Two days so far without an Internet connection

We had a storm the other night, and I lost my Internet connection at home. It's still out. I call Comcast, and they can't tell me when it will be fixed. Nor do they even have a clue. As a matter of fact, when you talk to them, they do everything possible to avoid actually giving you information.

I called AT&T today about signing up there, but it's a minimum of 5 days before they can set anything up, and to make it worse, I have to buy phone service through them as well in order to get Internet service. I don't want any phone service. I only want my cell phone, but in order to get Internet access, I end up having to pay an ungodly amount of money for services I don't want or need. And they couldn't just give me the prices. They had to get my "information" about everything. They "needed" my old phone number, even though I'm not going to change my phone number. They just HAD to have it in order to "help" me. God, I hate these companies.

I'd cut off my Internet, my cable and my phone today if I didn't have to do a stupid web page for someone in California. She's the ONLY reason I'm stuck with Internet service that I really don't need.

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Connected to the world

Last night there was a huge storm in the Grand Rapids area. It was one of those thunderstorms that are somewhat freakish and unannounced. Anyway, at one point, the storm knocked out my Internet connection. My connection is supplied through Comcast, and when I called they, of course, indicated that the problem MUST be on my end. Talk about memories of Western Michigan University's incompetent techs. Anyway, I indicated that I knew exactly what the problem was, and they said there were no outages in my area, so it had to be me. Right. So, I had no Internet connection until about 10pm. Then it was for about an hour until it remained off until the morning. Well, actually, through the morning because I still haven't been able to connect on the Internet from home.

This got me thinking seriously about just dumping Comcast completely. There's a huge push by AT&T out here to take some thunder from Comcast, and Comcast's response was to raise our rates for everything from cable to Internet service. My price for cable and Internet (often referred to as "highway robbery") is about $185. Yeah, I'm not kidding.

I began to explore how much I really use Comcast. Yeah, I have ALL the movie channels, but I rarely watch them. Come to think of it, I rarely watch television anyway. So, I'm thinking of dumping Comcast completely.

This means going back to AT&T, at least for the present. I don't really need super fast speed for my connection because I'm not really playing any online games anymore. Yeah, World of Warcraft from time to time, but not enough to justify paying tons of money for a strong, fast connection. I spend most of my time surfing the web for no particular reason. I'm kind of lost on the Internet these days as it no longer has the allure it had when I first started using it. If it wasn't for one client I still have for maintaining her Web site, I'd have very little reason to substantiate an Internet connection. Yes, my phone service is Vonage, which is over the Internet, but so few people call me that my cell phone can easily pick up that slack.

So why keep Comcast? I don't know. I can't figure out why I still maintain this overly expensive account. I'm not even sure I need a replacement service, like AT&T. I started thinking that if I needed to I could burn the files to upload for the Web site to a CD and then take in my laptop to a coffee shop and then ftp the files there without EVER having to pay for an Internet connection. Sure, it would mean less flexibility at home when it comes to an online presence, but would it really make that much of a difference? Is there anything going on in my life online that needs me linked to the web 24/7? I don't think so.

As for entertainment, I watch a lot of dvds. I don't really need a cable connection these days. Yeah, I'd like the option to watch CNN or Fox News, but to be honest, while having a strong cable connection, I rarely do watch them. I don't watch anything except for television shows that I'm very attached to, like Veronica Mars, Numbers, Sci Fi Fridays, Cold Case, Smallville and Lost. But the season is over. All I'll get now is reruns for the entire summer. And in the past, I used to watch most of these shows when they released on dvd. That's why I have a Netflix account. I'm finishing watching Deadwood right now, and I got the whole second season by renting the dvds. So, why the need for a cable connection?

Maybe it's just vanity. When I was at Western Michigan University, I had a crappy cable system and little option to get anything better. So, when I moved out to Grand Rapids, I was overjoyed at being able to get things like the Sci Fi Channel. I couldn't get that before. So I could then watch Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica as they aired new shows. I got to spend Fridays with my friend Jason watching these shows when they premiered. But to be honest, cable hasn't really offered me all that much beyond that. Everything I can get with cable, I've been able to find on dvd, if not more through dvds.

So this leaves me at a crossroads with a decision to make. Should I maintain my current service, assuming Comcast fixes the whole Internet thing, and pay ridiculous prices, or should I just dump practically everything, and pay almost nothing. The solution, from a cost-benefit analysis seems pretty simple. But when has anything in my life ever been simple?

On other fronts, I'm still working on a synopsis for my novel, The Ameriad. Once that's done, I'll be sending it to the agent from Writer's House who wants to look at the first 50 pages. I tried to finish it last night, but it was getting late while I was working on it, so it will probably be finished tonight and sent out tomorrow.

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Consolidating things...

This isn't something I've done in a long time, but I've been going through all of my stuff and seeing what to keep and what to get rid of. I've realized I have too much junk in my life, and why I'm keeping it is unknown to me.

So, I've been going through and finding books and then putting them up on Amazon.com for sale. Granted, it takes someone looking for one of those books to actually buy it, but hey, it's better than just having them sit on a shelf.

