Kansas, No ID, No Porn!
Kansas has followed a dozen other states, including Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and Utah, requiring porn websites to require submission of state-issued ID to access their content. The Republican legislators in Kansas are making it all about protecting the children. Using the vague phrase “harmful to minors” with a legal definition of “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals or pubic area or buttocks or with a human female’s breast.”
In that case, the government should require streaming services such as Netflix to do the same; I saw more tits & ass in movies as a teenager than I ever did in porn, mostly originating from the United States. I would argue that social media is infinitely more harmful to minors than porn could ever be. And let’s be honest, the average 11—17-year-old is smarter than these idiots in state and federal congresses, easily bypassing such restrictions with VPNs, many of which are free and can be signed up for with a free email address, or shifting to the unregulated dark web. Not to mention “borrowing” their parents’ ID.
This is not about protecting children; it’s about pushing their Christian nationalistic agenda. Literally red states are pushing an agenda of Christian indoctrination, with the Ten Commandments being displayed in Louisiana state-funded schools. In Oklahoma, bible study will be a requirement in all public schools, claiming that the bible is a historical document, again making claims that the US was founded on Christianity. I would point you to the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
But I digress; the objective here is to shame people into not enjoying online porn, hoping that having to upload a government-issued ID will dampen their self-pleasuring tendencies. The most significant issues for me are privacy and security concerns. Are these porn sites going to protect your data? What’s to stop them from storing your uploaded documents, which would make them a target for hackers.
Also, the vagueness of the wording of the law could potentially allow for this law to be used to block access to non-pornographic LGBTQ+ content, denying young people access to websites and resources covering LGBTQ+ issues, which is another bullshit Republican culture war talking point.
If a porn website does not enforce this requirement, how do these states plan to enforce it? In Kansas, the law states that if a website fails to verify that the visitor is at least 18, they can be hit with a fine of $10,000 for each violation. Parents could also sue for damages of up to $50,000, which tells the story that the state wants to encourage parents to sue to drive pornographic websites out of the state.
Pornhub is taking the step of blocking all users in the state of Kansas, along with Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, which have passed similar laws. Pornhub has the following statement on their website when visiting their website from Kansas today;
I don’t believe that anyone objects to systems to prevent children from accessing pornography, but this is not the solution, as it’s so easily bypassed by a tech-savvy child, which accounts for most kids today. We already have legitimate porn websites employing the RTA (restricted to adults) system, which can be used in conjunction with parental controls on children’s devices. In my opinion, this is where the responsibility lies; parents should monitor what their children access online and take appropriate actions to protect their children from porn sites, but no, the party of small government wants government regulation.
ASUS Vivobook 14 (X1404ZA) + Windows S Mode
I know that Windows S Mode has been around since Windows 10, but after purchasing a couple of Asus X1404 laptops, this was my first experience with S Mode. I am not impressed and fail to understand why any consumer would want to be restricted to Microsoft-approved apps from their app store.
The laptops are decent, with a 12th-generation Core i3 1215U processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 120 GB NVME storage drive. The 120 GB NVME storage is replaceable, and the memory is upgradable. 8 GB is soldered onto the motherboard, and another 8 GB can be added via a SODIMM slot.
My first clue to the fact that it was not a regular Windows install was that the CTRL—F10 keystroke on initial setup did not bring up the command prompt to type “OOBE/BYPASSNRO” to bypass the requirement for an internet connection and creation of a Microsoft account. Once I got into Windows, I found I could not install Google Chrome nor could I run CMD, and when I followed the prompts to go to the Microsoft store to disable S Mode, it immediately failed with a generic something went wrong error.
This makes me wonder if Microsoft subsidizes Asus’ budget-friendly laptops, blocking people from quickly switching from S Mode. Most people would not go to the lengths I went through to get out of S Mode and perform a clean install of Windows 11. I don’t understand the purpose of S Mode other than Microsoft wanting to keep you inside their walled garden. In my mind, the whole point of Windows is that users can install whatever they want, good or bad, without being locked into the Microsoft ecosystem.
