Thread Stealers With Too Much On Their Minds

[sandlanders]

amita17 wrote:

I had an emoticon in my previous post that I cut and pasted from an online source, but it didn’t show up. Do we have those on this site like we had before?

No emoticon library yet like we had before. Some are standard shortcuts, and those still work. Our “special” emoticons that TBC made for us have yet to make it to the new site. If you use an image from an online source, I think you have to post that as an image, or maybe a link. Quoting a post that has emoticons in it shows them as those images or links, though, not as quoted emoticons.

The shortcuts I have been using so far are:

winky-face — semi-colon, right parenthesis to get 😉
evil smiley — colon, twisted, colon to get ZB’s 😈
smiley — colon, right parenthesis to get 🙂
eye roll — colon, roll, colon to get 🙄
sad smiley — colon, left parenthesis to get 🙁
sunglasses — 8 then dash then right parenthesis to get 😎
big grin — colon, D to get 😀

[Noonan]

The link was to a YouTube video for Steely Dan’s “My Old School” in case you don’t know the original song. That’s all.

I wish the emoticon I claim to have invented would’ve taken off:

=8^)

guy with a crew cut/mohawk/my bad hair cut in the morning

The best sig is no sig.

[Noonan]

admin wrote:

Supposed to be a link to what?

The original cache page.

If nothing else, look to place a cache here:
N 42° 14.229 W 121° 31.539

It’s a perfect fit for a cache, but I think I found another place on the back side of the property. We’ll see what they say about that.

The best sig is no sig.

[JimandLinda]

Test post again.

[amita17]

sandlanders wrote:

amita17 wrote:

<P>I had an emoticon in my previous post that I cut and pasted from an online source, but it didn’t show up. Do we have those on this site like we had before?</P>

<P>No emoticon library yet like we had before. Some are standard shortcuts, and those still work. Our “special” emoticons that TBC made for us have yet to make it to the new site. If you use an image from an online source, I think you have to post that as an image, or maybe a link. Quoting a post that has emoticons in it shows them as those images or links, though, not as quoted emoticons.</P>
<P>The shortcuts I have been using so far are:</P>
<P>winky-face — semi-colon, right parenthesis to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=;) src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif”><BR>evil smiley — colon, twisted, colon to get ZB’s <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=:twisted: src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif”><BR>smiley — colon, right parenthesis to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=:) src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif”><BR>eye roll — colon, roll, colon to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=:roll: src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif”><BR>sad smiley — colon, left parenthesis to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=:( src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif”><BR>sunglasses — 8 then dash then right parenthesis to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=8-) src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_cool.gif”><BR>big grin — colon, D to get <IMG class=wp-smiley alt=:D src=”http://wi-geocaching.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif”></P&gt;

Ok, thanks. But I don’t know what you are typing for “twisted”, and “roll”. Are these Mac keys? 😉

[sandlanders]

the words… t-w-i-s-t-e-d and r-o-l-l

colon (your word) colon — Some emoticons are standard, I guess.

The colon thing used to work for :like: and :ftp: and :13: and :givebeer: and :bartrod: and :pirate: and :sl: and some other stuff, but those were special gifts from The Cat.

Trying this one… 😕 OK, that was colon – question mark

[Braid Beards Gang]

Learned today that the wife’s company will no longer offer health insurance as a benefit. Thank you democrats.

[blue_cougar54494]

FTP for Tuesday!
[ftp]

[hack1of2]

Braid Beards Gang wrote:

Learned today that the wife’s company will no longer offer health insurance as a benefit. Thank you democrats.

Ouch! What are you going to do?

[Braid Beards Gang]

hack1of2 wrote:

Braid Beards Gang wrote:

Learned today that the wife’s company will no longer offer health insurance as a benefit. Thank you democrats.

Ouch! What are you going to do?

We have a couple of weeks, but it is not fun so far. I am learning about the gigantic fraud monster that Healthcare.gov is and will continue to become. The plans similar to the family plan we are accustomed to is a “cadillac” plan and financially impossible for us. We have a meeting with a broker later today. I teased my wife that we should divorce. She can have all the investments,savings, home, everything. The only thing I would get is the kids. I could pay her rent to live with her. With my salary and lack of savings, I would qualify for free insurance, food stamps, rent assistance, etc. I know why low-income people do not get married anymore. It will work out.

[admin]

Noonan wrote:

The original cache page.

