AT&T DSL really stinks in my area

I had to stay home for a while instead of going to work. I've been having trouble with my AT&T DSL line, and their tech support staff said that they must send someone into my home in order to fix the problem.

I tell you, those people can be very aggravating. I complained about this problem last week, and back then, they also said that they needed to send someone into my home. I pointed out that for the past several times this has happened, the problem has always been with the junction box across the street. Perhaps they should check that out first?

So they did, and then they left me a phone message stating that the problem was fixed. Well, it wasn't. I got on the line with them again, and they kept insisting that someone needs to enter my home. I said, "That would be problematic for me. Should I try replacing my router first?" They said, "Sure. Try that."

(I have more to say about that later. Suffice to say that these people don't know their stuff.)

Early the very next morning, I received a phone call, asking me to get in touch with AT&T immediately. When I called them, they said, "Oh, we just wanted to see how things turned out." That's what they considered to be urgent? Good grief, they didn't even give me time to go buy a router. Sheesh!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we determined that the problem is indeed with the junction box across the street -- again. Mind you, I had to coach the technician in order for us to arrive at this conclusion. He was all too quick to say that the problem was with my desktop computer. If I hadn't pointed out that my laptop wasn't getting Internet access either, I'm sure that he would have stuck with that conclusion.

AT&T, you stink.

Revisiting the idiot rubbernecker

I’m still fuming a bit about that driver that I mentioned earlier – the one who slowed down horribly, presumably to watch the accident scene. All the vehicles in front of her had taken off quickly enough that you could no longer see them, but this particular motorist decided to take her own sweet time.

That’s just incredibly stupid and rude. She knew full well that traffic was backed up behind her, and she surely saw that all the cars in front of her were making good time. Nevertheless, she just inched along; after all, her desire to rubberneck was surely much more important than other people’s desire to get through that traffic jam.

Sometimes I think that people like her shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

Idiot rubbernecker

I was late for my Saturday morning Hi-Lo cardio class. Traffic was horribly backed up on the interstate. I noticed this as I entered through the on-ramp, but by then, it was too late to try another route.

Some sort of accident had obviously occurred, based on the police cars that I saw. I didn’t see any ambulances, but I’m sure that they must have been there at some point. Traffic had been reduced to a steady one-lane trickle, and I was chomping at the bit; after all, I eagerly look forward to this cardio class every week. Besides, I needed the workout.

So I found myself behind this one vehicle. Its driver was inching forward very slowly, so I assumed that there must have been a great many vehicles in front of her. As we passed the accident site, she finally started to pick up speed and then moved to another lane.

I was shocked to find that there were no cars in front of her. None whatsoever! There was just an empty highway. Now, I know that there had been other vehicles there, so they must have all taken off a long time beforehand. It also meant that the motorist in front of me wasn’t driving slowly because of the traffic; rather, she was obviously rubbernecking, determined to get a good look at the accident scene.

A more charitable person might say, “Well, maybe she was driving slowly because of the snow.” The thing is, there was scarcely any snowfall on that morning. Oh, there was enough to possibly cause an accident, but remember, all the other cars managed to go fast enough that they were no longer visible on the highway. In contrast, the gal in front of me was moving at a glacial pace.

And she made me even more late. Cripes.

I am hungry

I’m getting hungry. I had a very light breakfast, and I need to go get something more substantial to eat. The thing is, I’m staying at the home of some friends as I visit them on vacation. I’m on my own as far as lunch goes, so I think I’ll take off and walk to Costco. It’s only a three-mile hike, and I could use the exercise.

Zibb?

Have you check out Zibb yet? It is one of the lesser known search engines, and this one is specifically geared for business-related searches. You can sidestep a great many irrelevant sites this way, including the dinky sites that people create just for fun.

J of A R

Here is a plug for the Journal of Alzheimer's Research. It is (to paraphrase their website) an international multidisciplinary journal that is designed facilitate progress in understanding the etiology, epidemiology, genetics, behavior, pathogenesis, treatment and psychology of Alzheimer's disease. It publishes research reports, reviews, short communications, hypotheses, book reviews, and letters-to-the-editor. The Journal of Alzheimer's Researchis dedicated to providing an open forum for original research that will expedite our fundamental understanding of Alzheimer's disease. Their list of online resources (conferencdes, links for researchers, and more) is pretty darned thorough.

Annie's Song

"Annie's Song" by John Denver has got to be one of the most hauntingly beautiful love songs of all time.

You fill up my senses
like a night in the forest
like the mountains in springtime,
like a walk in the rain
like a storm in the desert,
like a sleepy blue ocean
you fill up my senses,
come fill me again.

That's followed by:

Come let me love you,
let me give my life to you
let me drown in your laughter,
let me die in your arms
let me lay down beside you,
let me always be with you
come let me love you,
come love me again.

I want to go straight to the gym

I want to go to the gym as soon as I come back from my trip.

