David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 63

Thoughts On Australia Day Five: Their Medical System Costs Less

I’d be remiss if I didn’t remark on the differences I noted between the Australian and US medical systems, the small amount I saw.

In Australia, you can get a cough syrup with a synthetic codeine that has good cough suppressant properties but less abuse/addition potential without a prescription. You can’t get this synthetic in the US at all. A doctor can’t even prescribe it.
In Australia, an albuterol inhaler is over the counter and is only $10 without insurance. US requires a prescription and costs way, way more.
In Australia, you can find a doctor in Melbourne who will see you after about a 20 minute wait and charge you only $30 for the office visit without insurance, prescribing you an inhaler, antibiotic, and steroid that will cost you a total of $30 without insurance. Each of these things would cost probably $100-300 in the US, even with most insurance.

I’m not really doing a huge comparison here. It’s just the basic idea, easier to get in, easier to get needed things that aren’t really abuse kind of things, less unnecessary control, way cheaper for the same level of care. We were happy, until we got steamed that we couldn’t get this kind of treatment in the US of A.

Thoughts On Australia Day Four: The Most Aussie Channel Ever

I ended up watching some tv while I was in Sydney. I had to take a gamble since I wasn’t real familiar with their channel set up there, but I browsed through the limited channels I could access and found something. I don’t remember exactly what channel or the slogan was, but it tripped me up a little. It was something like 7mate and had a slogan something like “the most Aussie channel ever.” This seemed funny because all I watched on their channel was two episodes of American Dad, two episodes of Family Guy, and two episodes of The Simpsons.

I guess American cartoons are Aussie?

Thoughts On Australia Day Three: Baby Talk

While in Australia I kept hearing words like:

Brekky

Brolly

Defo

Footy

Stubby

Sunnies

Swimmers

It started sounding like baby talk. At first I thought it was about them, maybe they were really laid back even in more formal conversations, but then I thought…what if they just all think I’m really stupid and are being condescending? I don’t think we can rule that out.

The Government Screwed Up The Tax Withholding Tables

Taking a brief break from Australia thoughts due to rage, this tax year is going to be a nightmare for the US. The withholding tables the government put out for the tax changes are definitely not right. Supposedly they reflect the tax law changes, but there’s something really wrong. They said people might need to update their W4 for the changes, but I already claimed 0 on my W4. When I went to do my taxes for married filing joint with the standard deductions, I owed $4000.  I owed the $4000 not because of some weird tax situation or not qualifying for deductions anymore, but because the new withholding tables had less withheld based on claiming 0. How would you even fix that? Update the W4 with less than zero? Withholding based on zero being $4000 less than a tax amount based on 2 doesn’t work out. The only option is to manually calculate how much the withholding table under withholds, manually add that amount on as extra on my W4, and then do that again whenever the table gets changed. The whole reason to claim zero on the W4 is supposed to be to not have to do that.

This is all messed up.

Thoughts On Australia Day Two: The Mandela Effect

Sometimes it can be confusing in Australia.

You might even think you’ve wandered into an alternate reality.

Thoughts On Australia Day One: I Was On Television

Thoughts on Australia Day One: I was on television:

Excerpt from the Tsitsipas-Federer match at the 2019 Australian Open. Video credit to a friend of the nice woman sitting next to us, who sent it to her during the match whereupon she shared it with us.

And Now I Pretend To Be Wondering If I Can Remember How To Blog Again

Here we go, my usual post wondering if I’ll remember how to blog again after drafting ahead for a good while and not having to pay any attention to this on a daily basis. For example, I finished up all this on the first of January and won’t have to draft posts again January 23rd. Three weeks. I always pretend like it’s going to be so foreign to get back to it again.

It’s not as if this is hard.

What Have I Been Doing?

What the heck have I been up to? Pointless confessions? Cartoon characters with hot dogs? Well, I’ve been vacationing in Australia for about 2 weeks and needed some easy posts I could schedule ahead of time so I didn’t have to worry about the blog.

Doubtless I have in the interim teamed up with Jacko and Crocodile Dundee to defeat the minions of Master Blaster using a koala and a Vegemite sandwich.

Cartoon Characters With Hot Dogs: Day Seven

Cartoon characters with hot dogs final day!

Cartoon Characters With Hot Dogs: Day Six

Cartoon characters with hot dogs day six!