In an effort to get out of S Mode, I created a Windows 11 install media USB stick and booted into the install after a quick stop in the BIOS. I found that the touchpad was not working, so I plugged in a USB mouse to start the installation, but I also found that the NVME drive was not detected. This forced me into an in-place upgrade from Windows. After completion, it allowed me to get out of S Mode, but looking at the available storage, I realized that something was amiss with over 60 GB being used; I know that a base Windows install should be around 30 GB, the reason for double that disk usage soon became apparent.
I discovered that I needed to install the IRST driver, which is downloadable from the Asus support website, to do a clean install of Windows. Multiple partitions, including a restore partition, appeared after loading the IRST driver in the Windows installer. I removed all these partitions and created a new partition using the whole drive capacity. I have no need to retain the restore partition, as I consider myself a tech-savvy person, being able to install the required drivers to get Windows up and running,
I installed Windows 11 Home, which, as expected took up about 30 GB of disk space; however, Windows 11 did not have wireless LAN drivers, so I had to source the drivers from the Asus Support website. I downloaded Realtek, Mediatek, and Intel wireless LAN drivers, copied them onto the same USB stick as the Windows installation, and let Windows find which were correct. On my particular laptop, it was the Mediatek drivers. I rebooted and connected to my Wi-Fi network, and like magic, after a few moments, Windows downloaded and installed the drivers for the rest of the devices. The only device that did not function correctly was the switchable number pad on the touchpad. This was easily remedied by visiting the Asus Support website and downloading and installing the Asus Numberpad driver.
Because of the S Mode bullshittery, I had to do additional work to get these laptops to where I wanted them, but I am happy with my purchases. Two 12th-generation core i3 laptops, with 8 GB of memory and 120 GB NVME SSDs for a little under $500, including tax, is a bargain, and my wife and daughter are happy with their new toys. And because there is a spare SODIMM slot and a 2280 M.2. slot onboard, I can easily upgrade the storage and memory should the need arise in the future.
Home ownership + moving + pitfalls
As per my last blog write-up, we are now homeowners; we closed on the house on May 29, 2024, six days later than planned, because the former owners and their realtor were being a pain in the arse. The home was owned by a 98-year-old gentleman who passed away, and the house was left to his six children; and they all had to sign individually, none of whom were at the closing, nor was their realtor. Our realtor, the representative from Security 1st Title, Erin, and I were the only ones present to complete the transaction.
Upon closing, we found some new information that our mortgage broker had not clarified. And that information was that because we got a FHA loan and we did not have a downpayment, a separate $8,400 conventional loan was taken out to cover the deposit, which bumps our mortgage payment up by $73.65 to a total of $1,633.12. This is fine; it’s well within our means, but I feel annoyed that this was not made clear before we applied for this mortgage. We knew that the deposit was going to be rolled in, what we didn’t know is that it would be a seperate conventional loan, and not rolled into the FHA loan.
Now that we had the keys to the house, we bought some new furniture: a theater-style sofa and loveseat for the family room and for upstairs, a loveseat, chair, and fluffy chase, which was my wife’s choice; she wanted a cuddle couch. Also included was a desk for me, as my old desk was not going to make the move because it was too fragile. Despite the $400 cost, it was poorly designed and used cheap materials.
I never got to use the desk we bought, it spent a week upside down on my office floor, as it was packaged with the wrong legs, and the wait time for replacement legs was longer than I could wait, so we sent that desk back and bought a desk from Walmart. Despite its $135 price tag, it is better quality than my previous desk. Also, despite requesting the sofa and loveseat set, only the sofa arrived, apparently, the loveseat was not added to the order, so we had to wait an extra week for that to be delivered.
Moving day came, and frankly, we were not ready. Erin had been ill and could not do much to help, and I had to work until Friday, May 31, before taking a week off for the move. I just had three days to get organized to move by Tuesday, June 4, and I spent a lot of time at the new house, being available for the furniture deliveries and several hours to install the Fiber internet. It should have taken 1—1.5 hours, but getting the fiber cable into the house was challenging because our new home is tornado-resistant.
