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TwiceHorn

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Posts posted by TwiceHorn

  1. 10 hours ago, Spur08 said:

    Well, shit. I need to fix something bc I owe $6k this year on taxes.

    I can't remember when I didn't owe at least that much.  Part of that is that the withholding tables were jacked this year.  At some point in the not too distant future, you are going to have enough invested and doing well enough that you are going to have that kind of tax liability every year, along with quarterly payments, yay!  And you could fix that by voluntarily increasing your withholding.  But you will also realize that you can do a lot better on that 10-15k for a quarter or three or four than Uncle Sam.

    I do and don't resent my tax liability.  But I guarantee you that if every American had to cut a check at least once a year to the IRS, even if its $50-100, we would be a more fiscally responsible country.

  2. On 2/28/2019 at 10:57 AM, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

    I get not wanting longer terms on a depreciating asset but it wasn't a monthly payment I looked at, it was the APR and cost of the SUV.  What that shook out to on a monthly payment number had no impact.  

    I got it at 4 years for 2.49% with nothing OOP.  I could have paid cash but that would have slightly eaten into our 9-12 months of savings we have set aside.  As others have mentioned we keep cars well past their payment terms averaging about 7-8 years and at timers have paid them off early.  

    Probably can't knock that.  Four years isn't that "manipulative," and I assume we're talking something in the high five figures, so it can be hard to scrape that cash together just deciding what you want to liquidate. 

    But the current trend for poors or the unsophisticated is to sell on payment only, and the tems of those can be preposterous.  Basically, as long as you go into it with your eyes open and the understanding that paying anything over about 30-40k is getting into luxury territory (not defensible from a purely fiscal standpoint).

    • Like 1
  3. 13 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

    There are a lot of professions where licence requirements are essentially the old boys club protecting itself. For example, I work for a firm that does appraisal work. Anyone half decent at math can competently appraise a property after a few months of guidance. Hell, a computer can do the work at this point if given good data inputs. Yet getting an appraisal license requires a burdensome amount of coursework, as well as a licensed sponsor, which many are reluctant to do because you are training your competition/replacement.

    I don't know what the system looks like for foreign doctors - I see no reason a credentialed and practicing physician from another country should not, at the very least, be able to sit for the USMLE and enter a residency.

    I don't know what's involved in "converting" foreign credentials, but at least half the doctors on my shitty Molina medical plan did not attend medical school in the US and probably like 2/3 of the PCP/Internal/Family Medicine docs. It is not my sense that it's overly difficult.  The AMA, which has nothing to do, specifically, with medical licensing, is an extremely effective lobby on behalf of the medical profession.

    The real barriers to entry posed by licensing aren't for professionals, they are for more prosaic jobs.

    Some food for thought:

    • Percent of national health expenditures for hospital care: 32.4% (2016)
    • Percent of national health expenditures for nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities: 4.9% (2016)
    • Percent of national health expenditures for physician and clinical services: 19.9 (2016)
    • Percent of national health expenditures for prescription drugs: 9.8% (2016)

    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/health-expenditures.htm

    Also, assuming this is accurate. doctors are paid 2x as much here as in other wealthy countries.  https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/doctors-salaries-pay-disparities-000557  Also has more talk about licensing and physician supply controls.

     

  4. 2 minutes ago, Updawg said:

    Just bought the book the other day. Trying to decide whether to watch the doc or wait until after reading. I know the correct answer so I'm waiting

    Ehhh.  It's not fiction, so I think there's some value in getting all the detail and cast of characters in your head, and then letting the doc bring it to life.  I'd go ahead.

    • Like 1
  5. 3 hours ago, ztejas said:

    The concept is cool as shit but like as others stated I'm sure there will be some kinks for them to work out. 

    What "notch" are you referring to? 

    The "notch" is the dark, nonfunctional space on the iPhone X where the camera (and light and proximity sensors?) reside.

    apple-iphone-x-bolt-mobile-sasktel-space

    When it was first announced, people were horrified at the aestheics of it. then it became a "feature."  You can like (or tolerate) it or not, but to treat it as a feature is super dumb and a classic Apple fanboi move. /posted from a MBP

  6. On 3/17/2019 at 9:01 AM, Larry T. Spider said:

    Of the Democrats on here, I’m far from the most liberal. But, I’m all in with what BT is advocating for on healthcare. The current system is a nightmare for millions of people for all the reasons outlined above. 

    Ill give a personal anecdote. About 12 years ago my now wife was diagnosed with a chronic health condition and was fired from her job for missing work to sort out new doctors, medications, have tests run, etc. She got a new job that allowed her flexibility to figure all of this out as a 23 year old. It didn’t offer any benefits such as health insurance but she had to take it to pay her bills. She got health insurance through cobra....but it was about to expire and her condition would now be considered pre-existing and not covered when she got insurance in the future. This was pre-Obamacare. We got married and I put her on my insurance. 

