It's me, Simpsonized

New internet service...

Ok, so it's been a LONG time since I updated this, I know. Sorry. Anyway, rather than catch everyone up on the past few months, I'll just start from now. So last week we had a couple of power outages within a few hours. After the second one, my ADSL modem stopped connecting with Telus' internet service. It would take them about 5 days to send someone to check it out. So, I set up an appointment, and go to work. Then I get to thinking, I've been wanting to switch to shaw for a while anyway. So the following evening, I call Shaw to set up installation. They were very helpful, and though I called them about 36 hours after I called Telus, they were able to make the appointment for only 24 hours after Telus could. So then I call Telus to cancel the appointment and try to cancel my service. Well, the guy (who hardly speaks English, and made me repeat myself about 5 times for everything I said so he knew what I was saying) tells me that he's cancelled the appointment, but that he can't cancel my service. I have to talk to "sales and retention" so he transfers me, but they're not open so I go back to him, though it takes him a while to realise this, and I'm sitting there listening to background mumbling for a good 2 minutes before he clues in that I'm on the line with him. He says that they're close 'till Monday morning (this was Friday evening) so I ask him to talk to a supervisor, he says they're all in meetings for the next three hours. After countless times on hold and him thanking me for "patiently waiting" every time he returned, he finally patched me through to customer service (instead of tech, which he was, since I wanted to cancel my tech appointment). Customer service tells me that sales and retention are open the following morning. This is somewhat acceptable (though I'm not sure what 24 hr service means if they can't access the entire system 24 hrs a day). Finally I call back the next morning, and I'm able to get them to cancel my service. (Like there was ANY chance I was going to change my mind after what I'd gone through the previous night.)

So yesterday, the guy from Shaw comes over. At no charge he finds a way to get a cable connection up to the computer room, checks the connection, but sees that it's quite weak. So he goes and gets a signal booster from his van, hooks it up, and now it's nice and strong. We go to the computer to check the bandwidth now. From Telus I was getting around 500Kbps down, and probably around 100Kbps up. Immediately I'm now getting 5000Kbps down (yes 10X what I had) and about 500Kbps up. Then he calls in to the office to activate the "eXtreme" connection (which I pay $10 more a month for), and within about 2 minutes my connection speed doubles. The link included (click on the title of this post) will take you to an image of the results of a test I did today, to make sure I'm still getting the same type of connection. The slight drop is caused by the fact that I now have it going through a router. Still, quite impressive for those who are tech savvy enough to know what any of this means.

Ok, so it's been a while...

Ok, so I'm being attacked quite briskly for not keeping up to date with my blog. (Sorry, I guess.) I knew before I started this that I'd go through dry spells. Oh well. So if I have to write something, I figure I'll write a movie review for the most recent movie I went to, Perfect Stranger.

Be forewarned if you're thinking of seeing this that there are some disturbing images, though they're not really focused on much. The biggest thing for many people will be the pornographic images posted on a wall that they pan by with the camera at one point, and also a couple on the computer screen at another point. If you think you can handle this, and a lot of bad language, then I think this movie is sure worth a look. I tend to like a movie with twists in it, and this one takes plot twists to a whole new level. Remember the twist in the Sixth Sense, that's child's play in comparison to Perfect Stranger. I'll try to explain somewhat about the movie, without giving away the main twists.

So Halle Berry and Giovanni Ribisi are friends. Berry is a big time investigative journalist for a major newspaper who writes under a pen name to keep the heat off her while she's investigating. After being pulled off her latest expose for political ties between her target and the newspaper she works for, she runs into an old friend who appears to give her a tip about another story she could work on. A few days later the old friend turns up dead, and Halle puts on her investigative hat to find out about this tip she had given her, trying to see if she can find evidence that the target of this tip (Bruce Willis) was involved in this murder. Willis is a top executive for an advertising firm, and Halle gets a temp job near his office to get close to him. Things get pretty tense as the less-than-happily married Willis takes a bit of a liking to Halle, while she's trying to implicate him in her friend's murder.

SPOILER ALERT!
I'll try no to give away too much here, but as the investigation leads to charges and eventually a conviction, something just doesn't seem right. Far too many other more believable suspects have emerged, and soon it seems like literally anyone could've actually committed the murder.
Well, anyone except the one who actually did. I don't care how good you are at seeing twists coming before they're revealed, you'd never see this one. I can't bring myself to reveal it here though. Just watch it, you'll see.
END OF SPOILER!

Anyway, I thought the movie was very well done. Great acting!! (Duh! Berry, Willis and Ribisi!) And very entertaining! Again, just be forewarned of the crudeness in a couple of scenes, and the language throughout. But this one will keep you on the edge of your seats. (And try not to chew your fingernails down to their nubs!)

Ok, so I've finally updated my blog. Hopefully this will buy me another couple weeks before I'm goaded into updating this again. I'm really not trying to be a slacker, I just don't have a whole lot to say right now. At least not to the audience that reads this blog. ;)

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Your Birthdate: September 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

An expensive trip...

So I took a road trip to Calgary today to deliver a birthday gift to my dad, and also to do some shopping of my own. My main goal was to find myself a good leather coat. (I've looked all over Lethbridge and there's nothing.) I got a great deal on a winter coat at the Danier store in Chinook Centre. It was more than 50% off. It's a 3/4 length with a removable liner. It's probably not going to be cold enough this season for me to leave the liner in, so I've removed it and I'll start wearing it right away. (Since I'm not really in the mood to wear my Oilers coat anymore these days.) There was also another one I was considering there as well, and I almost decided to get both of them, but the other one didn't have a fully removable liner, and I figured I wouldn't wear it at all for at least 8 more months, so I settled for just the one I figured I'd get the most use out of.
I got such a good deal on the coat, I went and bought a nice $110 pair of shoes from FeetFirst. Then I spent more money on some shirts and socks from Old Navy, and a couple DVDs at HMV. What a day! (And what a drain on the wallet.)