Note: I've been offline for a week, and wasn't expecting to be able to post this until at least Mondy. But then I realized that a few coffee shops and other places around town have free wi-fi service. So I'm posting this from the library. I'll just copy and paste what I wrote last night...

Okay, before I get into the upcoming rant:  I'm writing this Friday evening (11-7), and will copy and paste it into my journal when I'm able to get online again.  See, I've been without internet service since Sunday night.  Why? Well, let's see if I can explain it without boiling over into a white-hot rage….

I'd been using a wireless router to transfer files back and forth between my PC and my laptop. Well, the router went haywire on me, so Sunday after work I bought a new one and started to set it up.  The router's software needed my IP address, IP subset mask, and several other pieces of information.  I didn't know what those were, couldn't find them anywhere, so I decided to call Verizon and get the info from them.

Instead of just giving me the damned info, the twit I got on the phone started instructing me to access various settings on my DSL modem, change some of the settings--which I did because, at first, I thought that was how to get the info I needed. That didn't work, so the dipshit on the phone had me change a couple of passwords--which didn't work, either. Then she had me reset the modem--and boom, the modem wouldn't connect anymore.  At all.  I was on the phone with the tech for an hour and a half, trying to get the modem to work again, and no matter what we did, it simply would not connect. Bam, goodbye, internet service.

The so-called tech said that my modem was "faulty"…yeah, it was faulty, alright--because the Verizon tech is the one who fucked it up!  Anyway, she said that she would have a new modem shipped overnight, and it would be here Monday morning.

By Friday, it still hadn't arrived.  I called Verizon twice more, trying to get to the bottom of this mess.  Finally, I got someone who gave me the order number and tracking number.  I called UPS, tracked the order, and found out that it had been delivered to my previous address!  The address I'd moved out of almost three fucking years ago! 

By the way, I had given Verizon my new address when I moved into this apartment.  I did that my very first day in this place.  I did it when I had my DSL service switched from the previous address to the new address!  THEY ALREADY HAD MY CURRENT ADDRESS!  AND THEY SENT THE MODEM TO MY OLD ADDRESS!  MOTHERFUCKERS!

So I spent another hour on the phone with Verizon, trying to get them to fix this.  I was hoping I could get them to set up a dialup connection so I could at least have internet service until the new modem arrived. But I didn't even get that far.  Oh, hell no.  I explained the whole thing to another Verizon idiot, who transferred me to a different department, then I had to explain it all over again.  That idiot then transferred me to the "modem shipment department"--and then I waited, and waited, and waited…and after staying on hold another ten minutes, I hung up in disgust.

So, that's it.  I'm done with Verizon.  As soon as I've got internet service again, I'm canceling my Verizon DSL and my phone line. I've got a cell phone, so I don't need a fucking land line anymore, especially since the only people who ever call me at that number are goddamned telemarketers and people dialing wrong numbers.

The only good news is that, before I made that final phone call this afternoon, I went to the local Charter Communications (the TV cable, digital cable, phone and internet service company) office and signed up for Charter high-speed internet.  Two things about this are fucking awesome right out of the gate--first, it's freestanding DSL, there's no phone line required. That means I can get rid of Verizon completely and still have internet service (which should be much faster than the less-than-1Mbps I was getting from Verizon). And second, it'll cost me $42.99/month, which is almost ten bucks less than what I was paying Verizon for my phone and DSL.

The only problem is that Monday is the soonest I can have it set up, and I'll be working on Sunday. If the tech guy doesn't get there before I leave for work, I'm not sure what'll happen. I'm hoping it can be done even if I'm not there…if I have to reschedule, I don't know how much longer it'll be. Friday is the only weekday I have off, so that's the only day I'm guaranteed to be home, unless I can switch days with one of my coworkers. And I don't know if the techs will be all booked up for that day….

So, with any luck, I'll be back online sometime this week. I'll hang on to my Verizon account just long enough to transfer my other online accounts--ebay, Amazon, etc.--to my new email address, then I'm cutting Verizon loose. They can suck my fucking cock and choke to death on my cum.

I'm really glad I decided to go ahead and sign up for Charter high-speed. I'd been having second thoughts until that last call to Verizon this afternoon. Now I know I made the right choice.

Anyway, I'll already be back online by the time you see this, but I just had to get it out of my system.

Oh, and one other thing.  Naturally, this happened the day after I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo again.  I did it once, several years ago and passed the 50,000-word mark by the end of the month, then I failed miserably the next year, and haven't even tried it since then. But on Saturday night, I decided to give it one more try, hoping that it would at least start me writing more regularly. I figured I might get back into a halfway decent routine if I had a deadline to meet.

Then, the very next night, Verizon subjected me to a week-long anal creampie.  Between that and work, I've gotten to a little over 3,000 words, when I should be at 14,000 by now. To keep this from being yet another dismal failure, I've decided to count everything I write on both novels-in-progress between Nov. 1st and Nov. 30th, but also my work on Parts Unknown, any other writing projects I work on, and long journal entries like this one. Even if I don't hit 50,000 words by the end of the month, I want to at least get close enough that I don't feel even more like a failure than I already do.  So, after adding this little rant to my NaNo word count…4,746 words. Only another nine or ten thousand words and I'll be back on schedule.

Shit.