Sci-Fi Channel announced today that In April this year they will show Doctor Who Series 4. Thiw will run nearly concurrently with the British airing (I believe)
Sci-Fi has also announced that they will be picking up the Sarah Jane Adventures this year as well.
So ….
(And I don’t do this often)
SQUEE!!!
Many people close to me have learned that IM and specific email accts are the best way to reach me. I have a hate-hate relationship with phone companies. Worse if they are cellular.
My recent cell phone bill was about 4 times the amount it was supposed to be. This sent me on a calling brigade of the company to get it straightened out. I made about calls over a month. During this time since I hadn’t paid the inflated amount they’d billed me, they started shutting off ‘components’ of my service. One phone could now only make calls, one phone could only receive calls. It was nuts.
5 calls gave me 5 different answers. Overall 3 agreed that I should go to a local Carrier branded store and have them help me out.
Yesterday I found myself in said store. After 15 minutes of explaining they found the problem. When I added a second line in October my business data plan (which included unlimited internet) was removed. I didn’t ask for this to be removed. <sarcasm style=”dripping”>I mean, I’m only a software engineer? Why would I ever need unlimited internet</sarcasm>
As a result of this unplanned (and unrequested) plan change, I started getting an addition $75-100 / month in data usage. This from my phone passively checking Outlook.
Then the store rep looked at me and said the worst thing imaginable, “We can’t help with this here. You have to call our ‘customer retention’ office.”
My initial response was, “Breaking straw… Get me my iPhone”.. But now let me explain “Customer Retention”
The CR department is the department of, “Hi, our company is so convoluted, that we f’ed a customer so bad, we’re going to probably lose them. Let’s see how far we can bend at the waist and take it up the a&# for the customer so that they will reconsider.”
Translation: I got a customer service rep who was not only one of the nicest, but probably the most genuine sounding that I’ve ever dealt with. They removed all the charges, removed all fees, overages, and reconnect costs. They fixed the account as I outlined.
So… for now. My cell works correctly. I am less annoyed with cell carrier.
Afterward: How best to reach me.
1) IM: My primary AIM is the best (It’s not hard to figure out the id)
2) Email: My primary mac.com email (ID same as above)
3) Calling me at my office number
4) Text messaging me at my cell
#3 is the best phoning method because if I do not pick up the phone the call will be recorded and mailed to my work acct.
Why is calling Andrei’s cell a bad idea. My office security is high to prevent people from accessing our internal network. As a result, they’ve taken pains to dampen signal for cell phones. I get no signal at the office. Phone calls get shunted to voice mail which on my Carrier has never worked right at all. At home… For some reasons I’m just not close enough to a good tower. Signal quality is horrid.
Pulling into the bus station now. I hope to elabourate on contact methods later in the day. But then again.. when have I ever been good about LJ followups.
It looks like we’re going to have to lay claim to April 4th (Friday) for the Aries Bash. Too many ‘church’ events are popping up on Saturday.
Shakespeare seems to have interest but not any definite info yet.
So… just for clarification… I put it to everyone.
Poll beneath the cut… Short
(Preface: this post is seasoned with a bunch of links. I recommend taking the time to look at the links because it helps explain and compliment the post)
Occasionally, I post strange fun facts that seem to come out of absolutely nowhere.
For example: The term “Pediddel” (Meaning a car missing a headlight) in fact originates to a 1984 episode of “Not Necessarily the News” with its usual segment of Rich Hall’s Sniglets.
Some of you may think… What the hell is ‘Pedidel?’; Some might think, “Pedidel was a sniglet?’
The real question is, “This is the sh&# that Andrei researches?”
So… If you’ve ever seen the episode of Pinky and the Brain where the response is, “I think so, Brain, but what if the hippopotamus won’t wear the beach thong.”… or even if you haven’t…
Here’s where my brain came from.
I was flipping thru youtube videos and saw a shot of a young girl. Maybe 13-15. It made me think of the one young girl I’d seen on TV that I’d really like to see again. Mary Lou Retton in 1984 taking a perfect score of 10 on the vault. Well, from there it was Torvill and Dean skating to Bolero. This got me wanting to find “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”… I knew I’d see “Agony of Defeat” but… I actually wanted to see the whole thing.
I found it, But it was part of an interview with Jim McKay concerning “The agony of defeat.” This took me to WikiPedia to look up more about Vinko Bogataj, the man known to most Americans (Over 25) as “The agony of defeat.”
This is where I felt inclined to make one of my posts. Talking about the famed “Agony of defeat.” A man who received a standing ovation at a high class banquet for the 25th anniversary of ABC’s sport show. The ovation confused him, because in his native Yugoslavia he never really got a lot of notice. In the States on the other hand… living legend.
It turns out that Bogataj’s mishap is commemorated with a sniglet “Agonosis” meaning, “The syndrome of tuning in on Wide World of Sports every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself.”
Well, okay.. an accidental click there in wikipedia on Sniglets and there it is. “Pediddel”
My first thought was, “So that’s how it’s spelled.”
I think it was one of those driving games I learned by rote… And by an ironic twist was a word I discovered that until now, I’d never… um… “Wrote”.
The next thought was, ‘So it actually started as a sniglet. That’s kinda cool.’ Well, cool from my point of view.
And this is what I do when sick on the couch.
