It is 8:34 AM. This week has been a little more interesting than last week. I am currently watching Valorant Trolling Videos. I will refrain from expanding my ABA nonsense on popcorn filler content – but I’m sure my enjoyment to this content is related to the concept of schadenfreude. There’s a girl at my work who talks to me about Valorant – I did not know anything about Valorant prior to this week, so me and her conversations are often stilted – specifically because my gaming knowledge only relates to creepypastas and Minecraft Beta 1.7.3. I often try to remedy this stilted dialogue by imploring about healthcare insurance inquiries – specifically we talk about healthcare prior authorization changes such as West Virginia Senate Bill 267 which requires prior authorizations to be submitted electronically or various modifiers to CPT codes that me and her have memorized, and the reason for the specific purposes of the CPT codes and the respective modification. I have a great interest in my clerical field and how it operates – I got to speak with someone who had been doing this sort of work since the 90s and they talked about the provider identifier systems and how these physician numbers operated prior to the implementation of the National Provider Identification system on May 23rd, 2007. To make a long story short, provider identifiers, which are a set of numbers that are used by medical insurance companies to identify a medical provider (doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, hospitals, clinics, etc.) were often fragmented, meaning that individual providers often had multiple different provider identification numbers for different insurance companies such as the Unique Physician Identification Number to identify doctors for Medicare, the National Association of Commissioners for private insurers, and State-specific Medicaid Provider IDs for Medicaid – which caused great confusion against many healthcare professionals due to the overabundance of identification numbers. A lot of this information is forgotten and was overly complex, which is what the implementation of NPI numbers fixed, but it is interesting to see how these systems work. I’m sure the understanding of these systems ties into critiques of privatized healthcare in the US; however, I am not smart enough to cleverly articulate these issues into a digestible format – I am just very good at memorizing all the numbers.

As mentioned in my last blog post, everyone was preparing for a snowstorm. The storm started shortly after I posted my last blog, and I awoke to find that I was unable to turn my bedroom light on – the power had gone out. I would read during the power outage until about 8:45 AM. I read about 50 pages within this time. The book I am currently is “Darkest Web: Drugs, Death and Destroyed Lives ... The Inside Story of the Internet’s Evil Twin,” it seemed like a good middle ground between my research into true crime and books that will not ruin my day. The book is laid out in a way that the cases in Darkest Web get progressively darker. I found this book through Barely Sociable’s video about Besa Mafia, which is an interesting but tragic case. I have linked the video here. The book is by Eileen Ormsby and she does a really great job at providing new information in topics that have been covered to death over the past 10-15 years; specifically, The Silk Road, Bitcoin, The FriendlyChemist debacle, how The Onion Router itself operates, etc. Right now, I’m on about page 80 which will conclude the first section about the Silk Road and I’m looking forward to the rest of the book. I recommend the book highly.

At about 9AM, I was talking with my mom about the weirdest encounters I had when I was a housekeeper when I was interrupted by the power flicking on. It was a welcome interruption. I played Minecraft and worked with oil pastels until about 8:30 PM when I went to bed.

On Monday, my office was closed until 10 AM due to the weather. The snow was rather nasty on my road, but the main road was clear. My whole family was concerned, and it seemed akin to going to war. I worked until about 1PM when I went home due to no one else really being at the office. I came home and I was rather upset about having to do college work. This semester has been hectic – there is a lot of coursework between a rather intensive science course and all my teaching courses and I was procrastinating. I tried to take a nap, but I ended up remembering that J existed and how she did me. I have a bad habit where if I’m upset about something abstractly overwhelming that cannot be solved instantly or is an extensive problem such as an overabundance of classwork – I will become upset about something that is more tangible (at least to me) such as an ex who did me wrong or I will feel very lonely. It is certainly an issue that I have trouble articulating, but I worked on music and I felt a little better. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep – I tossed and turned for about two hours before I was finally able to fall asleep.

On Tuesday, I had a rough day. I worked and that was fine, I listened to the creepypasta Psychosis by Matt Dymerski. This is a good creepypasta, but I need to listen to it a few more times before it’ll really connect to me. I have a fond memory from middle school where they sent us home early from middle school and I went outside and listened to this creepypasta while running around my backyard while the snow began to fall. When I got home on Tuesday, my laptop would not run word due to low storage. I bought my friend Ronnie’s HP Stream 14 back in 2022 and used it ever since – however, it died on Tuesday. The storage ran out due to windows forcing updates and after getting increasingly frustrated – I ran secure erased the hard drive on accident, because I’m not good with computers and I thought I broke the laptop. I backed up my Beta 1.7.3 Minecraft world prior to the erase, which is the only thing I really cared about on that laptop. I think I just need to get an external USB with Windows on it and run it through the old laptop – however, that laptop made me very mad, and I just want to destroy the thing. Realistically, that laptop has probably run its course. If anyone is interested in the parts, let me know. I have a Chromebook – which is rather tedious, but I also have another HP stream laptop that I’ve begun using for streaming and Minecraft and typing these blogs.

