If and when Dagobah gets a connection to the outside world again, this rambling will be put up for public consumption by content vultures the world over. Right now, it's looking like that isn't likely to happen soon.

For approximately the past 24 hours, the Louisville Compound has been without a network connection. The DSL modem has constantly been attempting to train the connection unsuccessfully. A dead line. My initial reaction, of course, was to suspect U.S. Pest of the gross incompetence for which they are renowned. However, it now looks like things might not be so clear cut.

You see, last week, thinking that the second phone line was no longer in use, my mom called them and told them to cancel it. When doing so, she claims to have told the drone that it would be no longer needed because the DSL connection was installed, and asked whether this was correct. One requirement for becoming a U.S. Pest drone is that one must lack a brain, so the drone carried out the order without bothering to check the stated assumptions under which the order was given. Of course, luck being as it is, that was the very line under which the DSL had been provisioned.

Doh!

So now, here we are, no connection whatsoever to the net, and I have been growing increasingly agitated as the hours pass on with no line, despite attempts to put my mind on other things. A call to U.S. Pest tech support yesterday proved worse than useless -- apparently they man the phones with know-nothing weekend operators whose response cue cards to any question consists of "Please call again on Monday." They couldn't even tell us whether the line was active or not. Idiots. Fscking morons.

Meanwhile, not even a POTS line to check my email. Hate this. (Even if I did patch in to the main household voice line, I am not currently signed up with any ISP, and I'm not sure it's worth doing so when the duration for which I'd need it is still indeterminate.)

Well, that's really not quite so bad. Of course, I'll be able to check it from work tomorrow. But the thought of going days/weeks/months without any home connection is NOT appealing.

I'm half tempted to just say, "Forget it. Let them cancel the stupid line. That would be just what I need to whip my ass into gear so I would move the hell out of here, and not have to worry about clueless parents anymore." (Clueless phone companies, OTOH, seem to be an unavoidable evil of life, no matter where you go.)

Speaking of moving, this must be the time of year for it. Jaeger and his family last week. And today, bouncing. Yes, this very day. He's moving into a friend's basement in Boulder. That's gotta be a trippy way to go. So now the Louisville Compound will just be me, mom, and dad. Wierd.

The other thing that pisses me off about this line is the absolute shitty timing with which it was cut off.

Just the last couple nights and Saturday morning, I was actually getting back into developing my web page a bit. Well, actually, I was spending most of the time working on ways to make it easier to sync code between Dagobah and Rage. Thursday night, I had written a little script called ts which seamlessly scp's a file on Dagobah to Rage. Saturday morning, I had added a nice little remotely-executing sed script which automatically changes all the references to Dagobah's 'use lib' library paths to the correctly corresponding directories on Rage. Majorly cool. Make a minor one-line change to a file, and you don't have to worry about manually trapsing through N-zillion steps to get Rage's version updated. Don't know why I didn't bother to do something like this earlier. Guess the "apathetic and exhausted" part of me was, well... too apathetic and exhausted. :)

Boom. DSL line goes down. That sort of stole the wind from my sails.

Another thing: On a note of bittersweet good news, I got a little card from the post office in the mail yesterday afternoon. My package is waiting to be picked up, but they won't be open until Monday. (The note claimed that it had arrived on 7/28. Nevermind that I had visited that very post office on 7/28 just before closing time, and they said I had no packages waiting. Perhaps they should enter a contest with U.S. Pest to see who is the most clueless and incompetent.) Well anyway, hearing that it's waiting for me there was majorly good news.

Here's the twist: I had sort of decided to go ahead and just try installing my distro over the network, since all the cd's in the house are from ages ago. Fate can be cruel. I still think I'll manage, though. :)

Here's the final blow: Of ALL the times in the world to pull a guy's DSL line right out from under him unannounced, why, oh WHY, does it HAVE to be on his birthday?

[Donations of pity are now being accepted.]

(Except that it will probably be such a long time before anybody even gets a chance to read this, that I will have forgotten about the call for pity by the time any such pity might be given.)

[Further donations of pity because of the above travesty are now being accepted. Or are they?]

Yes, well anyway, yesterday was my birthday. I still think the coolest part was the cake. For those wondering about that statement, you would have to see it to believe: A digitized, edible image of a car exactly like my own was printed on top of the cake. A blue Dodge Neon. A photograph on a cake. That's wacky. :)

Parents got me a tire pressure guage, which was cool. I've been needing to check those tires. :)

... and a print of an impressionist painting, which they said I could exchange if I would prefer a different one. I probably will.

From bouncing, I got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, so that I may further expand my queue of unread books. But maybe with no DSL connection, or any net connection at all for that matter, I'll have more time to read. It's a thought. anyway. :)

So here I sit, pondering... Pondering how to survive until I get a connection again. I think I need a shower now. More pondering...

Bye bye.