I know everyone has been worried about me, all 4 of you, but I have returned! Due to a dead modem, I was without interwebs for 5 days or so. Also, I blame Word Thief for stealing me away this past weekend to do fun girly things that I forget I like to do. This memory loss comes from working with older men in the office and becoming a social shut-in to finish Final Fantasy 13. Which I haven't yet... which I will do.

So recently I told you all about my adventures with Best Buy delivery service... Well, in my case, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I called and told the lady I was very unhappy with having to leave work to be at my apartment at the non-scheduled time just to get my TV. I also told her manager what happened and to make a long story short, I got my delivery fee refunded :D

Now about my interwebs... my cable worked, so I knew it was either the router or the modem or both, but since I didn't have a spare (and I wasn't about to go buy one) I had to wait for the cable guy. This is what I wish I looked like while I was waiting...


As you can tell, I'm all about the FF13 lately :D So he checked my cable, agreed that the cables were fine and signal was getting through. Then he switched out the modem to a Motorola modem (the old one was Scientific Atlantic or something stupid like that) and pretty much got up to leave. I stopped him and told him only when I had internet on every wireless device I had was he allowed to leave. When I was satisfied I had everything connected, I let him leave. Then, the next day, I had to power cycle my modem again. Now, this was what happened before the other modem died. About once a week I had to power cycle the modem and router to get internet connection. Now, maybe my IP addresses might be conflicting. However, I refuse to check into the problem unless I lose interwebs again. I have wayyy too much to do online to play around with IPs... like blogging :D

Now, I know E3 was last week, but I feel the need to update my blog with each big conference's big announcements and what I need answered before I buy into all this new equipment coming out. It will be a 3-4 blog process, but it will happen, don't you worry!

Stay tuned friends, my life proves never to be dull!


Technology Tip of the Day:

Power cycling is one of the most basic things you can do with electronic equipment such as cable modems or routers. See a funny South Park clip hosted by Gizmodo.com that shows you exactly how to power cycle. (In all reality, he should have waited 10 seconds before plugging back in, but you get the general picture). It is much like a hard reset, but this requires that the router obtain an entirely new connection to the internet, therefore fixing a broken one. According to Wikipedia.com and I have to agree with how it was worded... " Reasons for power cycling include having an electronic device reinitialize its configuration or recover from an unresponsive state of its mission critical functionality, such as in a crash or hang situation. Power cycling can also be used to reset network activity inside a modem." So, next time you talk to a cable guy on the phone and he says "well, have you power cycled it?" you can confidently say "yes, I unplugged the damned thing for 10 seconds, plugged it back in and nothing fricking happened, now send someone out here before I have to talk to your manager". Hope this helps!

I know I just blogged yesterday, but there's a certain need to blog again...


IT'S CALLED A SAMSUNG 46 INCH LCD HDTV!!!!!


It is just... breathtaking... be in awe of my techy-ness!


Now to the good part... the delivery. I was sitting at work thinking I can't wait until 4pm so I can go home and wait for my luscious TV.


My phone rings....

Me: Hello.
Delivery Man: Hi, is Chrysteen there? (that's not my real name, but he butchered it something fierce)
Me: Speaking.
Delivery Man: Hi, dis is da Geek Squad? I'm just callin to let you know I'll deliva at 1 dis afternoon.
Me: Umm... when I set up for delivery, I said I worked until 4, so they scheduled me from 4-8.
Delivery Man: Well, I don't know nothin about that, I'm gonna be at your house in 20 minutes. Is dere anyone dere to open da door?
Me: *looks at the clock - it's 12:40* No... that's why I had it delivered. I can't pick the TV up by myself, that's why I scheduled in the first place.
Delivery Man: Oh... well let me call somebody and we can deliva dis anotha night.
Me: *has a mini heart attack* NO! I'll be there at 1pm.
Delivery Man: You sure?
Me: Yes. I will be there *eyes supervisor's activities to gauge his mood*
Delivery Man: Okay, if I get dere before you, I wait.
Me: (in my head) OF COURSE YOU WILL, YOU HAVE MY TV, JERK!


So, after lamenting to my supervisor, I go home, open the windows in my car because my car is insanely hot and meet him at my house. He takes out the dolly for the TV, rolls it over to the front door and more fun begins...