On Wednesday, I worked and did quite a lot of schoolwork on my phone. I saw K on Wednesday – me and her went to Hobby Lobby and Chic Fil A. I really like her a lot – she has a sweet voice, we have similar senses of humor, we actually talk, and she’s very pretty. Me and her talked about couples who spend whole weekends together – which is something me and her did in our first relationship, and we had a good laugh about those sorts of goofy dynamics. Me and her are taking our time, and I really appreciate and enjoy that. She lives on a steep hill and there was alot of slush on her street which made getting turned around on her narrow road and then driving up the hill was a struggle. I believe I had to make a 36-point turn to get turned around. I called my grandma, which was nice, because I haven’t talked to her or seen her in a couple of weeks. Upon going home, I showered and I fell asleep to Barely Sociable’s video about Mortis.com. I have linked that video here.

On Thursday, I listened to the creepypasta Ben Drowned while on the way to work. It has become my favorite creepypasta, specifically I love the last paragraph, and I think the worldbuilding with Cleverbot and the unreliable narrator aspect is really well done. I listened to MrCreepyPasta’s narration of Ben Drowned, which I have a very fond memory of listening too in 2017 while helping my dad burn some branches while it is raining. While listening to Ben Drowned, I was almost rear-ended. Someone had slammed on their brakes about 8 cars ahead of me, and I had to hit my brakes, but nothing with much force. I looked in the rear view, and the person behind me kept getting closer and I clutched my lunch bag for some reason. The person aggressively swerved to get out of my way and they landed (this is the only way to describe how he stopped) in someone’s front yard. The person driving looked fine and their truck seemed fine, but I was in shock. I drove off because no one was injured and there wasn’t an accident, but I still felt bad. This all occurred within 20 seconds, and I saw the person who most likely caused this whole event turn around – they looked to be a very dumb tourist who had gotten lost and missed their turn. But I don’t know, I’m guilty of getting lost and looking dumb – I'm also guilty of being absent minded and having to slam my brakes to avoid rear ending someone, but not to that extent. The idea of ending my day with a broken spine or literally any other of the possibilities haunted me throughout my workday. Once I left work I picked up Little Caesar’s for me and my family and then I did some schoolwork. I felt pretty proud of myself and I soon went to bed. I’ve linked MrCreepyPasta’s narration here.

Yesterday was Friday, I listened to the Wanderer of the Dogscape, which is an okay creepypasta. I wrote emails and did clerical work until about 2PM when I eventually left work. I went up to Silverdale because I needed to pick up Kyle’s pedalboard. Kyle wanted me to meet him there at 6:15 PM, however I did not want to drive back up from where I live – so I just picked up Kyle’s pedalboard and brought it to him. I talked to Seth a little bit and it was nice – I miss him quite a bit because he’s my buddy. We used to hang out pretty much every week quite regularly however he and I have both gotten busy. Socialist Book Club’s first EP came out 3 years ago on Wednesday, which has prompted some of my nostalgia. March will make 2 years since SBK’s second album. Me and Seth really need to make another album. From here I came home and I played Minecraft and drank a little until I went to bed at about 10 PM. Erik also texted me yesterday, I want to hang out with him. I know I certainly want to record at least one of the new songs for one with him.

It is currently 2:26 PM, I went grocery shopping with my mom and took a nap. I forgot to mention this but on Monday I purchased a new bass – it is a Squier Precision Bass that is Lemon Yellow. I’m very excited because yellow is my favorite color. It is supposed to arrive today, and I’m very excited. I also ordered several parts for an upcoming Jazzmaster build that I am going to work on with my dad. I’m very excited since I’ve had the guitar body and guitar neck for about three years and have been working on it. I’ll provide more details about that when I actually start working on the thing. I’m hoping to model it after one of Ollie Ackermann’s guitars from A Place to Bury Strangers. I’m going to see K today and take her to a Restaurant for my stepmom’s birthday. I am very excited. Okay, Goodbye.

Word Count: 2007