At one point, four guys from AT&T were trying to work out how best to get the cable into the house. The only option was to use some existing conduit used by Cox for coax cable, which was no longer needed. This is far from ideal as the main router is in the living room, and not the office as I would have preferred. The solution was to use smart wi-fi extenders with two RJ45 Ethernet ports to connect Erin’s and my computers, as we don’t have wi-fi cards installed. I think I will buy a PCI-E wi-fi card for both computers as the smart extender only seems to be capable of 300Mbps, which is just 1/3 of the gigabit speed I pay for.
Because of the obscene cost of moving companies, we had repeated quotes of $1,500+ to move us 4.4 miles down the road; we hired two guys recommended by a resident of Erin’s property in Mulvane. And I wish that we did not; yes, we were not ready to move, but these guys were rushing through loading and unloading the U-Haul truck. As a result, there was signifcant damage to our furniture, and also our new home, a door frame was damaged, and a gouge was taken out of a wall. All this could have been avoided if they had just taken some time and care, using the furniture pads we paid for between the furniture and taking more time to bring in the more oversized items like the washer and dryer and Erin’s desk.
And when confronted, “We are not professional movers,” blaming our large and heavy furniture for the issues. I replied that if the job was too much for you to handle, you should have turned down the job, at which point one of them stormed out. We were paying by the hour, in 15-minute increments. I would have been happy to pay for the extra time, but they wanted to finish the job before the storm.
So, I was already in a bad mood because of all the damage to the home and furniture, and then the pitfalls of home ownership kicked in. While waiting for the second furniture delivery, we noticed it was getting very warm in the house, and it dawned on us that the outside HVAC unit was not running. So, we had an HVAC company come out, and they got it working, only for it to fail again two days later. We were advised on the second visit that they could get it running for now but could not guarantee how long it’d stay working, and once again, a day later, the HVAC unit outside stopped working. So, we decided to take the plunge and replace the system for $8,100. We don’t have $8,100 in our back pockets, so we had to finance it; on top of financing $5,000 worth of furniture, the mortgage, and a consolidation loan.
The HVAC system failure is annoying, as part of the agreement with the sellers was to have the HVAC system serviced. It has now become apparent that the service never happened; it was just inspected and confirmed as working. Even the invoice from the HVAC service company stated all the issues, confirming it as working for now, with no notation of any servicing done. The only plus is that we know we have a brand new system installed, which has a warranty and should be reliable with an annual service.
I have never liked moving home, hence why we spent 11 years in our previous rental home, despite 3 separate owners and some dubious lease agreements. Spending 11 years in one place exacerbated the moving challenges, with the sheer amount of crap we had accrued. A lot of the cleaning of the rental home came down to me; Erin did what she could, but suffering from fibromyalgia and severe Rheumatoid Arthritis limited her ability to help. I’m not in the greatest health myself; I have diabetes and, as an extension, neuropathy in my legs, and I have suffered from back issues going back into childhood.
After 10 days straight of working on the move and getting the rental house ready to hand back, I was physically and mentally broken, and I was days away from going back to work, and I still didn’t have a desk and needed to set up my computer. Suffice it to say that on Monday, June 10, I was not ready to return to work. I worked harder in those 10 days off, than I did in 11 years at my regular job!
It’s now two weeks since we moved in, and everything is still in disarray; we have yet to find places for all the stuff we brought with us, much of which I had hoped to dispose of before the move, but as already mentioned we bit off more than we could chew in such a short timeframe. We should have started weeks earlier; the wrangling with the sellers had dragged on, and we knew the move was coming, but we sat on our hands, so we can only blame ourselves for the situation we currently find ourselves in.
I’m 47 years old, and this is going to be my last move. The only way I will move out of this house is in a pine box. To quote Lethal Weapon’s Roger Murtaugh, “I’m too old for this shit”.
