Verizon

I've been debating about doing this post for a while now. But I just have to get my thoughts out about the way some customer service works. The one that is on my mind is Verizon.

We've been noticing for a while now that our phone has been staticy. The other weekend it was just way too bad, we didn't have a dial tone half the time. So I tried calling into them. Well I'm going to assume that they were all off on the day that I called, because all I could get was their automated system. It said that it tested the lines and that the problem was outside the house on their system. The best the system could do was tell me that it would be fixed by 715pm on Wednesday night.

So Wednesday came and the phone wasn't fixed, so we figured that would be the day the guy would be out. He was to call my cell phone to tell me he was here, and that he was working on it, and if it was fixed. Well, the next thing I know the phone just started ringing from a blocked number. When I would answer it they would hang up.

Eventually the guy from Verizon knocked on the door. He said that he tested everything outside, and that the problem was with the lines in the house. So he tested out main phone jack, and found that it was somewhere between the box outside, and the main jack. He also insisted that the main jack was wired wrong.

So the guy proceeds to rewire the main jack. Then he said he was going to have to track down the problem, and insisted to me that the line went thought the apartment below us. I knew he was wrong. I told him that if he went out and traced it he would see it runs under the siding.

After he does this he came back to tell me that he found a break in the line that wasn't fixed properly. So he said he would go back out and fix that, and then call me to see if the problem was fixed. So a few minutes later the phone rang, and i answered it, and it was the tech. He said the phone should be fixed, and since I didn't hear any static, I figured it was.

I didn't think to check all the other phone jacks in the apartment. A little while later the phone rang again, and I noticed that the caller ID didn't come up on our TV like it usually does. But I thought maybe it was just a problem with the satellite. So I checked the satellite setting, and everything seemed to be fine.

The next morning I got an error on the TV saying that if we didn't connect a phone line to our satellite receiver we would be charged a monthly fee. So that prompted me to check the phone jack, and what did i find? There was no dial tone. So I checked a few other things, and found that the living room phone jack wasn't working at all. So I called Verizon back.

I told them that if we didn't get the line connected that we would be charged a fee from our satellite provider. I explained that it was their tech's fault that it wasn't working. The lady argued with me that it wasn't an emergency, and didn't need fixed. I finally thought I had her convinced that it did need fixed that day, and she said the guy would be out between 8 and 5.

Even though I didn't want to sit around all day, I figured I had to. Well, I noticed that a Verizon van was across the street working on a house there. I hoped when he was done there he would come here. Well he never did. The day slowly ticked away, and he never showed up.

Well we gave him until exactly 5pm, and then Cathy called this time. What did we find out, the lady in the morning put it into the system as a next day fix, and the guy wouldn't be back out until Friday now. So Cathy argued with them, and tried to get them to come out that day yet, but they couldn't get a free tech to stop by.

So the lady assured us we would be person one or two on Friday, and that if we were second the guy would be here by 10am at the latest. So I had to sit home again on Friday. Well, 10am came and the guy still wasn't here. I had already figured I was only giving them to noon, and then calling to tell him to shove their service and shut it off.

Well at about 1045 the guy finally showed up. He took the jack about to see what was rewired, and looked kind of confused about it. Then he tested the line for our DSL modem and could only get a week signal, and asked to see the living room jack. I showed him that, and he tested there, and got a strong DSL signal. He then went back out to the main jack, and told me that the tech that was there two days ago wired it completely wrong, and he was ever surprised that we had DSL. So he rewired it, and was here and gone in less then 10 minutes.

The only good things that came out of it was the fact that we got a $25 credit for our troubles, and a credit for the week we were with out proper working service. I guess what really bugged me though was the fact that the first guy rewired the jack when it didn't need it, then the lady lied to me about someone coming to fix it that day. I just wish people would do their jobs right, and not lie to people...

GC1F022 - Those Who Served Our Country

I went looking for this one, GC1F022, while I was out heading to Staples. This one was a pretty good one.


Although it didn't take me long at all to find it, I did like the hiding spot. Plus while I was there, I paid my respects for those who are serving our country. This was one of two that I've looked for, but the only one I came up with that day. I'm sure in the future I'll find the other ones I've been looking for. :)

GC1A4TF - The Old German Cemetery!

I was out on Sunday looking for some caches with my dad. Of the two we looked for we only were able to find this one, GC1A4TF.

