Well, it's getting to be time to ditch the ol' cell phone -- the contract expires in June. But about a week ago, the phone stopped working altogether, and I didn't bother to call customer service since I never use the damn thing anyway. This morning, I finally got around to it, figuring that I needed to speak to them about closing my account anyway. Here's what transpired...
The customer service representative told me that the phone itself was broken and needed to be either repaired or replaced. She asked me to take it to the local Cingular for that purpose. I pointed out that my contract expires next month and I don't plan to renew, so going out of my way to have the phone looked at didn't make any sense. Could they just let the contract expire and not bill me for the final month of service, since the phone is broken? No, she tells me, they can let the service expire, but they have to bill me for the month that the phone isn't working.
I've dealt with idiotic CSRs in the past, of course -- everyone has. Realizing that pursuing that matter further would be to bang my head against a brick wall, I simply agreed to let them send me the bill, after which I will refuse to pay it and challenge anything they might end up trying to do to my credit rating. The trick with dealing with bureaucracies, at least some of the time, is knowing when and how to do an "end run" around them.
In other news, we actually have sunshine outside today, much to my relief. My eyesight is rather sensitive, so I don't care for bright light, but I also appear to have some form of SAD (seasonal affective disorder), so the last month or so has been pretty tough on me. I hope I can be more alert today than I have been for the last couple of weeks or so.
Haven't installed Linux yet -- I want to do a backup of my workstation's hard drive, obviously, before I start monkeying around with it, and I haven't had time to do that. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.
In other news, while going thru the corporate IT inventory, I found an old three-gig internal hard drive that someone must have bought before I was hired here and never used. I think I'll crack the case on my workstation and see about installing it just for kicks.
Just for the record, "Nature Valley Chewy Trail Mix Bars" are truly, truly revolting. You have been warned.
Morning, everybody!
Looks like today could be pretty quiet... the boss is still in Florida, and the "sub boss" isn't coming in today. We'll have to see about everybody else... these are good days to get real work done, instead of having to explain to people how to attach documents to an email.
The grocery delivery came last night, and the experience was, reasonably good. There were three or four items missing from the delivery, which were nicely deducted from the total, and even though the new total ordinarily would have meant a higher delivery fee (due to the lower cost) they left the delivery fee at the lower level.
I'm probably going to try this a couple more times and see how it works out... it's not perfect, but I have to admit that not having to go the grocery store anymore (well, not very often, at least) would be a huge help to me, especially since, not having a car, I typically had to go two or three times a week. Quite a waste of time.
Appointment at Kennedy Krieger is going to be rescheduled. I need to see my GP, among other things, and there's a bunch of red tape to deal with. Sparrow's offer to fly to Idaho is tempting -- after all, it's such a hot tourist spot *cough cough* -- but I don't think that's the solution for me. Besides which, if I can get this insurance mess straightened out, I think it would be more entertaining to get "the full treatment" just to learn more about the whole process.
Off to get my day started.
A quiet, cold, dank, grey, and wet weekend, I should say.
Saw "The Matrix: Reloaded" yesterday and was pretty disappointed. It has its moments, but not many of them, and it's certainly nowhere near as good as the first film was. (Especially bad point, from fairly early in the film: Zion, the last remaining city far underneath the surface, is going to be attacked by 250,000 squiddies in less than three days, so what do they do? They have a rave, of course.)
I got approval to move to another cubicle at the office, one that's quieter and more secluded, so I spent a few hours yesterday doing most of the moving. I'll probably finish that up tomorrow.
I received a promotional flyer in the snail mail yesterday for the Giant grocery store's online ordering and delivery service. I last looked at this about a year or so ago and was not impressed with the selection vis-a-vis the selection actually available in the store. On a lark, I took another look today, and it appears they've expanded it quite a bit. Between that and the twenty dollar discount for the first order, I've decided to take a stab at it and see how it goes. My first delivery is on Tuesday night.
I had to place the order with Internet Explorer, though -- Safari had yet another glitch in the site's JavaScript, and it couldn't process the order (it said my shopping cart was empty when it most definitely wasn't, a problem that I've had before). I also have to use Explorer for my online banking. I haven't tried Mozilla yet, which is Denise's recommendation. Maybe I'll download that tonight and have a look at it. Sez Denise: "Yaaaaaaaay!"
I have to say that my overall experience with OS X and its bundled apps has been pretty disappointing so far in quite a few ways. I'm not going to be in the market for a new notebook for at least another year, but when I start shopping again, I may be moving to Linux or even -- shudder -- Windows.
So I leave the office for lunch at about 11:30, get back an hour later, and now I'm here by myself. If I didn't know that one other person was going to be coming in later this afternoon, I'd be tempted to leave. Actually, I'm tempted to leave anyway.
It's hard to believe a glitch this bad could have even made it into beta testing, let alone the real world. When I first read this, I thought it had to be a hoax. It isn't. Fortunately, they got it fixed pretty quick.
