Switched

I'm switched over to U-verse now. Installation was a bit of a pain, but I wasn't all that annoyed by it. Last Thursday the install dude came out and we ran into problems at every step. I can't blame the guy, though. It looked as if the previous owner had try a DIY rewiring of the phone lines and cable and screwed it up, which forced the install dude to have to rewire to the couple of outlets I'll use. Also he noticed some evidence of rodent chewing on the lines so I'll probably do something about that (though this could have happened years ago). After doing that, he had to switch out the modem as the first wasn't working. Internet was up at this point after two or so hours, but the TV was breaking up. After that, five hours were spent switching everything possible, including stuff at the local junction box and the one down the street, and bypassing all the wiring in the house. I didn't mind so much because I really needed a day away from work, and with him working on this all day it forced me to stay busy doing stuff around the house. No luck! The dude was really apologetic and said he'd come back whenever and work on it until it's done. We agreed on Sunday after 4, but found him at the house when I got home from the half marathon on Sunday, and he had gotten the problem solved already. I think he had to run a different line from down the street. I could be really angry about this, but he was really professional and determined the whole time. Marines are like that.

It's yesterday that I'm angry about. I had left my Time warner account open partly just in case uverse didn't work out, but mostly because I needed to make sure all my online stuff tied to the rr account was sorted out. I knew I had to turn in my cable modem so I called to find out when their office closed. Somehow I got into the disconnection process over the phone, which I'd planned on doing face-to-face at the office to avoid what I knew was going to happen. He started up with sales pitch for keeping TWC and I had to cut him off three times with "please proceed with the disconnect thank you." I know he was going to offer me some good deal on cable, but I hate having to threaten to leave to get a better deal. How about you just set your regular price/service to be a competitive to begin with? Besides, I'm already switched and I really like it.

Then after he kept on starting with "I apologize, but..." I had to beg him to stop apologizing and proceed with the disconnect. And somehow after its all done I end up feeling bad for having to do that! I have had no problems with Time Warner before, short of having to switching out a bad cable modem which I don't blame them for, but if they want me back they are going about it the wrong way.

U-verse is great! Now I can watch TPiR in HD!

Third Pill

I'm on my third antibiotic pill and I'm still not hearing better! And because fluoroquinolones put me at a higher risk of tendinitis and tendon RUPTURE, I feel even less enthused about doing the half marathon this weekend. So, I have an excuse in my back pocket in case I want to bail.

On Drugs

I was stubborn and didn't go to the doctor until this morning. He couldn't even see my ear drum since my ear canal was so swollen. I'm on some strong antibiotics now which are making me woozy as my head is beginning to return to normal size. At least it doesn't hurt. Hopefully I'll be hearing normally soon...

TV

I get cable TV (or what should I call it since it's AT&T?) installed late this week, but I've been fascinated by my over-the-air TV viewing habits for the last month. A few of the over-the-air stations have added a second digital channel, which means that I have a total of ??? many channels to choose from (FOX, NBC, CBS, CBS2: Retro TV, ABC, ABC2: Weather, CW, PBS, PBS2: Create, and some fuzzy spanish channel). 8 useful channels for free, not so bad.

I've gravitated to Create and Retro TV. I've ended up watching Rick Steves' Europe, Globetrekker, some knitting show, some interior decorating show, This Old House, and some furniture making show on Create. But I've watched much more on Retro TV. So many forgotten shows, many of which I've never seen: Bachelor Father, Night Gallery, Marcus Welby M.D., Emergency!, the Bold Ones, Ironside, Operation: Petticoat, Wagon Train, Run for your Life. And, some shows I've seen before but have a new perspective on: The A-Team, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, McHale's Navy, Voyagers, Leave it to Beaver, Knight Rider, Battlestar Gallactica, Rockford Files, Buck Rogers. I saw the premier episode of Buck Rogers last weekend--totally bizarre intro, not like the tunnel intro I remember from my youth. Instead, it had a bunch of sexy women rolling all over giant letters that spelled out Buck Rogers, and the theme song actually had lyrics. It was about dreaming, and what is real and what is imaginary, etc. Really strange, not what I remembered at all.

When I get cable* TV, I imagine I'll go back to my old habits of TPiR, The Daily Show, Mythbusters, etc. But being forced to watch all this other stuff, most of which wasn't half bad, hasn't been... half bad.

Boring Saturday

Hmmm... can't read Babs' blog because Hooters' wi-fi has tagged it as pornographic. I wonder what she's up to?

My ear hasn't been hurting as bad today, but it's still annoyingly plugged. Being in a smoky bar last night was probably not the best idea. I think I will stay home tonight. I got The Party from net-flix today, which I added to my list after becoming curious about that chick Claudine that had the Christmas song I blogged about awhile back.

I'm on my way home from my first trip ever to IKEA. I didn't get the curtains I need badly for my sliding door, but I did buy an entryway rug and 4 $2 rugs for whatever.

Ear Pain!

I bet my ear infection isn't due to the cedar pollen anymore. I bet it is due to the fact that I decided to start protecting my hearing with ear plugs last week. I bought the foamies and inserted them far into my ear canal so that they wouldn't be noticed. Probably infected my ear that way. Well I guess that serves me right for trying to be responsible about my hearing.

I bought some vinegar tonight to put in my ear, since that's what they prescribed (acetic acid) when I went to the ER a few years ago. I must've done something wrong because my ear didn't hurt at all today but now hurtss like hell, and will completely close off from the outside unless I blow it open. I think I'll see the Doctor on Monday...

Specs!

Specs is a little bit closer to my new place than the old one. Last night I stopped by, and scored two unexpected awesome six packs! Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale was there, which I didn't think would be anywhere in January. I've had it before, and of course it tastes very much like pumpkin pie.