I need to build up my deltoids and my forearms. These are relatively weak spots for me, and I know that I’d look better if I had more muscle in those areas. I also think that I need to trim a few pounds of fat away from my midsection. I already have pretty strong abs, but I’d like to see them stand out more.

Yes, this is largely an issue of vanity. What can I say? I’m still single.

Bailey Quarters

I was telling some friends that I don’t normally go for glamorous women.

Y’see, a female friend of ours was showing us some photos of an old friend of hers. The woman had the figure of a Barbie doll, and our friend said that she looked like a total babe. Personally though, this woman didn’t appeal to me. First of all, while she had an outstanding figure, her face wasn’t that great. And second, I don’t normally go for the glamour gals. Rather, I tend to like the next-door girl kind of appeal.

That’s why I liked Bailey Quarters a lot more than Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP. To be fair, Jan Smithers, the actress who played Bailey, was a great deal more beautiful than your typical girl next door. Nevertheless, this shows how a certain wholesome appeal can be many times more attractive than bombshell good looks.

She's making a mistake

One of my friends is making a huge, huge mistake.

She was set up with this fella on a date not long ago. After just ten weeks, they got engaged. They planned to get married only 14 weeks after that. That’s way too quick, especially for someone who tends to be as careless with dating as she is.

This woman exercises very poor judgment. By and large, the guys she has dated have been deceitful or otherwise had poor character. Despite her beauty, she seems almost desperate to have the company of a man, and that is frustrating.

The guy she picked seems to be pretty decent in comparison to the men that she has previously dated. However, he does not have integrity, and he should also have known that this relationship developed way too quickly. It is not a good thing.

Free Public WiFi? No!

Please don't fall for those "Free Public WiFi" networks at airports. These are just ad hoc networks that are transmitted from one laptop to another, and they don't actually constitute a free service. They do not help, and they could conceivably be used to infiltrate your computer.

If only...

I am wishing for certain things in my life. I wish that things had turned out very differently, and I am deeply saddened that they did not.

I don’t want to talk about specifics right now. Let’s just say that I wish things were different.

I could also use some more human contact today.

Laboratory instrumentation

I heartily recommend BioTek instruments. Okay, so strictly speaking, I only have experience with their plate stackers, and I have heard that their plate washers perform well. I can tell you, however, that I was pleased with the mechanical design of their stackers, and that they seem to be pretty darned reliable. They even have USB versions of these stackers now, which is a great big plus.

Marital problems

A close female friend of mine is having some marital issues. That really bothers me. I want nothing but the best for her.

She’s wondering if she married the right guy. Personally, I think that she did pick correctly. She did pick well. I wish that she would come to terms with that.

She is one of my closest friends of all time, and I want her to be nothing but happy. I feel for her. Very much so.

More on dancing

I attended a 60s/70s-themed dance event recently in which a live band was used. I had predicted that the use of a deejay would have been preferable, and frankly, I think I was right. Here’s why.

70s dance music was dominated by disco, and very few bands can play disco music. You’d be hardpressed to find a band that can play such standards as “YMCA” or “Disco Inferno,” for example.

As for 60s music, most of it was not really designed for dancing. By and large, for example, Beatles music wasn’t meant for dancing. There were exceptions such as “Twist and Shout,” but that was not originally a Beatles tune. Don McLean alluded to the non-dancing nature of the Fab Four’s music when he wrote about the sargents playing a marching tune.

You could still dance to a lot of non-disco 70s music, just like you can still dance to a lot of non-dance 60s music. However, they weren’t really designed for dancing, and so the decision to have a live band was somewhat misguided.

Dancing

I was talking to this female friend about dancing recently. She knew that I’ve tried my hand at swing dancing, and she said, “Yeah, you get me on the dance floor and I’ll be jitterbugging through the night.”

So I asked, “By ‘jitterbug,’ do you mean east coast swing? Or do you just mean…?”

She snapped a bit and said, “You don’t have to get technical! Lighten up!” I think that was uncalled for. I just wanted to understand what she meant.

Sadly, when most people talk about dancing, they just mean getting out there to twist, shake and sway to the music. There’s nothing inherently wrong about that, but I think that people deprive themselves when they think in those terms. Another friend of mine says that she likes “real dancing”—that is, dancing in which you employ specific dance moves and styles. Anybody can shake it around, after all. Moving with deliberate musical purpose, on the other hand, takes more skill – and it is ultimately more satisfying.

The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.

I’ve been thinking about “The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.” lately. It was this short-lived children’s show from the 70s that had some off-the-wall Monkee-esque humor. This was no coincidence, as it turns out. Don Kirshner was involved in the production of both shows.

I read a “The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.” fanfic story recently. Like most fanfic, it was pretty bad. The story introduced a team of female C.A.P.E.R. kids, but these ladies served no useful purpose in the story. The whole story read like somebody’s daydream fantasies committed to paper, with no coherence or overall purpose.

I would love to see this show on DVD, though.

Jet lag

Can't sleep. Stupid jet lag. This is why I don't like to travel.

Almost blank

This post is almost blank. Not quite, though.

Kim Cloutier

Wow. Just... wow.