UtterlyBoring.com

Um, What?

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:02:23 -0800

Please tell me I'm not the only one that can't understand a word this guy is saying.

Anybody Have Any Friends at the City of Bend Water/Sewer (or like to plumb for fun)?

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:36:55 -0800

I've documented my plumbing troubles in the past, and it appears things are only going to get worse.

I had another issue in early December, and called Mike at Handy Rooter who has come out to my house in the past. He snaked the line with a water blaster, found some stuff to knock loose, we flushed the toilets and ran water for a while, no problems. He gave us a 30-day warranty and we thought we were good to go.

Two weeks later, water's backing up into our drains again. He comes back out, goes out even further, nearly to the city hookup, and knocks out some more stuff. We ran more water for a while, no problems, so we thought we were good.

Two weeks later (four weeks after the original appointment, still under warranty) we get water back up again. He snakes it this time, all the way to the end of his snake (150 feet worth) and well up to city line. Wash, rinse, repeat, we appear to be OK.

This morning, my wife starts some laundry, we're backing up again -- she just called me at the office to tell me the wonderful news.

There's no way that in less than a week we'd have a full-system clog like that in our sewer line. So we're left with one of two options: There's a problem in the City sewer line (which runs through our backyard -- it's an old, weird home). Or there's a problem with our pipe, which I'm hoping it isn't, but considering when two of the problems occurred (after big rain and after big snow melt off, followed by freeze), there's a chance. To send one of those cameras up our pipe is going to be (minimum) $200 -- which is $200 I certainly don't have right now, so I'm hoping a phone call to the city will get them to come out and inspect their pipe.

But I have a feeling getting the city to come out and do it will be a pain in the rear. Anybody know anybody at the city of Bend that can poke them for me? Or does anybody know a plumber who has one of those cameras that owes you a favor? I just want to know one way or another. Then again, it's not like I can afford to replace the pipe right now, either, as that'll probably be a couple grand as I double my homeowners insurance will pay for it. But it'd be nice to know the problem, regardless.

Update on 1/5/08: Talked to the City, and they came out and looked at the flow coming out at the end, and things were flowing fine. So there's a problem with something in our yard -- frickin' awesome. I need to find somebody who can run a camera under there and see what's going on, as we have no drainage right now. Bloody frickin' lovely...

It's Stupidly Useless and Geeky

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:31:14 -0800

It's Wikipedia over DNS.

Are Some eBay Buyers Just That Stupid?

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:17:57 -0800

Apparently.

KFXO rejects BendBroadband carriage offer, will remove Fox signal

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:26:37 -0800

While I won't make it until midnight, as I'm tired, I do know one thing: I probably won't have KFXO on my TV tomorrow, if BendBroadband's press release is to be believed. From how I'm reading it, KFXO's highly publicized "We were only asking for a penny a day per subscriber" turned out to not be true, as BendBroadband offered that, and was rejected.

December 31, 2008 Bend, Ore. - BendBroadband announced today that NPG/KFXO has rejected BendBroadband's compromise on compensation for carriage of FOX programming on BendBroadband's channel lineup. According to Amy Tykeson, President and CEO, "BendBroadband's request for an extension of the current agreement to allow negotiations to continue has also been rebuffed by KFXO's corporate offices. BendBroadband has met the requested penny-a-day per customer carriage fee that KFXO's local management has widely touted as their requirement. Unfortunately our counteroffer has been rejected."

Since KFXO hasn't told their side of the story yet (as far as I know), I don't know the other side of this. But the only show on Fox I really have to watch is House, so I'll just have to download those or watch those on Hulu or something.

(Earlier story with discussion.)

Update on 1/1/09: The station is off of BendBroadband today, with this note on-screen (copied from the comments, so it may not be exactly right, but this is basically what it said, and I'm at the office where we don't have BendBroadband so I can't 100% verify):

BENDBROADBAND'S AGREEMENT TO CARRY KFXO (CH 10 SD & 610 HD) HAS EXPIRED. KFXO HAS REMOVED THEIR SIGNAL FROM OUR CHANNEL LINEUP. OUR REQUEST TO OFFER KFXO DURING NEGOTIATIONS WAS DENIED. FOR UPDATES, INCLUDING INFO ABOUT HOW TO RECIVE KFXO OVER-THE-AIR, GO TO BENDBROADBAND.COM/KFXO OR CALL 382-5551

Here's the site referred to.

Everything Is Better With Lightsabers

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:58:21 -0800

Even the Princess Bride.

Wow, What A Boring Football Game

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:47:03 -0800

While I'm glad the Beavers won, a football game (and a bowl game at that) that ends with the final score of 3-0 never makes good television.

