Yay! Blog! v1.0
Category: Just Griping

Oh brother...

A while back, the Austin City Council passed a smoking ban. I was so happy. Then some new members were voted onto the council, and they decided to revisit it. Today, they changed the ordinance... now businesses just have to get a $300 smoking permit to allow smoking. I don't know if that's yearly or what, but what a crock.

I started to write a rant about the latest judge trying to block the Federal No Call list by citing Freedom of Speech. It was going to be a diatribe about what Freedom of Speech means and how I'm sick people bastardizing it who believe it gives them the right to force their views or sales pitches or troll-flames upon others. It doesn't. While it does give people the right to express their views without fear of government intervention, it does NOT give people the right to harrass others, especially in their own homes.

While all that's true, upon further research, I learned an interesting thing.

The No Call list only blocks some telemarketers. There are exemptions for charities, pollsters and callers on behalf of politicians. So the judge is really saying it violates free speech because it's allowing some groups to call, but not others. I like his argument, but I think the outcome should be that the No Call list block ALL unwanted calls. Like maybe a no call list where people can specify which kinds of calls I want blocked.

It was a pollster who called me the other day and rudely hung up on me when I asked her to take me off her list. I don't want those people calling me. I don't want charities calling me. And I especially don't want people calling me on behalf of politicians.

I would disconnect my phone completely except that one in fifty calls is a call that I need to take.

My coworker disconnected his land line phone and only uses his cell phone now. He doesn't get telemarketing calls on his cell phone. I might have to go that route. I'm not real big on cell phones, but if it will help cut down on the unwanted phone calls, I might just break down and get one.

I hate unsolicited phone calls more than I hate spam. And I hate spam a lot.

I signed up for the no call list, but that doesn't start until next month. Plus, I doubt it covers all the calls I get. I get a lot from my credit card companies and my phone company. The kind who send out long privacy statement notices with an inconvenient way to make them leave you alone buried deep inside of it.

I got a call from Dell the other day, from whom I bought a laptop recently, and they said they were partnering with some other company to sell me some crap I don't need. I don't want to hear from companies I bought something from! You know... don't call me; I'll call you! Except I probably won't call you unless whatever I bought from you breaks! The worst part of that call is that they called my work number. Bastages!

I quit answering my home phone a long time ago. But calls are still annoying because the ringing still shatters the peace in my home and my answering machine gets filled up with crap.

Over the last week, though, I've been answering it just so I can tell people to take me off their list. I love that I have that power. I've only had two callers that pissed me off after I told them to take me off their list. One today, and one a while back.

The one a while back gave me a long story about how I was going to have to call some other number and ask the person at that number to take me off the list because the caller wasn't the owner of the list. That's not the way it works... If I tell you to take me off the list, YOU call the other person and have them take me off the list.

Today, the person flat out hung up on me. RUDE!! Usually, callers say something like, "Okay, sorry to bother you." Something nice that lets me know they are actually going to take me off the list. Today... she just hung up. Don't cold call me and hang up on me.

[There was a whole lot of whining here before. I mean... a WHOLE lot. I'm editing most of it out. Not to be secretive or anything... it's just that I couldn't even take all the whining myself.] Here's what's left:

My laptop has a wireless card in it. It can access my wireless network fine. But it can't connect to the internet through the network for some reason. My PC connects fine with it's ethernet connection, but I can't get anything to connect through the wireless connection.

If anyone knows anything about a Linksys Wireless G Broadband Router and why wireless devices would be able to access the network, but not the internet, could you give me a clue? I'm getting pretty desperate.

I powercycled (turned off) my TiVo overnight to see if it would fix my remote control problem. Nope. That means I have to get it replaced. And more than likely, that means I'll lose all that I've recorded on it, all my wishlists, all my season passes, etc. I'll have to start from scratch. At least I'll finally be caught up.

But worse than all that, I won't have a TiVo for a while! Before I bundle it up, I'll write an extended "What's on TiVo?" blog entry that includes all the movies waiting to be watched, all the season passes and all the wishlist items. Then when I get the replacement, I'll know how to set it up again.