Nobody can see unpublished caches except the cache owner.

[Noonan]

Newest message about my “old school” cache

I appreciate you moving this once again. However, the street does in fact dead end. It appears to dead end at the school.

A cache where the seekers may be seen from the school grounds, buildings, playground, or parking will not be listed due to the concerns with the current environment of school safety.

Please move this well away from the school should you wish it to be listed.

A literal reading of this would preclude placing almost any caches in town because school is the only two-story building in town, and it’s on a hill. You can see almost every part of town from the upper floors of the elementary building.

I didn’t reply with that, but I had to get it out of my system.

ARGH

The best sig is no sig.

[sandlanders]

Braid Beards Gang wrote:

Learned today that the wife’s company will no longer offer health insurance as a benefit. Thank you democrats.

I won’t get into the politics of anything except for venting that senators and representatives don’t have to worry about health insurance or jumping through hoops like their constituents do to get it. There are enough problems caused by Congress as a whole to spread the blame around.

Basically, your wife’s company is the one responsible for no health care as a benefit. That is their decision, and many employers are going the route of shifting the responsibility (and the costs) of this benefit on to the government through the healthcare marketplace. Thanks to actions on the state level, many public employees are having their benefits cut or curtailed also.

Speaking from my experience, I just went through the daunting task of selecting and purchasing health insurance through the Marketplace. Mr. Sandlanders is old enough to have Medicare and a supplement, but I was on COBRA for over a year when his retirement benefits ran out. I could have gone to the Marketplace last year at this time, but with it being so new, I didn’t want to lose my COBRA eligibility in case something didn’t work out with that. We were also quite limited in our county at that time because very few insurance companies offered plans for Adams County residents.

We knew when Mr. S retired that I would need to find my own health insurance until I was old enough for Medicare, so we planned and saved for that eventuality, but I had a concern that possible health conditions might be present at that time, and I could be denied insurance. Fortunately, I have stayed healthy, although my weight could have been an issue before the ACA was implemented. Now anyone can get some kind of insurance even with pre-existing conditions. There is also premium assistance if you qualify, and for a family of four, there could be some kind of assistance for up to an income of ~$95,00 for the household.

I won’t deny that it was a headache to jump through all the hoops, and we did talk to a local person who helped us decide what type of plan would be better for me to check out based on my situation. I opted for a higher deductible to take care of planned and routine healthcare and drugs, but I have greater coverage after that deductible has been met should the unthinkable happen and I had extensive medical bills. And whatever comes up, I cannot be denied when it comes time to renew my healthcare coverage.

Yes, I no longer have the “cadillac” healthcare we had a few years ago, but many don’t now because of how things are different. However, I am willing to see how things go before I can give a thumbs up or down on the new system, and I really don’t have a choice. Because of increasing penalties and risking a personal medical crisis, I am not willing to forego health insurance. This is not an issue of government telling me what I can and cannot do, but a choice on my part to be proactive and not assuming that I will have perfect health in the upcoming years.

And, BBG, make sure when you talk to a broker that he/she is not trying to sell you a plan, just helping you understand all of your options. Some of their plans might work for you, but there may be other ones out there that they don’t sell that would fit your needs better, and perhaps more cheaply. Losing existing insurance coverage is a qualifying event, so you have time to think about what you want to do. It would be nice to have something in place at the start of 2015 so that any deductibles can start being met, but January 1 is not a deadline.

There is another benefit of the ACA that many people don’t realize. For those who have some kind of health insurance, certain things are provided at no cost. These would be like a physical and standard blood work once a year, flu shots and immunizations, and some other things. You can even get a colonscopy at no charge once every so many years… if you are enrolled in a health plan of any kind, private or marketplace. Whenever we would get a statement of benefits for what we had done, we didn’t see some things like lab work and the flu shots, and then we figured out that this was part of the ACA. It won’t appear on your statements, and you won’t get charged.

This is just my take on how things are these days as far as health insurance goes. I was taking care of things for my parents when Medicare Part D (drugs) was implemented, and while it was confusing and a headache at the time, it is now a standard part of healthcare in some manner for those age 65 and older. I am optimistic that, if given the chance, the Affordable Care Act can gain the same kind of acceptance in the years to come.

Now… See how I feel next year at this time. Stay tuned…

[admin]

No LTP emoticon, but…

[Team Black-Cat]

:ftp:

[Author]

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