Health at any price (but thankfully a low one)

The bills have started to come in from my appendectomy, and because this is America I'm getting several different bills from different places. That's normal and I wouldn't usually make a post about it, but the contents of the bill is worth remembering for how stark the difference between pre- and post-insurance pricing. These are the bills I've gotten so far:

• Anesthesiologists pre-insurance: $2750
  ---Anesthesiologists post-insurance: $57.72
  
• Diagnostic Radiologists pre-insurance: $455
  ---Diagnostic Radiologists post-insurance: $170.07
  
• Physician pre-insurance: $458
  ---Physician post-insurance: $23.96
  
• Labs pre-insurance: $481
  ---Labs post-insurance: $5.43

Total cost pre-insurance: $4144
Total cost post-insurance: $257.48

Something something greatest healthcare in the world...if you can pay for it. I'm very lucky that the AMA's insurance plan always pays for everything--it never denies any claim, because the nice thing about working for an organization run by doctors is that they think that a doctor should be the one deciding on appropriate care, not some insurance claims agent who has a vested interest in making money for the company. But you shouldn't have to work for a group of doctors to get the same benefits.

Also, if you're not familiar with American health insurance, a lot of physicians work at hospitals but aren't directly employed by those hospitals, so they bill separately. Furthermore, insurance companies are notorious for denying these claims even if they explicitly authorized treatment at the hospital, because obviously getting anesthesia has nothing to do with anything else that happened that day Same here with the diagnostic radiology, which was a separate charge from the surgery or the anesthesia.

I'm glad that I don't have to pay thousands of dollars for my surgery, but it's because I'm lucky with my employment. Everyone should be that lucky.

Final Fantasys XXII update

Because 14 + 8 is 22, see?

I haven't gotten super far in FFVIII because I've been playing FFXIV--I'm just after Edea shows up and takes Seifer away--but some people mentioned being curious about further differences between the Japanese and English and there were some points that stood out with me. I'm pleased to report that both Rinoa's introduction and Selphie's train song are the same in both languages:

リノア「君が一番カッコいいね。ね、踊ってくれない？もしかして、好きな子としか踊らないってやつ？ふ～ん……私のことが……好きにな～る、好きにな～る。ダメ？」
スコール「……踊れないんだ」
リノア「だいじょうぶ、だいじょうぶ。知り合いを探してるの。１人じゃダンスの輪に入れないからね」
Rinoa: "Oh, you're the best-looking one here. Won't you dance with me? Or maybe, you only dance with girls that you like? Well... you're...going to like me... you're...going to like me... No good?"
Squall: "...I can't dance."
Rinoa: "It's fine, it's fine! There's someone I'm looking for and I can't go dancing alone."

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セルフィ「あたし、乗り物好きなんだ～。きしゃ～♪きしゃ～♪はっし～れ～♪ぼっくらをのせて～♪とおっくへ～♪ぼっくらをつれて～♪みら～いへ～♪　気持ちいいよね～。あ、先に部屋はいってて。あたし、もうちょっとここにいるから」
Selphie: "I love trains. Traaain, traaain, go go, take us away, to a far away place, carry us to the future. Isn't it wonderful? Oh, go on ahead, I'll be here for a bit longer."

I really expected more from the Rinoa scene but the original translation was spot on.

In about ten hours of play (ignoring the three hours or so I spent grinding fish on the beach to get No Encounter and various Refines), I've only seen a single instance of Squall actually saying "...whatever." It's on the train to Timber just before the first Laguna temporal flashback, when Zell is getting hyped about the train room and Timber and asks Squall if he knows about the history of Timber. The two choices are どうでもいい and いや、別にいいよ, both of which could be translated as "...whatever" or "I don't care," though the first is more dismissive than the second.

Squall is still a huge jerk, though. He blows off Quistis when she's trying to confide in him:

キスティス「何か言ってもらおうなんて思ってないわ。話を聞いてくれるだけでいいのよ」
スコール「だったら壁にでも話してろよ」
Quistis: "I didn't want you to say anything! Just listening to me would be enough."
Squall: "Then go talk to a wall."

and he tells Rinoa after the failure of her capture President-for-life Deling mission that it's better not to care about anything because then you'll never be disappointed. He's still unlikeable and I'm curious to see at what point the redemption occurs.

More news as I discover it.

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In Final Fantasy XIV, I beat the Stormblood main scenario through 4.0 three weeks ago--it's not as good as Heavensward because the split between the Othard storyline and the Ala Mhigo storyline harmed the narrative, I think, and the main villain was far less compelling--but I've just been leveling jobs and doing side content since then. I did the Return to Ivalice raids together with sashagee, and by our powers combined we understood all the references--she's played FFXII but not FFT, I've played FFT but not FFXII--and just last weekend we finished the Omega raids. I've unlocked all the non-Shadowbringers jobs and delved into Eureka, the Stormblood area that's designed to replicate the experience of older grind-heavy MMOs. And I did grind--I fought a bunch of monsters, I opened a ton of lockboxes, and just last night I pulled out this sleek boi:

A little dark but I like the "stalking through the rainforest" vibes.

Now I can move on from Eureka Anemos to Eureka Pagos, which is apparently much more annoying (though far less now that it's been nerfed into the ground as old content!). I guess I'll find out.