yuna628

Travel insurance is not really useful for a person immigrating to a new country. Basically any plan you get will be null and void 24-48hrs after landing, because you are not visiting, you are immigrating. The only useful part is if you are concerned with loss of baggage or life in the event of a crash during the trip or if there is something valuable like electronics to cover (which is usually a separate policy). Temporary part time medical insurances or temporary short term medical insurances marketed towards new immigrants are also not particularly useful. Their coverage is not ACA compliant and do not expect it to provide anything remotely near what your employer's plan would provide. The best plan would be to obtain an SSN for the fiancee shortly after arriving, marry as soon as possible, and then add your new spouse to your work plan.

This whole thing has been rumored for a while, but for the life of me I wish the complaint in the case would make better sense? We've got a 'den mother dance captain' person that has been known in some circles as a very problematic individual and she is discriminating and aggressively harassing some of the girls because of their sexual history. But then we go to strip clubs and other sexual behavior that this woman seems to be encouraging 'her girls' to do all while proselytizing? Confusing. Lizzo seems to back up the dance captain's behavior, at least with long schedules and strip club trips but I'm not sure I'm seeing what else is the problem except for bullying/diva behavior (which is not new allegations about this gal). Weight shaming claim seems odd, coming from a performer that usually uses plus size dancers, a rarity in the business and loves to flaunt it herself. Well Lizzo has generally been proud of it. Her crew is overweight but can spend hours dancing on stage, so they still have some kind of fitness. I don't necessarily understand it either, as I prefer tasteful clothing for any size, but I would say it is good that she has promoted fitness gear and other items for large women. Afterall if big girls are being told they need to exercise, they can't do it in paper sacks. And she has lost a good deal of weight herself. But yeah I see a lot of ladies just rolling out of bed wearing 'clothes' that do not fit them at all. On the flip side I don't understand the ladies that get all dressed up and make an effort, but the guys they are with look like they just were spat out from a tornado.

I felt quite sad watching it. Alarming that no one immediately took him to the hospital. There are now stories he has been falling repeatedly, and it's clear he hasn't recovered from his prior injury. A lot of people thought it was a TIA, but some do think it's something related to his concussion and signs of worsening brain injury that should be treated immediately. I was reminded of the day my father had an episode and collapsed. He'd go to what I'd call "the far away place". He was childlike, non-responsive to gibberish, lost control of bodily function, frozen in place. Like he was lost in dementia. We thought for sure he was having a stroke again, turns out he was 'lucky'. He was having hypoglycemia. Has absolutely no memory of it. I wonder if Mitch is diabetic. At any rate, he is not well.

I'm not sure what a Congressman could do in this scenario. All relevant authorities know this is happening (FBI, DOJ, OIG, DHHS, and the states attorney) as well as AARP and investigative reporters, but it's alarming that they do not seem to know where such a mass amount of numbers were compromised from. I was two hours on hold last night waiting to speak to an investigator and I was told to not be surprised if I find more fraudulent charges and packages.

Found more fraudulent charges to Medicare this week. They were backdated to last year. Another follow-up call to the OIG and I can tell you Medicare investigators are completely swamped with calls "is this about the test kit thing? we know.. we're so sorry". Another officer told me "it's exhausting". I provided what info I could, after doing more digging. This time it was four more LLCs, all registered to the same person. Addresses and phone numbers are bogus. One I could see has been doing this for some time, and is connected to another organization called the Center for Covid Control, which had hundreds of locations all running scams across the US, and got raided by the FBI. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/13/chicago-lab-indicted-covid-19-testing-scheme/11467937002/ At $200 per claim they are making, imagine the millions they are raking in. Still, I'd like to know what system was compromised. We know back in 2022 a contractor for CMS had their systems breached by crypto hackers, resulting in 254,000 Medicare recipient's info stolen. This seems like considerably more than that though.

Filed online 7-16-2023 Biometrics reused 7-18-2023 ..and now the long wait I guess.