We looked around for a few minutes, and the GPS took us over to a large tree. My dad noticed some rocks that were kind of stacked weird, so I pulled them out, and there was the cache. I showed him the log that people sign, and signed it myself.

I then pulled out the travel bug, Rzinkains Batmobile, I was carrying. I explained what the basics were with trackable items such as travel bugs and I placed it into the cache.

Since I don't have any pics of this cache, I'll add a pic of the travel bug to this post. :)

GC2306B - Pendrgn's First Hide

Ok, this one isn't a cache that I've found. This is the first one that I've hidden, GC2306B. After some work I found a location that was more then 528 from another cache, and really close to home. I placed it, and unfortunately it went missing in less then a day.

So I went back out, and I replaced it. This time so far it hasn't gone missing. I've had several people find it so far. I would like to congratulate djs167, for being the first to find it.

If you are into Geocaching, and you are planning on looking for this one, then you may not want to look at the pictures below. I figured I'll at least post a pic of what it looks like. I was going to post a pic of the hiding place, but I decided against that. :)

GC19GBP - Pigsqueak Stay Away

My second Geocache find of the day was this one, Pigsqueak Stay Away. I had searched for this one over a year ago when I first started looking, and never seemed to be able to find it. The really funny thing is I was standing right next to it. It could have jumped out and bit me.

When I found this one, it looked like it needed a little work. The hiding place was starting to fall down. I tried to fix it, but didn't have the tools on me to do so. I am hoping the cache owner will be able to get out and fix it before too many others go looking. I'll have to admit that the problem with it did make it easier to find...

Over all, I think it was a good day with two more finds. There are others I want to find, but I figure I'll have to wait until another day, and possibly until the snow melts totally....

GC1FTYR - Hedwig is Watching You...

I went out to do some more Geocaching again today. I was lucky enough to come across two more. The first one was this one, Hedwig is Watching You....






When I first want looking I found a tree that seemed to match the description, but according to my GPS I was about 50ft away. So I decided to listen to the GPS, even though I know it can sometimes be off by that much, but not always. Then I came across the actual site of this Geocache, and at first I thought it was muggled.

But after searching I found that it was still intact, and I was able to grab this Geocache and head out...

GC22C6H - An Ammo Can Outdoors & Rzinkains Batmobile

My third Geocache find,An Ammo Can OutDoors, was over a year after my second one, and brings me up to date. This find was a nice one for me becuase it was the first time I was able to get any travel items.

In this case I found a travel bug, Rzinkains Batmobile. Like my first Geocache post, I'm sure some people reading this will knwo hwat travel bugs are, but some won't. So I'll take a few minutes to talk about them. For more information about them you can go to, Travel Bug FAQs , but I'll still talk a little.

Travel bugs are trackable items that moves from one cache to another through the different Geocachers. Usually the travel bug owner sets up what they want the bug to do, and then the Geocachers try to help acomplish those tasks.

Although this was a nice Geocache find, I forgot to take my phone, and camera, with me. So unlike the previous Geocaches I don't have pictures of this one. But since I do still have the travel bug with me I took pictures of that, and I'll add them here.

Finding this Geocache, and this travel bug, was a great find for me. Once I get a chance to head up towards my parent's house I'll pass on the travel bug to another Geocache location...

GC1WRWF - Pipe Down And Don't Pop Your Top

My second find was a few weeks after my first find, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=097ec2a3-f17c-4da1-a9b0-57fd1ec34606. I was surprised when I found it, since it was a nano, and didn’t think I could find a Geocache that small.

I had some time after work one night, and thought I would go looking for it. I drove around and got as close as I could on the road. Then I started looking around. Since my GPS isn’t the best for hiking/off road it doesn’t always get me as close as I would like at times.

But I searched and finally found it. When I saw it I didn’t think it was the correct place/item. I guess I just wasn’t expecting what I found. But I signed the log and got a second one under my belt. Unfortunately that was all I was going to find for a while, since it was actually over year later until I was able to start looking again, and get another find, but that will be another post.


For now I’ll just give you the few pics I took of this one.

GC1KRZJ - Naftzinger Ridge

The first Geocache I’ve found was this one, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7b9ba0c6-7809-4dc4-ab62-170878e73292. I had been searching for a while and couldn’t seem to come across anything, and was starting to think I was doing something wrong. But then with a little luck and looking I found it.
It was a nice location in a nice small cemetery. Finding this Geocache gave me some encouragement to keep looking for other ones, but with work and other things going on I had to take a few weeks off from the searching, but I was able to pick it back up later, but that will be another post.
For this post I will add the few pictures I had. So if you are reading this, and you haven’t found this cache, and you intend to look, don’t look at the pictures. :)

Some tombstones that were near the geocache...