Good Thing I Locked My Doors

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:46:45 -0800

Last night I noticed a huge pile of police cars in my neighborhood. I immediately locked the doors, and it's a good thing I did, otherwise this guy might have paid a visit (he was arrested just a couple houses down from mine).

Warning: Contents May Be Flammable

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:56:20 -0800

The news is full of all sorts of morons today...

Five people died in Oregon traffic crashes over the Christmas holiday period, and while none was in Central Oregon, a drunk-driving citation was given to a Redmond woman who had a startling .469 blood-alcohol level, State Police reported.

That's nearly six times the legal limit of .08 and close to the highest levels ever recorded for a living person; a Rhode Island man arrested earlier this year tested at .491, officials said.

Full story.

You Think He Would've Learned His Lesson

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:53:00 -0800

But apparently not.

Bend Police K-9 Bosco followed a Christmas Eve burglar's trail, aided by footprints in the snow, for nearly two hours before officers found the suspect hiding in bushes at a home several miles away, police said.

And when they caught their man, he may have been familiar to them -- last January, after a northeast Bend restaurant was broken into, footprints in the snow led to his arrest, also on burglary charges.

Time Killers For The Evening

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:54:58 -0800

From this great list, we have a couple games that should kill off quite a bit of time.

NEED: Cell Phone Plan/Phone Recommendations

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:13:37 -0800

My cell phone contract is up for renewal, and while I like my Blackberry 8703e and like US Cellular's phone coverage, I've found myself using the data plan quite a bit, and US Cellular's data network in Central Oregon is slower than dial-up. I've already talked to the business folks there, and have flat out been told that they have no plans in the immediate future to upgrade their network to EVDO or anything faster than they have now, so I'm exploring moving to other options.

I'm also looking getting a Windows Mobile-based phone so I can install WMWiFiRouter and a variety of other available applications (VNC Client, SSH client, Citrix Client, blogging client, etc...). My boss has given me permission to transfer away from the company's account with US Cellular to somewhere else and to get a new phone. Since times are tight, I'd like to try to get a deal to save my bosses some money, but I'd still like to get a phone and plan that will do everything I need and want to do.

While I'd like input on all this, here's my thinking. AT&T is out of the question because I can't port my number there because they're not local (though they do have good roaming coverage using Unicel's soon-to-be-defunct GSM towers), so the iPhone is out of the question -- though I don't think I'd want a phone that can only officially do what Apple says it can do via the app store. T-Mobile is out of the question (even though I already have an account there for my in-laws) because their 3G network network isn't going to be up and going for a while here (though their G1 is a pretty cool phone). Verizon also has a tendency to cripple their phones and over price the same models compared to other companies.

So that leaves me with Sprint, and I'm leaning towards one of their Everything Plus plans and their HTC Touch Pro (with a few hacks to disable the fancy TouchFlo interface as I don't need frilly crap). It has everything I need, and has a full Qwerty keyboard (as I can't stand touch-screen keyboards). It's also smaller than my Blackberry, and shorter and narrower (though thicker) than an iPhone 3g.

Anybody have any input either way, good or bad? Is my thinking flawed? Anybody have any contacts or hookups at any of these companies or on these phones that can get me a great deal (Sprint or otherwise)?

Update: And by the way: If anybody has a Sprint SERO plan they want to get rid of, contact me, as I'd be interested in taking it over.

Quick Post Christmas Wrap-Up

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:55:44 -0800

My kids were spoiled. My wife was spoiled. I was spoiled. That's pretty much it. We all got far more than we deserved, gave away more than we could afford, but a good time was had by all. Off the top of my head, I got a few Nintendo DS Game (Final Fantasy IV, N+, and Professor Layton and the Curious Village), a cordless drill and bits, a four-drawer tool box, much-needed clothes (including this t-shirt), the Garfield Minus Garfield book, a couple other books whose titles I can't remember off the top of my head. My wife got a bunch of goodies, too, and my kids have toys coming out their ears (we're going to collect up some of their older, gently-used, toys, and they can pick which charity they go to).

Hopefully everybody had a great holiday, and will be back to regular blogging tomorrow-ish.

Merry Christmas

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:46:56 -0800

While South Park is mostly unwatchable, this video is always good for a laugh:

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Old-School Games

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:17:36 -0800

Here are 95 Old School Games you can play online to kill off your day.

Personally, I have enough to kill of my day, as we're celebrating with the in-laws today, then with my family tomorrow, so blogging will probably be light (or even non-existent) over the next few days. Have a happy holiday everybody!