why would someone go through and delete all their posts on here, yet not just delete their account?

actually i was more disappointed to find a few friends' names highlighted but they had subsequently removed all content from their page. makes me feel like i'm missing out since i haven't been on here in a looooong time.

i guess it's just hard for me to understand why someone would go to certain lengths to alienate friends / acquaintances. i guess somebody like me values as many of either as he can get his hands on.


why is google adwords (below) showing me ads for self-publishing services??? looks like they might need to work on their relevance algorithms.


just bought this thing that's basically a VoIP phone service-providing device. it's called the Ooma Telo, and Woot had it the other day for a good price ($140, regular $200-250). The interesting thing with this compared to vonage or skype is that there's no recurring fee for the service, except for relevant taxes (which amount to $3.60-something). Yep, you just buy the device and pay less than $5/month for free unlimited local & long-distance. Granted, if you already rely completely on a cell phone and have already ditched your land-line, this probably isn't for you. Also, there is a max of 5000 minutes a month of outgoing calls that you can make, so it's not meant for business. But, if you're like my family, you could save as much as $35 on your phone bill each month.

We have at&t's top land-line plan ($40) bundled with 3 Mbps DSL (should be $30, but for some reason we're being charged $33 – i should look into that). The combo saves us $5 over the price of each of those products individually, so I'll count the land-line as $35 instead of $40 (after all, it does say $35 on our bill). So far we're at $68. Now add about $11.5 in fees and $3.5 in taxes, and we're up to a grand total of about $83/month, which is what we're paying now.

Now, with Ooma: we'd drop the land-line (-$35), and dropping the land-line means we'd have to go to dry-loop DSL (+$10); then, I'm thinking dropping the land-line will also drop those fees we're paying (-$11.5), although I'm not sure about *all* of them (+$5, let's say, just to be safe). And the taxes will remain almost exactly the same. So we're looking at a new bill of somewhere around $50/month, which would mean we'd be saving $30-35 over the old plan. Cool.

Of course, with VoIP there is the downside that we'd have trouble in a power outage. Let me explain why I don't think it's a big risk to take: (1) my dad and I do have cell phones; (2) we could buy a cheap UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply, aka battery-backup; by cheap I mean $45-75) unit just for the DSL modem and Ooma thingy, which could keep them running for a good while during an outage; (3) we've relied on cordless phones around the house for a while, which also won't work without power, and very rarely have we had an outage where that presented a problem.

Yes, we can transfer our number to Ooma; no, our computer doesn't have to be on to run the thing, unlike magicJack or Skype; yes, the call quality is as good or better than a land-line, from what I hear; yes, they also say as a total package it's better than vonage, skype, magicJack, packet8, or any other VoIP service; yes, it does have E911.

And yes, the unit would pay for itself in 4 months (at the sale price I got)!

I made the mistake of springing this idea on my dad as he walked in from work. I knew I'd been told before that that was a bad idea, but for some reason I felt like this time might be different – and it wasn't. So when this thing comes in, I'll have to somehow try to get my dad to warm up to it. He says he wouldn't want to do it unless he knew someone that had it, so that he could test it out before laying out any money. Frankly that approach will only cost him the money he could be saving if he'd switch; I mean, I'd be *very* surprised to find an acquaintance of ours that already uses this device. For me, as many positive reviews as this thing has, it's gotta be worth taking the plunge.
So, I went ahead and bought it before it sold out (and yeah, it did sell out; that's 1500 units sold in less than 24 hours). My thinking is that I'll figure out how to get it going without transferring our number over just yet, so that he can test it. And then, when he approves, he could just start paying me the difference in the phone bill for 4 months, so I wouldn't be out any money.

But then, I consider not making him repay me for it, and just marking it down as repaying them for all the money they've spent on me over the years.

