Agreed. In my experience, the more processed the original product is, the easier it is to replicate.

Just a game and book come to mind for me right now, plus a music album.

Game: Star Control 2

Book: Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter

Album: Floating World by Anathallo

That explains Tom Scharpling writing for Monk too.

This is almost exactly the same as my experience as well. My premiums are pretty high (like $500/month out of my paycheck) but when the time comes for the procedures it’s usually not too bad. One caveat, we have not had any large medical expenses except for a relatively minor outpatient surgery that my wife needed last year, bill was over $1000 but the hospital had an interest-free payment plan that let us break it up over the next 12 months with no early payment penalty, so we took advantage of that.

As another poster pointed out, the big issue is the emotional and mental toll of trying to sort things out if the slightest little thing goes wrong. You basically have to do their job for them in that case and can be exhausting.

Edit to add: as you can see in this thread, people’s expenses can vary wildly depending on a lot of factors. For my plan, even if we don’t hit our caps, there is typically still a ‘discount’ and ‘allowed charge’ that the insurance has worked out with the providers, so we still didn’t have to pay the ‘full’ amount of that surgery even though we didn’t hit our deductible or out of pocket. We’ve also been to the ER a couple times for our 7-year old and it’s typically been about $600 a pop for each. It is insanely complicated and I barely understand it all but just thankful the plan my employer offers seems decent.

I feel like I must be the only person in the world who is super annoyed by this meme lol.

Ooh Night in the Woods was good.

Gregg rulz ok

Really sorry to hear about your duck.

Been really into Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year series, just good fun to make you laugh. They’re all up on YouTube on the duo’s official channels.

Oh man I haven’t thought about that story in ages!

Anathallo

Mineral

Neither together anymore, although Mineral did play some reunion shows in 2019.

Yeah that is pretty typical, as weird as it is!

Ace Combat 7. Never played one before and loving the just-right arcade feel of the controls.

Really looking forward to this!