Also there was a beer I have not had before--Kona Pipeline Porter. Obviously I love all Kona beers because they're made in Hawaii, but this porter is also combined with Hawaiian coffee beans, and coffee porter is on its way to surpassing IPA as my favorite type of beer. The coffee flavor is very noticable, and there is a hint of chocolate. Very, very good. Better than the AJ Porter I'm drinking now. Yes, I'm posting from LJ's. Must be the longest post yet from my phone!

Cedar

I think I'm being affected by the cedar pollen. It's the right time of year. Thankfully, I'm not affected as bad as some people. My nostrils feel dry and I feel slightly feverish, but no scratchy throat or voice. As a bonus this year, my left ear feels swollen or clogged and I can't hear very well out of it (maybe it's an ear infection).

Monday night I picked up a growler of LJ's AJ Porter. This enabled me to fold and completely organize my clothes closets last night, and not remember doing much of it!

Stuff

I haven't made it down for more free week since Saturday, when I saw the Jungle Rockers and The Ugly Beats at Emo's. As planned, I took the bus down and back. The bus down was 15 minutes late, so I almost gave up. I was surprised I was only one of three passengers on the 2:10 bus back home, and the only one from 6th street. I thought this service would be more popular. I liked The Jungle Rockers. They were reminding me of CCR a little bit, and a few songs later they played a CCR cover. So I was right about that. Didn't get too wasted, but certainly enough to act like a fool in front of the Ugly Beats again. I stopped at LJ's on the way to the bus. Apparently Nurse Jen bumped her head and had to be taken to the hospital. I hope she's OK! She was on the phone to the bar at bar time so I think she'll be fine. There's been somewhat of an epidemic of people busting their heads open at LJ's. I may have to start wearing a helmet just to be safe. I'm proud of myself for finally picking up some earplugs, so hopefully that will cut down on the hearing damage a little. I may head down tonight.

Sunday I went to the hash for the second week in a row. It was similar to last week's and featured my favorite things: a bar, cold weather, and downtown. I got in another run this week, and will need to do more since I'm going to do the 3M half. My bpm rules completely fell apart during the moving/cleaning process. I may go back to something like it, but I did make it a bit too complicated.

The house is starting to shape up. I need at least one big rug to put in the main room, but I'm having some trouble deciding which half to put my music stuff in and which half to put couch/TV. I've segregated the moving mess to the two unused bedrooms so I don't have to look at it. The kitchen is almost sorted out. All of my storage unit crap fits in the garage and I can still fit my car and motorcycle. More space will open up in a few weeks since when we have bulk collection. The rogue wireless connection is gone now so I have to use work/bars for internet access for the next few weeks.

Free Week

Last night free week at Emo's started. This, along with ME Television, really got me into local music last year. I admittedly tapered off on that towards the end of the year, but I plan on using Free Week again to get back into it. Last night I ended up enjoying the Sugar Bowl enough that I didn't get downtown until late, and missed the Mad Cowboys completely (WTG Utah, BTW). I went to Emo's, fearing whatever changes they've made because I'd heard rumors of an outdoor stage expansion. I didn't notice anything, or it could also be because I didn't spend more than half a minute in the outdoor stage area. The band playing there was very loud, enough so that I watched them for a few minutes from outside the stage area through a doorway and could hear them fine. I could also see them fine, and they looked pretty dead on stage. So, I went back to the indoor stage and saw the last band, Pataphysics.

I wasn't sure if I'd seen them before, but I recognized the lyrics to their last song so I knew at that point. I was kind of hoping I'd leave not knowing because I thought it would be fun to compare whatever I wrote about them the first time I saw them to this write-up. I'm still going to do that, but this write up might be subconsciously tainted with the knowledge of knowing I've seen them before. They were a five piece, the lead singer wearing a loud shirt and sang/yelled with a wide-eyed strained expression on his face, and sometimes played lead guitar. The beepy-boopy keyboard (Multivox) player looked to be about 14 years old, and made some great beepy-boopy sounds. The bass player had an awesome black beard and sunglasses. I can't quite think of who to compare him to. It was the rhythm guitar players birthday. Drummer was lanky, but solid. They had a female backup singer on stage for two songs--she had an expression on her face kinda conveying that she didn't want to be there. She was standing near me in the audience when she wasn't on stage and also had that same expression. I think she might be the lead singer's girlfriend, since he was calling for "babe" when her second song was up. The music was fun, and they had a strong following in the audience really getting into the music.

I don't know if this is new or not since I wasn't paying much attention last year, but a lot of venues are having free shows this week in addition to Emo's. This includes Mohawk and a lot of the other venues on Red River. It's great that Emo's, Mohawk, Red Eyed Fly (maybe others?) have two stages. If you don't like one band, you can go check out the other one. Of course this doesn't matter so much this week, but when you have to pay a cover its great that you have two shows to choose from.

The Ugly Beats are playing Emo's tonight, so of course I'll be there. I think there will be four bands on each stage, including What Made Milwaukee Famous and a bunch I haven't seen, so I could stay there all night. But, if I get bored I could also wander down the street. I think I'll take the bus downtown so I won't have to hold back. I will have to be somewhat careful though--the last time I took the bus downtown I ended up having to go on a date with a girl I wasn't really attracted to.

Heavily Impaired

I didn't transfer cable to my new place and decided to switch to Uverse, which won't be installed for another three weeks. That means the only home internet I have is a weak wi-fi signal from an unsecured neighbor. That may explain a lack of posts.

I started my New Year with feelings of paranoia and regret. Ought to be a great year!