We got a deal from Death Star!

I've been a Death Star (see the logo) customer since February 2006. It is now December 2011. You would think that I'd get great customer service from them, but even one of their automated systems kicked me out plus told me to go to a retail store. I've been a bit annoyed, very understatedly.

Hubby and I both have an iPhone 3GS. Over 75 minutes, I attempted the hell to communicate with AT&T about transferring from the 550 minute a month plan (since we never use our minutes) to the 10 cent a minute paygo plan while keeping our data services. I've heard this is possible from the interweb plus from 3 of the reps I talked with today, even though this possibility is nowhere to be found on the AT&T website. This should be easy to accomplish, yes?

No. Not only no, but a booming resounding HELL NO all Moses and Ten Commandments and lightning from the top of Mount Olympus style.

The first call went well until there was no option to get to a customer service representative on the GoPhone side. I got booted out of the system because my wireless number wasn't in their system and because I did not have documentation needed for activating a new phone.

The second call sucked major ass because I could barely hear the person on the other line. (I actually giggled about calling about a phone issue while being on a line with horrid quality. I now know this was wrong. Giggling was soon replaced by thoughts of beheading and smiting, especially after many fake and obligatory apologies.) I was transferred to someone who could allegedly better help me, but that person was also difficult to hear, and ended up giving me the 800 number to the first person.

The third call was answered by a very friendly and helpful lady. She was genuinely apologetic and gave me two good numbers to call. Yay!

The fourth call ended with the same result as the first call, so I tried the second number given by Helpful Lady.

The fifth call featured me lying about having documentation and/or SIM cards and/or I don't know what else, just to try to get to a person on the GoPhone side. The automated system told me I'd have to go to an AT&T retail store and speak with someone there.

Seriously? The automated phone wench didn't have a human serviceperson to boot me to at all??

Have I mentioned that it feels so barbaric to use a land line and have to dial 1 before the 800??

The sixth call was answered by someone who sounded like Denzel. He was extremely helpful and knew exactly where I needed to be in the phone labyrinth. He also mentioned (unlike the other reps) that hubby's phone is actually still under contract and wouldn't be up until April. Well, alrightie then.

Denzel hooked me up with someone who was freaking incredible to talk with. (Benjamin Prius, I hope I didn't mangle the spelling of your last name. Mad props to you sir, and I hope you get lovely snow this weekend in Lubbock!) Apparently the iPhone is an exception to the GoPhone rules and doesn't count as a regular smartphone. Balls. After some chatting and some amazement on his part since he could see that I'd talked with a few people within the hour, he hooked me up with some better rates on plans not normally offered. The upshot is that we'll save $20 a month, which will help since we're planning to move across town in two months (aah!). I'd hoped to save $60 a month with getting the 10 cent a minute plan for both of us, but oh well. At least I tried and something good happened out of the ordeal.

Maybe in April when hubby's contract is up, we'll look at paygo again, but the iPhone 5 should be hitting about then (or news about it, anyway), so we'll see. Technically we could go paygo now, but I'd have to buy a different smartphone and he'd have to get a new phone too plus fork up the early termination fee. No thanks. We're both happy with our 3GS phones and use our computers way more for computery things anyway, but I'd still love a better phone cam. I could get that now with the 4S on a new contract but I'll wait. I'll be busy packing and jobbing and job looking and crashing so I might as well wait.

In other news for today, I'm still frustrated at not having my personal website finished. I'm streamlining the holiday card list and putting everything together for mailing. I finally got my certificate of creditable coverage from UHC so added that to my BCBSTX certificate and faxed them to Cigna today. Now they'll pay several of my doctors for working my pre-existing conditions plus pay for labwork (well, when I call everyone back with the all clear to refile the claims). It's been so annoying at trying to get this from UHC since like, oh, June. Of course, while cleaning while packing last night, I found the original one they sent to me in April in an unopened envelope, so that's very much a my bad and I feel utterly stupid for not realizing I've had it all this time!! I'm a day late for making sure our tags are registered but am glad there's a 5 day grace period. I was hoping to have already been to the local Tom Thumb (to do the tag thing) and be back home by now. I haven't even showered yet! Gah, it's 3:45 pm and I haven't even eaten lunch yet. I suppose I should do that next.

We got deathstar, we got deathstar....

Blah blah update

I think I'm done adjusting the look of this blog, with the fonts and colors and nachos and car keys. The background photo is one I took earlier this year. I need to prep it for sales but today is not that day. Today is the day for thieving a generic Vicodin from my husband, who has a few left over from wisdom tooth surgery from a few months ago. It's only a 5/500, so will only make my stiff muscles feel better for about 30 minutes. Mrawr. I need it today though - more later on that.

I'm pretty convinced that my router is working fine and dandy, but because I have better things to do with my time, I'm going to get another one and start a new setup for everything. I'm looking for a good wireless dual band gigabit router since I won't have to worry about overlapping surrounding networks or equipment upgrade-this-and-that for years. I'll get right on that, eh, probably tomorrow. So far the new-to-me iPad has only dropped 3 times, but I haven't been on it as much as before (yet).

