I'm at google today
2008.01.17 18.45
I shall have a longer entry later to share with you about my trip to Google headquarters today. I took 6 meetings over the phone during my 6 hour ride here so I've been productive in that respect. More to come.comcast the first stone
2008.01.12 11.25
I am annually challenged to tussle with my cable service provider over the matter of cost. Whlle there are some televisions shows that I enjoy watching on occassion, I probably view less than 3 percent of what's on. Paying full price for cable is for suckers, I say. I have yet to figure out how to get a 97 percent discount, but that doesn't mean I can't get close. This year's journey began with an unexpected twist. My ebill showed up on January 9th with a due date of January 2nd. Not cool. The bill includes both cable and high speed Internet service and normally clocks in at 100 bucks. This ebill was for frickin $150! I was able to delay the payment even though I have my online bill pay set up to pay these right away. I called up Comcast and entered my phone number. "You were not found" was the terse reply. I eventually got someone on the phone. For 30 minutes this woman was unable to locate me by name, by account number, or by address. She had a weird Latin American accent that I couldn't place. This made her understanding anything I said a huge problem. I started to talk with the same accent that she had before long in the hope she could decipher my words. No such luck. She also sucked at typing which compounded my frustration. When the half hour mark rolled around she decided on her own that she couldn't help me. Well, duh! She then asked, "is there anything else I can help you with?" WTF does that mean? "Exactly what else can you do?" I asked. Silence. I know they have to say those words in lieu of something a normal person would say like "holla back!" or "yo I gots ta go!" She eventually admitted that there was actually nothing she could do to help me. I then hung up and called back. The guy I got on this try was right on the ball. He obviously skipped taking hits off the crack pipe. We dropped HBO and picked up an HD DVR while keeping my costs about the same for the next 12 months. I adjusted my ebill back down to $100 and sent it on its merry way after I got off the phone. I felt smug. I swapped out cable boxes on my way to work the next day. The nice smug feeling came back for another visit. The smug good times ended when *another* ebill popped up. This one was for a whopping $300! Not only did it fail to acknowledge my $100 payment from the previous day, I was also unable to stop this one from hitting my bank. So now they have a lot of my money. Ugh. Another call on Monday should solve the problem. I still hate them and their entertaining box full of... uhhh... entertainment.pasturama
2008.01.04 20.32
What up? Not much here. Friday night and my schedule is wide open. This morning I had my third visit from the condo maintenance dude. When I dropped off my rent check a few days ago I included my list of grievances... which aren't that impressive. The list included where to find my burned out lightbulbs, complaints about sticky and / or loose doors, information about a light pull cord that I accidentally ganked out, and a wish that I had instructions for using my mysterious alarm system. As of this morning every problem is solved! The closet light has been on for something like six months. Darkness! I can go goth again, now.I'm watching adult swim's Lucy: The Daughter of the Devil. Brilliant! Abstract CGI is pretty cool. Is it wrong to like this show? I'm in Minnesota -- why am I asking?
movies you should see
2008.01.03 23.57
I was thinking about posting a review about two films that I recently enjoyed, but instead I'm just going to tell you. JUNO and I AM LEGEND are really, really good! If you like laughing or having the crap scared out of you then these are the films for you. I'm told that since I like JUNO so much that I ought to watch the television series Arrested Development as it stars a number of the actors in JUNO. Okay, noted. Let's see... what else to blog about? I'm going to have to cut this one short since I'm 4 hours behind on doing a build for one of my projects. I've been distracted by such notable events as when my girlfriend ''accidentally'' racked me while making wild hand gestures and then ''accidentally'' tossed a piece of orange at my eye while pealing an orange. Joy! My eye smells good, however. Bonus.the day in review
2008.01.03 4.23
My first day back to work happened with my arrival later than planned. I have a computer in my ''office'' connected 24/7 so I'm never far from the action -- or the inaction. I have a radical idea that I plan to implement which should set some people spinning. It's one of those ideas you have while you're staring at the wall and thinking with a blank look on your face. My girlfriend is not a fan of this look. I think she's told me that I look like I'm brain damaged whenever I'm doing a lot of internal thinking. Maybe so! All I have to say to that is... [long silence and blank stare].After work we stopped at Bachman's on Lyndale to pick up a new floral arrangement and have a look at a black Christmas tree that I've had my eye on for the last two months. The starting price was $640 -- which was wayyy too cost prohibitive for me considering I'm now entering my Pay The Taxes phase where I do a lot of whimpering and whining about The Man and Texas Taxes near the end of the month. I only had to pay $128 after everything was discounted. Very nice. I could tell you how I got the 80% discount -- but I won't! ''Hey, this tree has asbestos in it!'' Okay, I didn't say that. Here's the tree on Amazon. Am I going to put it up now that we're in January? Hells yes I am.
me so coldy
2008.01.02 11.52
revisionism
2008.01.01 19.54
I see that my proofreading skills need some brushing up on based on last night's hasty entry. To quickly recap... The dinner at Heidi's was great in that the company was so entertaining. I learned that the usual New Years fireworks show had been canceled due to lack of public interest. Not a shock considering it was 5 degrees Celsius outside. The food arrived a full hour after we ordered. Unfortunately,, however, it was nothing to blog about. Since I'm blogging anyway, I will say that the lobster was rubbery and the pheasant was bland. Meh. After Samantha and I adjourned at 11:30 PM, we popped over into St. Paul where we hung out with one of Sam's lifelong friends. I didn't manage to advertise my Real World site to he childrens... err... the attendees. Campus police kicked us out after 1 AM. Quiet hours were to blame. Lame! We headed back into Minneapolis and called it a night.
