shoesonwrong

Comcrap

We had company last weekend, then I got a stomach virus, and then our internet cut out. All of these things are detrimental to posting on one's weblog. Especially the last one, which came at the worst possible time. Ryan's nondescript job at the unnamed company occasionally (once every couple months or so) requires him to be on-call for a week at a time. On-call, in this case, means keeping his work phone near him at all times in case he gets a call and needs to get online and use dark magic to make sure the server-modem-intertubes gets fixed. Without internet, he had to spend ungodly amounts of time at work so he could have internet access and could get a really crabby-looking face.

The internet went down over the weekend, and Comcast told us two things. First, that it was definitely a hugely complicated problem involving bad lines instead of a simple modem replacement or anything. Second, they couldn't come out and fix it until Tuesday evening because it required a specialist who would sacrifice a goat or something. In the past year, Comcast our service with them specifically has gone bad. (That's not counting the half-dozen times that it's gone down regionally.) The first time, it took them a week to get to us and we got a free month's internet. The second time, it took them a few days to come out and we didn't even get refunded for the few days we didn't have internet. This time, it took three days and we were begrudingly refudend six dollars. Six dollars. We buy the super-fast, super-expensive internet and have been the lucky recipents of their incompetence THREE TIMES plus Ryan had to stay at work almost twenty-four hours a day for two days, and that's worth SIX DOLLARS?

Tuesday, the Comcast guy showed up three hours late, took a look at the situation, and replaced the modem. No goat sacrificing required. If I had any other options for internet in this location, I would take it. If I wanted to pay lots of money to be abused, I would get a dominatrix, not an internet service provider.

Well, I don't think it had much to do with my threat to bomb Jeff Bezos' house

We ordered a new monitor from Amazon on Monday to replace the 15 inch one we have been using since, um, my senior year of high school. I was shocked to see that they come in both color AND bigger sizes now. The monitor was backordered and wasn't supposed to ship until next week. We used the free two-day shipping, so we didn't think we would get the monitor until the end of next week.

The monitor arrived on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it had a couple of dead pixels off near the bottom corner of the screen. We contacted the manufacturer about it, but they gave us the usual, "Unless the pixels are in the middle of the screen and there's more than four dead ones per million, we aren't replacing it." We used Amazon's call me feature tonight, and within 5 minutes a rep had talked to us and told us that they would ship out a new monitor ASAP with an expected delivery date of July 29th. An hour later, we got an email that said the monitor had shipped and would be arriving tomorrow.

That is some fast customer service. I don't think it has anything to do with my threat to bomb Jeff Bezos' house.

comcast nightmare continues

I was contacted by Mark, a comcast employee in the digital media department or the press department or something. He was very courteous and helpful, which is refreshing in comparison to all the other reps we've dealt with. Nothing happened today, but hopefully it will tomorrow. This is just getting absurd -- we've waited nearly a WEEK for Internet service, and there's still no indication of when it will arrive. Instead, we've just been warned to wait for a line tech to show up. We have been waiting for FOUR days now and spoken with nearly twenty unhelpful reps. If I had any other option than comcast, I would take it, but we don't have any other providers where we live.

I understand things can take awhile, but promising and the failing to show up and fix the problem on four different occasions is just ridiculous and a poor excuse for customer service. Hopefully Mark will be able to help us out.

we're all moved in and mostly unpacked. now it's down to random bit and bobbins, which are driving me nuts. we also made the trek to ikea and bought good mannered, courteous, thrifty Swedish furniture. come see my flarke and glarkenflubb -- I assembled them myself!

comcast has hooked up our cable but not Internet yet. the tech said it was something with frequencies and a special tool, which I think is code for I ain't working anymore today, but whatever. it should be hooked up on Monday, and then the shakes should stop.

He even DREAMS in geek

Him: I dreamt the last cylon was that mentally handicapped guy from Freaks & Geeks, and he was the most powerful cylon of all.

Me: That makes sense, actually!

Him: Really?

Me: No.

Internet Exploder and Job Interviews

I have a topology exam on Wednesday. Well, considering he just told us TODAY about it, it's more like a pop exam. Which is the same day that Ryan goes in for his final interview in Detroit at Geektopia. So we have to reschedule our Topology exam AND I have to reschedule my Capstone quiz because we're staying Wednesday night down there so we can either apartment hunt on Thursday if he gets the job or fulfill a suicide pact by jumping off the Comerica Building if they reject him because I CANNOT HANDLE ONE MORE STRESSFUL THING.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about Ryan's amazing job interview for the amazing company that is filled with amazingness, but you know what would be more amazing? Having a little more notice about the interview. I mean, it's not Burger King, and we are not migrant workers (although, if the grad school thing doesn't pan out, I am open to that). This is supposed to be a real people job with real people things like health insurance, a salary, and a Four-Oh-Wunk.