Spam filter blocks all email containing the letter "P".
Well, here it is 10:30 AM, and there's only one other person at the office besides me. I have mixed feelings about that... on the one hand, it bothers me that everyone else gets to "telecommute" (polite euphemism) but I don't; on the other hand, I'll freely admit that I much prefer to be at the office alone as much as possible.
I did just confirm that we're going to be closed on Monday, so that will be nice... I can spend the day studying and reviewing for my next test. :-)
In other news, my boss is planning to retire our file server and outsource all storage arrangements. I've asked him if I can have the server when he retires it. He told me that he needs to check on one thing, but if that goes OK, the server is mine. *hop hop* I can definitely use something like that at the house for my studies. And for other fun stuff. I should be finding out about that within a few weeks or so at most, since the outsourcing is supposed to be finished by June 20th.
Still waiting to hear from Matt and Sparrow about whether they tried that bread recipe, and if so, whether they liked it... *grin*
Back to work with me.
Well, after some discussions with Denise on the subject, I've decided to take another stab at Linux. My last try was about three years ago, with Red Hat; unfortunately, the system was such a hassle that I couldn't even get it to install properly. Denise recommended SuSE Linux 8.2, and after looking into it, I decided to get a copy.
I didn't have the patience to download it all myself, so I bought a copy on eBay for a few dollars. It showed up today, and the discs all appear to be in order... now it's just a question of when I'll actually install the thing and start monkeying around with it. I'll probably hold off until next week since I want to keep the ball rolling on studying for my test. I'll keep everyone informed on how it goes.
We on the spectrum do tend to be a bit mentally myopic -- things that are obvious to everyone else can be completely beyond us. I had one of those moments today when riding home on the subway this evening.
Like many DC area commuters, I use my Metro time to read. In the mornings, it's typically my notebook as I read all the email I've received overnight. In the evenings, it's usually magazines. This evening, I pulled a pile of magazines out of my backpack...
And the only incongruous entry in the list, "America's First Freedom" (the NRA publication dedicated to Second Amendment rights).
So. This is the way others see me... hmm. (And I haven't even mentioned the fact that I've actually been published in most of those periodicals, too...)
First of all, a hearty congratualations to Denise for making it thru the day yesterday... various elements (including the elements) conspired to make the day difficult for her, but she survived. One more exam to go, tomorrow evening, and it's all over with. *grin*
Studying for the exam is going well, even though reading the MCSE Premium Edition Training Kit for hours on end night after night isn't exactly scintillating. Except for one surprising little nugget that I got last night while studying about print servers and printer pools, where MS recommends that all printers in any one printer pool be in the same physical location (obviously). And if they're not? "The disadvantage is that users will not be able to readily locate their printed documents. The advantage is that users will receive a lot of extra exercise." Had to laugh when I read that, because the book itself is very, very dry, as you know if you've ever read any of Microsoft's training materials. To be honest, I'm surprised that MS let that sentence in; I'd wager it was an oversight by the editor.
Anyway.
The test is in fifteen days, and I think I'm going to be in good shape for it, except for Active Directory, which is a pain in the nuts that I'm going to have to spend a lot of time reviewing. I will take that exam on June 3rd, and I will pass the sumbitch. Then I can plan for exam 70-218... after which I'm supposed to receive a $2,000 bonus from my boss. I do hope I get it. Unfortunately, my company has a history of not keeping promises very well, but let's not get upset about that until there's actually something to get upset about.
Not a great deal else to report right now, except for one small thing: I've added a link to Ashleigh Brilliant. Check him out each weekday. He's a sharp cookie and very witty.
And now... off to start my day.
...and wow, what a week this has been. I'm glad it's over with. I've been really, really zonked.
First of all, and most importantly, a big and hearty "congratulations" to my sweetheart, Denise, who receives her bachelor's degree today! "Yaaaaaaaay!" Unfortunately, I am not able to attend, but my thoughts will be with you today as you walk across that stage to get your degree.
It is May 18th. It is not supposed to be this damn cold in Washington in the middle of May. *grumble* And, of course, the heat in my building was turned off last month, as it always is. *shiver*
The Season Three DVD of Babylon Five has just been announced! The release date is August 12th! Woot! I've still got to dump all these damn tapes, though.
I was planning to see two movies yesterday, A Mighty Wind and the new Matrix flick, but I decided to do only one, just Wind. Didn't feel like dealing with the crowds for the other one, and I've got too much work to do, anyway. Wind is absolutely hysterical, just as I would have expected from the gang that did Waiting for Guffman. I heartily recommend it, although waiting for video would also be an OK choice -- being a low-key comedy, it's not a film that will lose anything by moving to the small screen.
On a whim the other day, I bought five PowerBall lottery tickets (something that I do about two or three times a year, just when the fancy strikes me). I won!!! Yes, you are now reading the blog of a multimillionaire. --Err, you're not buying it, are you? No? Didn't think so.
