Month: June 2004

Once more my ADSL connection’s knackered. And once more I’ve got no idea what’s up or when it’ll be fixed. Recommendation – even after vast improvements over the last 12 months, do NOT go for Pipex for broadband. Their support varies from “arse” to “non-existant”.

At some point last night, my connection stopped working though was still connected. Attempting to reconnect told me my username or password was invalid. I’ve had this before.

Reboot. No joy. Edit dial-up properties and insert new password. No joy.

Ooookay. Use my old Force9 dialup on the laptop. Go to the Pipex System Status web page… nothing. No mention of any problems at all. And their telephone support lines aren’t open at weekend. As far as I know, this could go unnoticed until tomorrow.

I’ve tried accessing my webmail and the page “cannot be found” so that’s down as well. I’ve also tried getting to my email over POP3 using Outlook and Popcorn… it won’t connect even though the servers themselves respond to a Ping command.

So essentially a large part of their system is down and no bugger’s noticed. Or if they have, they’re not advertising the fact on the system status page. I’ve managed to email them via a cleverly hidden form on their web page. I’m sure I’ll get the usual “it’s fixed now” response sometime tomorrow, but that’s not my issue.

Well, I guess my one full day I had to spend doing coursework is now up the swanny. ********.

I think the first thing I’ll do once I get my connection up is start scouting for alternative suppliers.

:: how jedi are you? ::

What happened to the Swiss being a nation of cuckoo-clock-making neutrality? Urs Meier is about as biased towards Portugal as Uriah Rennie is against Alan Shearer.

Yellow cards being brandished to English players while identical Portuguese challenges are waved off. Rooney penalised for losing his shoe. A perfectly legal goal ruled out (after being given by a linesman) when the only foul appeared to be on Terry by Campbell.

We haven’t even lost yet. I’m writing this as we go into extra time. But Urs Meier… kiss my ******* arse, you biased Swiss bastard. **** off home and stick to making chocolate.

I just got to ring my previous boss up (same company, different department):

Me: Russ, where are you this morning?

Russel: Birmingham.

Me: Oh, for a sales demo?

Russel: Yeah.

Me: A-ha. Who’s the contact?

Russel: A guy called Lee Somethingorother

Me: M-hm

Russel: Yup

Me: So that’ll be the chap sat in our waiting room in Wakefield then?

Russel: *expletives deleted*

Reminds me of another of my previous bosses who was up at 4am to get the redeye to London. Got off the train at Kings Cross at 9:05 and his mobile rang. It was our receptionist passing on a message that the customer he was there to see had rung 2 minutes earlier and said they couldn’t manage the meeting after all.

I’m 30. With any luck I’ll live to be about 90 but I’m never going to get to do and see everything I want. Which is a kinda morbid viewpoint but it’s pissing me off. And that worries me.

I currently have a huge stack of books and DVDs I’d like to see, plus all the ones I’d like to go through that I don’t own. New books and films come out all the time. And then there’s the holidays and places I’d like to go. That worries me, too.

You see, if you die and you’re pissed off then you risk being an upset spirit. This means that you’re more likely to remain on this earth as a ghost. Ghosts are often tied to the place where they died and that would really suck.

You see, I can see me keeling over in however-many years, three days before Shrek 17 or Spiderman 23 comes out. I’ll be one teed off spook. I can just guarantee that whoever moves into my house when I die won’t go and rent or buy decent films for me to watch over their shoulder.

I can see it now. Purgatory forever will be spent stomping round a room with my ethereal fingers in my ghostly ears while some dopey old biddy watches Songs of Praise.

I’ve already decided I want to be a poltergeist when I grow up. There’s a chance I’ll scare her to death and get someone fun in instead.

So who says I never planned for my future? Beat that, crappy daytime life insurance company advert people.