My COBRA ran out this month so I applied for CoveredCA. The hardest part there is filling out all your eligible income estimates for the year (there's a big chart to help you). You also upload a copy of your tax return which is good since I had a fresh one for 2023.

I think within a day or two they came back and said I was qualified for Medi-Cal (because of low income) so they had forwarded my information to that department. A week or so later I receive a Benefits Identification Card then a week after that I receive a letter saying I''ll be enrolled in my county's health plan, Health Plan of San Mateo, starting next month.

One option is that I could switch to Kaiser Permanente if I qualify (though I don't) by being one of:

• Being a Kaiser member within the last 12 months
• Living with a family member who has Kaiser
• Being a foster child
• Having Medicare and Medi-Cal (so old and low income)

Just as well as Kaiser is a big health care provider but has always had a mixed reputation.

So my enrollment was fairly easy and fortunately California is a state that provides free health care to low income individuals. Eventually though I need to get a job and then a regular health care plan.

There are five bundles for Ars Magica 5th edition (Bundle of Holding has smaller-sized bundles so whereas Humble Bundle might do these as one for say $30 and makeup for it in huge volume of purchases with BuH's smaller audience they have to break it up into five $25 bundles).

These are all revived bundles. Based on the published dates the product line is no longer in development and besides it seems complete (other than you can always have more adventure books).

Previously as each bundle came out separately there was no reason for me to buy them. Now everything is together and all 5E products are included.

Although a bit pricey it is $130 for $605 of product. Even at a big discount of 50% that's still getting everything at 57% discount over that so seems well worth it. Definitely buying this.

Ars Magica 5 ($28, $125 PDF retail value) originally Aug 2014 bundle

AG-205 Ars Magica 5E (2004)
AG-275 The Broken Covenant of Calebais (2004)
AG-277 Houses of Hermes: True Lineages (2005)
AG-280 Covenants (2006)
AG-281 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (2006)
AG-285 Houses of Hermes: Societates (2007)
AG-286 The Lion and the Lily: The Normandy Tribunal (2007)
AG-291 Tales of Mythic Europe (2009)
AG-300 Apprentices (2012)
The Living Covenant: Freebies from Atlas Games (free)

ArM5 More Magic ($23, $105 PDF retail value) originally Mar 2016 bundle

AG-279 The Mysteries (2006)
AG-284 Ancient Magic (2007)
AG-289 Hedge Magic (2008)
AG-294 Rival Magic (2010)
AG-299 Hermetic Projects (2012)
AG-304 Tales of Power (2013)
AG-306 Transforming Mythic Europe (2013)

ArM5 Wizards and Power ($27, $125 PDF retail value) originally Aug 2017 bundle

AG-274 The Fallen Fane: An Ars Magica Live-Action Scenario (2004)
AG-276 Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal (2005)
AG-278 Realms of Power: The Divine (2011)
AG-282 Realms of Power: The Infernal (2006)
AG-288 Realms of Power: Magic (2008)
AG-290 Realms of Power: Faerie (2009)
AG-295 The Sundered Eagle: The Theban Tribunal (2010)
AG-302 Against the Dark: The Transylvanian Tribunal (2012)
AG-308 Faith & Flame: The Provençal Tribunal (2014)

ArM5 Mythic Europe ($26, $120 PDF retail value) originally Jul 2018 bundle

AG-283 City and Guild (2006)
AG-287 Art & Academe (2008)
AG-292 Magic of Hermes (2009)
AG-293 Lords of Men (2010)
AG-296 The Church (2011)
AG-297 Legends of Hermes (2011)
AG-301 Grogs (2012)
AG-303 Antagonists (2013)

ArM5 World of Magic ($26, $130 PDF retail value) originally Jul 2019 bundle

AG-298 The Cradle & The Crescent (2011)
AG-305 The Contested Isle: The Hibernian Tribunal (2013)
AG-307 Hooks (2004)
AG-309 Mythic Locations (2014)
AG-310 Between Sand & Sea: Mythic Africa (2014)
AG-311 Through the Aegis: Developed Covenants (2015)
AG-312 Thrice-Told Tales (2015)
AG-313 Lands of the Nile (2015)
AG-314 Dies Irae (2016)

Sat Apr 13 2024

Sleep 0430 to 1230 (8 hours)

• Picked up C2 from SFO airport. Timed it fairly well and got them on first circle through arrivals and they had waited 10 minutes.
• Received a State of California Benefits Identification Card. It's a for various CA benefits if you're qualified. Doesn't mean I've been accepted into Medi-Cal. Or maybe it does.

