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OT: General OT Thread #44 - Hat Talk 2025

My 4 year old daughter has been obsessed with her little brother's parasaurolophus toy, and keeps saying its hers. I've finally gotten it in her head that it's her brother's, and she needs to ask to share before taking it from him. She's gotten scolded multiple times for this.

So today, she got reeeal close to him and I hear her saying in a low, menacing tone into his ear "this is my parasaurolophus". I interrupted her there, but I feel like if I hadn't she may have finished "either in this life or the next."

Kids are terrifying people.
 
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BagHead said:
My 4 year old daughter has been obsessed with her little brother's parasaurolophus toy, and keeps saying its hers. I've finally gotten it in her head that it's her brother's, and she needs to ask to share before taking it from him. She's gotten scolded multiple times for this.

So today, she got reeeal close to him and I hear her saying in a low, menacing tone into his ear "this is my parasaurolophus". I interrupted her there, but I feel like if I hadn't she may have finished "either in this life or the next."

Kids are terrifying people.
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Ever thought of giving her her own Para...whatever? Kids, and by extension, their parents, go through quite the Dinosaur phase, followed closely by Legos.
 
MrRuin said:
Intense game holy moly. Really hope there are no injuries out of this one. While it is fun to watch you cannot have too many of these games early in the season. Injuries play such a big role in this league.

Thought the Wild played pretty bad hockey in the first with a lot of sloppy passes and fumbled pucks. Much better in the second where it also felt like they drew energy from all the small squabbles and battles along the ice. The officials also let them play which was kind of unusual. In light of this it did not surprise me they let the trip of Kaprizov go in OT. It fit the line they called the game all evening.

OT was wild with mistakes on every side. Rossi giveaway (after a bad pass into his skates) immediately followed by the game winner was a good reminder just how close this game and most of the last few Wild wins have been. Carter mentioned it during the start of the game: the Wild do not score enough goals and while this will work for a while at some point it will catch up to us. The team needs to put the puck into the net more consistently pretty soon.

This is nitpicking on a high level though. The team is still rolling, Gus is still on top of his game, Kap is still scoring almost like he wants to. Confidence is sky high and as long as that is the case this team will keep on winning games.
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TaLoN said:
My next DnD character - a Soulknife Rogue Shifter.
This is him in the shifted form...

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TaLoN said:
Here's his standard non-shifted form...

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the-simpsons-homer-simpson.gif
 
Went to see Nosferatu on Xmas Day. I really liked it, but some in my group weren't so high on it. Anyone else see it and what did think?
 
If anyone was debating buying from Feller’s Ranch that sponsors Russo and LaPanta’s podcast, highly recommend! Not cheap certainly but I don’t think it’s outlandish. Not much more than buying a good cut from better grocery stores/butchers, but if you feel good about your steak game it is definitely worth it!

I picked up some ribeyes, tenderloins, and skirt steak. Both cuts of steak were fantastic and the skirt steak made the best tacos I’ve made to date.
 
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Man, I just found out that the MNSure website told us our kid's pediatrician was in network when I signed up (and still today), but they're definitely not. Luckily we learned it before having the appointment. This prompted me to look up the amounts of all claims last year vs. how much we paid for insurance. I figured, if it was cheaper to get health care without insurance, I'd just do it and pray nobody breaks an arm or gets cancer.

Health Insurance Claim amount for my family in 2024: $20,071.00
Insurance premiums paid by me: $15,258.60
Amount not covered: $2,267.81

My family's total health care costs in 2024 = $17,526.41


So... we'd only be slightly worse off without insurance, and that's considering that neither my wife or I went to the doctor because it was cost prohibitive at this point. These are the charges for just two small, healthy children's preventative care and occasional (once, I think) ER visits. It's crazy to me that this is probably on the low end of what people with families face.

Health care in the US is f***ed. If my wife and I had gone to the doctor, it would have been cheaper to not have coverage at all, "cheap" being a relative term in this case. I honestly think it'll be smarter to have the cheapest health insurance possible (in case of something catastrophic happening), and then just find health care providers who cut deals for private pay.
 