Gosh golly gee... my TiVo is acting up. I'm on hold with TiVo technical support right now. Haven't talked to anyone yet... just holding. It's a long distance call, too. It shouldn't be, but their toll free number has a ladyvoice on it. Instead of pressing numbers to go through a menu, you have to speak to the ladyvoice, and she interprets what you say. To speak to a person, you're supposed to say Live Agent. Then she says, "To direct your call to the right live agent, tell me more about your problem." Then, no matter what you say, she tells you she can't understand you. Then she gives you a not toll free number to call a live agent. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. In case you're wondering what the TiVo problem is... my remotes aren't working right with the TiVo. They both work fine with the TV, but to do anything to the TiVo, I have to press each button several times. It's very irritating. It's even like that if I stand 2 inches away from TiVo. I'm sick about it. I've followed all the troubleshooting tips, but those are for remotes that don't work at all. I might have to mail it to them to get it fixed. What a pain in the buttski. At least I still have my TiVo box. So the pain continues... barely anything goes right at work, and now things are starting to fall apart at home.

But I had a great dinner (meatloaf and mock potato casserole), and my puppy dog is cool as can be. I guess if TiVo crapping out is my only problem at home, I should still consider life to be [at this point the TiVo guy answered the phone]... I was going to say I should still consider life to be great! And it is. Anyway...

The TiVo guy went through a bunch of troubleshooting things, but to no avail. The last thing is to powercycle overnight. That's a technical term for "turn it off overnight." You know how much I hate it when they make up complicated words for simple things. If the powercycle thing doesn't work, then I need to call them back tomorrow to get information on how to exchange it. Damn... I hope it works. I have soooo many movies all saved up to watch. Boo Hoo.

But just to reiterate... if this is the only problem, life is great!

What an awful week. I hope I can get a lot of rest and relaxation in this weekend. I've been more frustrated with my job in the last few weeks than I have in a very long time. I love my job, but we're upgrading our server and the application I've been working on doesn't work on that server. I'm really struggling, and no one I work with has the expertise to be able to give the answers. By that I mean they are learning, too. I have 100 things to do to get this application to work, and in the 8 hours I worked today I got 1 thing to work. And that felt like a miracle.

Anyway... enough gritching... What's for supper? I'm starvin'!

I still have a remnant of the headache from earlier today. It could come back... sometimes they do. As the day went on today, I started feeling sweaty. "Oh no," I thought, "I'm getting even more sick." But no... I looked at my thermostat... 80 degrees. Something is wrong with my air conditioner. Joy.

You know there's something really wrong when your dial up modem connection is 300,000 times faster than your cable modem connection. C'mon Roadrunner... you're always so reliable... two nights in a row with an unusable internet connection???

I am a reluctant dial up user at the moment.

I am sooo pissed off. I had to go get a new smiley to adequately portray how pissed off I am:

My (ex)favorite morning radio show (who will not get any promo out of this from me) revealed major spoilers for the new Harry Potter book. I knew I'd end up getting spoilers before I read it given that I'm waiting for the paperback, but the thing that makes me oh so very angry is that they did it just to be mean. They gave spoilers to intentionally spoil the book for those who haven't finished it yet.

The impression I got is that they have issues with adults reading a children's book. I don't really consider the Harry Potter books to be children's books, but whatever.

One of the people even made a comment that if you're an adult and haven't finished the book in five days, you have even more problems. As if slow readers are idiots who deserve to have the book spoiled. I can guarantee if I had bought the book at midnight Friday night, I'd still be reading it. I'm a slow reader.

One guy called up to complain, and they berated him for it. One of the deejays said it was their duty to bring idiots like him to the attention of the other listeners.

This is just unbelievable to me. They've always been very sensitive to their listeners. Maybe their ratings are so low that they have to resort to insulting tactics to get more listeners. I dunno. Maybe they will get more listeners. But not before they lose one of their faithful... me.

I had predicted that house hunting with someone else would be problematic. I was hoping I was being overly pessimistic, but I wasn't. The things I want in a house are being dismissed. Not once has my house hunting partner acknowledged that we should get a house we both like. He has, however, let me know what he wants and tried to talk me out of what I want. I'm not asking for the stars. Just to live in a better place than I'm living now. And for some kind of acknowledgement that what I want matters.

I bought some blank CD-Rs yesterday that look so cool. They look like vinyl records:



Unfortunately... they're crap!

The first one I tried to burn gave me an error. The second one got through the burning process okay, but when I play it back, there's bad static. Grrrrr.

The thing that's fishy is the recording surface is black. Maybe there's some other kind of CD burner that can deal with them. Or maybe they're really crap. I dunno.

I found some more at Verbatim.com. I have a suspicion that those will work. Maybe I'll order some and find out...