Sun Apr 14 2024

Sleep 0430 to 0900, 1730 to 2000 (7 hours)

• Did buy the BattleTech Fiction bundle. Might be a while before I get to reading the books.

Mon Apr 15 2024

Sleep 0430 to 1315 (8-3/4 hours)

• Received Ogre Miniatures Set 4. A bit disappointing in that it's basically the miniature sprues in a plastic bag with no box or outer packaging. I guess if this never goes to retail then it's fine since then there never was a box designed. Actually there wasn't even a packing slip.

Tue Apr 16 2024

Sleep 0715 to 1330 (6-1/4 hours)

• Amazon.com proxy vote. 14 shareholder proposals, although some of them overlap. Wow.
• One thing I love about BBEdit is tab support. I'm a spaces guy so my BBEdit if I hit tab key it adds spaces to the next tab stop. Similarly if I delete a space it'll delete to the next tab stop. So I get the niceness of tabs but using spaces. And if I edit a file that has tabs it doesn't automatically change those tabs to spaces which would introduce lots of spurious diffs as I edit a common code file. I can always use the convert tabs to spaces function if I need to convert a whole file.

Wed Apr 17 2024

Sleep 0130 to 0730, 1430 to 1630 (8 hours)

• MyCoverageInfo says data updated. Checked and seems like they only updated my insurance start/end dates. Hope they figure it out.

Thu Apr 18 2024

Sleep 0400 to 1100 (7 hours)

• Packed up stuff in HOA office. Contractors moved all the stuff and furniture into a nearby storage room in preparation for having the flooring replaced next week. Putting everything back is going to be a bigger hassle.

Fri Apr 19 2024

Sleep 0700 to 1000, 1700 to 1900 (5 hours)

• When I'm using Bootcamp I can only get my Apple data using my iPad but then can't copy paste things like passwords or URLs to the PC. But I can use iCloud Notes on the PC and copy data that way.

Humble Bundle BattleTech Fiction Collection is a followup to a previous bundle that had all the classic pre-MechWarrior: Dark Age novels. This one is $18 for:

------------------------------------------------------------
NOVELS - MechWarrior: Dark Age
------------------------------------------------------------

2002.12    2002         EPUB     Ghost War (Michael A Stackpole)
2003.02    2003         EPUB     A Call to Arms (Loren L Coleman)
2003.04    2003         EPUB     The Ruins of Power (Robert E Vardeman)
---

The Proving Grounds Trilogy

2003.06    2003         EPUB     A Silence in the Heavens (Martin Delrio)
2003.08    2003         EPUB     Truth and Shadows (Martin Delrio)
2003.11    2003         EPUB     Service for the Dead (Martin Delrio)

----
2003.12    2003         EPUB     By Temptations and By War (Loren L Coleman)
2004.02    2004         EPUB     Fortress of Lies (J Steven York)
2004.04    2004         EPUB     Patriot's Stand (Mike Moscoe)
2004.06    2004         EPUB     Flight of the Falcon (Victor Milán)
2004.08    2004         EPUB     Blood of the Isle (Loren L Coleman)
2004.10    2004         EPUB     Hunters of the Deep (Randall N Bills)
2004.12    2004         EPUB     The Scorpion Jar (Jason M Hardy)
2005.02    2005         EPUB     Target of Opportunity (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
2005.04    2005         EPUB     Sword of Sedition (Loren L Coleman)
2005.06    2005         EPUB     Daughter of the Dragon (Ilsa J Bick)
2005.08    2005         EPUB     Heretic's Faith (Randall N Bills)
2005.10    2005         EPUB     Fortress Republic (Loren L Coleman)
2005.12    2005         EPUB     Blood Avatar (Ilsa J Bick)
2006.06    2006         EPUB     Trial by Chaos (J Steven York)
2006.08    2006         EPUB     Principles of Desolation (Randall N Bills)
2006.11    2006         EPUB     Wolf Hunters (Kevin Killiany)
2006.12    2006         EPUB     Surrender Your Dreams (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
2007.02    2007         EPUB     Dragon Rising (Ilsa J Bick)
2007.04    2007         EPUB     Masters of War (Michael A Stackpole)
2007.06    2007         EPUB     A Rending of Falcons (Victor Milán)
2007.08    2007         EPUB     Pandora's Gambit (Randall N Bills)
2007.10    2007         EPUB     Fire at Will (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
2007.12    2007         EPUB     The Last Charge (Jason M Hardy)
2008.02    2008         EPUB     To Ride the Chimera (Kevin Killiany)
2019.08    2019         EPUB     A Bonfire of Worlds (Steven Mohan Jr)

These are all the originally printed MW:DA novels plus A Bonfire of Worlds which was a BattleCorps online novel then printed.

