I just got back from my normal Wednesday night outings, and I found out what 87 octane fuel is priced right now:
$3.49/gallon
I'm not going to be traveling for a very long time because of this. :(
Yeah, I know. It sounds stupid and even a bit whiny, but I'm getting a bit tired of it. People seem to think that being a complete and utter jerk and treating me like less than crap is a good way to make them look good. I don't know if they think they're being funny, or if they're just too blind to see that they're being jerk-like, but it's getting rather old.
I'm not the coolest person in the world. I'm not the smartest, or most pop-savvy, but I am just as much of a person with feelings as they are.
What am I to do? Shrug it off? Dish it back at them? Call them out in front of everyone and risk looking like a cry-baby?
Words can't describe this.
After another wasted night fighting with the "quality" internet connection that Comcast has given me, I have sent the following message the sales associate I have dealt with over the last year.
Jeff, I have been pretty happy with the Insight service over the last year. It has been reliable and I haven't had to place a call ever about the quality of service. However, this last week has been absolutely miserable. I'm not sure how much of the technical end you are involved in, or how much you know about it, but please allow me to explain my frustration. My setup here at home hasn't really changed any. I have the Motorola Surfboard modem that I purchased from Insight when I first signed up. Also, I am still using the same Linksys WRT-54GL router that I was using when I first signed up. Over the last week, my internet connection has been dropping randomly for no reason, even though my router has maintained 100% uptime. Sunday night sometime, my IP address changed from a 74.0.0.0 IP to a 98.0.0.0 IP. With this IP address change, I have noticed increasingly more drops in service, as well as poor transfer speeds. I called the support line tonight, and after waiting for nearly 20 minutes to speak with someone, I was told that I really should have been assigned the 98.0.0.0 IP, and that with that aside, everything was fine. The technician issued a hard reboot for my modem and told me to try resetting my router as well. I did, and the unstable service has remained. This is a problem for me, as I rely on a stable internet connection. I have told you about this before; My day job is technical support for web hosting, but I also do server administration and systems development. With this industry, I often work from home in the off hours. When the service drops if I'm shelled into a remote server making configuration changes, I lose a lot of work and can find the server really messed up afterward. For my job, we have a private IRC server on our office network (not Comcast/Insight related). I will connect to this server from home so I can monitor the happenings at the office, as do several of the other staff members. When my service drops, I notice that their service also drops, suggesting to me that it is an issue with the "node" of the Comcast network we are on. As I said, I have been pretty satisfied with the Insight service over the past year. I do understand that with changes to such a massive system as a the WAN that composes the Lafayette Comcast network, comes some headache. However, this sort of thing is getting really tiring. Along with this, the Comcast customer services have been absolutely depressing. When I was finished talking with the technician on the phone, he transferred my call to billing so I could ask about an issue with my invoices for February. After waiting for another 15 minutes on hold, I received a message saying "we can't take your call right now, please try another time." I decided to seek out a contact form on the Comcast website, but to my dismay, the form wouldn't work at all. With that and the technician telling me I shouldn't have the IP address I've been assigned by DHCP, I'm not very impressed. I have to admit, Jeff, I am actively seeking out alternatives to the Comcast service. I am nearly ready to contact Verizon about their 3Mbps DSL service, as other co-workers have reported nothing but absolute stability with it, even though it is 7Mbps slower than the Comcast offering. Is there anything you can give me to get through this? I'm not talking about financial compensation necessarily, but something has to give. I can't afford to be without internet service, but I also can't afford to cripple a server or system I'm working on. Even if you can talk with someone about getting me assigned to a different network node somehow (it's a long shot, I know), it would be some sort of progress. I look forward to your reply. -Tim
I was listening to Pandora Radio at work one day, and a song by Kasey Chambers came on. The song was "Wayward Angel", and I really liked the sound of it. I have since found other songs by Kasey Chambers, and I enjoy them a lot.
I know, I know... It's not really the normal country music style though. She has almost a Sarah McLachlan sound, with just a little twinge of country.