I sold my Xbox today, too. I had listed it on Craigslist for $100, to include 6 games. I mean, I never played with the thing. I tried it out when I got it, and then I just realized that a console system just isn't my thing. So, someone came by today, gave me $100 and now he has something I never used.

I am considering doing the same thing with my Playstation 2. I never use it either. I just haven't made that decision yet.

I cleaned out one of my laptops, and as soon as I can find the right place, I'm going to list it for $200-300. It's a pretty nice laptop, and it should get at least that.

In other news, I received my first favorable response from an agent on The Ameriad. So, today or tomorrow, I should have a synopsis ready and then the first 50 pages. I'll fire that off, and hopefully this novel will be closer to finding a home.

That's it for now.

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Old friendships that just fade

A very close friend of mine is a fellow writer. She and I had been through a lot together, and we remained strong friends during lots of trying times. She made a bit of success in her writing career, and then she kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Well, I found her a couple of years ago on a livejournal site, and I tried to get back in touch with her, leaving her messages and commenting on her journal. Nothing. After about two years of this, I've finally decided to give up on her. I didn't really want to, but after a certain time you end up having to cut your losses and just move on.

I've been kind of dealing with that sort of thing in a lot of different avenues in my life. A number of people who used to be close just aren't even that interested in maintaining communication. I attempted to continue the conversations, but I found it to be a very one-way situation, unless they actually wanted something from me. A friend I've known for my entire time in Michigan tends to ignore contacts from me unless something comes up and he needs my assistance. I've decided to cut him off.

There are a couple of other grad students I have known from Western that I'm starting to close off as well. These are the people who "promise" to keep in touch. At least three of them travel to or live in Grand Rapids, and we promised to keep in touch and get together. Nothing. Nothing at all from them. No returns of messages, emails or smoke signals. One of them I ran into while teaching (she had promised to keep in touch before I moved, but didn't communicate until we were both teaching at the same place). After I quit teaching, she told me she'd definitely keep in touch. Nothing.

So, I've decided not to care anymore. If people are going to cut me off, then I'm going to cut them off as well. I'm really tired of trying to maintain relationships with people who don't return the sentiment, until we run into each other by accident.

There are a few people I still maintain contact with from WMU, and I'm glad to still be friends with them. Everyone else can kiss my sorry butt, as they say in France. By the way, if you happen to be reading this post, you can kind of count on the fact that you're not one of the people that comment was directed at.

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Sometimes the cheaters get what's coming to them

The ownage in question.

We all have heard stories where someone has gotten ripped off on the Internet, especially with Ebay. I, too, have been ripped off before by someone pretending to sell something he wasn't really selling. I think we all go through it at one time or another if you've done at least 100 transactions. (my guy got me about 150 transactions in)

Anyway, in this case, some guy named Amir ripped off some other guy with a laptop that was defective, and not even up to the speeds he claimed it was. Well, he accidentally left some important information on the hard drive, and let's just say that the story has now gotten VERY interesting. Please read the link to understand what I'm talking about. It's pretty funny.

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Updating current status

I guess now that I'm back on Blogger, it's probably a good idea to update what's going on. It's been over a year since I last blogged here, and since then I've been traveling back and forth to different blogs, never really finding comfort with any one place. I liked Xanaga because it gave me the ability to include links to books I'm reading and music I'm listening to, but aside from that, I didn't really like it because it didn't really give me the opportunity to feel like I was part of a community.

I guess that's the problem with blogging these days. I'm older than I used to be, and the whole Internet crowd seems to be younger people who seem to have different priorities and interests than I do. I run into the same problem on the IGN boards where I'm a moderator. I have a lot in common with people there, but I'm much older than most of them, so sometimes it is easy to forget that I'm often having conversations with people who are 18 or 19 years old. Sometimes it is hard to make an intellectual connection in such a circumstance (not because of age but because of similar perspective).

But now I'm back on blogger.com.

Recently, I completed either my 11th or my 12th novel (depending on how I count them). It's called The Ameriad, and it's probably my most ambitious work to date. It is a humorous Greek epic involving the founding of America after the end of the Trojan War. I am very happy with it. Now, it's just a matter of trying to get someone to read it, and then publish it.

I sent out one of my plays, Memories of Freedom, the other day and received a response that it was received by the reader. One can only hope.

This evening, I went out with a few friends and watched X-Men 3. It was better than I expected, as the critics weren't very impressed with it. I thought it did what it needed to do well, and I enjoyed it.

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It's been a long time

I know it has been a long time since I last posted on this blog, but I've decided I'm going to start posting on it again. It doesn't really matter that no one knows where this blog is. I figure no one is actually reading my other blog entries, so why not stick with a server that is actually my own, instead of using Xanga, Myspace, IGN and all those others that no one actually pays any attention to?

I'm probably going to be doing a lot of reworking of this page, as I want a completely different look. I didn't like how the old style was, and I'll probably end up going with a somewhat different conceptual concept as well.

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My recent picture

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