So four years ago today I quit smoking. I’m still quit. I have no desire to start again. I’m lucky I quit when I did. And I’m not talking about health reasons. You can hardly smoke any where. Smokes are six bucks a pack now. Granted I’m glad that I feel better because of quitting smoking. It’s just there is no way I could have survived with this no smoking in bars we have around here. Another thing of course is the money I’ve saved (well money now wasted on other bad habits) since I quit. Gawain brought that up. I never really thought about the money I’m saving by not buying smokes. Also thank god I don’t smell like those stinky fucking smokers anymore. Jesus you smokers smell like ass. So I’m glad about that. So heres to another year of being smoke free.

So my internet at home went out sometime late yesterday night. When I got home in the morning I called the Charter help line. Some chick in india walked me through unplugging my modem and waiting a minute before plugging it back in. It did not work. She then tried getting in to the modem. That failed as well. Me and india support lady decided the modem was dead. Before letting me go the india support lady tries to sell me Charter cable tv. I tried to explain to her that I had high speed internet and I did not need Charter cable. But she would have none of it and followed her script. I followed my script and hung on the support lady from india.

I then drive to the Charter home base in my area and get a new modem. I shutdown my pc. I plugin in the new modem. I hook it all up to the pc and reboot my computer. I did not hook it up to my router. When Windows boots to my surprise the internet is still no where to be found. I call Charter again and get another lady from india. We go through the same shit. Unplug and plug back in. She tries to access the modem on her end and fails. So she arranges for someone to come to my today between one and five. Hopefully it’s not someone from india.

To top off my irritation the this second support lady tries to sell me Charter tv. I again explain that I don’t need their tv I have high speed internet. This one tries to out do the first india support lady and when selling me tv fails she trys to sell me the Charter phone service. I look at the cell phone I’m talking into and ask the india support lady how is I’m communicating with her right now. At this point I’m kinda getting pissed off. I say to her I’m pretty sure we are communicating not by telegraph, morse code, or smoke signals but by phone already. I decline her offer. She of course continues to follow her script. Which at this point I give up and just hang up on the support lady from india. I hate people from india almost as much as I hate Charter’s stupid automated answering machine robot. I always end up cursing before I find the right keyword to get a real person to talk to. Agent is the magic word.

So I’m writing this at work. I hope to be back on the net shortly after the times between one and five.

The Charter repair guy fixed my net. It turns out the actual cable was bad and dude had to replace it. You can’t imagine how happy I am right now. I can surf for porn and torrents again.

Minor update that has continuity with the last few posts. Here is my speed test for the damn near 90 buck a month charter internet I’m paying for:

Just for comparison this is the Charter internet I’m paying for below.

Charter High-Speed® Internet Max

1. Get the fastest speeds available – Get speeds up to 20Mbps to surf 13X as fast as 1.5Mbps DSL!
2. Automatic detection from viruses, hackers and spam – Charter Security Suite™ has the fastest response to new virus threats and best virus detection††.
3. Download in seconds, not minutes – plus a reliable always-on, always-fast connection.
4. 10 e-mail accounts – enough for the whole family plus 20MB of Web space.
5. Exclusive content on charter.net – get your local news, weather, movie listings and more!

Plan price: 79.99/mo

©2009 Charter Communications. Offer valid to new residential customers only who have not subscribed to Charter High Speed Internet within the previous 30 days and have no outstanding obligation to Charter. Standard rates apply after promotional period ends. Installation, taxes, fees and surcharges are extra. Certain equipment may be required at installation and charges may apply. ††Defined as fastest response times to new threats and overall detection rates. Source: AVTest.org, Q1-08 world renowned 3rd party testing company. Defined as best detection against new virus threats. Source: AVTest.org, Q1-08 world renowned 3rd party testing company. Charter reserves the right to determine the level of service to which this offer applies. Valid service address required. Credit approval, prepayment or major credit card may be required. All services provided are subject to the subscriber agreement which is subject to change. Visit charter.com/30day for full details on 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Services not available in all areas. Other restrictions may apply. Call for full details.

It seems the good hotel has a few “less than computer savvy” employees. I’m not the most follow the rules type of guy at a workplace. But if your going to be stupid enough to download a torrent of the movie Boondock Saints at work you may want to stop the torrent from seeding when its quitting time.

It is once again time for vacation. I’m taking one week of paid vacation. With my usual days off the total time away from work is nine wonderful days off. I’m going to take two days and go again with the Newbs to Wisconsin Dells. I had a lot of fun when we went last time.

So I’m back to work. The vacation was nice. Nine days away from the workplace is always a good thing. It’s also nice knowing I still have another week of paid vacation left. I look forward to taking another nine days off.