Why I hate Medco Health Mail-in prescriptions.
First of all, I love Medco for so many reasons, but the fact that all the annoying things they do basically annoy me sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth it. I'll list what I like:
So this is where my "What I hate about Medco" rant starts, it's everything else they kind of make as annoying as possible and it's got to cast them money and time (mine too!). It's really strange considering they've got the normal part perfect from a customer service standpoint (see above). It's the odd things that they handle strangely, for example:
The other big annoyance is everything they leave you a message about is useless since none of it mentions the drug name. It's all some prescription number which means nothing to me. I understand they don't want to violate HIPA, but it's simple enough to check the file and see that it says: this guy wants us to leave him his information in a message this would be convenient to him and not any kind of violation since he requests it. This seems like a pretty simple process for them to impalement for the sake of customer service (it'd be like locking or unlocking your domain name).
They do e-mail me some information (generally on shipment) but it's also lacking the drug name, which is silly since I assume most of the population (not me) uses the same password for their e-mail as they do for the medical website it's probably not protecting anything. But I don't understand why they just don't mail me everything.
So as I said, I normally pay $5 for a prescription and I can get 3 months from mailing in for only $2. But when my insurance changes that's going to go up to $10 a month and mail-in will be $20 for 3 months. I'm still saving money, but can I do better (or just as well) with local stores and coupons or with bonuses that they always offer to switch stores? Sure that'd be an annoyance but at least they'd be annoying me on my terms...
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 2:00 PM on March 1, 2008.
Related categories: customer service, health
Still on the mend...
Haven't blogged much, since not much has been happening around here. I've been sick for the last two weeks (missed a week of work) with bronchitis with a nasty couch and even nastier congestion. I feel like I've been eating lots, but I'm down about 15 pounds from where I'm usually at.
Life's pretty good otherwise, Work hasn't been too cRaZy so I've not fallen too far behind. And I've got my next Costa Rica trip to look forward too next month.
With the snow today it seems like an extra beautifully sunny day and that always has magical healing properties...
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 12:41 PM on March 5, 2008.
Related categories: general, health
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: kilax
I was Wondering About Apple's Weekly Releases...
Apple has released or upgraded/refreshed something new every Tuesday since MacWorld. This week there was nothing. The stranger thing is that I didn't hear much (anything?) about it. I did recall him saying something at the keynote like '50 more weeks to go' and it was just odd at the way it sounded, so when they kept rolling things out I thought that was pretty great and maybe it was a weekly thing.
But I see that Leo Laporte just mentioned an Apple Event tomorrow, so maybe there will be something announced there...
After Google-ing around, I'm guessing it's just the SDK kit for the iPhone / iTouch. Although if it's not an actual product, it's still not following the pattern.
LATER REVEALED: I haven't watched the Steve Jobs presentation yet. But it looks like it's the SDK that was expected, it's $99, I'm not sure if that was expected and it's free (see comments). Also they have a way to be in the "Enterprise beta" program, but I don't know if I'd want my enterprise testing new software if it's not finalized yet. But the "remote wipe" sounds like a great option if you've got secure data. The "Exchange Sync" looks nice that'll convince a few BlackBerry users to jump; is it coincidence that Google released an Exchange / Outlook to Google Calendar Sync yesterday?
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 10:09 PM on March 5, 2008.
Related categories: apple
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Dave2
Getting a New MacBook / MacBook Pro Laptop
So after the MacBook Air not being what I had hoped for, I had been hoping for a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro and while the Air is small, I wanted something not so stripped down. Since then, I'd been trying to decide between a 13.3 MacBook and a 15 inch MacBook Pro (size vs. power, I'm used to the tiny 12 inch PowerBook), I thought I'd let fate decide for me and get the next one that they upgraded. Unfortunately, last week they did an upgrade on them both on the same, letting fate avoid making the choice for me.
This week I was at a conference and was at the Apple Booth and was playing with the 17 inch MacBook Pro and asked if they had a 15 inch to look at and then I realized I was using the 15 inch model. It just seemed so large and bulky to me. I think I'm going to have to go with the 13.3 MacBook, I think it's only about a half pound less in weight, but it's a bit smaller. I'm not even sure how I'd fit the 15 inch on the back of an airplane or train seat tray.