It is decided that I have a wicked sinus infection (and hence the DYING the past few months), and it's settled in the left half of my head and chest, in the general throat, ear, and that sinus cavity above my boobs area. Right side of the head, absolutely nothing. I can poke and prod and  NOTHING. Left side, I wince when AIR bounces off it. My glands are swollen, there's all sorts of mucus, and the earwax -- oy vey, the earwax.

Also, I am in this computer science class that is the epitome of lame. I have to do an online IT lab, and it REQUIRES Internet Explorer. Gee, something that takes forever, is indescribably easy, AND requires the use of the world's worst browser? SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW THIS VERY INSTANT. I was working on it at home until Internet Exploder decided to just completely wonkify itself and display every single page on the internet correctly except the IT lab ones. This has persisted even though I managed to use Voodoo and forcibly rip IE off my computer and then reinstall it. So now I have to work in the labs with all the other commoners, where it smells like industrial cleaner and freshmen.

He's in love with Rosie the Riveter

Me: Why is The History Channel like porn for you geeks?

Him: I don't know. I was watching a show on prohibition earlier. It was amazing.

[long pause]

Him: Prohibition, moonshine, white lightning! Is this seriously doing nothing for you?

Me: No.

Him: Speakeasys, blind pigs, bootleggers! I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE!

Techno-what-ogy?

The internet in our building is paid for by the landlord. We share what has to be the slowest cable internet in the world amongst 7 (maybe it's 8?) apartments. Normally, it's okay because everyone is nice about it, but lately, things have gotten out of hand. A guy moved in who downloads porn non-stop, and our tiny rhino neighbor spends the 22 hours a day she's not stomping up and down our stairs streaming TV shows from China.

As a result of the aforementioned bandwidth hogs and our landlord who refuses to come up with a solution, we're getting our own inkernet! But that's not all. Apparently there's a cheaper package dealy-o we can do that includes a phone line and cable television with the inkernet. Ryan and I haven't had any sort of television in the house since we got married. (Well, we have a TV, but it's mostly used to play games and occasionally watch a DVD.) That's 2 1/2 years of no television.

I actually feel kind of dirty about getting cable, but dirty in the most wonderful, extravagant way. I'm sort of amazed, like you would expect your great great grandmother to be, about television. "You mean, I'll turn it on, and I'll see moving pictures? THE TALKIES ARE GOING TO BE IN MY HOUSE?"

Also, my TV that I refuse to get rid of is 30+ years old, and I don't know what sort of unholy devil box they're going to have to put on there to make it cable-ready.

Vox Invites For Only TWO MILLION DOLLARS Free

Between Ryan and I, we've amassed some invites to vox.com. Anybody want one? You can test out the beta form of the latest Six Apart brainchild. And give feedback! I love feedback, because I get to tell other people what I think they're doing wrong! (Which, believe me, I am an expert at -- as most only children, type-A personalities are. When will the world wake up and realize that we're right, right, ALWAYS ALWAYS RIGHT?)

A couple of conditions, though.

1. No multiples, please. If you have a vox already then play nice and share with the other children.
2. No stupid blogs. I really don't want to read any more blogs devoted to one tiny portion of the universe, i.e. "A reason every day why gouda is the best cheese!"
3. Actually, I would read that gouda blog and love it, so scratch #2 altogether.
4. You have to add me to your neighborhood. Why? In the immortal words of my mother, "Because."

If you want an invite, please just comment with the email address you want me to send it to (your email address = what you log in with for vox). I suppose you could email me to ask for the invite, but that would mean I get no blog comment. And I wants them.

Are You A MexiCAN or a MexiCAN'T?

Dog is gone until next weekend so that Ryan and I can party and watch a lot of movies.

That would be so awesome if that were true. Instead, I'm chained to the computer (NEW. iBOOK.), writing papers on Oman, Qatar, and Mexican immigration policies post 9/11. It's semi-difficult, it's boring, and it has allowed me no time to post pictures of, or profess my undying love for, the new computer (NEW. iBOOK.). So if you have some burning desire to write a 7-8 paper on Qatar, Oman, or Mexican Immigration policies post 9/11, then that would be GREAT. I could use the free time to do things like brushing my hair or eating. Or licking the new computer. (NEW. iBOOK.)

I will tell you right now, the paper writing will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis. I'm not going to be resolving fights between you hordes of internetters having catfights over who gets to write my paper.