There's a couple reasons why I'm sharing this story. You see, I've been down the rabbit hole these past few weeks, when a relative received a mysterious package they didn't order in the mail. Inside were very expired, very tampered looking COVID test kits. I was very alarmed, so me and a few tech buddies got together and did some digging as to just who these scumbags were. Turns out the feds have been working cases like this for a while now. It's not always immediately noticeable to an individual that has Medicare if they have been/their plan has been charged for fraudulent devices. I immediately set to work tracing back months of Medicare billing to see if I could find the fraudulent charges. Not so, because a lot of EOBs and lists of charges are usually running several months behind. A call over to the OIG and federal Medicare fraud investigators, and they could see the charges from back in May, the exact timeframe when many of these packages started showing up over the US. They immediately flagged and created a case file, and unfortunately my relative's info has been compromised (the government is still investigating where and cannot comment yet) and they will have to issue them new cards/numbers. If you have any elderly relatives, or are a recipient of Medicare yourself be on the lookout for any unusual charges and or packages coming to your house. There are extensive news articles online addressing these instances from different states. I must stress in some cases many of these scams are using phishing or phone calls into tricking individuals into giving them their info - but this is a somewhat new tactic, the recipient of the fraudulent goods is unaware of anything coming to their home and never requested it.

I do not care very much, but I think there is largely not a lot that is being made known about the very actually good reasons for this strike. While we typically think of actors as mega millionaires, many are not rich at all, and many do not actually get into the 'exclusive club' in which they are able to have health insurance and other benefits which includes pay raises. Some of course are just small time actors, bit part actors, extras etc. I am aware of some very big franchises in which very well known actors actually don't make very much for it to this day. Disney and other entities have had a habit of even not paying authors and screenwriters just amounts for their work. Voice actors also suffer from the same problems in the industry. The big sticking point for the guild is really AI and ownership in perpetuity for their bodies and voices. Studios which to reserve the right to scan and own them for the rest of their lives to be used in any production at any time, and they will not be paid for it. One studio could even sell them to another studio. Over the past couple of years, studios have attempted to sneak such clauses into contracts, even for temporary background actors. Still using Disney as an example here, whenever 'Darth Vader' appears on screen now, it is not James Earl Jones that we hear or is making money from his voice being used.... because it is no longer his voice. Jones signed a contract (and I have no idea as to his lucidity at the time) that says Disney owns him forever. Any lines that he has said in the past, are scanned and recreated and created as new by AI. A savvy listener might be able to tell the difference, but the average viewer may not. In more recent shows, Disney essentially brought back 'young' Luke Skywalker. Was Hamill paid his fair share? No. Hamill had his lines analyzed by an AI to make his voice younger, and Disney hired a youtuber that was experienced in making deepfakes act out Hamill on screen. This deepfake tech by a 'novice' worked even better than Disney's previous first professional attempt. Actors that are long dead I will assume may also be fair game.

I'm not sure that congealed oil slices being easier to open is good news. Give me a knife and a block of cheese any day, rather than that junk. Us poor people in the 80s had Reagan cheese, also unhealthy but for some reason still tasted better than Kraft.

VA has nothing to do with MD. Different states and different rules. I need to re-stress something here as a lifelong MD resident that assisted my husband through the process: 1) For people that move to MD you have 60 days to get a MD license. 2) However, K1 is in an unusual spot, because once you file for AOS you are in a period of authorized stay but do not have documentation that the state of MD requires for a license. This is why any license that is issued on the basis of a K1 alone will expire at the time the visa does. It is only temporary. 3) You cannot obtain a further temporary license from MD until you have an EAD. It will only be valid as long as the EAD is. And you will need to renew it once again when you have a green card. It will be your full license then. 4) An IDP really is not useful in this scenario. It can help to translate a non-English language license into English for authorities, but it does not actually provide you a legally valid license with which you can drive with. You are not a visitor so you can no longer drive on your foreign license, you are a resident because you moved here but you do not have the full documentation/burden of proof the state requires. You could obtain one to honor the 60 day requirement that MD has if the federal government could provide an EAD in a timely manner. Unfortunately this will not happen. Neither the state or the feds care about that. It used to be people would receive an EAD in a timely manner, so obtaining a license more promptly was not a problem back then. 5) Insurance being expensive is normal. It is because for insurance purposes you are considered a first time driver. There is nothing you can do about that until you get your first proper license and get through a year or two. 6) You are not undocumented (aka an illegal immigrant) so you should not want to misrepresent yourself to an agency stating you are just to obtain a license. You must wait until you can properly file for a new license. 7) Do not expect that an officer would understand all of this if you attempted to drive without a valid MD license and you are not a visitor.