After 47 years of life, we’re finally buying a home!
As we come to the end of another lease year, we have received the renewal offer, and it will be another $150 increase after a $100 increase last year and a $70 increase the year before. Our rent would increase to $1345 if we signed another 12-month lease. Although the house we rent currently is a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, it’s in a bad area of town and has structural issues. This has made us look at purchasing a home, and we have been approved for a $200,000 mortgage. we have found a house we like more towards the eastern side of Wichita at a price and mortgage payment that works for us.
The home we have found and had an offer accepted on has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a fully finished basement, and a 2-car garage. We are purchasing it for $168,000, with the current owners covering up to $7,000 of closing costs. It does have a HOA, which would normally be a deal breaker for me, but in this case, the $150 monthly HOA payment is good value for money; it covers water, trash service, lawn care, and exterior maintenance, which, based upon what we are paying for in our rental home, seems to save us money, we currently pay $75—80 for water, $23 for trash, paid quarterly at $69, and I have to mow my own lawn, which is becoming harder as I get older and my health continues to deteriorate.
My wife, Erin has considerable health issues, and stairs for her is not an option, which is the prime reason we like this particular home; everything Erin and I need is on the main level, which has no steps to enter the home, and the primary bedroom suite is on the main level, along with a second bedroom, which will function as my office as I work from home, and being able to keep my current AT&T 1Gb Fiber internet connection is a bonus, I really do not want to go back to Cox after being lied to by the company.
The basement has a spacious family room, and two further bedrooms, which are much larger than the bedrooms the kids currently have in our current rental home, along with a second full bathroom, so they will have their own bathroom. Overall, the home we are buying has almost 500 extra square feet of living space. The main level is almost like a 1,000 sq. ft. apartment, with a jack and Jill bathroom accessible from the primary bedroom, second bedroom and living room. This home was literally the first one we looked at; and it was perfect for us, in a decent area of town, but of course there was some challenges.
The challenge was that the home was listed as a townhome, which is fine from the point of view of getting a FHA mortgage, but we found out that Sedgwick county has it listed as a condominium, which we cannot purchase with a FHA mortgage. Our Realtor did some research and found out that the legal definition was changed from condominium to townhome in 2022, and we have all the paperwork to prove it.
Our offer was accepted, and we are under contract, we have paid our $1,000 earnest money, kinda like a payment to show we are serious buyers. We have got an inspection scheduled to make sure we are not buying a turkey. And, if the home comes back with a clean bill of health, we start the 30 day closing period, which should allow us to tell our current landlord that we intend to not renew our lease, and move out by May 31, 2024, and enter the world of home ownership, albeit a lot later in life than ideal.
State sponsored car insurance racket, or Progressive policy?
I received an email from Progressive Insurance yesterday evening stating that my son, Conner, would be automatically added to our policy on April 12, 2024. So I called Progressive to tell them not to add him, as he does not drive our vehicles and does not have his own vehicle despite holding a driver’s license.
an email from Progressive InsuranceConner completed driver’s education, which is apparently all you have to do to obtain a full driver’s license in Kansas, which explains why half of these mother fuckers in Kansas can’t drive for shit. Driver’s education consisted of 8 hours of classroom tuition and six hours of on-road tuition; no test is required upon completion of driver’s education. I have seen Conner driving, and it’s dangerous in my view; without another driver to correct him, he does not have the decision-making skills to drive safely. He needs more tuition before being let loose on the road, but the state of Kansas is happy to unleash him.
This sounds like insurance companies have negotiated a deal with the state of Kansas to force parents to have their children on their insurance policies. Of course, because they are new drivers, this adds more than 100% to the price, which has almost doubled since 2020. Currently, we pay $210 per month for Erin and I, with two 14-year-old Ford’s on the policy. Being forced to add Conner will increase our policy to $490 monthly, which is entirely unaffordable, for basically nothing, as he’d not be driving our cars!