Delivery Man: *eyes the flight and a half of stairs* You know, I'm just gonna drag dis up the stairs. It ain't dat heavy.
Me: Umm.. okay... let me go open the door.. (in my head) I'm mentally kicking myself for getting delivery, I could have dragged it up the damned stairs...
Delivery Man: I'll follow *my TV box goes thumping up the stairs as he follows me and I wince every step*


After we civilly talk about the mix-up in time, he helps me move my old TV onto the floor and sets up the new one. When he sees I have HDMI cables for the PS3 and XBOX 360, he immediately rips those open and sets them up for me... I'm not as angry about the stairs anymore, but if the Samsung doesn't turn on, there will be hell to pay. Specifically $1300. That includes the TV, tax and delivery fee. At one point he actually asks me why I didn't get the TV from the Best Buy across the plaza. Then I tell him that I did order it from there, I just couldn't get the damned thing up the stairs because I am human, not a gorilla. However, after watching him drag it, I should have tried myself. Lesson Learned.


So, we finally get everything the way I want it. Then he puts the batteries into my remote and this follows:


Me: Thank you so much! I'm pretty sure I can take it from here.
Delivery Man: Well, dis is how you set up your X game and PS2... I'll name the PS2 to Blu-ray and da X game to Game so you can tell da difference.
Me: *cringes at what he calls my consoles* Thanks, that will be very helpful. I think I'm good now.
Delivery Man: Well, here's your remote for your cable. You can control everything from here, but only if you press da TV button. See how nothin happens when I press da AUX button? To exit da main menu, just press da volume down button. You can switch to your X game by pressin da Input button, only after you press da TV button.
Me: (in my head) He must think I'm dumb. Or mentally retarded. Or any combination thereof.
Delivery Man: Now about da screen size... Dere's a button dat says "Screen Size", just push dat button if you don't wanna watch stretched picture.  
Me: Yea, thanks, I know about aspect ratios.
Delivery Man: Oh, do you want me to take da big box it came in?
Me: No, I'm going to keep that in case I move out of here.
Delivery Man: Oh... dat's a really good idea! Huh...
Me: Well, thanks for everything, I have to get back to work now...
Delivery Man: Oh you're welcome, enjoy da TV!
Me: (under my breath) I sure will... while I'm at work... *mental scream*


So, as I lock up and leave to return to work, I notice that it's dark outside... it has torrential downpoured on everything during the 30 minutes I was in my apartment... And my car windows were open... I suck it up, put the cat blanket on my seat (I'd rather have a furry butt than a wet one) and drive back to work. After trying to get as much water as I could off the inside of my car doors, I walk back into work. Once my supervisor sees me, he laughs at my disgruntled appearance and says "So what happened?".


Needless to say, I'll be calling Best Buy later to see if I can get a free delivery due to the time mix-up, which my loverly boyfriend and his father suggested. Or who knows, maybe I won't get a refund but I'll feel better by yelling at someone at Best Buy :D


Now, when I go home, I'll get to watch Avatar on Blu-ray on my awesome awesome TV and I'll forget all this nonsense ever happened... HAH.


Technology Tip of the Day:


Do your research before jumping into buying the newest thing out there, especially for phones. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY want the new iPhone 4, but check out the Andriod's new 2.2 FroYo software. The competition is important because you don't want to be disappointed if you wanted one functionality and you could have gotten everything you wanted with a different phone. Don't listen to the hype, make your own informed decision. Aside from paying HUGE fees, you're stuck with your phone until 2 years is up. So do the research! You'll be happy with yourself in the end. (Just to be clear, I will get the iPhone 4, it's just a matter of time...)

Sadly this past weekend, I've realized how dreary the "real world" can be after all those warnings from older family members. This weekend I stayed in, not feeling my best and skipping the birthday cookout for my step-brother and his girlfriend that was an hour and 15 minute drive away. Not to mention those crazy storms that blew in this weekend, causing such havoc in the Ohio Valley and even in Pennsylvania. We had a tornado watch for quite a bit of the weekend, although luckily Rhode Island didn't see any twisters. Saturday I ended up watching Aeon Flux, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction and Chronicles of Riddick since they were on TNT sequentially. I reluctantly went out afterwards to get food for my cat and ended up calling Chili's for take-out. Then, Sunday I spent the day watching a Land Before Time marathon on HBO Family. After random hormonal outbreaks (why do the mothers always kick the can in my favorite movies? I mean, did they have to kill Bambi's mother?), I realized that my blog should really be helpful for me, as well as being helpful for others.


