In which I use Phone and not yet flee to live in a hole
Avibra
For a few months now, I've been half-assedly participating in this insurance startup thing called "Avibra" promoted through the gig app I work through. I haven't been able to find much that can explain it to me (here's something). It's an insurance company targeting gig workers. Avibra offers accident insurance, amongst other things, for free [PRODUCING DATA(?... is that really all it is?)] based on a couple interactions:
- Watching videos, taking quizzes and reading "articles," all in-app content, to incrementally increase the maximum payout you could claim in the event that you have an accident and can't work. I think you start with like $1,000 and each thing you engage with raises that by like 10-50 dollars. You can just play videos with your volume down, and everything else is boring enough that you can scroll and tap multiple choice answers randomly while actually paying attention to something else. However it's also boring enough that I have forgotten to bother doing any of this for about a month. Having heard a story in the above linked reddit thread about someone's benefits not actually paying off, I wonder if even this level of engagement is a waste of time. Paying for insurance sounds not very expensive. But I barely have money to be spending right now.
- Every month you have to renew your membership by opening the app and pressing a button to "plant a tree" or "help a family." This is the weird part. It sounds like if you don't remember to do this on the renewal day, your account is closed. The terms were very serious about it. And like... how does this work? To say nothing of the whole discussion around whether or not companies volunteering to theoretically plant trees as carbon offsets actually makes a difference anywhere, or if the trees will ever actually be planted, I don't understand h- ...I just don't understand. So anyway I was choosing the "help a family" option, because I thought, well, maybe they just give five dollars to a food assistance program for each member every month or something, and that's better than imaginary trees. Then I noticed it was phrased elsewhere in the app (or it was recently changed?) as "help a family with coverage" or something. So you're pressing a button to somehow give someone else more Avibra coverage. Do they have to be a family? Not just an individual living alone? And, again, like, why? Why is this. I don't know. As long as I'm not totally being fucked with, I guess I'll keep on it. It's just very weird. I have an app on my phone where every month a private insurance company tries to convince me that they're planting a tree for me, if that's the button I choose to push.
Pyx Health
I just got a call from an unknown number, ignored it, listened to the voicemail message and heard someone say they were calling from my health insurance and to please call back at ###-###-####. I call the number, and the phone rings for a while and then goes to voicemail. It sounds like the front desk of a medical office of some kind: "Thank you for calling Pyx Health. We're not able to answer your call at the moment. If this is an emergency, please dial 911" etc. Pyx Health is not my medical insurance provider, and I've never heard of them. My caller ID says I've just called an Arizona number, which is not where my medicaid is based. So I look up the number and the name and find Pyx Health, based in Arizona, "a healthcare technology company focused on supporting individuals dealing with loneliness through member engagement and SDOH screening tools." Quick search on twitter turns up this post from @snackrio—which, if you don't want to go to that website reads:
the year is 2023, I just got a call from my healthcare provider, they gave me a surprise depression test, I passed with flying colors, so they had me download an app with an AI chatbot that gives support and a virtual pet for me to take care of. I wish I was joking.
I remembered that I recently had to do an annual over-the-phone health assessment with a nurse for my insurance, and they did ask about depression, as they will. I said that I am not currently depressed. That's about it. So, there's some kind of deal with this SDOH startup thing that has my health insurance funneling people into using an app where they interact with nonhuman entities to ostensibly help with their loneliness? That's fine if you want to do that, obviously, of your own accord. But it's weird for me to essentially be tricked by my health insurance provider into calling the app.
TaskRabbit
I could write 10,000 words about this, the aforementioned gig work app that I'm on. It's all been said before. It is a bad thing that exists. At the moment, it enables me to pay rent and buy groceries and occasionally learn a new skill. Most of the time, especially now in winter when the furniture assembly work has dropped off, I'm 24/7 in my little domestic paradisical hovel with my goblin partner, cooking and focusing on my creative projects, which I'm very grateful to be able to do during these times when there is so much horrifying stuff going down and constantly reinforcing a feeling of powerlessness against monstrous forces. Then, suddenly, I will have the extremely surreal experience of appearing in the home of a random rich person, like a summoned magical fairy. I put on my best sociable "everything is okay" guy impression, using my neat little skills and tools to assemble some stupid crap for big bux, and then leave and struggle to get home through freezing lakeshore winds on my bike or via crumbling public transportation. I have also met some great people through this work. Not everyone is a literal ivory tower dweller or a corner-cutting landlord. Sometimes it's genuinely nice just to fix something for someone, and some people really need help.
This one time, I worked for a guy who had broken his leg and a short time later found out that two cats he took in were having kittens; he found out as the kittens were being born. And he also needed a new coffee table for some reason. He lived alone, seemed overworked in his home office setup, and his home was a bit of a mess, probably due to having been suddenly injured, so I think he needed some accessible storage in this new table. Anyway, there was now also little cat pees and poos all over it. This was one of my favorite jobs I've ever done, obviously, because I got to work amid five kittens clambering around all around me. The person was also a nice guy.
When I was done, I went to try and find a garden that I knew existed in this building. I'd been there before, when it was free and open to the public for a Chicago Cultural Week thing (I cannot for the life of me find what this actually called at the moment). I don't know if the building or garden is actually historic or culturally significant, but it is neat. It's like halfway up a huge luxury apartments multi-tower block of building. Anyway, I followed the signs and arrived at a locked glass door with a keycard scanner. No access for me. There was a security camera opposite the door, watching me peer out at the garden.
I don't know why I'm writing this. I should probably take up actual journaling again.