House Insurance Sucks

InsuranceOur experience with insurance companies of all kinds is horrible.  We’ve had the absolute worst luck although We’ve never really written about it here in detail before.  Our car insurance has been canceled several times (for reasons beyond our control) and our house insurance is expensive because of a few punk kids in Fairport and a stupid AllState policy.

We’ve dealt with our high cost house insurance for 2 years because it was the best we could get at the time (thanks to AllState, jerks).   We figured after living with it for 2 years things would have settled by now and we’d be able to get a better rate.  Through phone calls to at least 15 different companies, we’re not gonna have any luck and it looks like we’ll be stuck with what we’re paying now: about DOUBLE what seems to be the local average.

Three reasons we’re having trouble:

  1. Our house is a Multi-Family Duplex.  Many insurance companies simply don’t offer insurance for these types of houses.  Although it reduces the number of quotes we can get, and therefor the possibility of getting a lower rate, I don’t fault them for this.  It’s their company and they can choose to cover whatever types of houses they want.
  2. Our house was built before the turn of the 20th century (approximately 1890).  It’s Old.  Many companies seem to think this is just too old so they won’t cover it.  I don’t get this one.  Yes older houses were built using different standards and fit to different codes, but that’s the point of risk pools.  Just put the old house into an appropriate risk pool.  This was totally shocking to me since there’s TONS of people with houses older than ours.  I hope the houses we’re building today last more than 100 years…  Will they stop covering houses built in 1990 in 2109?  Seems dumb.
  3. We have 2 Siberian Huskies.  They’re awesome family dogs and very friendly.  We didn’t really think anything of this, but every company we talked to categorized Huskies as an aggressive breed.  What a bunch of bull.  I’ve never seen a non friendly Husky and I’ve never heard of one.  Their rationale seemed to be that they’re related to Wolfs.  Well, hate to break it to ya guys but your Lab & Retriever dogs share the same ancestors as our Huskies… they’re all related and share some Wolf DNA.  Huskies just happen to have maintained their appearance more than others due to their natural work environment.

The first 2 issues I can gloss over because not every company had those restrictions and they almost seem reasonable since a company can choose what to cover and what not to cover.  The 3rd however; is inexcusable.  I simply do not understand where the idea that Huskies are an aggressive breed it’s coming from.

We were just trying to get a big win by getting our yearly insurance cost lowered.  It looks like this won’t be happening anytime soon thanks to yet more retarded insurance policies.  The whole industry is a giant scam in my opinion.  As soon as you want to USE your insurance, they drop you or raise your rates.  Why can’t we lower our rates every year (or month) we DON’T use the policy?

Get PlayOn For $19.99

PlayOnWe’ve been using PlayOn for a few months now.  It’s made a nice addition to our Media Center, Netflix & Xbox 360 (media center extender) Television viewing.  Having access to Hulu through PlayOn has pretty much made the DVR unnecessary.  I’m not sure what the future holds for Hulu access given their (vague) pricing announcement, but assuming it’s not too crazy I highly recommend PlayOn.

Right now they’re running a promotion to give the gift of PlayOn so if you’re interested just let me know.  $19.99 isn’t too bad a deal either, remember it’s a one-time-only cost unlike your Cable bill.  I’m not buying though, so you’ll have to pony up the 20 bucks.

My Wife Rules

Star WarsIt was her idea to watch all 6 Star Wars movies in sequence and so we did that recently. Well, we watched the first 3 (chronologically) one day and the last 3 a few days later. It was interesting as I’d never watched them in sequence like that, and I hadn’t watched the new ones since they came out in the theater. I’m positive I’ve never had the experience with my wife, and it was amazing, as she was more glued to the screen than I was and I grew up in love with Star Wars.

What could be better? Star Wars in Concert that’s what.

We’re going to Pittsburgh on the 28th and 29th of November to see Star Wars in Concert for an early Christmas present for the both of us.

It’s gonna be awesome!

Advances in Digital Photography in Space

Holy Wow!

NewScientist had an article a little while ago on the advancement of digital imagry in space.  It’s amazing!  I had no idea that we were that far along back in 1974. Even though first digital camera I had (newer by 26 years) beats the socks off the first space image, it’s still impressive considering it was taken from a spaceship and transmitted back to earth in 1974.

first-digital-image-of-the-moon

What’s even more impressive, is how far we’ve come since then.  The Hubble Deep Space image is a long exposure of only a tiny little section of space that reveals just how small we really are in relation to what’s out there.  The image shows thousands of other galaxies, some which appear to be much larger than our own Milky Way.

deep-space-image
click here to view the High Resolution version

I can’t wait to see what another 30 years will bring.

Google Reader is Magic

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the new Google Reader Explore functionality.  Some of the stuff might be interesting, but honestly it’s just another distraction that I don’t need.

sort-by-magic

Did anybody catch the new sorting features though? We’ve known that Google is magic for years.  Apparently they’re now being public about it.

Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy

A Video Clip from Louis CK on how amazing everything is around us, and how everyone has an instant expectation that they deserve it.  This is why it bothers me when people complain about their 3G coverage, or a slow Internet connection or any number of ways in which some new technology could be better.

Shut up and be appreciative for once.  We live in Amazing, Interesting Times with technology that’s improving faster than we can even learn about it.

Illegal Alien Costume

illegal alien costumeSomeone came up with an Illegal Alien Costume that’s pure genius.  Some people seem to be offended by these illegal alien costumes (it IS America, aka the PC nation).  I say who cares!? Who’s offended, Illegal Immigrants? Oh No! What are they gonna do to protest? Crawl back across the border? That’s a shame, yeah we should definitely ban these costumes.  Wait, you’ll leave if we wear these? Sweet!  I’m ordering mine right now…

For the record, nobody is saying you can’t come into our country.  We’re just saying you need to come in legally like everybody else.

Seriously though… I’m really considering the costume.  We do have a couple costume parties to go to.

2 Amazing Time-Lapse Videos from Ben Wiggins

Ben Wiggins has created two of the most stunning Time-Lapse videos I’ve ever seen.  Take a look.

Summer in San Francisco:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6601409&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Another Cloud Reel… from Delrious on Vimeo.

Burning Man 2009:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6636389&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Evolution (Burning Man time lapses) from Delrious on Vimeo.

Whitesboro Village Seal

The Whitesboro NY village seal depicts a White man strangling an Indian.  Seriously… I’m not making this up.

When I first saw this, I didn’t believe it.  Sure enough, even the WhitesBoro village website recounts the history of their seal and it’s just as outlandish as I originally thought.

The following is an excerpt from the History of the Village of Whitsboro

In an article of the Observer Dispatch, written by Joe Kelly in 1977, a notice of claim was filed with the Village Board saying the (village) seal depicts a “white man choking an Indian” and said the seal demeans, disgraces and creates prejudice and distrust of Indian people. He asked the Village to stop displaying the seal. As a result of this, the seal was re-designed with Hugh White’s hands being placed on the Indian’s shoulders and not so close to his neck. The wrestling match was an important event in the history of the settling of the Village of Whitesboro and helped foster good relations between White and the Indians.

All well and good right?  Think again.  Take a look at the newly revised seal yourself:

Whitesboro NY Seal

This same seal is what is still displayed today on all village vehicles, letterhead and official documents.  This just seems wrong to me.  I’m not sure how this is still around.