------------------------------------------------------------
NOVELS - Catalyst Game Labs (InMediaRes)
------------------------------------------------------------

2013.10    2013         EPUB     Isle of the Blessed (Steven Mohan Jr)
2015.00    2015         EPUB     Embers of War (Jason Schmetzer)
2016.08    2016         EPUB     Front Lines (Jason Schmetzer and Philip A Lee) [BattleCorps Anthology v6]
2016.09    2016         EPUB     Betrayal of Ideals (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
2019.02    ----- ------ -------- Forever Faithful (Blaine Lee Pardoe) [Twilight of the Clans finale]
----

Rogue Academy Trilogy

2019.04    2019         EPUB     Iron Dawn (Jennifer Brozek)
2020.06    2020         EPUB     Ghost Hour (Jennifer Brozek)
2021.07    2021         EPUB     Crimson Night (Jennifer Brozek)

----
2019.07    2019         EPUB     Kell Hounds Ascendant (Michael A Stackpole)
2019.07    2019         EPUB     Kill Zone (Philip A Lee) [BattleCorps Anthology v7]
2019.08    ----- ------ -------- A Bonfire of Worlds (Steven Mohan Jr) [MechWarrior: Dark Age finale?]
2019.09    2019         EPUB     Redemption Rift (Jason Schmetzer)
2020.02    2020         EPUB     Slack Tide (Jason Schmetzer, Philip A Lee) [BattleCorps Anthology]
2020.08    2020         EPUB     Honor's Gauntlet (Bryan Young)
2020.09    2020         EPUB     Icons of War (Craig A Reed) 
2020.10    2020         EPUB     Children of Kerensky (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
----

The Highlander Covenant (Duology)

2020.06    2020         EPUB     Grey Watch Protocol (Michael J Ciaravella)
2021.04    2021         EPUB     Paid in Blood (Michael J Ciaravella)

----
2021.01    2021         EPUB     Hour of the Wolf (Blaine Lee Pardoe) [with Highlander Covenant, ends MW:DA era]
----

Founding of the Clans Trilogy

2021.03    2021         EPUB     Fall from Glory (Randall N Bills)
2021.10    2021         EPUB     Visions of Rebirth (Randall N Bills)
2022.07    2022         EPUB     Land of Dreams (Randall N Bills)

---
2021.05    2021         EPUB     Blood Will Tell (Jason Schmetzer)
2021.08    2021         EPUB     Hunting Season (Philip A Lee)
2021.09    2021         EPUB     A Rock and a Hard Place (William H Keith Jr)
2022.01    2022         EPUB     No Substitute for Victory (Blaine Lee Pardoe)
2022.02    2022         EPUB     No Greater Honor (John Helfers, Philip A Lee) [Eridani Light Horse anthology]
2022.05    2022         EPUB     Redemption Rites (Jason Schmetzer)
2022.07    2022         EPUB     Jaguar's Leap (Reed Bishop)
2022.07    2022         EPUB     A Question of Survival (Bryan Young)
2022.08    2022         EPUB     Marauder (Lance Scarinci) [Black Marauder anthology]
2022.11    2022         EPUB     Fox Tales (Bryan Young) [5 Fox Patrol short stories]
2022.12    2022         EPUB     The Damocles Sanction (Michael J Ciaravella)
2023.06    2023         EPUB     Elements of Treason: Honor (Craig A Reed Jr)
2024.00    2024         EPUB     The Quest for Jardine (Herbert A Beas II)


Shrapnel Magazine

2021.09    2021         EPUB     Shrapnel Magazine #6
2021.12    2021         EPUB     Shrapnel Magazine #7
2022.03    2022         EPUB     Shrapnel Magazine #8
2022.06    2022         EPUB     Shrapnel Magazine #9
2022.09    2022         EPUB     Shrapnel Magazine #10

The rest are all BattleCorps and onwards (BC closed down in 2016. I don't think it's a complete list as there are several books missing. Shrapnel Magazine is a BT fiction quarterly which I guess replaces BattleCorps.

For $12 more you can also get the contents of the previous bundle.

So I received a letter from my mortgage lender. On review of my current HO6 policy (condo insurance) they wanted me to change something. Weird because my current policy is correct as far as I can tell.

The letter said to send my updated policy declaration to www.mycoverageinfo.com/myLender. That seems like a weird site and a quick Internet search had conflicting info -- some people say it's a scam site and others say it's legit 3rd party used by some mortgage lenders.

