My wife and I decided to pony up for COBRA health coverage through the end of the year until new plans and costs are available for open enrollment into ACA next year. The current plans (and subsidies) are not competitive with the coverage I received from work. We have providers/specialists in other states that we see currently that the Nebraska ACA plans do not include (nor do they offer out of network coverage except for emergency and urgent care services).
Healthcare is indeed broken in this country. I would be paying up the nose regardless of COBRA to insure my family.
I stand by what I have been counseling friends and colleagues: get your rainy day fund in order asap. If you have zero, build it to 3 or more months of expenses (but get yourself to that 3 month and keep adding to it). If you have 3, build it to 6. If 6, get it up to 12. Frankly, when you get to 12, add 6 more months if you can. Costs will be variable and surprises come up, and healthcare will not get cheaper.
The state of Nebraska really does not want anyone to successfully file unemployment claims.
Had some fun tonight playing a drum cover of The Wood Brothers song “The Trick” off of their most recent album, Puff of Smoke 🎵
So many devices.
My wife took this wonderful photo of our son during their outing at a nearby lake today. She’s always had a knack and talent for photography, she never wanted to pursue it professionally.
All that to say, I’m a lucky bastard to get these from her.
I listened to this Wood Brothers album about 10 times today. I imagine if you did similar you wouldn’t regret it either.
On Tuesday, August 19th I am officially unemployed. As I dive in to the world of job hunting, I suspect I will need to remind myself of the below regularly. Joan Westenberg writes about The Compound Effect of Consistency, this isn’t secret sauce but it is nice to read it articulated in a concise manner.
So the question becomes: how do you engineer momentum?
Start by identifying the variables that compound.
Following specific YouTube channels in my RSS reader has made life much more manageable.
“Chinese Democracy” by Guns ‘n’ Roses came to mind immediately, which means we are all gonna die.
If ALIENS landed on Earth today…
Which album should they choose to judge humanity?
Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast keeps getting better and better. In this episode with Joe Mantegna, I’m just falling in love with Chicago all over again.
There are a handful of albums I really play on repeat regularly and Hail to the Thief is on top of that list.
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009) kottke.org
Reading about the social features The Verge are building into their site and I can’t help but be reminded how of how Google really screwed up with Blogger (one of many in a long list of screwups). I read somewhere they still have millions of active blogs but you wouldn’t know it through their search I guess.
Verge quickposts are a bit "fake" today -- they're just Wordpress entries designed to look more or less like tweets. Since the beginning, I've wanted to make them "real" -- to turn our feed into a true social feed, with all of the social features (and interop with Bluesky and Mastodon!) that brings
Colton Voege writes No, AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive.
I would extend this conclusion to any profession or craft:
There is no secret herbal medicine that prevents all disease sitting out in the open if you just follow the right Facebook groups. There is no AI coding revolution available if you just start vibing. You are not missing anything. Trust yourself. You are enough.
Oh, and don’t scroll LinkedIn.
🎵 I recorded a snippet of my one of my attempts to learn Fresh Tendril by Soundgarden and just when I think I’ve nailed the count on it, the beat inverts by an offbeat eighth note.
An epidemic that’s been sustained for 44 years might finally be quelled, with the milestone approval of the first HIV drug that offers 100% protection with its twice-yearly injections. It’s a landmark achievement that stands to save millions of lives across the globe.
And it is royalty free:
The makers are also providing affordable access to the drug in the US and beyond, signing royalty-free licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers to produce and supply it.
Unboxing
Today I learned that eggplant is, botanically speaking, a berry.
I have now hit that milestone where I’ve had to increase the system wide font size on my phone.
