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....

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. Dried beef
2. Cream cheese
3. Kosher dill pickles
4. Toothpicks

Directions:

1. Slice a pickle into quarters lengthwise. (You can buy them presliced but this is cheaper.)
2. Spread cream cheese on a piece of beef.
3. Wrap a quarter of the pickle in the cheese-coated beef. (The cream cheese should be on the inside, touching the pickle.)
4. Insert two toothpicks and cut pickle in half.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining quarters of the pickle.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 until you run out of something.

Mom taught me how to make these, a long time ago. Thanks, Mom!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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 is good.

God's last name isn't Dammit