Also, the paper writing? Yeah, making me a little loopy. Well, the paper writing and the fact I have to do my writing and research at the library because the wireless at home that has been working for the PAST FIVE MONTHS STRAIGHT, in what I KNOW WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING is a carefully calculated plan to enrage me, has decided to just POOF stop working. So I'm here in the library, where some girl is loudly (and poorly) practicing her (what I'm guessing) is Japanese, and I keep hearing bagpipes. BAGPIPES. In a library. Sweet peanut, I really am losing my mind.

Technorati Tags: Research Paper, Wifi

My Preciousssss

Today, I showered, ate lunch with my Aunt Jeanne, and surfed the internet. Because I have the stamina of a toddler, I am BEAT. Is it nap time?

We bought an iBook! Christmas has come early! (No, literally. We can't buy ourselves Christmas gifts now. Or food for the next month. And I hope that the box we reside in down at the park has wireless internet because we have to move out of our apartment, too.) Ryan's been wanting a laptop for about a year and a half, and I've been wanting a mac FOREVER. Or like, 5 months or something. I'm not very good with time. Then we found a good deal on an iBook, and well, I have an electronics addiction, and I'm married to a computer science major. We need some sort of twelve step program or something.

I mean, if we had a problem. WHICH WE TOTALLY DON'T.

Also, Ryan wants to become more familiar with Macs because he's already a TOTAL GENIUS with Windows and Linux systems. (If you say he's not, I will cut you.) And he wants something portable to do a lot of his programming on. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ANYTHING SEXIER? NO YOU HAVE NOT.

I should probably stop with the blogging and continue my voyage into darkness and madness that will eventually culminate with facing a demon spat out from hell itself that enjoys nothing more than sucking your life force out through your nose. This is also known as the last 3 weeks of class and finals week. Tomorrow is a comparative politics exam, and then I have to hit the research and hit it hard so I can crank out twenty some odd pages for three different classes on three different topics by next Tuesday and present each paper. (What topics you ask? How kind of you! Qatar, Oman, and Mexican immigration.) The beauty of the the whole thing is that I have yet to actually start any of the projects, despite them being assigned weeks ago, because I was trying to study enough to pass my exams.

I love college. EVERY DAY HERE IS LIKE LIVING IN DISNEYLAND, PEOPLE.

I was going to post pictures of Cassie wearing a dress (because you can't get enough pictures of an unhappy dog in a dress, right?), but she's being bratty right now and probably needs something. Like love or attention or some kind of crap. So I should get going before she explodes or chews a hole in the floor.

It was amusing to overhear this today while Ryan was in the shower: "I'm singing in the shower! 'Cause it's raining in the shower! What a wonderful feeling I'm crazy again!"

Which kind of implies he was not crazy for awhile, but whatever.

Technorati Tags: Mac, iBook

Mac Envy

It's too bad that I'm supposed to be doing lab work right now, because I am WAY too busy fondling the cute iMac I'm working on. I WANT ONE. Well, not an iMac, but something Apple. And portable.

I yearn for a Mac. Really. This is me, yearning. This is also me as a poor college student. So home Mac fondling will have to wait until I hold up that convenience store or get a job. All I know is, ONE OF THEM IS HAPPENING BY CHRISTMAS TIME.

I'm sort of joking. I mean, I wouldn't hold up a convenience store. Mugging third graders for lunch money is much more my speed. Unless they're big third graders.

Also, the guy near me was whining about how he "Can't find Internet Explorer on this stupid Mac." And then he was glaring at me. Well, I think it's just at the world in general, but I happen to be sitting next to him. OBVIOUSLY HE IS JUST NOT MAN ENOUGH FOR A MAC, OR HE WOULD BE USING SAFARI AND NOT WHINING ABOUT INTERNET EXPLORER LIKE A GREAT BIG BABY.

Class makes me loopy.

Cut to Me Belting Out "Leaving on a Jet Plane" in Public Without Realizing It

On a more non-brain-hurty note than the post below, we got an ipod a few days ago. I've already half worn out the button and click-wheel with all the clicking. OH HOW I LOVE THE CLICKY CLICKY! I've loaded it up with all my our my music and a bunch of audio books.

I have my both my mom AND my dad to thank for the iPod. Using my mom's cheapness genes and my father's obsessive surf the internet to find a good deal genes, I gots me us a color ipod for cheaps moneys! It almost makes up for the anxious tendencies I got from my mom and the short temper I got from my dad.

Who am I kidding. It totally makes up for it. Color! iPod!

Color!