Many people don't know this, but I am horridly bad at moving. The first time I moved was when my mom got remarried and I moved from Connecticut to Florida. I know, you think "holy crap Florida! How can she complain?!". Well let me tell you, when you're not just visiting Florida you have to deal with severe drought, being told when you can wash your car or water your lawn, being excessively dependent on air conditioning and under the delusion that morning frost is snow. Okay, so that last part only bothered me, but come on people, frozen dew is not the same as snow... I stayed there for 2 years, made friends, found a boyfriend and then was forced to leave after divorce number 2. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to leave Satan and his demon spawn, but the whole idea of starting over again was very intimidating.


So, we moved from Florida to Pennsylvania to be near my mother's family. In fact, we stayed with my aunt for about 3 months while mom searched for a job and I started 10th grade. In high school, you pretty much have your friends figured out along with the different social circles since you've grown up with them. Since I didn't have that previous knowledge, I resorted to making friends with EVERYONE. Bad idea. I found out very quickly when certain people hated other people and I was friends with both that I needed to just narrow down to the people that I could relate to and weren't jerks. That was a relatively easy process seeing as most my good friends stemmed from band and color guard.


Even going off to college wasn't that hard, because it was like I had a home base at my mom's, and I knew my friends and I would get together for the holidays since we'd be home. This is not to say I didn't have friends in college, I did, I just wasn't going to the frat parties and getting wasted every other night since I had math homework to do. I graduated college, moved back home and started the job search. 4 long months later, I landed a job with my dad's old employer and moved to Rhode Island. Not before finding a boyfriend that I fell deeply in love with, making moving that much harder (flashbacks of Florida come to mind). I was told jokingly that I should let everyone know if I meet Peter Griffin, even after repeatedly reminding them that he is animated. The other thing I learned was that Quahog isn't just the residence of the Griffin family, it's a shell-like creature that is consumed much like oysters or clams.


However, with the new job, friends are much harder to come by. Of course, working with a bunch of middle-aged men doesn't help either. No joke, I was talking to my cube-mate about seeing Pamela Anderson at a club I went to for my brother's fiancee's birthday party, and he gave me a puzzled look before saying "who? Is she some kind of singer?". So amidst my older working crew and no school to help me meet people my age, this whole "real world" has been my social life downfall. I was told I should go to a meet-up group to meet new people, but honestly I just don't have the courage to go by myself. Maybe I'll just force the wonderful boyfriend to go with me when he gets here in 16 days.. hehe. (Not to downplay his arrival here, but I'm sure you don't want to read paragraph after paragraph of mushy "I love you"s so I'm omitting this for you dear reader.)


So read my blog, don't read my blog, care, don't care, it's up to you. Honestly I started this blog to help me talk about what's going on, but also to impart technological tips to help the masses. If all you're here for is the latter, enjoy!


Technology Tip of the Day:


Remember to charge your electronics before you go to sleep. If you get in the habit of plugging things in before you go to bed, you'll never have to worry about dying phones or laptops when you want to use them. This, however, doesn't work if you're playing Scrabble all day on your iPhone and then wonder why the battery is drained. You get out what you put in. If you don't charge it properly and want to use it for 30 minutes straight, that might be an issue. With iPhones these days, generally the 3G version can last most of a day with intermittent playing games and taking phone calls. If your father calls and wants to talk for an hour? Better find a wall outlet and get comfortable for the long haul. I've noticed that if you have under 20% left on your iPhone and you try to charge it, it will die even though it is plugged in. So my recommendation would be to use the phone plugged in until you're at 2%, end the call with the lame excuse "sorry, my phone is dying" and get off the phone. Apple's conference was today, so lets see the new and improved iPhone with less sucky functionality.   

Ever heard of Christmas in July? I just had Christmas in June! (Imagine a good commercial voice for the next couple sentences) Best Buy is having a deal where you can get a TV, TV equipment, cameras, movies, games, game consoles, and a few other things (it's specified in that annoying small print what you can't get) and not pay interest for 3 years when you open a Best Buy Card!! Not to mention, my brother from another mother (BFAM) told me about Amazon's similar deal involving a Samsung TV and sound system which is comparable and includes free shipping and setup! (Best Buy charges for delivery and installation) However, I knew about the Best Buy deal first. So Monday, after I said sad goodbyes to wifey (Word Thief) and adopted sister (Fashion Sheet), BFAM and I went to Best Buy to start this whole process and make my wallet that much heavier with plastic cards. I'd already decided I wanted to get between a 40-46 inch flat screen and I was told to get an LCD because of my sunny apartment living room (ask all three aforementioned people, they would know).