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BagHead said:
Man, I just found out that the MNSure website told us our kid's pediatrician was in network when I signed up (and still today), but they're definitely not. Luckily we learned it before having the appointment. This prompted me to look up the amounts of all claims last year vs. how much we paid for insurance. I figured, if it was cheaper to get health care without insurance, I'd just do it and pray nobody breaks an arm or gets cancer.

Health Insurance Claim amount for my family in 2024: $20,071.00
Insurance premiums paid by me: $15,258.60
Amount not covered: $2,267.81

My family's total health care costs in 2024 = $17,526.41


So... we'd only be slightly worse off without insurance, and that's considering that neither my wife or I went to the doctor because it was cost prohibitive at this point. These are the charges for just two small, healthy children's preventative care and occasional (once, I think) ER visits. It's crazy to me that this is probably on the low end of what people with families face.

Health care in the US is f***ed. If my wife and I had gone to the doctor, it would have been cheaper to not have coverage at all, "cheap" being a relative term in this case. I honestly think it'll be smarter to have the cheapest health insurance possible (in case of something catastrophic happening), and then just find health care providers who cut deals for private pay.
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Hey man. I live with UC the med costs are RIDICULOUS!

I was on Humira (1 shot every 2 weeks) - Long story short, it would cost me $7500/month without insurance. With insurance it was like $450/month.

I also have a healthy dose of Prednisone for when times get bad. It costs me ~$30 per fill. I think it's ~$180 per fill without insurance.

2 years ago, I was in Germany on vacation and needed to refill prednisone. I will forever remember this interaction.

"We have your Pred, but you're not covered since your American. It's going to be really expensive"
*sigh* "How much?"
"$50, but you can file a rebate with your insurance to get the money back"
"$50? It's not even worth my time to file a rebate"
 
This is part of the reason my wife and I made the decision to not have kids. We both work at workplaces who I would say have pretty standard benefits packages which is to say they are not good if you are covering more than yourself. And even yourself isn’t going to do much for you. We both pump a lot of money into our HSAs and then invest it from there. In the event of medical concerns who will pull from our HSA.

I’m not sure how people do it to be honest. We live a comfortable life, not exactly check to check, but we would need to drastically change our lifestyles if we were to have children. Especially with the cost of everything they are into and god forbid if they wanted to play hockey. We like to spoil our nieces and nephews but can’t imagine what our lives would look like if we were responsible for them. We live in a fairly wealthy suburb and between the two us we combine for a household income that is in the $250-300k range. It’s a nice living for the two of us, nowhere near what our neighbors are pulling in, but I can’t imagine the sacrifices we would need to make if we had children or had unforeseen events take place. Which is crazy based on what we do for a living in my view. I don’t know how people do it and credit to you all that can.
 
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Minnewildsota said:
Hey man. I live with UC the med costs are RIDICULOUS!

I was on Humira (1 shot every 2 weeks) - Long story short, it would cost me $7500/month without insurance. With insurance it was like $450/month.

I also have a healthy dose of Prednisone for when times get bad. It costs me ~$30 per fill. I think it's ~$180 per fill without insurance.

2 years ago, I was in Germany on vacation and needed to refill prednisone. I will forever remember this interaction.

"We have your Pred, but you're not covered since your American. It's going to be really expensive"
*sigh* "How much?"
"$50, but you can file a rebate with your insurance to get the money back"
"$50? It's not even worth my time to file a rebate"
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:laugh: Man, that story is something. I think I would have said something like "Never received care in America, have you?"

Sorry about your having UC, and having to deal with the health care system so regularly. That kind of condition is what I meant by "something catastrophic". Any kind of condition that requires regular care would be cripplingly expensive without any insurance.
 
Prior said:
This is part of the reason my wife and I made the decision to not have kids. We both work at workplaces who I would say have pretty standard benefits packages which is to say they are not good if you are covering more than yourself. And even yourself isn’t going to do much for you. We both pump a lot of money into our HSAs and then invest it from there. In the event of medical concerns who will pull from our HSA.