Well, I do believe it's time for me to get my day started -- laundry to do, newspaper to read, email to respond to, and of course, studying for my next exam, which is now less than three weeks away. (Holy cow, where does the time go?)
Well, I got a voice mail from one woman on Tuesday, and another one yesterday. Turns out the insurance company may cover this diagnosis after all. I wish people would quit jerking me around. Man, I hadn't had to deal with a bureaucracy in so long, I had forgotten how much I hate it.
As an additional fun new wrinkle, it turns out that I can't refer myself for this diagnosis; I have to have a referral from my GP. In true Aspie form, of course, I haven't seen a doctor since I relocated to the DC area, which in turn means I'm going to have to call the rent-a-doc that my HMO gives me and probably go in for a checkup or something (which, I suppose, is not a bad thing -- I've been meaning to do it for a while, but I'd rather have known about it sooner).
Stay tuned, boys and girls. :^)
One of the more "entertaining" features of Asperger Syndrome is difficulty with executive function: that is, simply planning things and getting things done in one's life. Not everyone with AS has this problem; I, unfortunately, do.
The best way I've found to deal with this is to engage in a form of "question begging", as it were. That is, if I have problems doing the laundry on a regular basis, I own no more than one week's worth of clothing, meaning that I essentially have no choice but to do the laundry each week. It's kind of annoying to have to set things up that way, but I do what I have to.
The Internet has been a godsend for me in so many ways (among other things, it's how I met Denise). One of the big ones is that my bank, as more and more banks are doing these days, offers a pretty wide range of services thru its web site. The one that is seriously saving my ass from all kinds of problems is automatic monthly bill paying, especially recurring monthly payments for things like credit cards and utilities.
One of my little projects has been to set up all my accounts for automatic payment (and also to cancel all those accounts that I haven't been using, such as Netflix). This project will probably be completed at the end of next month... at that time, the only bill I will still be writing a check for each month will be the rent, and in a few more months, I should even be able to automate that one, too.
What a relief not to have to worry about this kind of thing anymore... all I have to do is log into my bank's web site once or twice a month and make sure that all the activity on the account is, indeed, mine. *chuckle*
Another account that I'm dumping will be my Columbia House Babylon 5 subscription. Columbia House, as anyone who has ever used them knows, are minions of the antichrist. I'm switching my Bab 5 collection from VHS to DVD, which is, as the saying goes, a no-brainer. The DVDs are more durable, have more features, are complete (Columbia House is notorious for not sending certain eps, or sending them out of order), take up less space, and cost less. I can get a full season on DVD for about $75 or so on eBay, whereas thru Columbia House, one full season would be about $275 if my math can be relied upon.
The only question is what I'm going to do with all these tapes. eBay would seem to be an obvious solution, but I doubt I could get more than a dollar or so apiece for them. Well... it would still mean a few extra dollars in my pocket if I sold them, plus more space in my video cabinet. Maybe a boost in my eBay rating as well. We'll see.
Hmm, well, as my darling girlfriend has just pointed out to me, it has now been so long since I made a blog entry that my blog is completely empty as I type this... so let's at least get something in here to take away the dreadful horrid whiteness.
First of all, can someone please explain to me why SARS is getting all this press? There have been fewer than eight thousand cases reported worldwide, and the fatality rate is not very high. Seems to me you'd be at greater risk of being hit by a car, even if you were in China. Especially if you were in China. They drive like madmen over there.
Still preparing for my next exam, Microsoft 70-215, on June 3rd. I stopped studying for several days as I did battle with my computer, ultimately deciding to stop and just study the material without doing the exercises instead of wasting any more time trying to figure out why Active Directory wouldn't install on my test machine. I can do it... hell, I know people who have passed MCP exams without ever even having used the product they were being tested on.
Kennedy Krieger is giving me the runaround on the Asperger diagnosis. After a couple of weeks of playing phone tag, I finally got in touch with Brandy, who had much more of a clue than the other woman I spoke to did, and she told me that my insurance would not cover any of the $2,000-plus dollars that the procedure would cost. Ixnay on the diagnosis. Or so I thought. When I got home this evening, I had a message on my answering machine that suggested, without being too clear on it, that insurance might cover it after all. I need to call them back tomorrow to find out.
Movie season is kicking into high gear, and I haven't been keeping up with the cinema in a while -- that's going to be changing again soon, obviously. I'm probably going to be doing a "personal double feature" this Saturday, seeing the new Matrix flick for a matinee, then A Mighty Wind for an evening show. The group that Guest has put together always smacks it clear out of the park; Waiting For Guffman was absolutely hysterical, especially if you've ever actually lived in a small town like the one that's spoofed in the film.
The Yahoo! autism lists are currently embroiled in a breeder/childfree flame war. What fun. :^)
Back to studying with me.