The One Phone Call - Upgrade Dowgrade

So that's all it took, one phone call to the right person at the phone company to get our ADSL upgraded, and I'm not sure that the apartment management did it.

Here's the story. I get a call from the apartment management this morning and they told me that my Internet service has indeed been upgraded, again. She tells me that I have been upgraded to a 4MB service (Although I had only requested 2MB), to confirm everything she tells me what she believes is my phone number, it's not. I know for a fact our neighbor across the hall has a 4MB connection to which I told her, it's probably him that the phone company was referring to.

I was visiting the company's phone techs and brought one of them a shirt that was to large for me. I told them the latest and greatest with my situation. The guy I gave the shirt to asked me my phone number and said he would make a phone call to the telephone company. I went to my office and no sooner entered that my colleague told me the phone company had called and said I would have upgraded ADSL by close of business.

I arrive home and low and behold, yes, it was upgraded, to 4MB which I didn't want, but it was upgraded.

Also the rest of my parts to connect the computer to my plasma tv arrived. Sadly the video card that I ordered was not what I expected. I swear I researched and read every review I could find, I swear I thought it had a DVI port, but it didn't.

The wireless antennae turned into a slight nightmare. It installed easy enough, but was a huge headache to connect to my wireless network. The problem was Symantec Endpoint Protection, don't use it.

The ATI Radeon 9250 video card seemingly installed easy enough, but lots of pop up errors when the computer starts up. I attribute this to Symantec as well. When I get around to it I am going to compeletly uninstall the software package and reinstall. The computer is a little old and slow to boot up so I'm not exactly looking forward to this venture.

Oh, the 4MB ADSL? Not as good as expected. I thought with 4MB service we could watch streaming videos with no problem, hardly. Mind you, better than 512kb, but not great. Did notice typical downloads were much quicker though.

Yeah the picture has absolutely nothing to do with computers : )

Whistle me a tune

The first rain storm in months has just rolled in. The wind, lightning and thunder is incredible. Add in the waves crashing against the seawall and you have some great entertainment, but wait, there's more.

We have lots of windows but they are all sealed to keep out the heat. The wind is so strong it finds the nooks and crannies in the seals and sometimes it whistles. It's usually the patio doors. Well we just had a bout of whistling and Chris went to hunt it down and low and behold it was one of the casement windows. No real way to stop it short of resealing the windows which we will probably have to get maintenance to do next week.

The Need for Coffee

Coffee, the wondrous elixir that it is. Chris and I go through gallons of it, which equate to pounds of coffee every month. We usually order it off of the Internet, but fell behind so had to get some locally.

Which got me thinking about all the coffee that I have tasted throughout the years.

My first memory of coffee goes back to 1985 or so when I was in the Marines. Had to wake up very early and turn on some HF radios and do radio checks. Someone showed me how to make coffee and I had a cup, and haven't turned back ever since.

Since then I have enjoyed cafe' au lait in Paris, cappuccinos in Brussels, Cafe su da (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_iced_coffee) in Saigon (Okay, I'm old fashioned, it is Ho Chi Minh City), very good Brazilian coffee while in Montevideo and all the coffee that I brought back on my trips. Ah, but how can I forget the many many small cups of strong Turkish coffee along with good conversation I had with my Bosnian friends in Sarajevo Believe me, Turkish coffee will get you talking! Good memories indeed.

And then there is Cafe du Monde with it's hint of chicory and for a real good cheap pot of strong coffee there is Cafe Bustelo, probably still only around $2.

So, with all of the coffee's I have drank and enjoyed, here is a funny story.

I was having coffee at the company cafeteria in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and just ranting and raving about the coffee that they served. I told my colleagues I must find out what coffee this is as it is so good, they all looked at me and said in one voice "It's Folgers". I was shocked. I thought it was some expensive coffee, but sure enough it was Folgers Breakfast Blend.

Reason I bring this up is I needed some coffee for work and I am looking at the 1 pound Starbucks bag for $10 and the 2 pound Folgers or $11, my choice was pretty easy. And you know what? Brewed my first pot of Folgers today and I have to admit it was a pretty darn good pot of coffee!

I'm doing the 5's

Being a former Marine can do strange things to you, I attribute my new exercise regimen to the Marine Corps, I call it, "Doing the 5's".

I get off work at 5:30, walk home and go to the gym before 6, run 5K on the treadmill, then grab 5 pound weights in each hand and do a cool down walk at 5% grade, thus, doing the 5's!

I'm surprised I can still run 3 miles (Give or take 5K) but hardly at my old Marine Corps run times. I look back and can't hardly believe I was once able to run 3 miles at an average time of 21 minutes.