Driving licenses are controlled by state laws which can be as unique as the states themselves. As a general rule obtaining a state license must be done in the timeframe you become ''a resident". So what does that mean? Does it mean when the federal government considers you an LPR? No. It just means when you officially start 'living' within a given state. But how does a state define that? You're going to find numerous conflicting opinions. Some states give you a couple of months, some give you a month or less. You are not a visitor on an ESTA, so those rules do not apply. Once the K1 period of stay is done and you are moved into the state? It's anyone's guess, and how much of a risk do you want to take? My husband has been accustomed to driving in this country as a visitor for many years, but any license issued by the state while the K1 is still valid is only going to be extremely temporary. A IDP is only a translation document and not really useful for this scenario. Once you are on your AOS NOA1, the state really doesn't understand that. But they will understand EADs and green cards. So the next best opportunity is when you show up to the DMV with an EAD and whatever other requirements they want (our state always wants a name on some official documents or pieces of mail so make sure you get that in order beforehand). For MD it was simple, and he could bypass lengthy course hours if he just completed the tests and thankfully even our small town DMV knew what to do with an immigrant with an EAD (because some won't).

My husband did not apply for his license until he had an EAD to avoid the issue you're experiencing. I did not see the point of it. Once you have that, assuming you have an SSN, and your name on some joint documents, you'll be good to go. Update it again once you get your green card. I do not advocate for a non-compliant license as you are not undocumented by any means. You are simply not documented enough in the way the state assumes. It used to be you could argue your status with an NOA1, passport, and I94. You will not get the MD-DMV to understand the finer nuances of immigration. It's one of the drawbacks on a K1. Hopefully you can have some alternate transport until you're good. Back then it still took a while to get the EAD, and I'm assuming it's taking even longer now unfortunately.

Well supposedly there was a 'good guy' with a gun. That person was also arrested and could not stop the shooter because of body armor. Yes. But the person has to be found to be a danger to themselves and others and those claims must be filed by family members. Good luck with that. There was a case of a man in Baltimore that had legally owned guns. He was an absolute nutcase, deluded, and paranoid. Police would respond to his location 100s of times (this is not exaggerating). After shooting his neighbors, he then set off a bomb. That's just one example, there's lots more. Women that had protective orders and were still murdered. I've seen some old statistics that the law has removed maybe a hundred or so guns, but barely seems to make any dent in other cases. The block party shooting of 30 people appears to have been done by a child. A child that had managed to acquire an assault rifle. The police were called numerous times for assistance before the shooting, in recordings dispatch laughed at them and police never showed.

I don't take Ozempic, but I do take Metformin. Someone I know with severe diabetes has recently been put on Ozempic in combination with other drugs, but I don't think it's had much effect. My concern with these drugs is people who genuinely need them to treat diabetes will suffer in the long term because of celebrities using them to as designer weight loss pills. I've heard of them being combined with other legal and illegal drugs at parties. There are also some serious side effects to consider. Tons of celebrities are using this drug today, that are neither diabetic or overweight and it shows.

Seems like a mentally ill and historically violent individual that was obsessed with guns and conspiracies and had ample access to guns and body armor. There was a person that tried to stop this shooter with their own weapon and failed. Unfortunately that person also got arrested. This has just been one of a number of mass shootings over this long holiday weekend. Baltimore had 30 people shot at one block party. A few other counties also had numerous shootings at large gatherings. DC was also hopping over the weekend.

