Wrong Number

08.02.2002

I like messing with people on the phone, especially telemarketers, so it's only natural for the phone to try and pay me back every once in a while. Last night I made it to bed at a decent hour (about 10:30) with hopes of getting a good nights sleep. I was sleeping pretty lite, when around 11:30 the phone rang.

Me:Hello?
Adolescent Voice:Is Charlie there?
Me: (after looking around)No.
Adolescent Voice:Can you get him to call JT when he gets in?
Me:If this was the right number I would.
Adolescent Voice::uhhhhh click.

Great, this woke me up more than it should have. After about a half hour I fall back to sleep. Until 1:30 in the morning.

Ring
Me:Hello?
Adolescent Voice:Is Charlie there?
Me:No. (See, I didn't even bother looking around this time, I knew he wasn't there)
Adolescent Voice::OK, when he gets in, canyou get hm to call JT?
Me:No.
Adolescent Voice::.... what?
Me:No.
Adolescent Voice::.... click

And then he didn't call back anymore. And I never really made it to a peaceful sleep after that. Dammit.

As I was laying there, I was wondering that if I still had caller id, it would be fun to get the number, then look up the address for whoever it was on the internet. From there, call back around 2:30 in the morning and complain to whoever was listening with an "I know where you live" threat behind it. But I don't have caller id anymore. Which is probably good, because it sounds like I'm evil.

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All Alone

08.01.2002

Today feels kind of weird. Jerry is off to Savannah to see his grandmother, who I will always remember as being this little, 3 foot tall woman at our high school graduation. She's not really that short, but she's a tiny woman. Probably has to do with being 400 years old. On top of that, Gina is gone to a funeral in Chattannoga for the father of a friend of hers today. These are the two people that I talk to or email on a daily basis. Now they're both incommunicado, and at the same time!

I bet this means I get a lot of work done.

Or, I'm completely free to goof off and no one will ever know.

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Stupid Programming Observation

07.31.2002

I noticed the silliest thing last night, which I ended up sharing with Jerry. We both work on websites, or doing some type of programming, the majority of every day (work with me, you know what I mean). How come that fingers don't get tired or cramped? I pop my fingers a lot, but I've always thought of that as more of a habit, not really anything that might releive pressure or loosen up my fingers. Granted, those fingers aren't moving a long distance, it's just a keyboard after all. But after typing day after day, my fingers just keep going. Is it some weird kieyboard friendly gene? Is typing the perfect finger workout, the equivalent of a sit-up, to where you can never do too many?

Obviously I've been looking at my fingers too much. Ooh, look, the Babe of the day!

There, much better.

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I'm Al Snow

07.30.2002

In a given week, I'll watch about 5 hours of wrestling on tv. Granted, I record it all first, so it takes closer to 2 hours once I get past all the commercials and boring matches, but I still try to watch enough to keep up with the story lines. TNN has started showing WWE Confidential on Saturday nights. It's different in that it gives a behind-the-scenes look at many of the wrestlers, many times where they openly talk about how the match results are predetermined, and most of the time the wrestlers break character and are just themselves.

This past week, they went to the home of Al Snow, self described pack rat. Al's got all kinds of stuff in his house, and most of it doesn't make any sense as to why he would have it. Barber chair, jukebox, prosthetic wooden leg, it's all just there, in the house. I was thinking how weird he must really be when the camera panned around and something caught my eye.

There on top of his mantle were action figures.

I have rows of figures atop my bookshelves at home. What a funny coincidence.

Then he was giving a speil about why he collects the odd things he does. And in the background, on the wall, was original comic art. Huh, I've got a wall or two of comic art. Then Al was showing off his comic book collection. It just so happened that the Spider Man he was flipping through for the camera, it was the last Spider Man trade paperback that I bought. Then it hit me: Oh god, I'm Al Snow.

Why Al Snow? Why can't I be cool like The Rock? The Russ has a nice sound. Why can't I be tough like Stone Cold? Wait, everybody's mad at him for leaving, never mind. Why can't I be a big, bad, biker like TheUndertaker? Maybe then I could find a bandana that would fit my head? But no, I'm Al Snow. I'm a loon.

But I should be glad that I'm Al Snow. It could be worse. I could be Raven or Perry Saturn and have to wear dresses (but if I were them, nobody would have the cajones to say anything about it). Or I could be X-Pac, then I would just suck.

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Ode of the Cable Modem

07.29.2002

About 3 weeks ago, I got a call one Saturday morning from my cable company (Charter Communications), where they were offering a special deal to install a cable modem. Living out in the boonies as I do, I had beenwaiting for the cable modem to make its debut in my area. I had given up about a year ago on using a regular modem. My connect speed was usually about 20Kbs, as opposed to the 56K the modem said it could handle. Along the way, I found that part of my problem was living in the boonies. Evidently the number of switching stations you have to go to before reaching a main line will affect your connect speed.

But I digress. I told them I would love to sign up for their cable modem service,especially since the special they were offering was for free installation and the first month was only $1! I told them to come on a Saturday, which the first available Saturday was the 27th, and scheduled it for the morning between 8:00 and 12:00.

Saturday was the 27th.

I ain't got no cable modem.

The call I recieved for the offer came form a regional office .I know this from a previous offer for digital cable from the same company. I had asked then (right before Christmas) about the cable modem, and they had to transfer me to find out if it wa available. I looked on my last bill to see if there was an 800 number for the main office, and it listed only the Athens office. I called and got a recordingof what numbers to press if I was having problems or an interruption in service. Even though I wasn't having any of those problems, I tried one of the numbers and got passed through to leaving a voice mail, which I opted to not do at the time.

This morning I thought I would check the Charter website to see if they had a customer service number. Nope. The have all my local numbers, and an email form to fill out for their customer service (do I want cable spam?). Whatever happened to 800 numbers?

So now I'm trying to decide what to do. Do I call the Athens office? Email the main office? Just forget about the whole thing? The monthly bill has on it the following:
If we are late for a service call, you will recieve $20 off your next bill. If we are late for an installation, you will recieve that installation free.
Well, I was already getting the free installation. I wonder if I can get the 2nd month service free?

So for now, I'm still stuck in the boonies, unconnected to the sweet, digital world. Wow, sounds like I should be grateful I've got indoor plumbing...

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