Of course, the day after I order it, they'll release a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro...
Later: I went with the 2.4 GHz White MacBook (I couldn't possibly justify the Black one for $110 more, that doesn't even make sense!), with the 250 GB HD and lots o' RAM. The biggest downside to not getting the Pro is that the glossy screen was the only option (and the non-backlit keyboard).
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Saturday at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2008.
Related categories: apple, portable
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: gavi: Angela
Spring Forward
As usual, it's that time of year when someone else thinks it's better to (de)regulate my internal clock. It's funny all the news stories this year that are commenting on the health issues, sleepy drivers and how much energy this is really wasting energy.
For those of you in other places in the world that don't know what I'm talking about, it's Daylight Savings Time (DST).
At least all my electronics seemed to adapt properly...
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 12:53 PM on March 9, 2008.
Related categories: general
A Fine Frenzy is in Detroit this weekend
A Fine Frenzy is playing in Detroit at the Shelter this weekend. It's a really small venue so it should be a great show! I saw A Fine Frenzy in the fall (upstairs at St. Andrews)and it was an incredible show (they/she opened for Brandi Carlile). Ferras is opening for them, but I have no idea who that is, maybe someone American Idol-ish?
If anyone is going please leave me a comment or send an e-mail and we can say "hi" while were there.... My mission for the evening is Happy Hour for dinner in Dearborn, a fund raiser auction for school in Redford (this is while we're missing Ferras) and then get over to the theatre to see Alison sing and sign autgraphs...
Speaking of the auction, once again as an auction prize you can buy bags of coffee, straight from costa rica with some chocolate covered coffee beans. Brought to you from central Amaerica by Moi! Also you can by a basket of Cat in the Hat stickers and books which includes a visit to your house from the Cat in the Hat himself!
Posted by Gary on Monday at 1:06 PM on March 10, 2008.
Related categories: music
Jobs I've Had
I've had a lot of jobs in my life, even since I was little. Not that Mom didn't buy me stuff, but I always had some hobby that needed ca$h so I often had jobs. Beside maybe shoveling show or leaves and stuff like that I've started pretty early. I was thinking about this since I saw Miss. Britt do a section like this for her 100 things list so I started thinking about it.
These were most of my jobs up to the time that I started getting computer jobs (not that there weren't some non-computer jobs later on too). So I think I'll wrap this up for now and make that a second (or third) part, this gets me through age 15...
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 6:39 PM on March 12, 2008.
Related categories: me + myself + i
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Junelle: Mercedes
Gas at an all time high...
I can't believe these prices. I only paid $3.23 yesterday but I paid $3.25 on Friday. I think that's the highest I've ever paid. And "they" say it's going to keep going up...
I'm so glad I don't drive far. Generally, less than a tank gets me through the week.
Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 8:49 PM on March 12, 2008.
Related categories: money
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Lillasyster: Mercedes
Delivery is Weird
So I'm not just talking about regular mail, I'm talking shipping and receiving from companies and just getting deliveries. The way things arrive and the order in which they arrive is just strange sometimes.
My most recent computer order is one example, I ordered a computer (with a larger hard drive so it had to be "built"), a spare battery and spare charger. The computer has already been assembled and shipped, the battery didn't ship until a day later than the computer (I assumed it would have shipped the day before the computer) and the charger hasn't shipped yet. Maybe, this is all a plan from Apple, they know how fast everything will get here so why have someone rush to ship the battery when they had something else to do, the computer system could be smart enough to do that. It just seems strange. Although, I find it strange it's cheaper to do the final assembly in China and ship them here one at a time via FedEx.
I've been on vacation and mailed postcards on the same day (from the same mailbox) to people in the same city and they arrive weeks later. Where was the other one? Stuck in someone else's magazine? Did it travel a different route?
I'm currently subscribing to the TicoTimes, it's a weekly English paper that covers Costa Rica. It's published on Friday and sometimes I get it the following Wednesday (5 days later). I'm not sure when they actually mail it, I'm sure on Thursday or Friday. But sometimes I get it days later, I think the record is 12 days (I think I got it 4 days later, on Tuesday once). Why such the time difference? It looks like they ship it from Costa Rica, I wonder if it makes more sense to ship all the US customers in one package (shipped faster) and have them re-mailed from the US. I know they ship to a few US newstands to sell them so the re-shipping wouldn't be too hard.
