Saturday, July 29, 2006

Your Call Will Be Answered in the Order It Was Received...

I've not posted much of late, mostly for personal reasons. Life isn't about me lately, it's about friends who are having hard times and need a hand...but I'm trying not to completely sublimate my being to their pain. Basically, I'm not letting their experiences invade my private spaces, which are few and far between, but this being one of them.

On Wednesday night, though, I had a great post in mind after another woman and I debated the Great Lingerie Question. I returned to the keyboard prepared to launch this debate for you to weigh in on, but alas....no internet service! However, it was midnight, so I went to bed.

Thursday morning...no service. Thursday night - still fritzing when I got home.
I restart the computer...
Nothing.
I unplug the modem...
Nothing.
I disconnect everything from the wall...
Nothing.
I start browsing the modem settings...
Everything's fine.
Friday morning, more of the same. So I figure I'll send an email when I get to work. After all, my service provider has a great online section for troubleshooting and chat with an agent.

I logged in from work, and the customer service pages were down. I clicked on "Troublehooting" and the page was broken. I clicked on "Having a Problem?" and the link was broken. After chuckling in that irony, I tried the eChat, and it too was down.

This morning, I got up, and, frustrated with my lack of connectivity, and called the help line. For 20 minutes I listened to constant recordings, a canned, inhuman voice saying, "We apologize for the delay. please continue t ohold, we anticipate your call will be answered in less than one minute." So I waited. And quietly thanked the Lord for the person who decided tp put speaker phones on cordless handsets!

Finally, a customer support tech comes on the line. I explain the problem and he says, "Have you tried resetting the modem?"

"Well, actually, I've tried it numerous times, but if you need me to do it now to check it off your troubleshooting list, there's no harm in doing it again."

"Please do," he says.

So I'm unplugging the modem, thinking that this guy doesn't realize that he's dealing with someone who has some inkling of what's going on, even if I'm not TOTALLY technosavvy. He askes me two questions, then says, "Okay reconnect the modem."

I did.

THE DAMN THING WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Stupid" does not BEGIN to encapsulate the feeling I had!

"Thanks, have a good day" I said...then slunk off to get my morning coffee.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Two Great Bumper Stickers

The title of the post says it all. Both spotted here in the South in the last week...

1) on a Toyota Camry:

January 20, 2009
The End of an Error

2) on a Lexus (whatever their luxury Sedan is called - I don't know my high end cars very well..)

If that fetus you saved turns out to be gay,
Will you stop fighting for his or her rights?

That one even had an African-American couple in their 50s in the car....hope is out there I suppose!

I just finished watching Elizabethtown and I have decided that I, too, am a substitute person....and if you haven't seen that movie, go rent it immediately! Perhaps it was the experience with my gransfather's funeral that spoke to me so much, but I thought it was great and had an awesome bend of family and humor!

I'm going to bed now. G'night

Friday, July 07, 2006

Give and Take....

Life is not about one single solitary person. It is about how we all interact together. My decisions impact you, and yours me. Even though I am the only person who will look out for my best interests, and you are the only person who will look out for your best interests, neither fact gives any of us the right to act as though the world revolves around us. However, each person must still make decisions in such a fashion as to guard their best interests.

Yes, that's a lesson I've learned the hard way.

That said, society teaches us that in order to properly love another on any level (friend, family, or beloved) we must subsume our desires, wishes and needs to their's, therefore making our well-being secondary.

So my rhetorical question du soir for the collective "you" out there is this:

As one who has spent my whole life giving from the shadows, to my job, to my parents, to my friends....when is it acceptable to take something I want, and expect them to give me support for once? When can I act in my own interest and expect them to condone it? Even if only for an hour... When can I allow my actions to exist as a primary force, and expect you to be acted upon, rather than me to take all of your actions instead?

Anyone?

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Checking in

I didn't realize quite how much time had elapsed between posts. And here I thought life would slow down...perhaps now that the holiday is over. I am still alive, still working, the new car is good. I'm slowly driving myself crazy with a few decisions that have to be made kinda soon, and coordinating another monstrously huge dance weekend. But other than that I'm still here. Just thought I'd take a second to check in before work this morning and try one of Schprock's 3 paragraph posts.

Last night, I went out with the gals to see Superman Returns. I didn't bone up on my previous backstory before I went, so some of it took a bit to come back to me, but I left there with mixed emotions. The movie was very well made and had a good story to it. They even had a plausible reason to have the damsel in distress be all dressed to the nines at her hour of need. Even so, two things struck me.

1: The movie was just too long. It almost felt as long as "The DaVinci Code" at times. I understand the use of fluidity of time as an effect, especially when dealing with the Man of Steel. However, I could have taken about 15 minutes off of it by cutting out some extraneous stuff all along the way without hacking a scene or taking away from it all. The motion just slowed down at some of the most inexplicable spots. Not to mention it could have ended a number of places in that last half hour. Then again, it's a summer blockbuster, so most people probably want an excuse to spend an extra 30 minutes in the A/C!

2: This movie, more than I remember, has a Messianic complex about it. I won't go into here because it's just too much spoiler potential for a movie this new, but if any of you see it, I'd love to hear what you think.