    Everything about this situation was complicated and difficult to manage for two college educated people. 12 years later she is doing great with her health but has to take days off of work to argue with insurance companies about billing errors, prescription problems, etc. Some of this is probably unavoidable in any system but holy shit if our system isn’t a beating. Her family in England is always shocked at what we have to deal with.

    If she had obtained insurance prior to expiration of her COBRA, it would not have been a preexisting condition in most if not every state.  And, in all likelihood, her pre-ACA coverage would have been cheaper than it is today, notwithstanding the overall increase in health insurance premiums, and wouldn't have had a $7000 deductible (which in itself is going to be fairly crippling if not catastrophic).  Obamacare may have done great things for the poor, but it is a straight horsefucking for the self-employed or others that don't have access to employer provided insurance.

    Only reason I respond is that "preexisting condition" is often celebrated as the huge big contribution by Obamacare, and it was not the issue many would have you believe.  It was only an issue for those who had no coverage or let theirs lapse.  You wouldn't think the chronically or seriously ill would let coverage lapse.

     

    Back on topic, Beto seems to win the likeability contest and makes pretty good noises, but he's kind of policy-deficient.  He's sort of the polar opposite of Warren.

    • Like 1
  7. 1 minute ago, LTtxfan said:

    Struggles at the plate tend to get amplified on the road.  Amazed by HORNS going 5-1 vs LSU/Tech.  Next 5 games seems like a brutal stretch.  Still a lot of youth on this 2019 Texas squad.... needs to continue improving.  Won't be surprised to see this inexperienced team struggle with inconsistency this week.

    Heard a clip on the radio this morning where David Pierce said something like "not sure how we won today giving up so many walks and struggling at the plate..... but we kept battling".

     

    Yep.  Considering how young we are, that first big road test in Palo Alto was probably doomed.

    I did not realize the Arkansas series was midweek.  Fucking A.  We have our work cut out for us.

  8. 6 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

     

    Does Pierce actually hit fungo?  And those don't look like any fungo bats I've ever seen.

    Also, I have noticed more Rawlings gloves and Easton bats among our lineups than in previous years.  I'm a little skeptical of these "newfangled" equipment makers.  /get off my lawn

  9. I also worry that I have grubby hands.  When I wipe down a regular leather steering wheel, which I try to do with some regularity, I get what seems to be staggering amounts of dirt/oil off it.  I'm not a mechanic or oilfield worker, so there's no particular reason my hands should be dirtier than average, but I worry that I would fuck up Alcantara super fast.  Maybe that's normal, I have no basis for comparison.

    I'm also a decent sized guy, 6-1 ~200, and, although I fit in most cars reasonably well, smaller/sportier ones mean I tend to do some acrobatics getting in and out.  Meaning, I often have to rotate 90 degrees in the seat to get in and out, or slide over the seat, which can be kind of rough on the bolsters, and might be extra hard on Alcantara panels.

  10. On 3/16/2019 at 8:48 PM, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

    My new favorite band, Surfbort.
     

    4b5ada2deda9e95374d3ff6099ebea3a.jpg

    Sent from my LM-X210CM using Tapatalk
     

    And the Shane McGowan Fucked Up Grille award goes to  . . . .

    • Like 1
  11. Question for you guys.  What has been your experience with Alcantara steering wheels and seat upholstery?  I get why it gets used a bit here and there, but in the gently used cars that I prefer, it always seems a little "grubby."  Can it be cleaned easily/well?  I kind of assume that when I see it in a used car, it has already been cleaned, but I don't know for a fact.

    As mentioned upthread, the Cadillac ATS, used, has to be one of the most compelling used-car deals out there.  That extends, also, to the ATS-V.  But many of the Vs have Recaro seats with Alcantara (or similar) inserts and sometimes steering wheels and the couple I have looked at didn't seem to have worn well, or maybe were just dirty.  Similar experience eyeballing used M series a few years ago.

  12. 11 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

    my response: 

    (lol i can't help but be verbose)

     

    and yeah, i totally understand and appreciate your concern. fortunately for me i've never had an addictive personality, whether it be gambling, drugs, alcohol, whatever. i do drink, but only on occasion, and almost never more than three beers- i'm just a mostly moderate, risk averse person. and i'd say that i use marijuana as self medication for chronic muscle pain when i'm having sleep issues more than i do as something to "even me out". that said it does have a calming effect and i will go to it if i feel i need to calm down and get my mind right on occasion. 

    Thanks for the reply.  Sounds like a mess, sorry it's that way.  Best of luck to you, friendo.

  13. 12 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    RIP.  Scanned this bio at wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dale

    Interesting factoids:  he was Lebanese and the surf sound derived from Arabic music.  And he pushed Fender to make amps go to 11 (over 100W!!!!111!).

    Also says he kept playing to pay medical bills.

    I guess maybe the revelation that surf guitar is of Arabic origin is a blinding glimpse of the obvious.  Uncharacteristically for me, I had never looked up the origin of the word "misirlou."

