. Is this how it's supposed to be? I think not.

If I were a Linden, I'd try to make SL enticing, easy, and fun, not a technological, mystical, unexplainable, frustrating horror.

competition denigration trend - bad idea

Recently I had the waste pipes under my house redone. In the process the plumber discovered a leak from the tub, either the overflow valve or the drain. Naturally part of the deal was to fix that leak. I was at work in the studio when one of the two men came to me said they were going to lunch and to get parts.

I went into the bathroom to see what had been done so far. They had removed my valve overflow and drain hardware and replaced it with cheap silvery chrome stock parts. I admit I lost it for a minute burning with white hot anger that 1) they would replace my fixtures without telling me, and 2) that they would replace them with their choice of fixtures. Two phone calls and 20 minutes later, both plumbers stood before me holding a cardboard box with my original fixtures in it. There was nothing wrong with the fixtures. They had thought the leak came from faulty fixtures. I insisted they reinstall my fixtures. They were only five years old and worked just fine.

"You want these off-color fixtures?" the one plumber asked. (Probably the more stupid of the pair.)

I'm sure he saw me turning a hot bright red as I said, "I don't care what you call them. I want them back!"

Today I made two phone calls about my domain server and domain registration service transfers. I'm really tempted to tell you who I'm transferring from, as they have been pretty stupid. Anyway, while trying to ascertain when and where and by whom and how the transfers would be accomplished, my current provider tried a lot of snide comments such as, "They're a reseller" (referring to my chosen provider) and "I don't know how long it will take them but the industry standard is 24 hours."

I see it as desperation when a company or service provider can't get you to stay with them, or do what they want you to do (which usually involves spending more money and/or time with them), and starts bad mouthing the competition. Nothing slams the door more on a good Bye! to cancelled service than when they start getting ugly. Let's face it, by the time a customer gets to the point of canceling their decision is already made. You can buy me a trip around the world, send dancing scantily clad men to my home, offer me free service for a year, and I won't care. I've made up my mind. Competition denigration is like locking the barn door after the horses have left. Totally useless. So, stop it.

At least be gracious about it when you lose a customer and realize you lost them a long time ago and just didn't know it. And if you denigrate the competition because everyone else does, you'd better rethink your strategy. You have no chance of getting back a customer you've estranged.
Current Fads
Listening. Genius iMixes and Eagles - Their Greatest Hits; chirping birds
Watching. 9 (2009)
Activity. finding my muse
Gadget. resuscitated Palm Zire 31
News Source. Google News
Reading. Story - Robert McKee; Owls Well That Ends Well - Donna Andrews; Care of the Soul - Thomas Moore; The Four Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (expanded and updated) - Timothy Ferriss
Writing. novel #4