Drinking to excess and alcoholism addiction is usually due to something fundamentally lacking in someone's life, trauma, or pattern of abuse that is generational. That has little to do with whether a woman has children or not as there are plenty of married (with kids) women and men that are alcoholics. It's easy to see a bit of conflicting messaging in this article - women without kids are drinking (no kidding) but so too are women with kids (as it then talks a lot about 'wine mom' culture). It doesn't address what men are doing, but I suspect they are doing the same thing. There is a reason why my grandmother loved her alcohol and cigarettes, my dad was an alcoholic and his brother did drugs. Both men thankfully broke that cycle. But that does not mean their issues around unhappiness, trauma, or shame were resolved. My mom never touched alcohol, but she was definitely fundamentally unhappy in her life and so things other than alcoholism was her replacement cope (and they were also not good). The husband and I personally love a good drink, and I can understand how easy it would be lose oneself there. But we keep drinking to special occasions only and for health reasons I have not had a drink in quite some time. Being single has not changed my outlook on drinking, nor has being married, and nor will having kids.

In a nutshell, and this is going to sound really harsh... in a perfect world parenthood should be for anyone. In this world though? Parenthood should be for those persons that can love, raise, and afford everything involved with caring for a child. I cannot imagine choosing parenthood when you cannot do any of these things... and that is largely why we have a lot of kids suffering today. My parents could barely afford anything when they started having kids, and things did not improve much by the time they got to 'accident baby'. I'm not just talking physical money here, but emotionally and mentally too. There are kids that grow up filthy rich and given the best of everything and their parents are a mess and cannot provide emotional love and support. Privilege only gets you so far. Still, the women at this conference are not interested in promoting a world with free and or better childcare options, ensuring that parents are ready to have kids, excellent schools, or better work-life balance support systems. To a degree, she overlooked things Joel did, on a pretty consistent basis. To point that she pretty clearly still loved him deeply in every way but in just being legally married. Sorry but, I think we got something different out of this show. I even asked my husband and he agreed. Are there parents saying that these days? Not only did my parents not plan or think about money for retirement but college? They thought that idea a pipe dream. A completely silly idea that they wouldn't have ever thought to save money for nor would they ever want their kids to entertain the concept. Living life was a day to day thing that you weren't sure if you'd have food on the table or even electricity. Whatever savings eventually went on more important things. I could debate on if those things were more important than say oh having money for your future life when you are old and expecting your kids to care for you... but this isn't too odd a thing to hear about from my generation. Adults struggling with their elderly parents and trying to deal with the choices they didn't care to make. Ultimately, people do not need kids to be happy or have a fulfilling relationship. People at these conferences are putting high emphasis on procreation for purposes other than what is the norm.

It's great you got all that out of watching it, but it's very clear that the kids were fundamentally a mess once they grew up based on the choices of their parents. Yes, her husband blew up her life as she once knew it, but she ultimately made the choice to get into the comic business. She chose not to take him back several times. She had tons of opportunities to go back to the ''happy new life'' or even a hybrid of such. Remember the exceedingly rich doctor that seemed to support her that she dumped not because she didn't love him, but because she just assumed he had a fragile ego like her ex? When she finally got it all, it makes clear she lost a lot. She's a great feminist character, but she certainly makes the choice to be selfish for her own dreams and desires. And when her children are grown, she criticizes their own choices in finding happiness. Being a selfish type of woman interested in ones own happiness - that's the type of feminist woman ideal that women are told that they should aspire to be, but the reality is a lot more complex. There's nothing wrong with that, but it should be remembered there's always consequences to actions you choose. She's a mother because of circumstances, not because she really wants to be - and for a great deal of it, she is absent. An ambitious woman that pursues selfishness cannot have everything, and there are tradeoffs. In the show, Mei Lin makes a choice - ambition or a family. Afterwards she's largely forgotten about and that's kind of sad, because her story is similar to many women back then. That's why I agree with these articles on the show on both sides https://reason.com/2023/06/02/the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-celebrated-selfishness-as-a-virtue/ https://www.themarysue.com/the-marvelous-mrs-maisel-is-a-less-than-marvelous-mom/

