23 Dec 2001 (updated 23 Dec 2001 at 09:04 UTC)
»
Very Early Morning.
dsl or lack
thereof
Holy crap, this has been a
frustrating week.In the past week I've recieved no less
than three separate telemarketer calls claiming that DSL is
available in my area. The first two have been from Verizon,
who provides my phone service.
I was wary at first,
knowing that I had been too far from the CO the last time I
tried to order DSL. So I specifically asked the
sales droid if my phone line was close enough to the CO to
receive service. Of course, she said yes.
However, I
called back the next day to see when my installation was
supposed to take place and the guy who answered (after many
trips through their automated system and a long hold time)
told me that I was too far from the CO. So not only was I
bummed, I was angry that I had been lied to.
That wasn't
enough to stop the telemarketers, though. Verizon called me
again to advertise their service. Then I called Time
Warner, to check on the availability of Roadrunner. Of
course, I live in the one part of BFE that doesn't have
digital cable yet.... and of course, they call to
advertise.... and sent junk snail mail.
Today, DirecTV DSL
called about their DSL service. I explained to the sales
droid, as patiently as I could, that I was too far from the
CO to receive DSL. "But we use a different set of signals
than Verizon!" she said, trying to convince me that it
would, in fact, work (and probably earn a commission).
I
kept explaining to these people that yes, I would sign up
for their service if I only could....
diz-nee Thursday, I went to
Downtown Disney. I soon found out why that was a bad
idea.Unbeknownst to me, Thursday night is a sort of
traditional "gay night" at Pleasure Island, Disney's
nightclub area. Disney is famous for being very pro-gay,
and there are many gay Cast Members. I, however, am
straight. At least it was fairly discreet; I saw a lot of
same-sex couples holding hands or dancing, but nothing that
a heterosexual couple couldn't do without offending people.
It's not like most people make it out to be.
Anyway, I
spent most of the night in the Adventurer's Club. Everyone
should spend at least an hour in there, just to get the hang
of the place... it's a laugh riot if you're in the right
frame of mind, and pretty damn funny even if you're not.
gifts Dad and I have been
exchanging gifts gradually; we're both too impatient to wait
until Christmas. He had already given me the Disney Annual
Pass. Recently, though, he let me unwrap a new bookbag and
a mirror. ("Uhh... thanks?" I'm kidding, I actually needed
a mirror. It's one of those things you don't typically
think about, but comes in handy.)He had given me a
variety box of Jelly Belly jellybeans, but ate about half of
the licorice ones. When I realized that they sold them at
Pleasure Island, I bought a small bagful of licorice and
cherry ones for him... so he wouldn't keep eating mine. ;-)
I also got him some Old Spice. I think he knew that one
was coming because he didn't buy any when he ran out.
jerks Sad news. Dick's
father passed on recently. I think I'm just going to
forgive him... even assholes don't deserve this much
punishment.However, I'm not deleting the evidence I
already have, just in case. I just hope I never have to use
it.
recent events The
constitution signing slash holiday party was a success.
Lots of food, lots of camaraderie, and no one messed up
while signing the constitution. People loved the pickle
wraps I brought... I made them because the dinner was potluck
and I have absolutely no skill at cooking.
For your hors
d'oeuvre-creating pleasure, here's the
recipe:
Ingredients:
- Dried beef
- Cream
cheese
- Kosher dill pickles
- Toothpicks
Directions:
- Slice a pickle into quarters
lengthwise. (You can buy them presliced but this is
cheaper.)
- Spread cream cheese on a piece of beef.
-
Wrap a quarter of the pickle in the cheese-coated beef.
(The cream cheese should be on the inside, touching the
pickle.)
- Insert two toothpicks and cut pickle in half.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining quarters of the
pickle.
- Repeat steps 1-5 until you run out of
something.
Mom taught me how to make these, a long
time ago. Thanks, Mom!
projects I haven't even
touched the weblog project yet. I did, however, write a
tiny script to turn Advogato's diary.xml files into long
HTML files, almost suitable for printing. The fact that
each entry is already in HTML made things a lot easier.
school My Chemistry 2 class
got cancelled. Luckily, they moved me into one of the day
classes, since they realize that this is the only class I
need to graduate.However, the class goes from 10:00 to
10:50 AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the lab is from
noon to 3:00 PM on Wednesday. My job is scheduled from
11:00 to 11:50 AM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, on that
campus. (It's the same time, Tuesday and Thursday, on the
other campus.)
That simply means that I'll have to haul
ass from place to place three days a week. I think I'm up
to it, and I'm sure my Chem professor won't mind me showing
up a few minutes late to lab if necessary. The two days I'm
on the other campus, I have at least an hour to get from one
campus to the other, a fifteen-minute trip, max.
arrangements I rearranged my
room a little bit recently. All I really did was rotate my
bed 90 degrees and raise it up about 6 inches. However, it
makes a huge difference in the available space. Hopefully I
can find a decent desk to set one of my two workstations on,
so I can get it out of the kitchen.Why do I keep using my
lowly 350MHz when I have a 1.33GHz? (Answer: all my files
are on this box, and the OS is already set up nicely. Linux
is a bitch to configure, but once it's set up, it stays that
way perpetually.)
network
woes For some strange reason, my LAN doesn't
like games. The client always seems to get disconnected
rapidly. Also, when the player on the server fires a
rapidfire weapon (in UT, think minigun or pulse gun), the
other client can't communicate with the server.It's a
simple 100Mbps network, with a hub and three connections:
two workstations and a firewall/gateway. All three boxen
can communicate with each other under normal
conditions.
I'm really getting confused, and no one I've
spoken to has been able to make heads or tails of it.
trolls OpenSourcesJapsEye:
People like you are the reason I suggested negative
certifications.I don't want to say, "I don't believe
he deserves certification", I want to say, "I believe he
does not deserve certification." There's a subtle
difference there, but a difference nonetheless.
By the
way, you're not funny. You're simply disgusting.
car Took my car in for its
scheduled maintenance. Turns out my lower engine mount had
broken, my front brake pads were down to less than 5% of
their original thickness, and my wheels needed to be
balanced.Well, replacing the engine mount fixed a problem
I had been having with the car "bucking" when I shifted into
drive or reverse, and the mechanic machined the rotors,
eliminating the pulsating brake pedal problem.
However, my
car still hops at about 55 MPH. With a vengeance. Maybe it
was originally this bad, but since the engine mount was
broken, that absorbed the shock?
sleep Sleep is good.
God's last name isn't Dammit