Here are the options, pay the extra 133% more cash, have Conner pay $280 from his part-time income, have Conner get his own insurance on a nonexistent car, kick Conner out of the house so he is no longer part of the household, or have him surrender his driver’s license. Or, switch insurance companies to the cheapest liability-only insurance with the maximum deductible possible, or just cancel all insurance and assume the risk of driving uninsured and unregistered, as we cannot renew our tags without insurance.
The logic is that any licensed driver in the household has access to the vehicles registered at the property, and all licensed drivers must be insured. Of course, an unlicensed teen would never take the car without permission, would they? If an adult child takes a car without the parent’s permission and gets in a wreck, the insurance company would have no liability to pay, as that child is not listed on the policy. The child should have the total liability to cover the other driver’s claim and face whatever legal consequences are associated with driving uninsured, including car theft; it’s all about personal responsibility in my mind.
According to the DMV staff, Progressive is lying to policyholders.
Today, a day after the above was written, I called the DMV and asked whether my son, who recently received his license, needs to be added to our insurance simply because he lived with us. The lady who I spoke with said she faced the same issue with Progressive, being forced into paying for insurance, but she switched insurance companies, and the problem went away, which would indicate that Progressive is scamming people, citing nonexistent state laws, based upon what the DMV lady told me.
So, I will hunt for new insurance before April 11 and maybe find a better deal. We have been with Progressive since 2011 and have been happy until now. This is similar to the situation with Cox Communications, whom I was with until they lied to me, so I looked at my options and found AT&T Fiber.
Final Update and resolution
It’s a week later, after many phone calls, I concluded that all insurance companies operating in Kansas force newly qualified drivers onto the homeowner’s policy if they don’t have their own insurance. I called AAA Insurance, The General, and obviously Progressive. The final call was to Geico, and that was the only company that tried to actually sell me insurance and succeeded. I ended up with a policy matching Progressive’s coverage, which includes renter’s insurance for $277, which is about $67 more than the pre-increase price but $213 less than the new Progressive price, and provides coverage for our son.
Adding Conner to the Progressive policy costs more than I will pay for the new Geico insurance. The moral of the story is that in Kansas, don’t allow your kids to get a full driver’s license unless they have moved out or have their own insurance policy, regardless of whether they have a car (joke). We probably could have found the extra $280 in a pinch, but in the long term, that is not sustainable. But, mostly, I didn’t want to pay it; it’s ridiculous to charge 133% more to add a teen driver who won’t be driving our cars.
Approved for a $200k mortgage, but I am unsure if we should take it!
Erin and I have been approved for a $200,000 mortgage, but the payment will be $1,971. This payment worries me because we have existing debt, which I cannot restructure without compromising the mortgage application, leaving us in what I see as a precarious financial position with little wiggle room.
Long story short, our net income is roughly $5,000, and our current debt payments amount to $1,000, so between the mortgage, assuming we buy a home for $200,000 and the other debt payments, that accounts for 60% of our net income. I find myself annoyed and stressed out because I specifically told the loan officer that I planned to consolidate all our credit card payments and existing loans into a single loan, bringing our monthly payment down by 40—45% and making the mortgage more affordable.
Now that we are applying, I cannot make any changes to our debt structure, something that I wish the loan officer had told us before we paid her $150 for credit checks. We cannot realistically proceed with losing 60% of our net income to debt payments, leaving us just $2,000 for everything else, including contingency for issues with the home, which we will be on the hook for being a homeowner.
Our loan and credit card debt totals almost $28,000; and over 360 months, we will pay $710,000 in mortgage fees. If I live that long, I will be at the ripe old age of 77 when the mortgage is paid off. And because house prices are inflated right now, I am concerned we will end up losing money even if we sell
Miss Annie, our realtor and a family friend, looked over the mortgage company’s fee worksheet and said there were excessive fees. She suggested that we look at other options, as she thinks we can do better. I am inclined to do this, but after some financial restructuring, I feel it is necessary to put ourselves in a better position to move forward with buying a home without increasing our overall credit card debt.
