Mice in Space

Hi Autumn - don’t forget to take notes on Day of the Dead.

Are you prepared for when Zombis come? My friends at work and I were discussing this. What do you need? Where would you go? Would you try to save anyone or go it alone?

Three Days, Three Ways should have options for this eventual problem. There needs to be a Zombi kit.

In my opinion the right guns need to be owned:

• .30-06 Hunting Rifle
• P90
• M4
• MP5
• SPAZ 12

Funny how I didn’t have Speakeasy when I worked there but I have it now. Speakeasy came through for me and now I have fast internet again. I got daily updates and the installation was seamless and on time. I got the Onelink DSL (6Mbs/768kbs) so its on a “naked pair”. They also give a static IP address. Now I can play WOW and Xbox Live again.

Clearwire - let me count the ways I hate you. So I was a Qwest user for many, many years. I loved them. Then around November ‘07 the speed came crashing down. I went from 7Mbs to like 70kb! Everytime I would call I would get the same line: “Well the modem is synced at 7Mbps so that is what your getting”. It didn’t matter that their own speedtest tool (speedtest.qwest.net) showed I was getting 1/10th that.

Finally I had to move my home server to Slicehost and my mail over to google. I needed a new ISP. I would have gone to Comcast but I have Broadstripe (used to be Millennium Cable) in my area which is just slightly better than two cans and string.

I thought Clearwire was the ticket. It was GREAT for the first week and then it went to shit and stayed that way. I was getting 4,000ms ping times! I was seeing 80% packet loss. It took forever to just check my e-mail. After six weeks and escalating my ticket multiple times I was told, in March, it would be fixed in May! That was enough. I called them up to cancel and I have to pay a cancellation fee to get out of my contract (I know, my fault for signing one).

Even though they documented the crappy service they wouldn’t let me go for free. The customer person I was talking to was even arguing with me! Trying to convince me they have great service! She wanted me to transfer my service to someone else to avoid the early termination fee. I told her I wouldn’t wish Clearwire on my worst enemy. Their official line was since I was getting *some* connectivity they fulfilled their obligation since speeds are not guaranteed.

P.S. Fuck You Clearwire

Lately I have been having, what I consider, strange dreams.

A couple of nights ago I dreamed that I left my current job, Pelago, and went back to my previous job at Speakeasy. In my dream I regretted it and even met a co-worker out somewhere and we were talking about infrastructure changes and I pointed out I thought he was making a mistake and then he bluntly told me I didn’t work there anymore. I love working at Pelago and can’t imagine leaving anytime soon - maybe there is another meaning.

Last night I dreamt I was still at AT&T Wireless and was leaving to go to England for some reason. I was working with all my old friends and had to say goodbye to everyone - I remember being quite sad about it.

One dream on it own isn’t that meaningful but two dreams of leaving has spooked me a bit. I wonder if the collective unconscious is trying to tell me something.

Lots of stuff…

• I no longer work at Speakeasy. I now work at a startup called Pelago, check out our first product Whrrl
• I have given up my consoles and my gaming system to focus on programming (which means I also stopped subscribing to GameTap)
• I finally replaced my aging Dual G5 with a 24″ iMac
• The whole exercise thing didn’t last long, in fact I have gained weight
• I was debt free for about a month:(
• I don’t role play every week anymore, turns out the people we were playing with turned out to be assholes
• I got the whole Harry Potter series on audio and listen to it all
• I am not running a server at home anymore. I got a SliceHost and moved my mail to Google Apps for domains
• My wife wrote a graphic novel, check it out at www.faminelands.com
• My wife also went to Europe for two weeks with a friend

I figure a year off from blogging is enough. I am back!

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”

Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-1971)

Yesterday in a mad dash to answer the phone I stubbed my toe real good. Incredible, intense pain followed by a nice balloon swelling. I iced it most of the day and now it doesn’t hurt that bad and looks a lot worse than it feels. I still have feeling so I guess its okay. Viva la toe!

I am so excited. My wife and I will be debt free in one week. I am actually sleeping better because of this.