A big spoiler, picuters of the hiding place and container...

And finally a picture of a sticker in the logbook...

Geocaching

I decided to start another category for my blog. This one is called Geocache (pronounced geo-cash). This is going to be a place to talk about one of the newest hobbies I’ve started to do, which is geocaching.

Some readers of this I’m sure already know what Geocaching is, but I’m sure most doing. The quickest way for me to explain it would be its scavenger hunting using GPS. The official geocache website is located at http://www.geocaching.com. If you are interested in checking them out. You can join for free, and they also have a premium membership that offers more options.

So far I am only a free member, but I may upgrade someday. I am fairly new to the “sport” and I decided that as I get into it more I’ll decide later on upgrading… For that matter if anyone reading this wants to give me a gift membership, just let me know. :)

As I find the caches, and eventually start to hide them, I’m going to post more blogs about my experiences. I do have some finds under my belt, so I’ll start posting them shortly….

An Interesting Survey

I found this survey through the Glenn Beck show. Its from the American Revolution Center: http://www.americanrevolutioncenter.org/node/89. I feel this says a lot about our country. I'll let you decide if its good or bad, but I know how I feel about it.

Ok, I know the results are a little hard to read, since I had to post them as images, and they weren't the best, but if you follow the link in the article you can read them right from the website....

Harrisburg Area Community College

When I started collage, I got a job working for HACC. I was a computer lab attendant. I really liked this job. It was kind of easy, I could do homework and get paid.

Although I did have some serious/hard work to do at times, most days it was just sitting there to make sure people signed in. After I left this job I found out that they made that part even easier. I used to have to check IDs, and then make sure the people signed in and out when entering and leaving. The new system I was told the student just scans their ID when they come in, and leave. So the attendant only needs to make sure the person coming in scans their ID. This would make the job even easier.

Usually at the beginning on the semester it was the attendant’s job to add any of the new students to the system. We also had to update the old student’s accounts to let them on in the new semester. The only time this was hard was when they were running a large computer orientation class. In those cases you had to enter a lot of student’s information in a very short time.

Another harder (for some students) thing I had to do was help maintain the printers. We had a larger mainframe printer, and at times it would jam, and that was the hardest thing about the job. Opening the printer, undoing the jam, and fixing it, and even that wasn’t all that bad. The other thing we had to do with the printer was tear off the print outs the students sent to it, and put them in alphabetical bins.

Other than that there was just a few things we had to do with helping the students if they had a problem with their computer or one of the small printers. But what we weren’t allowed to do was help with homework. We weren’t “certified” to help out the students. Although I have to admit at times I did. If it was a simply problem I would give hints. Especially when they were offering some of the mainframe programming classes.

With mainframe programming everything went through the terminal that was at the attendant’s desk. So I could see every program that was run, and see why they errored out. Since I had already taken a course in mainframe programming at the time, I was able to help students out. I used to send anonymous messages through the network to the students with hints on how to fix the problem.

Over all this was a great job, but since it was a student job, I couldn’t keep it if I wasn’t going to HACC full time. So unfortunately I had to give it up…

Don's Food Rite

The first job I ever had was at Don’s Food Rite. There really isn’t too much to say about this job good or bad. It was a first job.

Don’s was the type of place that hires younger employees from town, who like me didn’t have a driver’s license. So I was able to walk to work every day. That part of the job was nice. He never paid much, only minimum wage. My job was a grocery packer. Since I am a guy, he wouldn’t let me run the cash register. He felt that was a female’s job.

The best part of packing groceries was if you were good at sizing people up, you could get some good tips. Although we technically weren’t allowed to take tips. Don had that rule so that no one would ever have to claim them on taxes. Usually in bad weather and around holidays the tips were the best.

The worst thing though was when he started letting his daughters take over the business. When this happened the rules got stricter, and it was harder to take time off. One of the main reasons I left this job was because he was hiring people and paying them more, but wouldn’t give me a raise, and I could almost never get off when I needed to. But for a first job, what can I say, it was ok…..

Jobs

I decided I’m going to start another blog series. This one will be limited in the number of post, since it will be based on the jobs I’ve had. I just decided I want to reminisce about the different places I’ve worked, and post both the good and the bad about them.