Of course, if we can limit our mortgage to $150,000, our payment will be $1,560, which will be only $205 more than our rent from June 2024. This rent increase is one of the main incentives to move, either renting elsewhere or buying a home. When we moved into this ghetto-adjacent house in 2013, rent was only $800, and in the past 3 years, under the third owner in 11 years, despite many deferred maintenance issues, rent has increased by over $450, which I am not willing to pay to live in this area.
None of this is urgent; we have two months before we have to renew our lease, and we can sign a month-to-month lease for just $10/month extra to allow us time to make our choice, whether it’s a different rental home or buying a home; it has to be this year though, we don’t want to be in this house in 2025.
Upgrade! double the CPU cores, double the RAM
With the evolution of software and AI requiring more CPU power and more RAM, I have finally taken the plunge and purchased an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 core/32 thread CPU and 64GB DDR4 3200mhz Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB RAM to replace my first generation Ryzen 7 1800x, 32GB RAM system, built way back in 2017, which is really starting to show it’s age in day to day use for photo and video work.
I was thinking of building a whole new system from scratch, but to build a new Ryzen 9 7950X system, only transferring my storage drives, power supply, and case, I was still looking at over $1,600. So I took the upgrade path, which made more sense with the price of last-generation CPUs and DDR4 being slashed, as I could use all my existing hardware, just swapping out the CPU and RAM for $565 + tax.
When I built my Ryzen 7 1800x system, I purchased the best AM4 X370 motherboard available at the time, an Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero, which has a solid VRM capable of handling the 16-core 5950X, and all I need to do is flash the BIOS to v8503 to support the final generation of AM4 architecture CPUs.
It may not be the latest and greatest, but the estimated 27.5% increase in performance for the Ryzen 9 7950x over the Ryzen 9 5950x is not worth the estimated 175% increase in overall system cost.
Now I have gone over my reasoning for my purchase, it is time to move on to the installation and performance. Installation was straightforward, thanks to Corsair using the stock AM4 mounting brackets. I didn’t have to pull anything out of the case; I simply unscrewed the H115i waterblock/pump, cleaned off the cold plate with isopropyl alcohol, pulled the 1800x, dropped in the 5950x, applied the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, and reattached the cooler. Removed the older 32GB kit of Dominator Platinum, clicked in the new 64GB kit of Dominator Platinum RGB, reinstalled the side panel, and it posted the first time.
I’m sure I am losing some performance of the Ryzen 5950x using an X370 motherboard and not an X570 chipset motherboard launched with the 5000 series AMD Ryzen chips. Overall, I’m happy; stress testing revealed no temperature issues, and running all 32 threads at 100% revealed a max temperature of 78°C, even after a 30-minute stress test, which is not bad for an AIO water cooler that is seven years old.
I could have gotten better temperatures and better performance, but I tuned the fans to not start ramping up towards 100% until passing 80°C, with a ramp from 30% to 50% between 80°C and 85°C and a sharp ramp to 100% between 85°C and 90°C. This means my system remains quiet, even with 3 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm, and 2 x 140mm fans on the radiator. I’m looking for a good balance, I don’t want my PC to sound like a jet engine, which if does when all six fans are at 100%, for maybe an extra 100 Mhz of clock speed.
My newly upgraded system averaged 25,723 in Cinebench R23 over five runs, with a high of 25,943 and a low of 25,752. With my excitement about installing my new CPU and RAM, I didn’t think about running the same test on the older hardware, so I cannot directly compare. But according to Cinebench, a Ryzen 7 1700x scores 8,889; this is a 65% speed bump for the Ryzen 9 5950x. The 1700x is very close to the 1800x in performance terms, so much so that tech reviewers claimed it’s better to buy the cheaper 1700x over the 1800x and apply a mild overclock to bring it up to 1800x performance levels.