And I find it really strange when I order something from Amazon (in stock) and in the same order I get a used book from one of their used-partners and I get the used book days before the new one...
Most of the time when I order from places like CDW, I get the item the next day even when I don't pay for fast shipping (I almost always choose the cheapest).
And my absolute favorite is when I pay big buck$ for overnight shipping and I don't get it for 3 or 4 days. Their reasoning, we didn't get it shipped the first day, but when we did ship it, it went out overnight. I love that Amazon clearly marks when you'll get it with one-day shipping if you order it in the next "3 hours and 5 minutes" or something like that. When my oven broke a few months ago the GE site, clearly stated that when I ordered it by a certain time it would ship that day, I could of paid less ($10-$15) from a few other sites, but I couldn't be certain when it would actually ship; so with that little piece of knowledge, GE got my money instead and they got a premium...
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 10:39 AM on March 15, 2008.
Related categories: customer service
A Fine Frenzy - Detroit at The Shelter - March 2008
Alison Sudol was excellent last night. A very small venue at The Shelter, the cancert was sold out but I'd guess there were only about 300 people there, lots of room. No one was back farther than about the equivalent of about 10 rows (no seats, general admission standing only with just a few tables). I've seen A Fine Frenzy before and it was a smaller venue so it was great having the small crowd and as a bonus it was a non-smoking show.
She's has such a lovely voice and writes her own songs. She's got this voice that's kind of a Sarah McLachlan / Tori Amos voice and she's just incredible. She so beautiful and has this sunning red head, and while it might not be naturally that red, she's got that anemic porcelain look that so many red heads do, I'm assuming she's actually a redhead. My camera in my phone takes pretty crappy pictures, but I tried to take a few.
She's so into when she plays, and every so often she looks at the audience, I feel likes she's forgotten us and that her manager told her she has to make eye contact every so often and that's why she looks up. I always think of 'gracious' when thinking about her personality, that's just how I feel when she's talking to us and that's how I feel when she talks to you personally. I did get to get to say 'hi" and get her autograph on a promo poster after the concert. She's just so nice, even with just a 30-second conversation...
It was a busy night as we had a fund raiser at work at six and the concert doors opened at 6 too (they're about 25 minutes apart). So we planned to skip the opening act and just see her and depending on the time possibly go back to the auction. When I finally called the concert hall. They said she was going on in 15 minutes!!!!!
So I had to find Kelly and Mark get out of there. We made good time, even with having to go a longer route, found free parking right around the corner and when we walked in the music was playing but she hadn't uttered a word yet!! So it was a great night.
We never got back to the auction, even though it was only 9:30 when we left, it was just a little too late to head back. So I have no idea what or if I won anything. I probably had my name on about $400 worth of things, but I'm assuming I got over bid on more than a few of them (there was still 30 minutes left of bidding when we took off). I had some train tickets to Chicago, baskets of games, chocolate, theatre tickets, plus I bid on one of my donated items and a few more things. One of the items I donated was for my Cat in the Hat basorket which had books/stuff and included a visit from me as the Cat in the Hat (for birthday parties, classroom visits and bachelorette parties), I drove the bidding up to $75 before I left, but if no one bought it I've purchased myself. While I love doing it, it's not worth it to spend a hot summer day outside in the outfit if it's only giving the school that much money so we'll see how that went. I also donated a basket of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans that I picked up the stuff the last time I was in Costa Rica; I'm wondering what that sold for, it's was only at $17 the last time I looked...
Posted by Gary on Saturday at 1:50 PM on March 15, 2008.
Related categories: music, reviews
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: sarah
Blocking E-Mail Spam
I'm a huge fan of SpamArrest, a mail program that uses challenge/response CAPTCHAs to only allow mail from humans, instead of from spammers. It works great but the price has gone up from $60 for two years to $90, so I'm checking for other options. It's only an additional $30 but if the price jump is $30 (or worse, 50%) every 2 years, it's gonna get kinda pricey in the next few renewal cycles. The price jump is kind of large after a few years especially since I know many of their costs should have gone down (disk space, servers and bandwidth); the software is already written and has had minimal user changes over the last two years.
