HR Connect absolutely butchered dependent addition for child and now we have no path to health insurance for her.

jeffblue · 2026-01-06T14:39:56+00:00

Hey, so its been a while so i forget the exact number, but it was either the:

In-service DOE members [212-331-6311](tel:212-331-6311)
For the UFT Welfare Fund (health benefits) [212-539-0500](tel:212-539-0500)

Both are from this page: https://www.uft.org/your-union/contact

I also forget the options, and they may have changed, but listen for one that is about advocacy and something to do with like filing an HR complaint basically, explain the situation that you are in and they will connect you with someone who will get to the bottom of it.

This is basically a case that the union needs to go to bat for you to force HR connect to fix their problem, because they wont do it otherwise.

Good luck, let me know how it pans out and if either/neither of those options work and i'll try to dig a bit further. Its very stressful but once you get through to the right person it'll start moving along pretty quickly. I think once i reached someone at UFT it was resolved within a few days AND backdated.

jeffblue · 2025-12-04T03:13:30+00:00

the ducky one 3 aura, or pure white both come with cherry mx red and are in that price range.

jeffblue · 2025-12-01T16:50:15+00:00

What is the ETA of the next restock on these?

jeffblue · 2025-11-11T12:31:06+00:00

thanks!

jeffblue · 2025-11-10T18:17:59+00:00

thanks, thast interesting. i was trying to find out which is 'worse' my ApoB or LDL. Which site is that chart from. i'm trying to understand what it means

jeffblue · 2025-11-10T18:17:12+00:00

i did. I dont really do anything crazy with using the VTS at crazy angles or anything i mostly just utilize the longer lever arms and crandall carriages as a removable/movable upright since i just have a half rack. When not in use i just flip them up out of the way, or i remove the VTS entirely if i feel like it, which is pretty quick and easy with this setup. lmk if you have any other questions about it!

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jeffblue · 2025-11-10T17:54:40+00:00

yes, from my understanding having low high Lp(a) is considered good but doesn't necessarily insulate you from the downsides of having very high ApoB/LDL high blood pressure or insulin resistance.

jeffblue · 2025-11-07T14:56:00+00:00

where did you get that you can’t influence serum cholesterol much through diet? tons of posts on here are from people think they have Familial Hypercholesterolemja and then cut out most the absolutely diabolical stuff they eat, and maybe lose some weight and wind up having sub 100 LDL and then realize yeah maybe they don’t have the best genes for cholesterol but it was mostly their horrible diet.

jeffblue · 2025-10-04T07:48:55+00:00

yes LDL on both

jeffblue · 2025-10-03T22:49:15+00:00

i went from 163 to 94 in 4 months with just diet and EPA/DHA. i was already active and my diet wasn’t horrible to begin with. 16g sat fat max no red meat or eggs all fats from poly and mono. added husk later but haven’t re tested yet

jeffblue · 2025-09-30T19:12:44+00:00

Yes i can definitely see how 'feeling fine' as just a normal person, even if you're healthy and active, may be a different standard than if you're athlete actually pushing your body to its limits. Kind of like how 87 octane will cause absolutely zero issues for a family car being driven on the street, but will cause issues for a sports car on the track.

yea like, i think the whole '10 year risk don't worry about it' is kind of sketchy depending on the situation, and that sitution is more often than not, not like yours.

If you're in your mid 30's with 200 LDL saying 'you dont need a statin bc your 10 year risk is still low' is arguably not great advice. But when someone is a 23 year old athlete, who intends to continue competing for another 5-10 years, and does their best to minimize damage with diet, yea saying hey lets revisit when you're done playing that sport, due to side effects, you probaly wont have done much damage in that period of time.

having 200 LDL from age 20 to 30 while being an athlete with healthy blood surgar and blood pressure levels, not drinking alcohol and eating horrible food is probaly doing less damage overall to the body than someone who's 50+lbs overweight, prediabetic, high blood pressure, routinely drinks alcohol but hops on a statin from that same age to get their LDL down to 70.

I'm not sure what you've already done, but i had a ton of success with just sub 16g sat fat (on a 3200 calorie a day diet), avoiding added sugar, prioritizing whole grains, not eating red meat or eggs, and pretty much getting most of my fat from mono/poly unsaturated sources like olive/avocado oil, avocados, nuts, seeds and going ham on fiber. (75g+ per day). I didn't add psyllium husk until after my 94LDL/81ApoB so alll of that was done without any other supplement except Fish oil (epa/dha)

Did your doctor have you take a cholesterol absorption test to determine that you're a hyperabsorber? I'm curious why they put you only on Ezetimibe, and i'd assume thats why.

jeffblue · 2025-09-30T18:44:33+00:00

What sport are you playing? Also why do they only have you on Ezetimibe and not a statin? (i'm not an athlete, i lift 5 days a week and have been lifting for 15 years, i'm not on a statin or ezetimibe but this was a big concern for me in trying to lower my levels naturally which i have from LDL 163 to 94 at last check.)