The only casualty of the upgrade was Microsoft Office 2019 because the license key was no longer valid after the upgrade; I don’t know why; it was valid before the CPU upgrade. But, whatever, I uninstalled it and installed Libre Office instead, which has all the same features for the bargain price of $FREE.
Final note; the most significant upgrade is the RAM, not because it doubles the capacity, but because it has RGB, which, as we all know, increases performance by a factor of 10. Oh, yeah, also, now I have made it out of the dark ages of computing, Microsoft is pushing me to upgrade to Windows 11.
A positive story about the healthcare industry
I have expressed many negative views about the medical industry, particularly pain medicine doctors and medical insurance, but this one is very different. But first, some back story, my wife, Erin, has been suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia for over a decade. Because of this, she has required pain management doctors to prescribe narcotics to control her chronic pain.
Erin’s experience has not been good with Wichita pain management, including Advanced Pain Management, and ICT Internal Medicine & Pain Management, who both dropped Erin as a patient due to her use of Delta 8 CBD to help control her pain as both of these offices ignored her pleas about the prescribed narcotics not covering her pain, asking to try something different. Every month, Erin would visit the office, give a sample, and they’d give her a script for the drugs that were not working for her.
Erin had to make frequent visits to the ER for a shot of Dilaudid to help with her pain when it got out of control, i.e., breakthrough pain, where her regular Hydrocodone pills simply don’t work. Erin did find a pain management doctor, Xavier F Ng, who did listen and tried many different treatments; but, when Erin moved onto Medicaid insurance, she lost Dr. Ng, being without pain management for almost 3 months while we searched in earnest for a new pain management doctor, who accepted Medicaid.
Finally, we found a great pain management doctor, Tiffany Lau, after jumping through loads of hoops to get a referral, and we only found Hutchinson Clinic and Dr. Lau, thanks to an ER doctor at Wesley Woodlawn, who suggested Hutchinson Clinic. Erin managed to get through to January 30, 2024, when her appointment with Dr. Lau was, by a combination of other people giving her some of their Hydrocodone and Tramadol and the exceptional providers at Wesley Woodlawn ER in Wichita.
Erin wanted me to go to her appointment with Dr. Lau, as her previous experiences with pain management doctors, particularly Dr. Baoluan Nguyen, who, on her first visit with him, was incredibly dismissive and lorded it over Erin that he had the power over whether she was in pain or not. Dr. Lau at Hutchinson Clinic was the polar opposite: empathetic and understanding, listening to Erin and discussing a treatment plan. It was well worth the 100+ mile, 1 hour, 40 minute round trip to Hutch and back.
I cannot recommend Dr. Tiffany Lau and Hutchinson Clinic enough; Dr. Lau is everything you’d want from a pain medicine doctor, and they accept Medicaid, and Medicare, which is a lifeline for so many people, often less financially able to pay for private insurance, or on disability, suffering from chronic pain.
Rentlinx is closing down April 15, 2024
On January 17, 2024, we received an email stating that our Rentlinx account would become inactive on April 15, 2024, and the service would be shut down. This is a big blow for us as a property management company that has been utilizing the service since 2013. Initially, it was a free service syndicating to all the leading rental listing websites like Zillow, Costar, Realtor, Zumper, and dozens more.
In 2016, Appfolio bought Rentlimx and, within a year, started charging for the service. This was fine, as we got a special deal as an early adopter, saving 30%, paying $1,134 annually for the service, which represented good value for us, the time it saved me being able to syndicate to 40+ listing websites from one website is easily worth the $1,134 annual fee, heck, it would be worth the $1,620 full fee.
In mid-2020, Zillow Group decided to force users syndicating to the platform into an agreement for a service called Zillow Feed Connect. Again, being an early adopter, we got a deal of $1.05 per listing per day, so it was not the end of the world, and overall, the return on investment was still good!