Tomorrow I'll also look at new mobile phones in more detail. I have the iPhone 3GS and am thrilled that it's working again (guess who dropped it in the Apple store the other day and caused it to not be able to shut off or snap screenshots?). However, I surf less on that since I downgraded to a cheaper data plan, plus I'm on the computer or iPad more often. It makes and receives phone calls plus gives me access to quick checks of email, and I'm good with that. I don't use many apps so no biggie there. The 4S would be nifty but pre-order fulfillment is at 21-28 days (last time I checked, anyway), and the 5 should be out by next June or October... another year at most to wait, anyway. I have a separate "real" compact camera and separate iPod classic and separate Kindle so don't need to waste the phone battery for pics and entertainment and books (oh my). It's great while out and about, but for full time non-stop use, eh, kinda weak.

I will be vegging for the rest of the day. Seeing my LMTs and chiropractors this morning helped with wellness, although I have to go back in 6 days (next Monday) because I'm still jacked. I feel 60% improved overall compared with last week, when my main chiro squeeze for the last 9 years couldn't move anything at all, but I saw a different guy today and he had better luck. Everything was pretty much back to normal except for the neck. C4/C5 moved on my right side, but that was it. He told me that I impressed him very much, since my neck was being very resistant to him using more force than usual. I don't think he's experienced this with anyone else so far, based on his amazement at my bulletproof Cardassianish sternocleidomastoids. My SCMs aren't usually an issue, either. My usual involves the trapezius, rhomboids, scalenes, omohyoids, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and I'm probably missing something. Occasionally there'll be gunk with other muscles, but only occasionally.

For the record, my chiro peeps are not woo. They work with evidence-based science and promote nutrition with exercise instead of simply trusting energy waves to do physical work for them. They are also very highly trained in Active Release Technique and 20 minutes of ART helps me more than a 110 minute sports-type table massage. Really, it's literally that awesome. I know there are cases of people being seriously injured with chiropractic care, but these people work on local tri- and other athletes and Olympic medalists, so I trust them, especially as they're not woo. I think woo chiropractic harms more than helps, and is probably the cause of why injuries happen. (I don't know this for sure; research is needed, but I wouldn't be surprised.)

Speaking of science, I got put on the e-stim machine at the end again, for the 4th visit in a row. This has not been a normal thing for me. I'd much rather do my 2 minutes on the VersaClimber before getting iced, thankyouverymuch!! Today I got a heat pack instead of the usual ice packs, and it helped. Next week they're moving me from the initial hydrobed therapy straight to the e-stim and heat, and then the usual work. Yay. Oh yeah - the e-stim and heat relaxed my muscles enough that I went back to bug the chiropractor to check to see if I had a rib out on my left side. He felt around, said he didn't feel anything, then got me into position for a reset. Sure enough, I had one out on my left side, which is unusual for me. Ribs 2-3 on my right side have gone in and out so many times over the years (aggravated by repetitive motions like housework or filing or breathing) that I think I may have popped them back in this morning on my own. Yeah, deffo getting that Vicodin (aka hydrocodone/APAP) now.

Use the right kind of protection.

This art "has been commended as being strongly
vaginal, which bothers some men. The word itself
makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina."
(Maude Lebowski) 

Yesterday I went back to the local Apple store with the replacement iPad, which was also wonky in the same way (dropping wifi every few minutes). The store is in a mall and this year's Canstruction is in full swing. Some of it is nice. Some of it is great. One art was so Lebowskian that I had to snap a pic.

Frustrated 3rd techie to work with me/it that day walked off after 15 minutes trying things. He then brought me another new one. All replacements have been iPad1, 32 GB with wifi since that's what I had. He suggested WPA / WPA2 personal instead of WEP security, and I'm like duh. (Turns out he has hacker friends who could hack into WPA-protection in an hour but can hack into WEP in 10 minutes, and hackers like quick and easy so there you go. I giggled to myself since the canned vagina was still in my mind and he was talking about protection. Insert your own joke here.)

He advised to set this iPad up from scratch as a new device instead of restoring from backup. If it doesn't work, I should call the router people. Even though there's only 4 wireless connections at the most at any given time. Even though several others haven't had problems connecting, that I know of, anyway. He also suggested someone may have hacked in and is using my line and bumping a device off, so to check number of devices the router can handle. Besides having WPA2 personal security in the first place, most of the time only the desktop and Wii for Netflix are using the wireless connection, aside from the occasional iPad attempts. I use my iPhone on the home wireless when I remember to take it off 3G, and I have it set to 3G because I don't trust public wifi.

iPad with full bars and no connection.
Every 5 to 20 minutes. ANNOYING.
Oh, and this is the article I mentioned
yesterday. Please think before you pink.

I haven't surfed on iPad 1.3 too much, but so far I have 2 screenshots of THE SAME THING HAPPENING. I haven't even connected it to my computer at all and haven't downloaded any apps from the app store app, so it does appear to be a straight iPad issue. I'm currently looking for router info, and I found a page that actually addresses iPad wireless connection with the home Buffalo AirStation router since the router is AOSS-equipped. Yay! Except for one small detail. The page is in Japanese. I don't know Japanese. Can't read it, can't speak it. At all. Aside from "arigato" and "domo" and "sushi" and "sashimi" and "Genki-kun."

Grr. Arggh.

Thanks to Google translation magic, it looks like they're compatible and that I need to input the router info manually. Which I have done. Many many many many times over. I'll deal with this later though, as I am declaring it to be naptime. We FINALLY have rain going on, for the first time in 5,000 years. We'll still be in a drought for 9 million more years, but at least this is something.