Seen Mrs Maisel? After five seasons there's been one thing I always noticed - how the kids of the story are always in the background, abandoned, lonely, and usually a punchline to a joke. This final season showed there were consequences to that - these kids were raised by their dysfunctional grandparents, a part time dad, and a mom that chose career over her kids. The result left these now-adults dysfunctional, disturbed, and resentful of their mother. The lesson was their mom got rich and famous, gained the world, but lost the relationship with her kids. Women cannot have it all. Not exactly a feminist way of thinking for a show that's supposed to be about a woman deciding to follow her dream. In a way, it shows that men are the ones that want to have it all, and often seem to get away with it, by dumping a great deal of burdens on our shoulders. It's the husband of the story that has it all and screws up constantly, and ultimately pushes her onto this path. He does seem to try to be around for the kids, which cannot be said for other fathers out there. Not all fathers of course. But if we're going to say a woman cannot have a career and a family, so to perhaps a man cannot either - it is a partnership thing where both sides have to step up. Of course, there are many single moms out there that do manage to wrangle career and family and the kids turn out just fine. It's difficult for many, for others there's a lot of privilege involved in just how successful they are. I think a lot of kids are dysfunctional these days, because both parents aren't really interested. They aren't even trying. They never wanted the kids anyway, and the kid knows it. I knew it growing up, and I had a SAHM and my mother knew it and she had a SAHM. I've never looked at birth control as just something a woman should take on a whim. Of course it is a miracle drug, and does give women a choice. The side effect profile though and lack of knowledge from the underfunded and outdated OBGYN system leaves a lot to be desired. The people that speak at these conferences though and say 'women can't have it all' and 'don't take birth control' and 'SAH and have babies' are not interested in a world that is better for women nor are they interested in a world where every child feels wanted and loved. They are career individuals and are too busy making money to care. They are part of the quiverful movement repackaged into glitzy influencers for a purpose. A speaker that tells the audience to strive to be like their grandmother? Ooooh boy. No thank you ma'am. I think some influencers don't understand how far back the generational rot goes. There are many people thankfully blessed with good mothers.... and there are also many people that do not belong ever ever being a mother. Telling a woman that they should just SAH and be mothers will never make them get a cluephone at how to be an actual mother. They should only be stopping birth control because both adults have decided they are ready to have kids and put in the work. Affordability, except for the wealthy isn't going to change any time soon. We should not expect government to take care of it. It's a pipedream. At the store the other week, and there was this one mother who was screaming at her daughter (maybe 7?) for just touching a couple items and asking about them. I mean she went from an ok to a teeth gritting murderous tone of voice pure frothing hatred for her kid in public loudly. I do not get it. If you do not want kids and do not want to do the work and love them, please stop having them. Currently society wants to blame every other thing for 'ruining' their kids, instead of taking responsibility for their own failings.

Thought of something this weekend and am now a little concerned: 5 years of tax transcripts. Well, the IRS doesn't hand out that many and unfortunately we're missing 2018. I put in a request but I don't think they will give me anything. I can get everything else from 2018 and of course I can upload our entire copy of taxes from 2018 but that will be a lot for the IO to sort through wouldn't it? Should we attach a letter explaining and then upload the whole copy? Kicking myself as we have older transcripts from before that year, but are just missing 2018.

Yeah I'm guessing it's Baltimore, and they are supposedly slow. Biometrics always make us go to Delaware though.

Oh that is hopeful! I had been hearing it will take so long these days.. Like I said he came via K1 in 2015 and we married. AOS approved in 2016. ROC 10yr card approved in 2019. He's been eligible for citizenship for a while, he's just a giant procrastinator. 😉

Thanks guys. A lot of this is just my husband overthinking it and then me overthinking his overthinking. 😉👍

