Flesh and Fire Novel

I started reading a new fictitious novel today called Flesh and Fire (Book one of the Vineart War) by Laura Anne Gilman. I don't want to fill this post full of spoilers other than to say it is about the magic linked to grapes and wine.

A writer I met recommended I join Smashwords.com so I can e-publish short stories on the Internet. But my Broadband hasn't worked all day so I finally resorted to dial-up, which didn't want to work either. I'm not sure I can open a site and join it until I can get the wi-fi connection to work again. I'm not impressed with Virgin Broadband after 3 months of using it. It often goes out of service for hours on end. When I do call I always have to wait at least 15 minutes to talk to a tech and each time they tell me there is an outage in my area and they are working on the towers. Last month they told me they would compensate me, but so far, no refund or partial refund has been given. Lame. I'm looking for an alternative now. But I like pay-as-you-go and I don't want to be locked into any contracts that start out at one price and then jump to a higher price later on. So I have my book on my desk so I can read it as I wait and wait for dial-up to change from one web page to another. At least I'm getting some reading done.

3G Where Are You

After really poor connectivity with Virgin Broadband from Sat. night until now, I finally got a hold of their tech support and found out they’ve had a local outage since Sat. night and 3G browsing has been blocked until Tuesday at approximately 6:30 PM. It’s a good thing I don’t have any business deadlines right now that require Internet usage. So I’m back on dial-up until then.

Working on Computer Issues

Still testing out my new Broadband connection. It's so weird to have a limited amount of data. I have to choose do I want to keep up with games, or just use it for work. Computers should be fun as well as a way to make a living. Do I give up blogging, which indirectly earns me money, but is more a creative outlet? Don't ask me to choose between work and fun. I may have to go to Westminster this afternoon and tomorrow to empty out storage because we are hemorrhaging money. If we can get it empty before the first we save $100. I need to go help take the camper shell off the truck now.

Slow Internet Connections

I'm hassling with my Internet connection again. I couldn't take the dial-up anymore so I got Virgin Broadband yesterday. It's also slow. I can get no better than a low or good signal. I called to ask how to fix that and she recommended buying an antenna to boost the signal. So I browsed the Radio Shack website and their antennas are about $200-$300 range. I think it's ridiculous to pay $55 for the service per month to begin with, for limited data so I'm not going to be buying a $200 antenna. But I'll go ask someone at the store how much the exact one I need would be, just to be sure. So I called Verizon once again to ask them if DSL was available at my home yet. Still no. She said all they had was Direct TV. Our next door neighbors have DSL, but Verizon said there are no new ports available so we are S.O.L. Ugh. That's how my day is going. I just want fast unlimited Internet service that doesn't cost an arm and a leg like I had in Anaheim. Why is that so hard to find?