  14. Final note on Bipolar Disorder.  It is pretty clear that bipolar disorder pushes people toward self-medication and that ends up in many cases as addiction (that's how I know bipolar people and have the opportunity to discuss how it affects them and what has helped them).

    As a recovered addict, I am biased against mood-altering substances.  Getting that out of the way, I might be pretty careful trying to treat bipolar with marijuana.  Both marijuana and bipolar disorder (and most mental illnesses for that matter), are poorly understood scientifically and medically.  And people with mental health issues frequently do not seem to be able to discern the difference between "feeling good" and actually improving their mental condition and functionality (raises hand).

  15. 30 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

    what's up guys. so i never actually come to this forum, and as such i've never seen this thread. i'll be honest with you, i haven't even read any of it yet, which is i assume (but don't know for sure) that this is a *serious* thread free of trolling. So with that being my assumption i'd like to use this thread right now. 

    super long story made much more short- i was thriving for a period of years and working five days a week at my school, living on my own, i lost 100 lbs, i had a great therapist and a mentor in my life, my social life, dating life, work life, all of them on point- until one week in August of 2015 when everything in my life came. dashing down. i lost my job, i lost my disability case, my therapist suddenly had to move out of state, and because i lost my job and my case it meant that i could no longer afford my apartment and that i had tonmove back in with my mom in Pflugerville, which is where i've been since then. 

    Well, it's been shitty. My mom and I are very close and love each other very much,  it close quarters are a motherfucker, and Pflugerville ain't exactly the place to be a single 34 year old who wants a social life but has no job. I did end up winning my disability case because of an empassioned letter i wrote on my own behalf, but my bitch lawyer fucked the shit up and i got zero back pay, forcing me to stay living with my mom and now trying to exist on $514/month, which is the most gbag SSI pays out. It has been roof stoof a lot of the time, but i'm still trying to get my life back.

    Anyway, without going on all day which i easily could, today was a tough day for me, so i used it to do something i've been thinking about- o made a video journal. i've been considering using my youtube channel as an outlet mike this for awhile, but I never seriously considered it because i always feared losing my job at my school should someone find my channel and deem it inappropriate. Well i've been struggling so much with both physical and mental health issues (plus two severe sleep disorders), that my only jobs left at my school are announcing the football games and working seasonally as gym manager for basketball and volleyball. And since education is my passion, this has been especially tough for me to no longer see my kids or be in their lives. Well, the way things have gone I'm up there so rarely now that I've decided to "come out" more oro less and go ahead with the video diary stuff. I don't plan on actually starting it in earnest until i've got more content, and even then it's a maybe.  it i figures that this might be a decent place to share my first one, where i discuss the events of my life (including my postings here) from today. Without further ado, here is my first video journal:

    im going to read this thread now. thank you for taking this seriously. 

     

    Keep on, man.  Serious question, when you said things were going well, you didn't mention a medication.  From my interaction with bipolar folks (I know quite a few that are able to function at a pretty high level), getting medication sorted has been a huge issue, but once/if it got sorted, worked miracles.  They also tend to say that therapy is less helpful than getting moods evened out medically, although it can be beneficial for the depressive aspects of it and the bad thinking that comes along with it.

    There is very little on this thread about bipolar disorder.  Mostly about depression and anxiety.

    Also, a problem with people with mental illness is that most of them (the illnesses) seem to convince the sufferer that nothing can be done or will help and so they avoid treatment, or discontinue it despite success.  With respect to bipolar, an aspect of that is that bipolar people often seem to prefer the feeling of mania to the relative calm that results from effective medication.  A lot of bipolar sufferers pretty routinely abandon their medications and other treatment.

  16. On 2/24/2019 at 9:34 AM, bamachine said:

    To follow up on my posts in this thread. My dad no longer has to worry about Alzheimer's. We lost him last night. He is no longer suffering. Hopefully he can reunite with mom and maybe go riding trails alongside the Duke(his favorite actor). He was a lot like the characters Wayne played on screen. He was rough, tough, wouldn't take shit off nobody but would give the shirt off his back to help those in need. He was never really one to show his emotions, he let his actions tell his feelings, most of those were positive. Been a rough year, as his primary caretaker, seeing a once near indestructible man, 6'4", 200 lbs, strong as an ox, mind sharp as a razor, succumb to Alzheimer's, complete kidney failure, degenerative hip disease and waste away to what he was these last few months. I hate saying it but I am glad he is gone now. Getting old sucks.

    Sorry for your loss.  As my parents crept up in age, they would remark to each other something to the effect of "I don't know why I'm here anymore," and sometimes I would pick it up.  It wasn't maudlin or self-pitying and was often accompanied by a "getting old isn't for sissies" or similar.  What that told me, in the end, was that they were ready to go and had no regrets.  And this was just when their mobility and energy level had dropped; they weren't real sick or anything, just couldn't do the simple things they enjoyed.  So, when they did pass, I did not have any feeling that their lives were cut short and also that my grief was more about me missing them than anything else, which made that burden easier to carry.

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