I recently made an eye appointment with Dr. Greens office here in Scottsdale.  I was referred to him by my old eye doctor Dr. Greenburg.  For the last eight years I went to Dr. Greenburg for my eye exams, but now I was unable to see him due to a change in my insurance.  Dr. Greenburg spoke highly of Dr. Green saying he was a wonderful optometrist, in which I have no doubt.

Dr.Greenburg gave me Dr.Greens phone number, and I immediately called up his office to schedule an appointment.  A lady at his office answered the phone, I explained my insurance situation to her and that Dr.Greenburg had refereed me.  I told her I was in need of a eye exam, and needed new contacts for an upcoming trip.

My concern, I expressed to her, was about how much it was all going to cost.  My experience has led me to the conclusion that most places have hidden costs which are not fully disclosed up front.  Once they have lured you in and completed all the exams, they then hit you with all the extra undisclosed fees. Of course, I did not want this happening to me.

With my health insurance I had a co-pay of $24 for an eye exam.  From calling other eye doctors offices earlier that day, I was fully aware a eye exam with a prescription for glasses and contacts were two separate things, and charged as so, unless they had a package deal.   I wanted to be sure my eye exam and contact prescription were all covered by my insurance here.  After chatting with the lady for a bit about all that was included in the exam, I was led to believe everything, except the actual contacts themselves, were completely covered by my $24 co-pay.  I was ecstatic, and scheduled an appointment for the next day at 8:30am.

The next day I arrived at the office of Dr.Green at 8:20, I was greeted by two very pleasant ladies working the front.  I signed in, and was given standard new patient forms to fill out.  The lady at the front gladly went through and explained the forms to me.  I took the sheets, sat down and began filling them out.

As I was filing out the forms I overheard a conversation between Dr. Green and one of his patients.  He sound extremely thorough, very professional, and surprisingly warm and genuine.  I was looking forward to my appointment with him.

All the forms were pretty standard except for the last one, which the front desk lady had forgot to explain to me.  It was a contact exam form, and it stated that a contact exam and contact fitting were completely separate from an eye exam, and was not covered by health insurance.  I was puzzled.  Despite me expressing to the lady over the phone that a contact exam was the primary reason for my visit, this was not disclosed prior to making my appointment.

I completed forms and took them up to the desk, including the contact exam form.  I asked what the form was, and was told exactly what the sheet said.  The contact exam was not included in the eye exam.  It was not to be covered by my insurance, instead it was to be an extra $99 dollars on top of my co-pay.  I explained to the lady at the desk the conversation I had the prior day regarding this, and how this extra exam charge was not disclosed to me.  Upon my question and visible concern she asked a lady in the back to come up to the front.  This lady happened to be the one I spoke with over the phone.  When I questioned her, she simply regurgitated what the front desk lady had told me.  She did include that a prescription was included.  I asked what the prescription was, thinking that was the contact prescription, which would explain my miss understanding.  Unfortunately, she said it was a glasses prescription only.

At this point of my frustration I stated I did not want the appointment anymore.  She responded with “okay” in an unpleasant and sarcastic manner, which was not appreciated since she had procured the appointment on false grounds.  I asked for the forms I filled out back, I was given them, at which I left the office.

To be deceived and misled in such a way shocked and infuriated me.  The only conclusion I could come to was they knew if they had disclosed to me that the contact exam was an extra charge, and was not covered by health insurance, I would not have come in for an appointment.  Once in their establishment, they assumed, I would not want to go to the hassle, or embarrassment for some, of refusing the appointment and trying to find another eye doctor, and would have submitted to their extra charges.

Too bad, I was hoping to meet Dr.Green, and become another regular patient.

Deception · Eye Doctor · Non-Disclosure · Review

A friend turned me onto this site called TED.com, and I have been hooked ever since.  I don’t want to give it any injustice by trying, in my own words, to describe what TED.com is, so instead I am just going to regurgitate their “About TED” section on their site.

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TEDx program and the annual TED Prize.

On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 700 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week.” – TED.com

The brightest of the bright and the top people in their field talk about their most recent discoveries, their decade long projects and ideas, and their new theories in everything from technology to biochemistry to self expression in fine art.

It is an amazing site that is a must to check out!  TED.com

Discoveries · Ideas · Knowledge · Learning · Presentations · Speechs · Theories

I am 25 years old. The problem I have noticed with some of the generation before me, the majority of my generation, and all of the generations behind me is it has become cool to be UnAmercian and UnPatriotic. You are made fun of, laughed at, teased, and thought of as “weird” if you like and support our country.

This problem has been brought on by ignorant people and parents who have not taken the time to educate their children on how privileged we are in America. Kids brought up now a day’s have no idea what it is like in other countries. They have no idea how restricted life is outside of our borders. Because of this, they cannot begin to comprehend the freedoms we are given. Freedoms we are just given, we don’t have to work for them, they are freely given to us on a daily basis because generations before us fought and died for them.

Are generations are being brought up and let to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and they have nobody to discipline them, no one to set them straight, and no repercussion for their mis-conducted actions. Parents have become afraid to discipline their children. Heaven forbid they get caught spanking their child, authorities maybe called on them for such a thing. Our future generations are being brought up with no respect, no manners, and no knowledge of our country and its history. Our countries’ history classes are being stripped from our schools are replaced with foreign country histories. I believe educating our generations on other countries is a wonderful idea, but it needs to be used to solidify our country and used for examples of how privileged we are. Not to damage and poison our own country.

With the way things are going I see, in the not too distance future, generations that will once again be forced to fight and die for freedoms we once had because we did not properly educate and discipline our future generations in order to secure our future freedoms.

Discipline · Future · Gloomy Future · Past · Patriotism · Present · Strength · Unpatriotic

How did Popeye put his shirt on?

I think it is a very good question.  Look at the size of his forearms and then look and his arms.  His forearms are ten times the size of his puny arms!  How in the world did he manage to push those massive forearms through his sleeves without drastically stretching them out?  His sleeves should be flapping in the wind, not stretched tight across his toothpick arms.  Just food for thought…

If anybody has any ideas on how he could accomplish this feat, please share!

Forearms · Popeye · Shirt

How DO you eat your fruit?

Have you ever sat down and thought about it?  One day I realized I eat fruits in different ways (obviously you can’t eat a banana the same way you eat a piece of watermelon), but based on the type of fruit it is, I have an exact “pattern or routine” I subconsciously follow when I am eating it.  I have been doing it all my life, and I just recently realized it.

For example, when I eat an apple I start eating it by taking a bite from the side.  From there I work my way counterclockwise from the top of the apple until there are no sides left on the apple.  I then eat the remaining bottom part of the apple counterclockwise, like I did with the sides.  Finally, I finish the apple by eating the top remaining part, also counterclockwise.

I am curious about how you eat your apples, or oranges, or grapes?  From which end do you peal a banana, do you peal grapes before you eat them… well why not?

Just some food for thought!

P.S. This is a work in progress, so I will be adding more to it as I realize it.

Interesting Idea · Never Thought of That · Random Behavoirs · Why · Why Not

Hi everybody, I took a little time off from the design business, but I am back.  Currently the site is under construction, but it will be fully operational very soon!   Stay tuned, and “Don’t call it a comeback…. I’ve been here for years.”

At Long Last · Finally · The Return