So after a very long time of life getting in the way, I think we are ready to start the citizenship process. My husband had previously been content to just keep up with the status quo, and or couldn't decide what he wanted to do. He's finally ready to proceed. So far he's started with beginning to fill out the form online, but there are a few questions I have, so as to ensure he's not confused with anything. 1) He K1 immigrated and we have been married since 2015. His 10yr card was granted in 2019. Does he apply on the basis of the 3yr rule or 5yr rule at this point? 2) What additional materials does he need to upload? We have tax transcrips/returns, insurance, job stuff, marriage and birth certificates, bills. Basically anything that we had sent for the ROC we kept copies of. He has not traveled abroad yet. Are passport photos still needed? Obviously we'll take everything to the interview, but does all paper evidence like this need to be uploaded as well? 3)A few years back early in pandemic my husband was going to an appointment in the morning when he was pulled over by an officer. The encounter was polite but strange. He asked him where we were going/doing. When my dad (who was also in the vehicle at the time) asked the officer what was the matter, he said that my husband did not stop at the stop sign. This was curious news to everyone in the vehicle and also our neighbor (following behind) as all of us knew that the officer was not correct. My husband did indeed stop at the sign, but we certainly could not argue. After returning with the car documents, the officer made a comment that he was surprised that there was a clean driving record, then said my husband did stop at the sign, just not long enough for him in his opinion. No citation or fines or trouble was caused. He allowed us to go with a verbal warning and a note about the encounter. We still think about that day a lot, as it was really uncomfortable. My husband's cop buddy has a theory that they were looking for someone else with a similar car and it was an unlucky excuse. Still, does this need to be reported on the form? We want to answer the questions correctly. He has never been detained, arrested, fined etc so I would assume the correct answer is no on the form, but he does not want to be dishonest in any way. 4) He has a many many many years long knowledge of the US and it's history already, and he does very well at all those practice questions tests, but is there some other materials that he should be studying I can get for him? I'm sure more questions will crop up but I think that is it thus far.

A small rant from me.... I'm usually crabby, so sorry if I seem more so right now. It's been really five years of hell with my dad in hospital stays, getting him well enough to get back to a good place, being dragged back to square one, rinse and repeat. I never know how long stability is going to last. Two weeks ago we were off to the hospital again. He was obviously in a great deal of pain, and I sympathize as I've been there. What should have been routine turned into a nightmare. They just couldn't find out what was wrong. They shipped him off to another hospital, and then eventually dumped him back home. An 80 year old man, frail, his arms now black and blue, confused, and still according to daily nurses doing blood draws - seriously unwell. At the same time I end up getting stuck on jury duty, for a rape trial I did not want any part of which was... let's just say I had some exasperated thoughts with the judge and he promptly let me go, so that I could run through streets to get back to the hospital. Anyway by the time dad is now home, it's still clear he is in very poor shape and no one is listening to me. So I start from scratch, and book an urgent appointment with his primary doctor, who cancels at the last minute, but we are being seen by the head doctor instead which I preferred. He's a give it to you straight kind of guy, which is not always personable, but blunt. So I get pushy, I give it to him straight. I go over everything (the hospital hadn't even sent over results so he was thankful I'd printed off copies) and I am begging him for help for my dad. He tells me he's going to run a huge amount of tests and scans, and mentions two options - one not great but okay and the other very very bad. My dad is kind of checked out during this convo, but I can tell by what the doctor is saying, he thinks it's the very very bad option. His suspicions were confirmed based on those results, and a blunt and crushing phone call later where the C word is dropped and they are sure of it and he needs more urgent appointments. My dad is a frazzled and a scared mess and I'm trying to assure him that it is okay. But guys I know it's not okay. I know this C word of this kind is very deadly. And I know for all the crazy my dad has survived, I know he will not survive this. And then I have to tell my mother. The woman that has survived the C word and has lost friends to it and beats herself up about it. It wasn't great. She's in denial because that's how she copes. And then I have to tell my sister, and it's devastating for her, because she's lost so many patients to this. And now... I have to tell my other sister that lost her husband and is constantly afraid of losing her father. I have to tell his siblings, because he can't bring himself to speak without crying. I honestly feel so numb, but also angry, because a lot of time has been wasted at a hospital that just wasn't interested in getting to the bottom of something serious with an elderly patient. Healthcare in this country is a shitshow. The tests that picked up on this? Not even covered by Medicare. Most people don't even know they have this until too late it takes some doctor somewhere with enough of a brain to pick up on this. I nodded and said I didn't care the cost, whatever it would cost if it could prove what was wrong with my dad. I'm not even sure what I'm saying here. It's all so absurd and surreal.