EDIT: now I'm seeing VoIP ads below. that's better.

so i haven't been here for about 4 months if i'm correct. had 10 pages of "new entries" to go through, only to discover that the "new entries" thing doesn't work the way i think it should. so i probably missed a few posts in there somewhere.
looks like i'm not the only one that's been gone, tho.

just noticed that i had my email address wrong over there on the right. it was missing the 87.
also the "+pln" in it is just so if i ever get spam from it being published on here, i can identify that my address was indeed taken from here. Gmail discards the '+' and anything between it and the '@'. but i'm sure the spammers know that too, and their scrapers probably strip that out before using it. so it's probably pointless is all i'm saying.

i'm jobless over xmas break. don't particularly care for xmas and would be fine with having fir trees and wrapped presents on thanksgiving.

speaking of being jobless, i want to tell you what my "boss" (teacher) and i have planned to do next semester. it's long and technical so feel free to skip it.

...are:
the kind where it pains you to be away from them. the kind that get you when nobody else seems to. the kind you love to spend time with.
the kind you love to share deep thoughts, dreams, ideas, or whatever with. the kind that draws out your personality to its potential.
those who don't give up on you. those who will lend a listening ear when that's all you need.
those who will tell you the truth, even when you don't want to hear it. those who put you ahead of themselves.
those who want to help you be a better person. those who are willing to work to resolve differences.

...are not:
those who push you to compromise your standards or life goals and would make it a condition of the relationship.
those who do not respect you and thus do not treat you with respect.
those who require you to sacrifice yourself for their own well-being.
those who don't care about your spiritual state or character development.

I would welcome any additions to this list. Put 'em in the comments below and I just might add them.

this post was inspired by my previous post in addition to laura's kind comments.

This issue's recommended reading (or listening or watching, as the case may be):

• Health Officials Admit Fast-Tracked H1N1 Vaccines Will Not Be Tested For Safety
• 60 Minutes - Swine Flu Vaccine Warning (Part 1)
• Homeland Security Admits Report on "Right-Wing Extremism" Sourced from SPLC and ADL Playbooks
• Refusing Vaccination Labels You a "Criminal", Says the WHO
• Claiming Almost Everything is "Commerce"
• White House: No guarantee taxes won't go up

i wish i had friends.

well, don't jump to conclusions, i didn't say i don't have any friends.

oh... i did? well then... what i MEANT to say was yeah, i have friends, but... i'm talking FRIENDS friends. y'know.
the kind where it pains you to be away from them. the kind that get you when nobody else seems to. the kind you love to spend time with.
the kind you love to share deep thoughts, dreams, ideas, or whatever with. the kind that draws out your personality to its potential.

i say "them", but it doesn't have to be ... i'd be happy with just one, i suppose.
and i'm talking aside from a girlfriend. she doesn't count. ;)

i suppose you should be thankful i don't complain about this all the time. so when i do, i mean it. it's not just a "i'm bored so i'm thinking about the woefulness of my existence" type of thing.
actually, i wasn't thinking about it at all until it was brought back to my attention. but it's not like it's never come to mind before. actually, many times have i wished for such.

for all of people's imperfections, people need people. whether they like to admit it or not.
some people say "i don't like people." but they should realize that what they really mean (i hope) is that the masses of uneducated, ignorant, common-sense-lacking numskulls out there really grate on their nerves.
and to that i can sympathize. ;)

but anyway. what i wouldn't solicit is people coming up to me and being like "aww, i'll be your friend!" lol. that's not how it works. chances are, i'm already your friend on that level.
however... if someone could fill me in on how it does work, that might be helpful.

RadioShack interview at 1pm today!

If they do end up offering me the job, idk yet if I'll take it, because the city has a position that looks interesting that would almost definitely pay more and might even be more to my liking. So I'm applying for that too, and we'll see.

Haven't figured out yet how this will affect my website-making venture. Definitely won't quit, but... idk.


This issue's articles:
Representative John Boehner R-OH Cap & Trade HR 2454 (hooray for Boehner for reading the bill for all to hear.)
Benedict Arnold Obama (THIS is what's happening. Listen if you care about what's happening in our country.)
Obama Cap And Trade My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket (Here is our benevolent leader Comrade Obama admitting that his plan will make energy rates skyrocket. How could he possibly convince ANY American citizen [that he's not paying off] that this is a good thing for the economy? That we should be happy to pay the coming exorbitant energy rates? I have no idea.)
Firefox 3.5 is out.
HR2454 Cap and Trade Will End Middle Class in Amerika 
Pirate Bay Heads to Davy Jones' Locker (sad day)
Why is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the "Homeland"? 
Creepy, revealing quote from White House staffer