The battle is over

Well I've finally got cable back. No thanks to anybody at Comcast. I'm just super pissed that I basically went a week with no cable. Once we move in February we won't be using Comcast anymore. I hear that new thing Verizon has is pretty sweet.

Anyway I had to take a second box back to Comcast (actually the wife did it) and she spent another hour with a CSR at Comcast trying to get the new one to work. It does work finally and we can now watch TV.

I really hope we don't have to deal with them again.

Battle with Comcast part 2

(This is an update to yesterday's post located here.)

Well this morning I try and get my DVR to work. Guess what? The box won't do anything now. I am getting really fed up. I've been in touch with customer service seven or eight times now in the last few days. This is getting really old. I've missed two hockey games because of it.

At least though someone from Comcast has contacted through this blog in an attempt to work things out.

**EDIT: Well now it seems that I have either two choices: Take this new DVR box back to Comcast in the morning and basically start all over (which I know will happen) or wait until freaking Tuesday for them send someone out. You figure I'm paying these guys $200 a month for my services. I've had it to here (pointing to my temples). You'd think for the money I'm giving them they would supply me working equipment. Nope. **

Bryan's battle with Comcast Cable.

I know this is a little out of sorts of what is usually posted, but here goes my 7 month battle with my cable through Comcast.

It all kind of started back in February. I had just got a new job and moved from Indiana to Virginia. Awesome. When I called to have my cable switched over I was told I had to disconnect my service and start new service. Fine, I thought. I'll pay the extra fees to have reconnected. I was then told that I would lose my NHL center ice package which cost around $150 for the full season, but I could re-buy at the discount of half a season for $120 for the next two months. I thought that was ridiculous so I said no. I lost about $50-60 on the package. Refund? Nope.

So I moved and got cable/internet/phone hooked up in Virginia. Well sort of. The boxes were all hooked up, and none of the premium channels I paid for were working, but that has really hard to tell since I was not provided with remote controls for either one of my boxes and I was not given the wireless router I requested.

After getting two seperate trips out by Comcast technicians, I finally had my remotes and got the premium channels on my cable boxes.

Well I get a bill then from Indiana where I had service showing that I was still paying for service for when I was gone. So needless to say I was mad. I call and they show that I had returned my cable box in Indiana two weeks after I moved to Virginia. After a few phone calls I finally had that straightened out my bill fixed.

Fast forward to October. The only blips in that time were having my box pixelate like crazy on some channels and an occasional bad DVR recording.

Well the bad DVR recordings started to get worse. It seemed that almost every other recording was unwatchable. They would freeze, go to black, and stop. OK, fine I thought. DVR is worn out. I'll call and get a new one. I talked to guy through the online chat and he told me I could just take it in and swap it out in the morning. Cool I thought. I asked him is that all I have to do, and he said yes. Knowing what I had to go through in the past with new boxes I was very skeptical, but I thought maybe they had changed.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. I get the new box home and hook it up. Box does nothing. It turns on and that's about it. I had to leave for work and I though when I got home, the box would connect to Comcast and I'd be cool. Nope. Not even close. So I then hop back online and with a guy again get the box activated and knowing what I knew before made sure my premium channels worked. They did not. I got him to fix them and I thought I was set.

Well turns out my new DVR was never activated. I get back online again, with the subject line of my problem "DVR does not appear to be activated." The CSR has me then power cycle my box (which I knew would do nothing, but did it anyway). After messing around with it a little more and after getting really annoyed she pipes back in "Your DVR service is not activated on your box." THAT'S WHAT I SAID IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE MESSAGE! So then I find out that I cannot have my DVR service activated until tomorrow. Why was I not told that when I got the box that I would have to go through all this? Or why was this not all set up when I picked up the box?

So tomorrow we will see if I can get my DVR service to work. If not expect another post.

Also-- Comcast here in Northern VA, change the trailers you play in the background of the OnDemand service. It has only been playing the same two for the last month.

FIN

Goals... err lack thereof.

Is that title even English?

Over the last few years I've always made lists to try and get things done. Most of the time they didn't work, mainly because I was over extending myself and just would run out of time. I've started it again and this time it will work. First I decided that I would only list things that I knew I could get done. I've also given myself a lot longer time to get the things done. I used to try and get everything done in a week. I've bumped that up to two months and even though my new list is way more loftier than my previous ones, it a lot more realistic. I won;t go into the boring details of what is on there, but suffice to say, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

FIN

Now that's what I call a delay....

Seeing as how I haven't posted on here in two and a half months, I figure it's time for something.

I'm getting married in October. I guess that's the big news. It's going to happen back home in Indiana, so hopefully most of my friends can make it. I'm actually really stoked about it, but I am maintaining a pretty stoic stance so I don't tarnish my dude cred. There's going to be cocktails and shit afterwards, so a good time should be had by all.

My job has been getting less and less boring over the last couple months. It was real hard at first getting used to doing something that I hadn't done in almost seven years, but it seems to be going good. I used to only "watch TV" for about an hour a day at my previous stations, but doing it for eight straight hours was really rough at first. I'm starting to other things, and that is helping a ton. I know enough about the TV biz to know that I only have a grasp on about 60% percent of what goes on where I work and the other 40% will only come with time there. The little things that nobody can train you on is what I'm trying to pick up day by day.

Michelle and I also got another cat about a month ago. I convinced her to let us name it after my favorite hockey player, so everyone say hello to Pavel Datsyuk Von Doom. His original name was Doctor Doom, so we kept the last part. The nice thing is he made Mean Cat chill out, and life has been a lot more calm.

I've also become obsessed with video games over the last few months. I've bought a Playstation 2, and a couple Nintendo DS's (one for me and Michelle). I'm a huge Guitar Hero fan (I've beaten 1,2,3 on medium) and am waiting to buy a Xbox 360 and then going to kick some Rock Band ass all over the place.

So..... that about sums it up from the nation's capital area. I just hope tomorrow is not another 95+ degree day. That shit stinks. Literally. It smells like garbage sometimes.

FIN

Air guitar baby.

So I'm trying to get into the air guitar championship in DC. I took the day off and went to register, but it was full. Now I have impress the judges into letting me compete. I have a main song, but need a second. Anybody have any ideas??

FIN

Lonely times.

It seems that in the last couple weeks here in the sticks of Virginia me and my lady friend have both been hit by a loneliness bug. We're not alone here but we are both lonely.

The only people we see are each other, and I don't think we're getting sick of that, but we need more interaction. I think it's hitting her harder than it is me, which makes me want to change it even more. I'm used to being alone and lonely. She's not.

So here's a plea to some cool people in Va-jay-jay. Let's hang out. It'll rock.


FIN

Action News Update:

This just in-- I'm still alive.

Things are well here in the suburbs of D.C. My new job is going well as expected (it's actually quite dull at the moment, but hopefully that will change soon.)

Living with Michelle is quite nice, as I'm finally eating like real boy should (frozen pizzas only once a week).

So sorry if anyone still checks in on this. I know the last nine months have had no updates at all, but that's life.

FIN

Off.

I'm off to Virginia. I just a job with the Discovery channel. I've got two weeks to get moved.

Should be a blast.

FIN

happy.

I just ate the most wonderful holiday ham.

i love how happy my life is right now. Nuff said.