Author: Shelley Powers

Categories
Just Shelley

I want my DSL!

(Begin of minutia minute)

The fight continues to try and get my DSL connection to work. I’m impressed with the amount of time and effort that Earthlink is expending on the problem – I was in conversations for several hours on Wednesday with two technicians, as well as a detailed conversation with an advanced troubleshooting technician yesterday.

My problem is that I’m suffering from weak signal strength – having a signal of 6.5 when a signal of at least 9 (what?) is needed. And since we’ve eliminated the radio towers as a problem (they’re over 1/4 of a mile away), as well as the fact that I don’t have an alarm system or a digital TV system, all that’s left is to check the physical connections. Yet another technician, yet another conversation.

The modem isn’t bad, but I need a faster and more reliable connection for work I’m trying to do on multiple servers. Grrr.

Update: Busy little elves were hard at work because I have DSL today!

(Image of Shelley doing wild, ecstatic, naked dance around her laptop, hoopin’ and hollerin’. World is concerned that perhaps Stavros is having a very bad influence on the Bird.)

(End of minutia minute)

Categories
Legal, Laws, and Regs

Pledge III

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Much discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance ruling. Many people believe the issue is much ado about nothing, while others are mildly or strongly supportive of the ruling. Of those who dislike the ruling, it seems that there is a strong belief that without religion, we will flounder about, without moral guidance and support.

A friend sent me a quote in an email that I find apropos in regards to the necessity of religion to provide a foundation for morality:

“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.”

The author? Adolf Hitler from a speech he made during negotiations for the Nazi-Vatican Concordant in 1993.

Categories
Weblogging

MT and Trackback

This is the first posting with Movable Type’s Trackback incorporated.

Ah, I love the smell of new technology in the morning.

Categories
Weblogging

The lost art of courtesy

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Along with our respect for freedom and our sense of humor and perspective, seems we’ve lost something else in this modern age of connectivity – our courtesy. And in its void, we’ve replaced it with various guises of non-courtesy masquerading as courtesy.

For instance, there’s the lost courtesy of the client who filled up so much of my time just before I moved that I had to hire help to finish.

Or the phantom courtesy of those who request help or information and who chat away, chat away, only to fall silent when their needs are met.

One of my favorites is the A-list courtesy demonstrated by the person who doesn’t respond to a personal email, not because they don’t have time, but because they don’t deem the email to be important enough.

Token courtesy is asking someone how they are and not really wanting to hear the answer; or expressing sympathy or compassion or caring, not because they’re genuine emotions but because there’s little cost to saying the words over the Internet.

How about the anonymous courtesy of the anonymous commenter. Weblog graffiti. At least the street artists have skill.

Artificial courtesy: the weblog posting, comment, or little note that gleefully points out flaw after flaw, ignoring the possibility that amidst the mud and the dirt and the garbage is a tiny perfect gem – a lovely phrase, a clean sentence, and genuine sincerity.

Finally, in this list of non-courtesies, there’s the null space courtesy:

I’m one of the luckier webloggers who has decent readers who usually stop, and take a moment to drop a comment or two. And I love them to pieces when they do. However, I go to weblog after weblog, and see the infamous zip, zero, nada comment count because those who read, appreciate, and run don’t have the courtesy to take a moment and drop a line. And yes, that’s me in this bunch because I’m just as discourteous as the rest.

Categories
Just Shelley

Nebraska’s On My List

Driving across Nebraska was a series of slows and gos due to the road construction. Unfortunately, it was also the location of my first car scratches.

After leaving a construction zone at one point, a work truck next to me that was hauling away dirt and rocks and mud hit a rut and a pile of mud with rocks splashed across my windshield and the front of the car. Considering that the day was sunny and clear I was more than a bit surprised by the mud appearing from nowhere, especially when traveling at around 70MPH. Luckily I have nerves of steel.

(Well, in honesty, luckily no one was around me when I swerved from surprise and hit the brake.)

Today I had the car thoroughly cleaned and sure enough, the little Nebraska legacy left scratches in the door and across the hood.

Golden Girl’s no longer a pristine scratch-free virgin. Sigh.

I knew I should have gone back to the location and beat the crap out of the crew.