In some of the cases there may be more than one post about a job. Some of the jobs I’ve worked at different times, and other jobs I’ve gotten promotions. So I decided I’ll talk about each time I’ve worked someplace, or each time I’ve been promoted in a separate blog posting.

I’m also going to post them from the oldest job I’ve worked to the current job I’m working. So if you start reading them, and thing I’ve worked with him there, but don’t remember something, it could be because I’m talking about one of the past times I was at that job. I don’t know what all I’m going to say, but I’ll figure it out as I go…

A Sweet Bears Game

Yesterday’s Bears game was a Sweet game for us. Not only did the bears win, but we also sat in the Pepsi Sweet for the game. For some reason people always think I’m lying to them when I say I’m going to sit in a sweet, or when I say I have season tickets to the Bears. One of the people who has repeatedly accused me of making up the fact that I have season tickets sees me at most of the games, and sees me carrying my season ticket mug.

I saw one of those people who always think I’m making things up last night, we yelled her name, and waived to her. So there is no way she can say I wasn’t in the sweet. But for other people who think I was lying, I decided to post a scan of the ticket here:



Now I want to talk about the game. I was expecting to lose last night, since it was Varly’s first game back from injury, but I was plesently surprised with a win. I was going to recap the whole game here, but decided that I really don’t need to. I can just point everyone to: http://www.hersheybears.com/detail.php?id=3064 for the recap from the Bears website, and to: http://theahl.com/stats/official-game-report.php?game_id=1006585 for the AHL’s game sheet.

What I am going to say though is Thank You to Pepsi. I enjoyed the sweet this year. They had some good food, we got chicken fingers, pizza, and a pasta salad. Plus they had the usual chips and pretzels and cookies and candy. Plus what made this year nice is the beer fridge was open. We got free beer, and soda. So we took advantage of that. We didn’t get drunk, but we had enough to drink for the night.

Out of what was in the fridge, the only alcoholic beverage I liked was the Bacardi Raz, so I had a bunch of them. Plus of course I had some sodas too. Then when it was time to leave I decided to take a soda with me. I figured Pepsi could afford to give out a few extra sodas. :) Over all it was a really fun and Sweet night. :)

Happy New Year

I know it’s a little late to post a blog that says “Happy New Year”, but this is the first chance I got to actually get on and type the post out. So first to everyone, I want to wish you a happy new year.

Most people in the world set up New Year’s resolutions. I made a decision this year. I’m not making one. Why you ask? Well, mainly because I know I don’t keep them anyway. Thinking back, the past year wasn’t all that bad of a year, so there isn’t much I want to change. I know a few things need to be changed, but I’m working on that. But that’s not really what I was going to talk about this time in my post. What I was going to really talk about was our New Years Eve party we were at.

Like most years my sister had a New Years Eve party. This year her kids got Rock Band for Christmas. Well, like with the Wii last year, we got addicted to it. Once most of the people there had a few drinks in them they were playing and singing. Here is just one video, it’s of my one sister and her daughter singing:



I got lucky, as far as I know no one got any pictures of videos of my singing. But even if they would have, it was all in good fun, and I would look back at them and laugh.

I found out that I am smarter than a 5th grader too. :) My niece asked me to play a game with her, and the one she picked out was, “Are you smarter than a 5th grader.” It was a card game she got for Christmas. I guess I got lucky or something. I seemed to get all questions I either new, or when I used the peek, the “student” knew the correct answer too. I made it all the way up to the bonus question. If I would have been playing in real life I know I would have dropped out then, and took the money. But since we were having fun I went on. Well, the card that was picked for me I didn’t know, but my niece did.

The question was, “What was the title of the final book in the series ‘Liminy Snickets Series of Unfortunate Events’?” Well, I didn’t know it. My niece tried to give me a hint, saying it was really simply and made total sense. Well, I still didn’t get it, and since you can’t use a cheat during the final question I had to drop out. The answer was “The End.” Which when you think about it made total sense.

We made my nieces and nephew happy too. We decided to sleep over this year. With the weather the way it was my sister suggested that everyone stay. Well when we got there most people said they were staying, and we didn’t know if there would be enough beds. So Cathy and I were going to sleep on the floor, but my aunt who lives next door said we could use her bed, and she would sleep on her sofa. Well, we did that, but in the end it was only Cathy and I, and my parents that stayed over so my sister would have had enough room.

Over all it was a really fun night, and I found that I like playing Rock Band. So maybe once I get some extra money I’ll buy it for our Wii…