Willisburg.org

I still have no name for what’s ailing me. However, I do seem to be improving in spots due to some of the things I’ve taken on doing as of late in an attempt to improve things. It’s been an interesting week and a half.

The central heat and air unit’s been replaced, so we have proper climate control again. Yay. Unfortunately it doesn’t change the fact that I have no income and no money, and no remaining way to pay bills. This month is going to be the worst yet, and at the rate of improvement, it’ll be at least another month before I’m employment stable again. It’s going to be a long road ahead, and I won’t deny that I’m quite worried.

My parents are leaving in a couple days, and I’m still not entirely sure how to thank them for everything they’ve done. I just wish more could be done.

I haven’t had much time in front of the computer lately due to either being in no shape to sit in front of it for any length of time or colliding with my parents. I’m glad the computer has been moved downstairs, but at the same time I wish it had waited a bit longer because it’s now located in the same room they’re sleeping in while here. Not that it matters much, I still have no scanner and no fully suitable OS to use as of the moment.

Comcast finally dropped a temporary line last week after I went down to the office and threatened to terminate the service. At least it still works on a local level. I’ve caved and will be paying now, but I’m going to dangle their feet over the coals once it’s fully resolved again regarding an appropriate discount for all the grief come next billing cycle.

I’ve been trying to do a dry run of the PC-BSD install on a temp hard drive using 0.7.8 just to get my feet wet. Networking wound up being a minor trial due to FreeBSD 5.4 not supporting the native nForce2 network card on my A7N8X-X motherboard. Easy fix after tossing in an old Netgear PCI card.

Nazlan’s attempting to put together a rather sweet bundle of first edition AD&D books for an Ebay auction. It looks like we’ve got quite the complete collection sitting here ranging from hardcover to softcover expansions, and includes four or five penned by Gygax himself. It’s just a shame we don’t have a first edition of the player’s guide. I think we may have accidentally sold it a few months back, but on the bright side, this would be a great DM’s book collection. Certainly there’s got to be someone out there who’s itch this would scratch.

Anyway, it’s late and I’m tired. Maybe I’ll be able to post more regularly once Friday comes around. I know I’ve got a lot on my mind, mostly technology related, and I’d like to get it out…

I really don’t have much to say today. I wish I did. I’m not even sure why I’m bothering to post.

I’m still attempting to get everything in line for the great overhaul on the system. The only problem is, the computer is in the same room as where my parents are sleeping. Combine that with no internet connection during the day… it’s a… a rough situation right now. And yes, it’s still not fixed. Tomorrow will have the grand wrath rained upon the heads of Comcast at the local office. I’m sick of this crap.

I’ve decided that getting the scanner working again *will* have to wait for the reinstall, like it or not. I feel like a heel because I’ve not been able to even complete posting old stuff to the American Blender site, let alone get started on new stuff. Shameful.

On the positive side of things, I’ve enjoyed spending time with my dad lately.

I’m less than twelve hours from my parents showing up, and I can’t sleep. Instead, I’m sitting here typing and doing more laundry than I care to talk about. I think load 14 is in the wash right now. It’s funny how much laundry will build up on you when you only wash necessities and you hide the rest in the closet.

I called Comcast again and stuck with my guns on the subject of service and billing. It’s funny how the Comcast bill is the only bill this house receives that requires payment for services in advance. Granted, I could be wrong as Dude handles the DirecTV bill, but I still find it interesting. While on the phone, one of the operators tried to inform me that I owed in excess of $120 on the account (two months worth of service due to my habit of waiting two weeks normally into the billed month to pay for financial leverage in just such a situation). I countered the argument with the simple question, “If I told you to close my account this minute, and you subtracted the credit to my account for the failed service that’s lasted a quarter of the month and counting, how much would I owe you?”

If you answered $120, you’re smoking crack and/or a Comcast accountant. The real answer is less than $30, the point was made, the phone lackey transferred me to their dispatch department for follow-up on getting the cable replaced where I talked with a bland individual who promised to call me back shortly after talking with a local area repair manager. That was around 12:45pm, August 20, after a 97 minute phone call with three transfers and enough hold time to realize that Comcast only has 30 seconds of hold noise. The only time the phone rang since then was when my mother called to inform me that they arrived in Little Rock safely.

I informed them quite bluntly that I won’t pay them another month’s worth of service until the problem is resolved, and if they terminate the account for non-payment before they fix the issue, the account will stay closed and they’ll get the last $30 they’ll ever see from me for two weeks of service. It should be less since the problem actually started around the beginning of the month, but I never called it in before last Sunday. Apparently the concept of keeping their customers happy has become a foreign one, even with the long-term customers (six years). This outage stretch has gotten to the point of switching providers inconvenient, and every morning I get up to try checking my mail and finding the connection that was working a few hours earlier now dead pushes me that much closer towards doing just that. I tried having patience with them initially after finding out the problem since it actually wasn’t their fault, but one of my “neighbors” doing some worthless landscaping and randomly digging in an area they shouldn’t have. But they know now, it’s a major service line, it’s their property, and they’ve already missed the deadline they promised it’d be fixed by.

A tiny vein at the base of my occipital lobe ruptures in a fit of blind rage. My eyesight goes black moments before I collapse on the floor where I start asking who finished the last of the… uh… bagel. You know, bagel. Hot. Brown. Liquid? Bagel. As I quietly lie there blind, angry, and stroking out, my lampshade wanders off and wonders what ever happened to Reed Diamond. Suddenly it hits me like a TV cop’s banana wearing brass knuckles exactly how ironic this situation is, just as I lose hamburger….