Last night at midnight, Comcast decided to switch the netblock for this area. After having a 74... IP address for over a year, they decided it would be neat to switch to a 98... IP address. What's more, this new IP range is new to everyone around the world. A lot of servers aren't configured to handle it properly, which can cause some nasty problems. Luckily, I haven't found this to be true yet, but I'm not the least bit skeptical.
Oh yeah, I keep getting my connection dropped, too. I have no idea why they're doing it, but I'll just randomly get kicked off everything for a split second. This is going to make watching streaming media a massive pain.
Oh well, they've been giving me all the channels in the basic non-digital cable package as a mistake of their own. I've e-mailed them about it and they said it would be fixed, but it's not. At least I'm not getting billed for it.
...nope. Doctor said it's just the flu.
There have been a couple different illnesses circulating around the office. One of the first was the typical stomach flu, which started last Monday. I was able to narrowly avoid that, but now I seem to have caught some bronchitis-like bug that's also going around.
What really sucks about this, is that it's so contagious. I didn't think it would be, but people whom I've just been around briefly seem to have contracted it. It takes about 48 hours to germinate, but after that it's such a horrible feeling. The one guy at the office started showing signs of it last Wednesday, and yesterday he was still fighting with it, though not as bad.
I've had it since Monday. It started with a dry throat feeling and light cough. Tuesday it went up a notch, so I just worked from home. Wednesday, I barely had my voice, and was fighting off a 99° temperature. This morning when I got out of bed, I had a 101° temperature, and I could barely speak. My fever has been like a roller coaster ride today. Since about noon it's been holding steady around 99°.
I'm just so ready to be done with this. I guess it's my body's way of saying, "Hey jerkwad! You've been pushing me too hard for the last year, so I'm making you take a break."
This should all be done now. Anyone who ever used wb.skudd.com or gm.skudd.com for anything, please note that it's in propagation as we speak. Otherwise, everything should be back to normal. If you find anything broken, you know how to get a hold of me.
Sometime in the next 36 hours, all activity on this server will be suspended as we migrate accounts to a newer, better server. The downtime should be minimal, so please be patient.
So I saw this ad on Facebook for a free Macbook Air. I am always skeptical about such offers, but I figured I'd see what kind of scams this one was working from. It's really kinda funny:
In order to receive your gift you must: (1) Meet the eligibility requirements, (2) register with us including providing accurate and current contact information, (3) agree to our Privacy Policy governing our use of your information, (4) complete and continue through our survey, (5) agree to register, participate in and satisfy the requirements for 16 sponsor offers as described in the "Gift Rules" that require sampling and purchasing products of interest, and (6) follow redemption instructions as described in the "Gift Rules." Available offers will vary. Completion of sponsor offers may require applying for and/or receiving offers of credit and/or loans or similar services.
Again, I think it's really funny that they would make such an offer with such blatant terms of spamming.
If you live or plan to live in the Lafayette, Indiana area and have experience with Windows, Linux, DNS, and web hosting, you should really check out these openings. We have a good number of openings right now, and it's one of the most relaxed work environments you'll come across.
So yeah, stop searching Google for "Linux support jobs", and head over to the Touch Support jobs portal and submit yourself.
I work there, so it must be good! :P
So I found out something a bit odd today... We were talking at work about hair, so I figured I'd show everyone my creepy mullet, and I shared the URL in the office IRC channel. After I did, one of the new guys asked me what my handle from NewOrder was. After I told him, I asked who he was. Lo and behold, I now work with AZTEK.
Small: The world is it.
Okay, this is just a general notice to anyone who is considering or has urged me to seek other employment:
I work hard, and I work a lot. That doesn't mean I hate my job.
I'm not earning a 6-figure income. Money doesn't drive me.
I grumble from time to time about things that happen at work. Every job will be that way.
I'm just getting really tired of everyone suggesting that because I'm not driving a brand new car and because I have to live by a budget that I need to find a "better" job. I'm happy where I am, even though it's not the greatest pay in the world, and even though the position has its headaches.
Furthermore, just because several of my peers are moving on to other places of work, it doesn't mean I need to as well. They are finding that there is a position elsewhere that will better suit their needs; That doesn't mean it will suit my needs.
So please, stop urging me to leave my job because you think I'm unhappy.