Honestly, I'm sure it saves me more way than $45 a year worth of time. But can something save me more time, I know in the past MailBlocks saved me more time. So I'm looking for suggestions for some other Challenge/Responce mail system.
There is one thing I really dislike about SpamArrest, while I can use any mail client to read my mail, to check and approve spam I have to go to their web site and that takes a lot of time (and this is a feature I miss from the now deceased MailBlocks). The reason I have to check it is for mailings from new companies that I deal with and for people who don't pay attention to the e-mail that gets mail back to them immediately to ask them to confirm they are human (I even have info about me and a picture of me in the e-mail so they know it's really me).
In the meantime, I'm using my free gMail account. I want to see how well that works, they give me all sorts of space for free and it's pretty fast and it works well on cellphones (their client, their web interface and should work with phone clients). They've got a fancy web interface and plain web interface so it works pretty well everywhere. Although, with my client I can't see the spam folder there either. Google lets you create additional addresses for the same account and have decent filters. Plus, they will let you use your own domain if you'd like to; so if it really works out, I'll attach my GaryLaPointe.com domain to it and use it for my mail (as long as that supports IMAP). And if it works as well for me, it's free! There's some weird mapping between GMail and the Mac Mail.app (I think by default you get duplicates of the mailboxes) but there's some work arounds, or maybe the new Mail.app in Panther fixes it...
Also, I figure after trying it for a few months, SpamArrest might send me a promo to lure me back. If that's the case I'll know I've done due diligence to try another option and I'll have possibly saved a few bucks in the mean time.
Actually, I have one other minor complaint about SpamArrest, the interface could be faster. There's something about the web interface that slows things down. I notice when I travel, it's unbearably slow and I'm not sure why. But it's a huge minus when I travel...
I do get some referral dollar$ from SpamArrest (maybe $8.75 a year?), so I figure if I'm sending clients to them, so are others (therefore, they're likely growing).
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Saturday at 7:00 PM on March 15, 2008.
Related categories: money, web sites
Understanding Twitter
So I've really been trying to use Twitter more. I read and tweet more at my computer than when I'm out. When I'm out I tweet some but don't generally read. I do have it set to get a text message on my phone automagically if someone tweets my name. If you don't know what Twitter is:
I really got on the blogging boat late because I didn't get it, but once I started I was hooked immediately. This isn't working for me yet, but I'm still trying. On GeekBrief I saw the folks at CommonCraft created a video called Twitter in Plain English and it's a pretty good explanation with interesting animation.
But it still feels like Instant Messenger (IM) to me, but only 140 characters. It's definitely more than IM, but it really just feels like the next step in its evolution. The clients feel like IM, and using the web interface at Twitter fells more and more like a web chat client.
The biggest difference is that you direct your message to everyone in your group, not to a specific person. So occasionally you see a comment directed to someone else that you never saw the preceding comment, so then you can go see what they said and see if it's someone else that interests you. You can send direct messages, but I don't think that's very common and I can never remember the command (it's "D TwitterUserName TheText").
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 3:21 PM on March 16, 2008.
Related categories: blogging, web sites
Thanks for the 3 comments/trackbacks from: ajooja: Sarcasmom: Jean-Francois Noel
I didn't know Robert Scoble could sing!
This is a great parody of "Rock Band" sung to the tune of "Roxanne".
Found at nehatiwari.com after catching her segment on PopSiren. A Revision3.com production.
Technorati Tags: Music Video, puppy, Robert Scoble, Rock Band, Roxanne, The Police
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Thursday at 9:05 PM on March 20, 2008.
Related categories: computers, funny, games
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Mercedes: sevenpics
This is why I love the Internet
Over the last 24 hours:
And that's just the out-of-the-ordinary stuff.
Technorati Tags: A Fine Frenzy, AFF, Alison Sudol, Blu-Ray, DeLoach winery, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee, Kevin Rose, Napa Valley, The 4 hour work week, Tim Ferris
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Saturday at 5:42 PM on March 22, 2008.
