Random Raves Fifty-one: Anticipation of Joy!

[W|M]

I have won some skirmishes against the insurance companies this morning.

I believe it was either @Arwon or @Traitorfish that pointed out that the American insurance industry has become the largest make-work program on Earth and I can emphatically agree. There are not enough superlatives to describe how opaque, byzantine and awful our insurance bureaucracy has become. With my wife going to the doctor regularly now for prenatal checkups, it's become an ever-loving nightmare to deal with. The fact that we have two insurance companies did not mean that we gained more coverage, it instead meant we have twice as much insurance infrastructure to deal with and twice as much chance that billing and claims would be misfiled by either insurance company or the doctor's offices.

It has become a part-time job to stay on top of it all and of course the stakes are quite high with each doctor billing multi-thousands of dollars for routine prenatal checkups.

David Graeber notably made this point a whole book

 

[hobbsyoyo]

We put together our stroller and car seat system. My wife picked a really good combination - they fit together as a combo unit and the whole thing adjusts nicely and has cool features. This whole baby thing is starting to feel real - pretty soon there's going to be a little one in that seat.

 

[abradley]

Seal Team 6 strikes again:
American hostage rescued in West Africa by SEAL Team 6 in daring raid
The rescue took place earlier Saturday in northern Nigeria
By Lucas Tomlinson | Fox News

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Fox News Flash top headlines for October 31
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

An American hostage has been rescued in West Africa by SEAL Team 6 in a daring raid, Fox News has learned.

The elite SEAL Team 6 staged a daring raid in the West African country of Nigeria, rescuing Philip Walton, 27, who had been taken hostage, officials told Fox News.

“We had to get him before any potential trade or sale,” one U.S. official said.

President Donald Trump tweeted out a show of support, calling the operation a "big win" for the elite force, and promised further details.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told "Fox & Friends" that the decision to pull the trigger on the operation was "tough," but that ultimately the pesident prioritizes the safety of American citizens.

"They're very tough ones to make because you're right it has to be conducted just perfectly," McEnany said. "But the President always puts the American interest first on it it takes a lot of planning."

"A lot of keeping things quiet until that moment when you get the go ahead and I was talking to some of our soldiers and they said to me, we pray to get the green light."

(Continued) https://www.foxnews.com/world/american-hostage-rescued-west-africa-seal-team-6-daring-raid

 

[Birdjaguar]

@hobbsyoyo @MaryKB Get ready: child at play.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I did Nick Fury for Halloween at the insistence of my kids. Totally pulled it off if I do say so myself. Shaved my head and cut myself a goatee. I already owned a black trench coat and black dress clothes so all I needed was the eye patch.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Sommerswerd what she said ^^^

 

[Sommerswerd]

Challenge accepted @Lemon Merchant and @Birdjaguar

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For reference

Spoiler :

 

[Hygro]

I want the before pics

 

[abradley]

Challenge accepted @Lemon Merchant and @Birdjaguar

Spoiler :

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Impressive!

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Challenge accepted @Lemon Merchant and @Birdjaguar

Spoiler :

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For reference

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This is awesome! You look great.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Excellent!

 

[Takhisis]

@hobbsyoyo @MaryKB Get ready: child at play.

View attachment 573743

Recommended toys/gifts:

Cardboard boxes.
Random bits of wood, cloth, tape and/or string.
Plastic traffic cones (they'll be used as anything but traffic cones, and they have so many uses!).
Bags (cloth, preferably: more oecologickal and they'll reduce your fears of the child suffocating/choking on it).
A few good books, when the tot is capable of reading.
Buy yourself something that comes with bubble-wrap and remember to share the bubble-wrap.
Jenga!
A bucket.​

 

[Zkribbler]

This is awesome! You look great.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Challenge accepted @Lemon Merchant and @Birdjaguar

Spoiler :

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Well done!

 

[EgonSpengler]

A red-tailed hawk sailed overhead while I was walking through the park this morning. He/she was probably looking for breakfast. Lots of rabbits, squirrels and rats around. A veritable buffet. If you live somewhere between Panama and Nunavut, you might have seen one, and if you imagine your most stereotypical hawk screech, you're probably thinking of a red-tailed hawk.

 

[Takhisis]

I did Nick Fury for Halloween at the insistence of my kids.

I finally found the right reaction for this.

 

[amadeus]

This is it, the 35,000th post.

Is it an accomplishment? Yes and no, and probably more on the no end. It is something, but if it has any meaning is up for interpretation. I'm going to take this as a celebration of minutiae because that's the direction I've wanted to take things in.

I'm trying to look for the little things in life that make those incremental improvements, stuff that on the surface looks trivial but means more to us than what we think.

I would like to thank those submitters of minutiae, providing a little bit of interest to everyday life.

Also I needed an excuse to post this graphic I made last night.

 

[Narz]

An accomplishment? I dunno about that.

Beats watching decades of television tho, at least you're learning something & kinda interacting w other humans

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Congratulations. I'd have closer to that number if we could get back our post count from the archived threads that were taken away years ago. And none of the social group posts ever counted, not that we have social groups anymore.

What 35,000 posts shows is perseverance.

Perseverance is a good thing. I'm trying to write at least 50,000 words on a story this month, aiming for 1700/day. It's harder this time because I'm doing it longhand (due to an increasingly finicky computer that ate part of my story a year or so back). I will be hitting 6800 words tonight. Just 79 left to go.