The Charter Update

08.21.2012

My internet connection has been active for almost a week. After my last service call the problem was diagnosed as "water in my cable line". Oddly enough, this kind of makes sense. If I think hard enough I could see where my service would go out after a hard rain. Water would disrupt the connection within the line. Ok, I'll bite, I have water in my line.

The service tech installed a new line outside where the there's a connection between the pole in the back yard and then going into the ground by the house. Where the line connects to the house he applied some silicone to keep the water out. And I got a new modem since the one I've been leasing is a "2.0" model and they use "3.0" now.

After the tech left, I attacked my bill. On the 27th of last month, I downgraded my service to internet only. My old service total was $130.52 (internet, tv, no bundles but some crap from teh last bundle was still on, like the Charter Cloud). My internet only total would be $62.92. At the time I downgraded, I was charged for a partial months service so my total for the last payment was $86.00 instead of $130.52. I was taking care of all of this at the office in Athens and paid with a credit card.

When my new bill arrived in the mail it was for $183.53. This is substantially more than $62.92. On my bill it showed my payment of $86.00, but also showed all of the old services I discontinued. So, I got credit for a partial payment of $86.00, then charged for the remainder, plus a late fee, plus the next month's service of $130.52. If my payment hadn't showed up I would have though something didn't go through, but I paid and downgraded at the same time, and each service tech commented that I only had internet service through Charter.

I make my call through the automated Charter answering flowchart and finally get to a person. I explain that I downgraded my service, but my old service was still showing on my bill. She typed away and told me what my current service was (internet) and the charge on my current bill should have been $62.92. She was sorry for the confusion, but the bill was sent out before my account was updated with the change in my service.

But I did everything at the same time. And my payment showed up on the bill. How does my current service plan not get updated at the same instant?

I didn't ask that. I know better than to think somebody answering calls and (mainly) customer complaints knows anything about the inner workings of the cable company. Complaining to her wouldn't do any good. So I kept my mouth shut. Then I came to the internet and bitched about it.

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!@$# Charter

08.16.2012

I attribute my lack of updates over the past couple of weeks to the inconsistency of my home internet connection. Today, for the 3rd week in a row, I have a service call with Charter to come fix my freaking internet. Granted, it works right now, but it won't stay on.

2 weeks ago I scheduled a service call because my internet would go down between 9AM and anywhere from 7-10PM. When the tech came to fix it, he removed extra splitters from the outside of the house, and did something at the pole. Not sure why that combination would suddenly be the source of my problem, but everything was working afterward.

1 week ago I scheduled a service call because my internet suddenly stopped working - no signal at all on the modem. When the tech came to fix it, he turned the service that someone else switched off back on. Apparently one of my neighbors didn't pay their bill, so my internet was turned off. Unfortunately, that's not the first time this has happened.

Yesterday, I scheduled a service call because my modem would not connect to the internet after I got home from work. The service tech will be here this afternoon to bring me a new modem. As of now, my service came back up at 7:28PM last night.

So now while I have an internet connection it's time to surf and find out if anybody besides Charter provides internet service to my address. The last time I checked, nobody did. It's been a while since I checked, so maybe that's changed.

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Zombie Mall - 1st Shop

08.04.2012

Just to show some progress on my list of things I'm working on, to the right is the first part of the map for the zombie mall game I've been working on. I've got the first pass of rules ready to playtest. I still need some cards that will be used for events and items to make up, and of course I need a map board to play on.

Originally I was just going to make a big (40"x40") map and print it out at Staples. Nothing overly fancy, just enough that you could see walls and differences in stores. However, I found out that the 11 year old version of Paint Shop Pro that I'm using won't let me save the ½ Gigabyte file that I would generate. And that's an empty file just taking up those dimensions at 300dpi.

I could use another graphics program, I've got plenty that are probably up to the task. I just don't want to mess with the learning curve right now. So, I go back to may plan for when I was going to build up a 3D map - modular stores. The best part is I've got the floorplan ready for 5 or 6 stores already, I just have to add walls and content. Content is the sticky part. I've got a few libraries of props from an overhead view that will work, but there are still some things I need that I don't have. Clothes hanging up is a perfect example. What mall doesn't have hanging clothes?

I'm trying not to get too carried away. This is prep for the playtest phase after all. Odds are whatever I make will have to be tweaked, even the map. Still, it's more fun to play with something that's graphically pleasing.

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No More Cable TV

08.03.2012

This past Tuesday I did something I've been threatening to do for years: I turned off my cable tv.

Over the past few years I've watched less and less tv. Most series programs I watch I buy on DVD when they're released since I like watching shows at my leisure and without commercial interruption. While recuperating from surgery I've spent more time than usual watching tv. In that I found that I would watch:

• Wrestling (Raw, Smackdown, even TNA)
• Pawn Stars
• Hardcore Pawn
• Man Vs Food
• Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives

To be honest, except for the wrestling shows I've been hooked on all my life, I don't really like the other shows. They're interesting enough to stop on when I'm flipping channels, but I don't really care about them.

I've gone back to reading more, especially fiction. I used to read a lot but over the past decade my reading has mostly dwindled to reading comics/graphic novels during a bathroom break. I might read a book here and there, but nothing would really stick with me. Over the past few months I've read a couple of books that I really enjoy: Ready Player One, Evil Genius, and Reamde were all fun to read. So with that, I've decided that instead of absently flipping channels I'll just plop down and read for a bit.

I'm also mad at Charter, my cable company. And maybe all cable companies, but Charter is the only one that will service my house. They tend to switch around the channels and take something away I watch (Travel Channel went away from whatever tier I subscribed to 2 months ago) and then go up and their prices although when I bought in on whatever bundle I have it was for a specific price. Pay more for less. I still have their internet service (again, the only internet provider I can get at my house), and I'm sure the price will fluctuate, but if my internet service is interrupted I'll call and bitch hard and loud since at that time I'll be paying them for providing me absolutely nothing, and I didn't sign up for that plan.

So now I have no tv. Unless I go buy an antenna I won't even have local tv. And that's ok. Back in the trailer park days I remember when cable had finally been run to the park. Everybody was excited. No more snowy local channels. The best part for me was channel 17 out of Atlanta and watching Georgial Championship Wrestling. Except for my freshman year at Birmingham-Southern, I've had cable/satellite tv ever since. I wonder how different this will end up feeling?

At least I can still watch wrestling at Matt's!

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Zombie Mall - Clock is Ticking

07.22.2012

I think I've mentioned before that I've had an idea for a zombie boardgame set inside a mall. Yes, I know it's not an original idea. It's not even an original boardgame idea. But I have some play mechanics in mind that I think would make for a fun game.

I've had rules ideas in my head for a couple of months. In my list of getting things done, the game made the list. Thanks to Jer, I know have my first deadline. Jer leaves for a Scuba trip on Wednesday. My task is to have a playtest-able version of the game ready by the time he gets back (which I think is in a week, or a week and a half). Not knowing exactly when he gets back helps to keep me from pushing the work off too far.

The playtest version won't be pretty to look at. I originally envisioned a 3D, cardstock mall with painted zombie miniatures roaming around. Right now I think I'll be lucky to have a printed map that has individual stores and colored chits for the zombies. But that's ok, this is testing. All of this will be thrown away afterwards because my ideas aren't as perfect and fleshed out as I think they are.

I don't have time for blog typing, I have zombie killing rules to whip up!

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