Related categories: me + myself + i, technology
Being Nice
So my philosophy in life is pretty much just to "be nice".
Maybe 'karma' and 'what comes around, goes around' and 'do unto others as you want to them to do unto you' want you to do the same thing ("be nice") but they try to make you fear what might happen if you don't. Really, they're just slightly nicer versions of 'an eye for an eye' (the way most people interpret it).
Douglas Adams pointed this out in in the beginning of two of his books,So maybe the above is an appropriate quote for this weekend, but it's stuck with me for the last 20 years since I read it. It's a pretty simple concept, be nice. all that confusing dying for our sins and betrayal really can confuse the whole simple concept.
"nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree
for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change"
I'm not pushing religion or any deep philosophies. I'm not even trying to figure out why we decorate and eat hard boiled chicken embryos or chocolate shaped in their image. I'm just trying to get people to think about being a little nicer, if for no reason other than they can.
A character of Neil Gaiman (another British author) one said something like 'It's not any harder to be nice than it is to be mean and it's not nearly as fun.'
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 12:31 PM on March 23, 2008.
Related categories: books, general, me + myself + i
Thanks for the 1 comments/trackbacks from: Stef
Biorhythms
I wish I really believed in this stuff. Because in two weeks, on April 8th, I'd be having an awesome day!
Although if you look at the second chart, it might explain why I've been so sluggish this last week.
Actually, now that I think of it, on April 8th I should be having an awesome day!!! But you'll have to wait until then to find out for sure.
PLEASE Leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Wednesday at 9:21 PM on March 26, 2008.
Related categories: me + myself + i
Working from home
I could work from home all the time, except for when broken stuff needs repair. We've got construction at work (and it's a skeleton holiday staff) so there are carpeting (glue) and painting (paint) so many of us are working from home.
I could really handle this all the time. But I think I'd need something to track what I'm doing so at the end of the week I know if I'm working too much or not enough (I think it'd be the former). Obviously meeting rooms would need to be setup for video conferencing and a day a two a week would definitely be on site.
Pros (for my imaginary job):
Cons:
Posted by Gary on Friday at 2:05 PM on March 28, 2008.
Related categories: general, me + myself + i
PhotoShop Express On-Line Edition - Inital testing
So I'm using some Costa Rica photos to test the new free on-line edition of PhotoShop. It's very cool, does more than what most desktop packages do, but while limited, I don't need much more. They give you 2 GB of free storage. It's got cool slideshows (full-scren if you like) but I'm sure it breaks some browsers...
Costa Rica Dec 2007
These photos are from when I was in Costa Rica in December 2007 and left Montezuma and took the ferry from the Lower Nicoya Peninsula (Paquera?) to Puntarenaas.
Looks like you can even download your photos in their original size. They're still in beta so who knows what they'll charge for more storage (or features?).
They do give you a way to put thumbnails and links to photos with having to use their viewer. Although it seems to be a 2 step process (thumbnail then link) for each photo. But it's cheap, high-res and the flash interface is great.
If you love PhotoShop, I'm sure you'll hate it. It's pretty as spplications, but since I don't use any features past version 1, it's very nice and easy to use. Here's a link to the palette with all the main options on it. It's even easier to use than I need it to be (and it has more features to use too). It e-mails a really nice graphical html link to your friends too.
Read or leave comments (or trackbacks/pings)Posted by Gary on Friday at 6:22 PM on March 28, 2008.
Related categories: reviews, web sites
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: kilax: Gary LaPointe
I'm looking for Detroit Local Tweeters (Twitters)
Can you suggest some Detroit-area people to follow on Twitter? I'm looking for something that has a local geographic flavor, like Dearborn (or Detroit) Michigan.
I'm always looking for more people to follow, but today I'm soliciting suggestions for the Detroit area just to get a slightly less global feel for this Twittery goodness/chaos. I've got a lot of great people that I follow, but I'd love to see some tweets about local restaurants, bars and music.
So send me a message @GaryLaPointe with suggestions or tell someone you know to follow me and I'll find them or just leave a comment. Thanks!
Posted by Gary on Sunday at 11:54 AM on March 30, 2008.
Related categories: michigan, web sites
Thanks for the 2 comments/trackbacks from: Kris Hansen: Mike
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