Month: January 2006

I finally went to Cingular today to get a new phone– I suppose I could have just gotten a new battery, but for some reason the quality of service had declined dramatically as well. The phone would work for 12 or 24 or 36 hours, then would require a hard reset. Even a hard reset didn’t correct the bug which told me I had voicemail all the time, regardless of whether I had any. Obviously, the solution to a decline in service quality was the purchase of new hardware.

After I selected a phone, it took me almost an hour to get out of the store. First, I was informed that I could not buy just one new phone: I had to buy two. See, I was an AT&T customer before Cingular bought AT&T, and my girlfriend and I have a joint account. Because the AT&T/Cingular billing systems are still separate, you can’t have an AT&T phone and a Cingular phone on the same account. So, both phones had to be upgraded because one was misbehaving.

Of course, now that I’m renewing my contract, I no longer get the discount I did when I worked for Novell. Total cost to address poor service on the part of Cingular: $126, plus locking myself into a new contract for two years– a contract which is now more expensive every month. And of course, since we’re switching from AT&T to Cingular, we get new SIM cards, meaning we have to re-enter all the data in our address books. Joy.

After forty-five minutes or so in the store, just as escape seemed imminent, the billing system refused to accept my address, and demanded a new one. The cashier called the internal Cingular helpdesk, and left the speakerphone on while she battled through the prompt system and spent a few minutes on hold. Then, just as the helpdesk answered, the system myseriously worked.

By this point, we were both laughing. She said “Gawd, this billing system sucks… but it’s not as bad as the one we had when we were AT&T: Siebel. That was terrible.”

I was glad to see that I was not the only person in the world who thinks that Siebel is a punchline, rather than a legitimate product. Not glad enough to make me stop resenting my phone company, but I smiled a little.

The following diverting media have been making the rounds. Check ’em out:

Internet gamers poke fun at themselves in a music video titled World of Warcraft is a Feeling. Originally from PurePwnage.com.

A hilarious German advertisement for a 1-hour optician is over at AdRants.

Finally, NeoBike has a slideshow of what can happen if someone stops too suddenly during a motorcycle rally.

One of the great things about Redbones BBQ in Davis Sq is the counter. There’s the bar, where the bartenders are friendly. There’s the basement, where there’s plenty of room. There’s the main dining room, where you’re sure to get your fill. But the counter… aaah, the counter.

Seats five. View to the kitchen. If they fry an order of appetizers, anyone seated at the counter is sure to get a taste. And recently they have added, dear god, pickled pig’s snouts.

I ate some. It doesn’t taste bad. Not exactly good, mind you, but there’s a flavor of tanginess and salt from the pickling, and of fat and umami from the pig, and that’s about it. Best washed down with beer. Lots of beer.

There’s a restaurant review in this somewhere, I’m sure of it.

45 minutes down on 93, choked with traffic. Ten minutes inside store: record time. I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was (Expedit, 58″x58, in black-brown), and used the self-checkout lane. Then I stopped for gas and everything went wrong.

I couldn’t get the gas flap open on the car– it was either frozen shut or broken. I bought a soda and as I pulled out, it popped out of the cupholder and spilled all over my coat in the front seat. As I finally got onto 24 North, I noticed that the trunk was ajar.

However, now that I’ve made that harrowing journey three times in one month, I am prepared never to speak or think of furniture ever again.

According to Threadless, handlebar mustaches are the new mullet.

I think it’s spelled mustache, and not moustache. Anyway, it’s the next mullet.

I’m gonna grow one.

I failed at my earlier beard attempt, because I bailed when it got stupid-looking. But not this time. The point, this time, is to grow something that looks like I’ve fallen asleep in front of a glue gun and then rolled over onto the cat.

Details: do I cut it even with the middle of my mouth, or do I grow it lower– like, down to my jawline? In a few weeks, I’ll need to find some mustache wax, too. But those are implementation concerns I can address later. For now, I need only wait.