I know it's been a while, donc il faut que je bitche; I need to bitch!

Today, I finally have phone and internet working. The modems and stuff had arrived on monday, but it took until now to get it working. I won't name names, but I warn others to be careful when dealing with companies that don't offer telephone technical support. Tech support for the phone line as only available via email; via phone (9am - 6pm) for DSL. Nevertheless, there were times that neither of these services were working for me. If we weren't 'borrowing' internet from a wireless neighbour and phone from the previous tennant, I would have long since found a post office and sent things back. Instead, I have spent the majority of my waking time on tuesday, wednesday, and then this morning banging my head on the table, trying to make things work.
The tech support I received always led me to believe that I had to get the right passwords in the right place and try a billion different wire connections and re-set all the devices to make sure that they were each connected properly, even though I knew from the outset (as well as some help from my main computer tech man, K) that it was set up properly. Finally, this morning, I said screw it and just got rid of the passwords from my routers. If I didn't need a password to even connect to my modem, why would i need it for my other devices to connect to it. Magic, things were communicating and all was almost well.
There was some more stuff today when I realized that the phone wouldn't actually receive phone calls and then I had to choose between the multiple configurations that the same company offered and after the whole ordeal, I now have everything working as it should be. Chances are that if you want to communicate with me, I have already sent you my new contact info, but if not then please email me and I can send you that info. I have free long distance in Canada and the US so I can call pretty much anyone... except for my Chinese and German friends.

Anyway, I'm pissy because I'm not good with computers and I spent so much frikkin time doing this. Those who know me know that I can be a bit obsessive, and I totally have been about this. Ya, so 2 or 3 days are now down the drain; not exactly the way I wanted to be spending my time, but at least I can say that I have a better understanding of PPPoe, Routers in general, Wireless systems, DSL, and VOIP protocols. I would rather not have learned all of that, but I might as well be proud of it! The good thing is that now (knock on wood), I should be able to just ignore phone and internet aside from using them; we prepaid the yearly contract so we don't get monthly bills. I guess it works out then, rather than people having to pay their bills every month, I just spend my time worrying about it upfront and now I just enjoy the service until next year.

Ok, time for some good news. I looked at my bank account and my student loan money was deposited! YAY! I have been avoiding paying off my credit card (racked up with set-up costs) because that payment would pretty much wipe out my bank account. Financially, I now feel good. That loan money is certainly enough to last at least a few months, and it had better not take that long for my paycheques to start coming in from the university for my teaching. Also, I managed to earn eleven dollars in reward points from my PC financial MC this month! I don't know what you guys think, but I think that's amazing!

Now that I've wasted even more time blogging, I need to go get some work done before I see another day gone down the drain in the name of this bloody phone/internet fiasco!