Logged into my lender's web site and didn't see any messages (if you're sending me a letter how hard is it to also send a message in their internal system?). I then went to the help system and search for mycoverageinfo and sure enough a help page says to use it for keeping my lender up to date with my current insurance policy.

After that I went to the site and updated my info.

This is an example of double-checking when you're asked to submit personal to a third party site. Way too many businesses use third party services, especially email lists with emails that have links to third party systems. I tend to be suspicious of all of them and manually check myself or ignore the communication. Just because it's physical mail doesn't mean I treat it any more trustworthy.

Sat Apr 06 2024

Sleep 0730 to 0930, 1330 to 1630 (5 hours)

• Filled out my CoveredCA application. Immediate result is I probably qualify for Medi-Cal but not CoveredCA because it couldn't verify citizenship or SSN. I uploaded a photo of my passport and I did enter my SSN when I submitted the application. We'll see if the CoveredCA results change.

Sun Apr 07 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1130 (9-1/2 hours)

• Guess my headaches have stopped. Don't recall having one last few days.
• Recently realized that the + version of a game in Apple Arcade is often the same game with all DLCs and no micro-transactions, not necessarily an improved version of the classic. The + is just to differentiate it from the original game in App Store searches.

Mon Apr 08 2024

Sleep 0630 to 1330 (7 hours)

• Mailed my tax returns.
• Stopped by Mi Rancho Supermarket for milk and juice. Also got Chicharrón which they make there. It's crispy goodness.
• So don't qualify for CoveredCA because I qualify for Medi-Cal (i.e. my income is so low I qualify for free Medi-Cal in which case CoveredCA hands it off to Medi-Cal for health insurance).

Tue Apr 09 2024

Sleep 1000 to 1430 (4-1/2 hours)

• Ogre Miniatures Set 4 is shipping. USPS so I should see it my USPS Informed Delivery email.

Wed Apr 10 2024

Sleep 2315 to 0715, 2 hour nap (10 hours)

• I didn't realize that CrossOver can install a program via Steam. It launched Steam from my bottle with Steam then started the install process.

Thu Apr 11 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1000 (8 hours)

• Humble Bundle BattleTech Fiction Collection continues from the previous bundle and includes MechWarrior: Dark Age novels and BattleCorps books (BattleCorps was/is a subscription service where regular and new BT authors published serializes stories, novellas, and novels). For $12 you can also get the first bundle which is almost all pre-MWDA published novels.

Fri Apr 12 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1000 (8 hours)

• Randomly visited Worthing Publishing web site and see there's 14 days left on a Divine Right Kickstarter. Tempting but I shouldn't buy it.
• We played DDO for an hour then Woo got online and we played Gloomhaven for 1-1/4 hours so we're getting faster playing Gloomhaven.

An interesting History of Licensed RPGs multi-part article series. Looking through it here are three RPGs I'd like to own but will never have the chance (barring a lot of money or unusual luck).

Middle Earth Role Playing (1982) - Gorgeous and detailed supplements and I'm quite fine playing the cut-down RoleMaster system. This had a lot of products published for it. Eric R ran a MERP campaign which was fun.

James Bond (1983) - A stylish spy RPG. I'm not as impressed with the system as others but everything else including the adventures-based-on-movies-but-a-little-different was quite cool. Had a fair number of supplements.

DC Universe Roleplaying Game (1999) - West End Games version of a DC Comics RPG. Seven supplements published. Mostly want this to complete my DC Comics RPG collection.

Bundle of Holding's 13th Age Mega Bundle is mostly a repeat from the Humble Bundle one I bought.

Already Own

13th Age Core Book
13 True Ways
13th Age Bestiary
13th Age Bestiary 2
Book of Loot
Loot Harder
Book of Ages
Crown of Axis
13th Age GM Screen and Resource Book

Book of Demons
Eyes of the Stone Thief
Shadows of Eldolan

High Magic & Low Cunning - reprints of 5 small supplements I have
The Crown Commands - reprints of s4 mall supplements I have
Fire & Faith - reprints of 4 small supplements I have

Don't Own

Book of the Underworld ($13) - sourcebook
Shards of the Broken Sky ($21) - 232-page sandbox campaign
Elven Towers ($17) - 120-page adventure book
Diamonds and Shadows ($14) - 171-page campaign

I'd have to get the bonus collection for $40+ for four books that retail $65. I guess I'll skip this one.