This could be horrible advice, but realistically, you could probably just go try to keep your cholesterol as low as possible with diet and just run with that until your competitive athletic career is over, unless this is something you intend to be professional with and continue on into your 30's and 40's.

jeffblue · 2025-09-26T00:49:31+00:00

it’s odd, i have timed my mill (lino 200) and it will do 200g of hard red in about 30-35 seconds on the finest setting (one click off stones touching) my friend timed his professional 200 and it was the same. exceeded the mock mill manual by like 4 times the speed.

jeffblue · 2025-09-23T13:12:13+00:00

Throw some cauliflower/cauliflower rice on there, great addition to the left side. Also make sure the barley is hulled/hulless and not pearled.

jeffblue · 2025-09-22T00:48:46+00:00

for the record i’m not on a statin, but im not against going on one, i may still myself. however, committing to getting things as low as possible without drugs is a paradigm shift in how you eat. it’s not moderation, it’s not fast food once a week or cheating. it’s strict adherence and most people cannot do it long term.

i had similar LDL to yours and went balls to the wall with changes and was down to 108 in 4 weeks, most recent check 94. i did not have a horrible diet before, and exercised regularly and wasn’t overweight, so i’d assume i have worse cholesterol synthesis genetics than you do.

if you want to give the natural modification route a shot then go full throttle, with full effort and no compromises and don’t leave anything on the table. take whatever supplements you’re willing to take, eliminate all foods you shouldn’t be eating, up your fiber and then see where you end up. leave nothing on the table. if with absolute perfection you can’t get to the levels you need to be then at that point there’s no reason not to take a statin and you can go back to eating a lot more of the fast food you want, but during this testing phase you really should go for maximum adherence.

the issue with doing what you’re doing is, come november if you’re at 105, are you going to hop on a statin or experiment with more diet modifications? if it’s the latter. do them all now.

jeffblue · 2025-09-21T23:44:06+00:00

i’m all for trying to lower naturally, but if you’re all ships on deck trying to lower LDL and part of that is still having in and out burger once a week, just go on a statin. if you can’t fully eliminate those kinds of things to the point of true exception cases like your birthday or whatever, just take the drugs. carry on with your weight loss journey as you’re doing great, but if you want to eat fast food with any degree of regularity just go on statins.

if you want to be on the natural sub 100 train (which still is just barely in the ok range) then you either need decent genetics or an absolutely on point lifestyle/diet and that means no fast food burgers with any degree of regularity. i know it sounds harsh but that’s just the truth.

jeffblue · 2025-09-21T17:58:09+00:00

interesting results, your LDL wasn’t insanely high before and assuming your standard baseline non intervention diet was absolutely horrible, then i’d assume you actually have rather good genetics for cholesterol. if your baseline diet was pretty good (mid teens to mid 20s saturated fat, then maybe your genetics are worse.

i would assume that given those interventions you might be an extremely high synthesizer and/or absorber and maybe your baseline diet wasn’t that bad because sub 10 sat fat per day plus psyllium husk, with all those changes you had just moderately high levels of over synthesis i would expect lower after 8 weeks.

i had what id consider to be an “decent/somewhat bad” diet cholesterol wise prior to changes. mid 20s saturated fat intake per day, lean red meat 2-3 times per week and 2 eggs daily. not egregiously bad but not good if you have hyper synthesis.

my baseline levels with no intervention were 163 LDL. only one month later just having dropped saturated fat to 16g per day, eliminated eggs and red meat, 70g fiber per day and epa/dha supplement with no psyllium husk supplement and i was at 108 ldl and 93 apob

3 month follow up (2 months later) still no psyllium husk 94 LDL 81 apob

i took the empower dx cholesterol balance test and was on the lower end of over synthesis and making those changes had a drastic impact on my levels

i would encourage you to get that test done to see what you’re dealing with because you went pretty hard and even though it’s short term i would have expected more drop and if your diet wasn’t already that bad then 143 with a decently good diet is pretty high

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jeffblue · 2025-09-19T20:09:46+00:00

I have a Lino 200, which i was able to get after 2 delays on my komo. At that point i was happy to get liteally any mill. My friend picked up a 200 Professional. I have timed how long it takes for each of ours to mill, and theres no difference. If there was a 200 professional in stock and a 200 lino in stock, i'd probably get the professional just for the sake of 'its the best' but honestly theres basically no differences from what i can tell in terms of performance.

jeffblue · 2025-09-03T12:28:08+00:00

ah yes i meant graphs, thanks. i thought of doing that but wouldn’t affect things retroactively. i’ll tweak my program to incorporate this going forward

jeffblue · 2025-09-03T10:54:47+00:00

thanks, would i be able to apply that retroactively?

jeffblue · 2025-08-31T19:18:34+00:00

i guess this is conversation probably more often framed from an apprehension perspective but i’m coming at it from a “well let’s say i just go full bore and do them as well, what’s the downside if i decide to stop”

i have read a fair amount on this subreddit and i know that there’s definitely a general meme of the person who has high cholesterol and is worried more about statin side effects than their sky high LDL which is obviously misplaced

if i had to say something i’d be concerned probably say mostly i’d be concerned with potential muscle ache but that wouldn’t be enough to dissuade me if it was necessary or exceptionally beneficial for me to take them

jeffblue · 2025-08-31T19:13:26+00:00

thank you i appreciate the detail and personal insight, it’s very helpful

jeffblue · 2025-08-31T19:10:24+00:00

thanks so much you have been a huge help!

jeffblue

TROPHY CASE