Baby's coming!

My wife has just hit the 6 month mark in her pregnancy and boy am I tired... um, wait now, that was a mishmash of bad jokes.  We've been working hard at finding a new place to live, this place has been great to us and we would have loved to stay, but there just isn't enough room for baby.  Finding a place here in town has been proving to be difficult, it's a seller's market and we don't have a down payment.  So we are trying to find a good rent-to-own home, hopefully in town, and within budget.  Names have been bandied about but nothing is final yet, but we at least know that the technician thinks it's a boy.

Well that's it for now, gotta go!

A Personal Touch

The biggest reason why my blog isn't constantly updated is because to me, my life is mundane.  I don't go on big trips all the time, I spend 90-95% of my time with my wife, and the other 5-10% is playing video games.  I've re-discovered Minecraft and have been playing that a lot.  I've been following Hermitcraft [hermitcraft.com] this year, and the Wednesday night program at church has never been better.

So that's the update!

Rise of The Magi

So a man I call a friend is in a bit of a pickle right now.  He fought for 3 months over the title of his very first published novel, a fantasy novel that tells you God is real.  Now Rise of the Magi is the title of a completely unrelated comic book, that on the first page tells you God is magic.  This is truly a case of spiritual warfare, as this new comic was given away free this year for free comic book day.  Now I'm not going to go into any further detail about how you can help out my friend, but I'll let him do it here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/12622-rise-of-the-magi-book-blast

Also I would be very happy if you check out his book right here: http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Magi-Forgotten-Portals-Novel/dp/158169430X

Starbucks

I don't know the exact date of the first time I went into a Starbucks.  I remember I was very confused, since this was the first one in my home town, and it had just opened. When I expressed my confusion to an exasperated and maybe even disgruntled employee, she bullied me around the menu and kept telling me EXACTLY where to stand, how to order, and even WHAT TO ORDER.  I didn't like what I got, when I told her I didn't like it she asked "Why did you order it?" and I just couldn't bring myself to answer such an uninformed question, that I walked away leaving most of a "coffee" on the counter, when I get called back to pick it up and take that horrible thing with me.  I just threw it out on my way out the door, and vowed not to return.  A few years later my now wife then girlfriend took me, I told her to order something I would like, she did, and now I'm at a starbucks twice a month.

My life is awesome, but my blog not so much.

yeah what the title says.

hired by a call center

It's not all bad, I have a job, it pays well, especially since I like afternoons and they give shift premiums for afternoons.

2 years later and Distributel still sucks.

So today my wife and I finally got thru to Distributel's customer service.  We've been trying every day for the past 2 weeks, hanging up after every 2 hour wait.  Now I realize that there needs to be some back story so here goes:  I cancelled my Distributel Internet in May 2011 because I lost about $1000 in NSF fees due to the nature of their billing and President Choice Financial's No Fee Bank Account.  In other words: I got paid on the 1st, PC held the government cheque for 7 days, so when Distributel tried to take out $40 on the 4th, it bounced and PC charged me a $45 NSF fee, so Distributel would try again on the 15th of the month, but because I need to pay rent and buy food and pay the ridiculous NSF fee there wouldn't be enough in the account.  Every month for almost a year Distributel would cost me $90.  Neither side would claim ownership, neither side would help me.  I'd call every month over the same damned problem, just to get the cold shoulder and the response "Just pay it."  So when I sent back the modem I only had about $20 cash with me, and that was really all the money in the world I had.  I went to the Post Office downtown with Distributel's Modem, in a plain brown box, and the $20, put them on the counter and asked them to send it to Distributel's address, with my address as the return.  The post office told me that $20 is not enough money to get a tracking number, and I just did not have any more money, and no one was answering their phones, and I wasn't about to go pan handling for $18 more, so I told the Post Office to just mail it.  I called Distributel and told them to note on the account that I posted the modem.  When Distributel asked for the tracking number I had to tell them that I simply didn't have enough money (what with all the billing problems I had), and so didn't have a tracking number.  Little did I know that Distributel would NEVER believe I sent the modem.  Bunch of lying thieves........

Now jump forward to a couple weeks ago... I'm on my Honeymoon with my new wife and Gatestone Collections calls me.  Of course we answer since we're only in Niagara Falls.  Gatestone says we STILL OWE $236 FOR DISTRIBUTEL, FROM TWO YEARS AGO.  RIDICULOUS!  So since then we've tried every day to get thru and today was the day.  When we talked to the first CSR she told my wife and I that the modem HAD been returned, but hadn't been credited off the account, but there were administration fees on the account that are the reason for the high price.  When Christina asked what those were, the CSR said "I don't know but I'll transfer you to a senior representative".  The senior rep Bryan said that the modem really hadn't been returned, and without a tracking number there's no way to prove that we even sent it (sounds like he's trying to get my money to me).  I've now asked him for a copy of my entire account including any notes, so that I can see EXACTLY what they see.  It's my thinking that this whole problem is because someone has put a note on my account that I should be screwed over for every cent I have because I'm on ODSP or just happened to be rather upset (or irate if you rather) when they started costing me $90 a month in NSF fees.

Now this has been the MOST painful experience with a company I've ever had.  If you ever think "Hmmm... maybe Distributel is a good idea." just remember that they don't really want to HELP you, they'd really rather see you poor.