The reason for this is that LCDs have a matte finish on the screen to reduce reflection. Plasmas are very reflective and are recommended if you have a darker room that it will be in. I mean, if you have an in-home movie theater type room, by all means, go crazy! (But then sensible electronics people would ask... Why not just get a projector?) ... I ramble.


I walked in, settled on a Sony 46 inch LCD for $989.99. When it came to ordering however... I'd picked the time and day that they were switching delivery systems and couldn't order it for me. I was told they might have the Samsung 46 inch LCD for the same amount. I said I would take it. Again, ordering problems occurred. It was then that I asked about the PS3 that I wanted to purchase (slim version with a 120gb hard drive) and they told me they were out of that too. Apparently I underestimated how much Memorial Day was a shopping holiday...


So it was just not meant to happen on Monday. I didn't have time until yesterday to go into Best Buy, and man was I excited to upgrade to this huge wonderfully HD TV. And before I go through the process, let me just say that Best Buy workers are really to be admired. They are working retail, they are expected to know a lot about the entire store, they get paid retail wages and they are constantly judged on customer service. I walked in and within 2 minutes of my standing in front of the TV I wanted, I was asked if I needed help with anything. I don't know if that is because I'm a 23 year old female in the electronics department, or the guy wanted to help me out. After my experience, I tend to think the latter. I told him what I wanted (the Sony) but if they didn't have it, I wanted the Samsung. He took both cards, checked his computer, and they had a Samsung in stock. It now had my name on it. I told him I didn't want a mount yet, I was in an apartment and didn't know how long I'd be there. I also didn't want the protection plan because while I can be a klutz, usually the carpet has more of a chance of inadvertent dying than my expensive TV. Then I was told they have PS3's, but none of the slim versions, just the 250 gb version which was only $100 more. I said I'd take that too. Again, he was diligent and asked about a protection plan. To this one, I said yes (it was $70.99 for 2 years). I saw BFAM's cousin go through a terrible time with Sony customer service because his PS3 decided not to read PS3 games anymore. He even let me take it apart to fix it (which always voids the warranty... for obvious reasons, they can't warranty something you've messed with), but no dice. Then I told the Best Buy employee I wanted to get a camera, and he led me over to the camera section and asked if I had one in mind. I ended up with a Kodak EasyShare (what? they have really good advertising! I mean, you hit a button to upload to facebook/youtube etc). Again, said no to the protection plan. He did help me pick out a case though. Also, he took me to check out HDMI cables for my new PS3 and my current XBOX 360. He even saved me money with the rocketfish XBOX 360 HDMI cable ($29.99), but for the PS3 there was no alternative, so I just took the Monster cables for $79.99. Then, on our way back to the check out, I picked up Avatar on Blu-ray. After reluctantly agreeing to paying $100 for shipping/delivery (I live on the other side of the shopping plaza and I offered him $50 to just come help me haul it up into my apartment but he respectfully declined) I was all set. Trust me, if someone else was there with me I would have declined it, I just don't think my awesomeness extends to hauling a 46 inch HDTV up a flight and a half of stairs by myself. I declined the installation because I'm too much of a geek to let someone else set up my pretty HDTV. I also declined their offered service of setting up my PS3 (wtf?). Apparently they set up your PS3 for you so you don't have to go through the hassle(?) of the 5 screens to set up your user name and internet access along with the date and time. I mean really, who would pay for that?


So, as I looked around my living room with plastic bags, boxes and manuals strewn about, I was content with the electronics in my living room. Of course, I'll be even better when my TV is delivered on Tuesday!


Technology Tip of the Day:


If someone offers you a setup service for any electronic, for a price, you must really decide how much your time is worth. If you can reasonably use a computer, do not pay for someone to set up a game console. Or, if you know any gamers in their 20's, pay them $10 and they will happily come over and set up your game system. Also, with HDTVs, I promise it is not that hard to set up! Just follow the flow of cable from the wall to your TV. (Because let's face it, your TV never sends anything to your cable box. Your TV is just one big receiver and the cable box is the transmitter. The only thing the cable takes as input is from the controller, like when you change the channel). Cable comes OUT of the wall and IN to the cable box, then through the cable box and OUT. Then it goes IN to your TV. And to be honest, those connections are very well marked on the back of your TV and cable box. So, next time you're offered a service from a retail store, have a little confidence and say "No Thank You". Even if you have problems, there has to be someone you know that can help you for free or for less than what you would have paid for the store to do it for you... or maybe I'm just that cheap :)