Over the past 18 months, the Rentlinx website has become very slow and unresponsive during regular office hours. Like, the network infrastructure was insufficient to support the service’s number of concurrent users. I mean, it is slow to the point of visiting rentlinx.com, leaving the office to make a cup of coffee, and returning to the office slow. So, the news that Rentlinx was closing down was not surprising to me. Clearly, there had not been any investment in the Rentlinx service in many years.
It looks like Appfolio has stripped the assets of Rentlinx and integrated it into their property management software product. We have an established property management software solution, so we won’t switch to Appfolio, as transitioning from one property management software solution to another is a PITA.
Our annual renewal payment was due on February 11. 2024, so I emailed Rentlinx on Thursday, January 18, 2024, asking whether the renewal cost would be 16% of the regular price as the service was shutting down by 4/15/2024, and I have not received a response as of now, January 28, 2024. So, I canceled the renewal, as we do not want to pay $1,134 for the two months before the service shuts down.
I have looked at alternatives, and there does not seem to be any, at least none that syndicate to the Zillow Group of websites, our major lead generator. So we will just list on Zillow directly, costing the same $1.05 per listing daily, as it did when syndicating from Rentlinx. The downside is that we can now only have one phone number and email address; we cannot ‘cheat the system’ and list some of our available units at our apartment communities, leaving us only listing our single-family homes, duplexes, and townhomes.
My health = not good!
I often write about the US healthcare system and the health situation my wife finds herself in, but I don’t often write about my own health concerns, so here we go. I’ll start with the good news: my A1C is down to 5.8 from 6.3 six months ago and 6.7 18 months ago, so that’s good that my diabetes is under control.
I’ve always had back issues; back in my childhood, I was literally clotheslined. I rode my BMX into a washing line that was not pulled back up by the last person to use it, which caused me to be bent over backward onto the rear wheel. At that time, it was not a big issue, it hurt at the time, but the pain was minimal for years. But now, 40 years later, that injury is returning to haunt me in a big way.
For this, I could do with some pain management services, either injections into my back or narcotics to help with the pain, but that’s not an option as I have Aetna insurance, which is barely worth the ink that is printed on my insurance card. Most services are subject to a $6,500 deductible and a $7,900 max out-of-pocket. The deductible is meaningless, as you need to reach the max out-of-pocket for full coverage.
And I cannot switch to another insurance, via the ACA or Obamacare, as it seems more well-known. The ACA rules state that if you have ‘affordable’ insurance available to you via your employer, you are ineligible to get a Healthcare Marketplace plan with a subsidy. A marketplace plan is not affordable without a subsidy or advanced premium tax credit. The Aetna insurance is affordable at just $10.22 per month, but it does not seem to cover much before meeting the deductible/max out-of-pocket.
One of the challenges I am having is with my vision, requiring me to get injections in my eyes every six weeks or so, and each session costs me $2,680.21, which I do not have, putting me into major medical debt. Remember that I need to get to $7,900 before Aetna starts to pay for these shots, so each year, I am obtaining nearly $8,000 of medical debt with no hope of being able to pay that debt.
The latest issue I am having is with my legs; I am developing sores on my legs, which can be very painful, making it much harder to walk. I recently visited with my doctor, and she thinks that part of it is dermatitis. She has prescribed me Cephalexin, which, guess what, I have to pay 100% out of pocket for. The dermatitis is kinda itchy but not painful, like the sores. I’m concerned about these sores because they are popping up on both legs below the knee, and with my mother suffering from ulcerated legs, ultimately leading to her having both legs amputated below the knee, which I obviously want to avoid.
I’m wondering if I suffer from poor circulation in my legs in addition to diabetic neuropathy. My mother suffered from this affliction, which caused her ulcerated legs, leading to the aforementioned amputation. The numbness of the neuropathy I can handle; these sores and the pain they cause me are not something I can live with, and I really do not want to go through what my mother did, especially in the US, without the benefit of the NHS, or National Health Service of my home nation of the United Kingdom.
This leaves me with two options: hope it gets better by itself to save money, or see a specialist and get the required tests to check on my blood circulation, which no doubt will be subject to the max out-of-pocket.
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