I’m not sure how people do it to be honest. We live a comfortable life, not exactly check to check, but we would need to drastically change our lifestyles if we were to have children. Especially with the cost of everything they are into and god forbid if they wanted to play hockey. We like to spoil our nieces and nephews but can’t imagine what our lives would look like if we were responsible for them. We live in a fairly wealthy suburb and between the two us we combine for a household income that is in the $250-300k range. It’s a nice living for the two of us, nowhere near what our neighbors are pulling in, but I can’t imagine the sacrifices we would need to make if we had children or had unforeseen events take place. Which is crazy based on what we do for a living in my view. I don’t know how people do it and credit to you all that can.
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For us, we just wanted kids so that was a priority. We don't make a ton of money, but it's enough to raise two kids (not more). I also save regularly for our retirements, and can pay our mortgage, so we're overall fine barring any change too drastic. That said, they're gonna be public school kids out of financial necessity, if not for other reasons.

My daughter has expressed an interest in playing hockey. She's 4 now, and still doesn't know how to skate, so I don't think she'll end up being great at it which will, thankfully, limit the cost. Sports in general are going to be one of those things where we'll probably just enroll them in one or two. They don't need to be enrolled in something all the time. I've got a nephew who is and goddamn if that kid's schedule isn't even fuller than mine.
 
BagHead said:
For us, we just wanted kids so that was a priority. We don't make a ton of money, but it's enough to raise two kids (not more). I also save regularly for our retirements, and can pay our mortgage, so we're overall fine barring any change too drastic. That said, they're gonna be public school kids out of financial necessity, if not for other reasons.

My daughter has expressed an interest in playing hockey. She's 4 now, and still doesn't know how to skate, so I don't think she'll end up being great at it which will, thankfully, limit the cost. Sports in general are going to be one of those things where we'll probably just enroll them in one or two. They don't need to be enrolled in something all the time. I've got a nephew who is and goddamn if that kid's schedule isn't even fuller than mine.
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There's nothing wrong with public education IMHO. You get out what you want from it.

If you want to f*** around, you won't get much out of it. If you pay attention and work, it's no worse than a private education. Except for maybe opening prodigious schools based upon name, but I'd rather go because I earned it.

And UC does have it's challenges. I now have to get infusions every other month - at least for now until we can figure out what medications work.

I had C.Diff for 2 years and that was a f***ing wild ride. I had to fail antibiotics 4 times before being able to get the next treatment (FMT/IMT), which is just a strange concept when you look at it high level.

So when people accuse me of joking around or not taking stuff too serious regarding sports - I've come to realize there are MUCH more important things to worry about. I don't have time for negativity in my life.
 
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BagHead said:
Hey, you playing this character yet? I've also been playing a soulknife rogue. If you are, how are you liking it?
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Not playing it yet, no. But definitely looking forward to it!
We have to complete our strahd campaign first.... we're 2/3rds the way through that one. We had to take a month break in December though, or schedules just couldn't work out. But we're back on track now post holidays

How are you liking it thus far? What race did you choose for your build?
 
TaLoN said:
Not playing it yet, no. But definitely looking forward to it!
We have to complete our strahd campaign first.... we're 2/3rds the way through that one. We had to take a month break in December though, or schedules just couldn't work out. But we're back on track now post holidays

How are you liking it thus far? What race did you choose for your build?
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How is the Strahd campaign? We nearly played that before this one, and I've got history with Ravenloft, so I'm interested in hearing about your experience with it.

We're playing an eldritch horror campaign set in the Magic: The Gathering plane of Innistrad, so we all basically have to be humans as that is the only non-vampire/werewolf/zombie race on the plane. To answer your question though, I went with a custom lineage and took darkvision (a relic of my character's background), which has been an absolute blessing combined with the Skulk feat and how dark the plane is. We've got a sanity system in place, and my character nearly had his sanity go to zero last session due to a decision I made to enter into Psychic Whispers with an eldritch being. If that happens, I have to roll a new character.

The Soulknife is a lot of fun. It's definitely a great skill monkey, if you're into that. If you're willing to put expertise into something like Athletics or Arcana, you can outdo a fighter or wizard at them. I actually haven't played a rogue before in 5e, but I'm finding it to be a lot of fun! Instead of worrying about casting spells, I find myself looking at the surroundings and my items and a lot more and coming up with creative uses for them.
 
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