Sat Mar 30 2024

Sleep 0445 to 1245, 30m nap (8-1/2 hours)

• DVG - Warfighter Chtorr on Kickstarter. War Against the Chtorr is an old novel series about an alien invasion of Earth via ecological terraforming, though the series has stalled at four books written 3 decades ago. There was a GURPS supplement based on this which is why I read the books. The KS is a combat missions card game where you equip your troops then send them out in missions that are resolved quickly. The main thing is shepherding your troops and resources through multiple missions rather than the missions themselves. A bit pricey at $160 + $20 shipping for everything.
• DDO servers have been down since early this morning to this evening so far. It does bring out a few people who have complaints about Standing Stone Games but overall people understand this happens when you're a small company.
• We played Gloomhaven. A small easy scenario so we might need to move up to normal difficulty.
• We tried Dead Island: Riptide. Runs ok in CrossOver (Steam install) with some tweaking. Control is slightly laggy which really doesn't help my motion sickness. Woo was also having trouble so we will probably not play this game.

Sun Mar 31 2024

Sleep 0415 to 1045 (6-1/2 hours)

• I was printing my tax return (37 pages) and the Brother printer (connected to WiFi) was only printing 6 to 10 pages and then stopping without an error. I guess the memory was full but strange it didn't pause the print queue and instead ignored the extra data? Don't remember if this happened before when I printing out Modules B1 and B2.
• I've been having an evening headache several times this week. At the same time turning my head hurts a bit. Still not too bad.
• Tried making rice porridge again, this time using long grain rice. Still came out basically like mushy rice and no soup. I'll give up trying to make porridge in the rice cooker.

Mon Apr 01 2024

Sleep 0515 to 1300 (7-3/4 hours)

• Bought Warhammer FRP Enemy Within Bundle.

Tue Apr 02 2024

Sleep 0200 to 1100 (9 hours)

• Trader Joe's for some stuff. Freeze is pretty full.

Wed Apr 03 2024

Sleep 0715 to 1245 (5-1/2 hours)

• Dinner at C3's. Porridge and Things. The plain porridge (HK style) is so good. It comes with three toppings so it tastes quite fine.
• Laser Kittens session #3 with Cjr. The humans accidentally teleport themselves outside the house, along with three cats. Fluffy, Popcorn and Carol are arrested by space police.

Thu Apr 04 2024

Sleep 0145 to 0900, 1230 to 1400 (8-3/4 hours)

• Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game on KS. The CoC-based board games are nice but I guess I'd rather play CoC RPG. Anyway, the KS is $98 for the game ($170 MSRP!) and the first expansion ($35 MSRP).
• Now that I think about it a bit more I'll skip DVG - Warfighter Chtorr KS. Mostly can't get past that it's an abstract card game. And I mean abstract at the tactical level -- I like having units moving around on a map. Like for CoC, just because it covers a topic I like doesn't mean I have to buy every game for it.

Fri Apr 05 2024

Sleep 0600 to 1400 (8 hours)

• Not sure if I've mentioned this before. In GarageBand if I record more than 12 hours (not sure how much longer, possibly 14+ hours) then try to export to disk the output is blank (no sound). I have to save the project and restart GarageBand and then export works.

The Fiasco Classic bundle of holding features Fiasco Classic (the RPG version, the current Fiasco seems to be more of a card-based game) though only the core rules are in the starter collection with three supplements in the bonus collection. But the majority of the material are miscellaneous RPGs by Jason Morningstar (Fiasco creator) and most of those are LARPs. For $21+ I guess the bundle is still worth it but I guess not for me.

Fiasco (2009)
The Fiasco Companion
Fiasco: American Disasters - three playsets
Fiasco: Run, Fools, Run - three playsets

Free Playsets
- Bear Trouble
- The Beast of Sucker Creek
- The Bull
- Fist City
- Planeta Droga
- Unassprechlichen Klutzen
- Ungodly

Carolina Death Crawl - American Civil War adventure
Radioactive Bison - "a one-hour live-action game for 8-19 players in a large room"
The Climb - "The Climb is a short six-person live-action game about an expedition to a virgin peak in the Himalayas."
Out of Dodge - "Out of Dodge is a live-action RPG designed for four people (Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger) on a road trip.:
Space Post - "In Space Post you and your friends play a postal agent, and you will also play the strange, wonderful people waiting at each stop on their interstellar route. And you also play their spaceship."
Winterhorn - "Winterhorn is a live-action game for 3-8 players about how governments degrade and destroy activist groups."
The Skeletons - "The Skeletons is a meditative structured freeform game for 1-6 players."