i haven’t had cable tv for a while, but now, especially with the writers strike and few new episodes of good shows, i decided to go back to the wire. i actually get pretty good ota hd at my new place, and still use it to watch the network channels, but now get all of the other channels that i had been missing too.

my series 3 tivo accepts cable card, which means i don’t need time warner’s lame dvr, and can do all of my digital cable’n directly through my tivo. cable card is also a bit cheaper, because instead of renting their crappy dvr with the terrible interface for $7 or however much it costs per month, cable cards are only $1.70… big savings!

so last friday, i took a half-day to have the cable guy set me up. the cable/internet would be the last utility before i as all hooked up at my new place. this vietnamese cable guy showed up at 2pm (i was given a 1-4pm window), and asked me if i wanted a regular cable box or a digital cable box. i told him i ordered cable cards and he asked me again if i wanted a regular cable box or a digital cable box. grr. i then pointed to the order form he was holding that said (2) Cable Card, and he asked me what a cable card was. He then called his boss (on my phone, his was out of battery) to find out what these mysterious cable cards were. He told me they’d have to send someone else out to help me with this. Great.

so about an hour later another cable guy comes and says he knows all about cable cards, but that his boots are too muddy to walk into my place, so he’ll have to call another guy to set me up. wtf?! so this guy sits on my steps while he waits for the third guy that comes 30 minutes later, that doesn’t know about cable cards, but has clean boots, yes!?

so mr. clean boots comes into my apartment and follows the directions of mr. dirty boots + cable card knowledge guy. it was like if mission control was trying to instruct me how to land the fucking space shuttle. anyway, this ridiculous scenario took about 30 minutes to play out, and eventually i had my internet up and my cable cards spittin’ out cable.

but seriously time warner? wackiest install, evar!

my new apartment didn’t come with a fridge so i had to buy one and eric pointed me to pacific sales. great prices and non-pushy sales people helped me quickly find a fridge i liked, and they delivered it for free today. i had expected since the delivery was free that they’d just drop the box off in my kitchen, but they took it out of the box, installed all the handles and plastic pieces, plugged it in and even wiped it down since it has a stainless steel finish and smudges easily. anyway, big ups to pacific sales yo! =p

a few weeks ago, i noticed a stuck green pixel on my phone and kinda disregarded it because it wasn’t every noticeable. when the firmware 1.1.3 came out and i could move my icons around, i wanted my alarm clock icon in a particular space and since the icon has a lot of black in it, the green pixel was noticeable all the time.

on tuesday i went to the apple store near my office and some goofy salesguy told me i’d need an appointment with a “genius” and to come back on thursday at lunch. i showed up, told the guy my problem and he swapped out my phone right there. no questions or fancy paperwork or anything. just my signature and a new phone. yay apple!

s2000 edition!

i shipped my camera out on tuesday evening, and today i received this email:

We have received your equipment for evaluation and repair. Based on our initial examination, we will start the necessary repairs at no charge to you. You can expect the repair to be completed and returned back to you within approximately 7 business days* from the date shown above. There is no need to respond to this notice.

thank goodness for honest and fair companies like canon. a bright-red pixel, especially as centered as it was on my camera, really defeats the point of having a high quality camera and expensive lenses. i also appreciate the fact that there was no complaints or questions on their part, and that they are keeping me updated on the situation. so a big thumbsup to canon. i hope i’m not speaking too soon!

i’ve done most of my holiday shopping online this year, which has made it a nice hectic-free experience. most stores have free shipping promotions, or paypal or google discounts which make it much cheaper to just order online than to bother with b&m’s. i also check up on slickdeals.com a few times a day, and there’s always a 10% or 20% coupon for some store (today i used a 20% macy’s and a 12% staples) that i regularly shop at.

even the typical nighmare stores like fry’s haven’t been so bad. today i went there to pick up a power supply for my pc (i think the ps is the problem, i’ll come out +$15 ahead if it’s not…) and found a fancy super quiet one for $50. fry’s has started to discount their open box items, so it had a sticker for only $40. there was also a placard saying that there was a $30 mail in rebate, but when i paid for it, she said there was no rebate. i was like ‘gah, f’ing fry’s’ and went and pulled the placard and took it back to the register. the manager came over and said that the rebate had expired (it said so on the placard, but that’s not my problem), and would just give me $15 cash instead. that was actually fine for me, since i hate mir, and only seem to actually get the money half the time. anyway, the $15 he handed me was completely seperate of my cash receipt for the power supply, so if it turns out the ps isn’t my problem and i have to return it, i’ll actually make $15 :)

so as i was waiting on hold for like 20 minutes this morning with customer service at cingular i was all pissed off, thinking how horrible they are since they’re making me wait this long. my cell phone bill was $300 for the second time in a row, when it should be closer to $130 (i’ve got 3 lines on my account). when the lady finally answered the phone, i was ready to yell and be an angry disgruntled customer, but she was so polite and almost more quickly than i could explain the problem said she’d just go ahead and credit my account $200! anyway, that ended up being $30 less than it should’ve been but that’s ok by me. so yeh, cingular hold time = terrible. solving my problem = fantastic.