"AT&T wireless customer service" written by Paul on estrip.org

Category: mobile

01/07/08 11:22 - 58ºF - ID#42779

AT&T wireless customer service

I seriously cannot get over how good AT&T customer service is. Every time, I called they have answered within a minute or two and they have always been able to help me without transferring me.

For some reason my bill was $210.00 which I knew was wrong. Turned out it should have been $74.00 which is a big difference and they had double charged me for everything. I think it is their web based system that fucks stuff up. Every time I added or removed services with it, I ended up with multiple charges. Also when I tried to switch from the 700 minute family plan to the 500 minute family plan online it told me I had to wait till next month but when I called she changed it right away, retroactively.

From now on I am going to talk with a live person. I just was so afraid being a former sprint customer and havign dealt with their terrible customer service.

Permalink: AT_amp_T_wireless_customer_service.html
Words: 161
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

01/04/08 08:28 - 27ºF - ID#42752

God Damned Intestines

I had like one good day just before the party. It was weird. I felt a lot better and then it all just went downhill. This mornign was the worst as I had these horrible waves of nausea mxied with about 10 visits to the bathroom throughout the night.

So next Wednesday I have a colonscopy that requires me to go on a 24 hour liquid and laxative diet. That should be fun, adding to the constant intestinal pain and cramping I have been having for over a month now. It is worst when my stomach is empty so i imagine this is going to be beyond painful.

I have this horrible feeling I am going to die soon. Maybe I can just die beforehand.

It still seems unreasonable to me that up to this point, almost two month after the initial bad symptoms started I still haven't had a since blood test to check anything or a single stool sample. Only one xray. I keep reading all the literature from the different organizations for intestinal medicine and they all talk about blood tests to check white blood cell count and iron levels for anemia and stool smaples to check for infections and parasites as a first step.

I freakin' cannot wait till my doctors appointment with the gastroenterologist on the 24th. I would pay like 10 fold the amount to hve it tomorrow.

Permalink: God_Damned_Intestines.html
Words: 231
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

01/02/08 11:08 - 16ºF - ID#42732

Talking about Buffalo

I saw this buffalo Rising cover

in my mother's bathroom. I just can't believe how full of themselves they are.

I am excited to see what happens with the new Elmwood Taco and Subs.

Is Elmwood becoming a ghetto or what? I am glad I left for Linwood before all the businesses closed. Why is everything shutting down? Seriously, it seems like more things are empty now than I ever remember. Are the rent prices just too high. If you drive from one end to the other so many places are closed down. This house is at the corner of West Delevan and Elmwood - notice the smashed out upstairs window.

I was debating buying hertelvillage.com or not, lol.

carolinian writes at 11:58:42 01/04/08 - Comment #29930: It's the predictable cycle of

1. Place with cheap rent gets cool bohemian stores
2. Rich folks attracted to bohemian lifestyle move into bohemian place because they want to be hip
3. The low rent that attracted the bohemians stops being low
4. Bohemians move to a new place with cheap rents.

Elmwood Village is in stage 3.

drew writes at 11:45:11 01/04/08 - Comment #29929: Wow. We didn't pay NEAR that much.

I'm not so worried about Elmwood, but I haven't been here long enough to know what I'm talking about.

empireoflight writes at 11:17:02 01/04/08 - Comment #29927: Any major city downtown costs 5x what you get in buffalo, at least. It's a landlord's dream, "city living" at affordable prices, but what you get is 90% riff raff that can't afford to spend any money at the shops and richies from the burbs that get turned off by said riff raff and won't touch downtown commerce with a stick.

paul writes at 06:17:59 01/03/08 - Comment #29882: Really, I thought they were too expensive, that is why I moved away from elmwood. We though about buying a house in the village but I wasn't willing to pay over $200,000 for an average size house near the strip.

Here is a perfect example at :::link::: going for $215,000 in the elmwood village. Here is another at $229,000 :::link:::

I can't believe the prices actually now. I paid the same thing as this little allentown house :::link:::

And really is someone going to pay $229,000 for 372 Prospect :::link:::

empireoflight writes at 05:41:01 01/03/08 - Comment #29875: The problem is property values are far too low to support loaded clientelle needed to fuel a true "hopping" neighborhood. Maybe if property values skyrocketed somehow, deadbeat landlords would sell and rentals would become single-families.

joshua writes at 09:54:16 01/03/08 - Comment #29833: That is why I thought the whole thing about Elmwood Village being one of the top 10 'hoods in the nation was completely bogus and manufactured. In my 7 years of living here I've never seen so many empty commercial properties between Forest and North, not to mention several other properties that have always been revolving doors and jinxed real estate, now occupied presently or formerly by Sahara Grill, Falafel Bar, Brodo (anybody remember Flour Power?), whatever Elmwood Panhandler is now, whatever Elmwood Bagel Shoppe will be, the former New World Records - I could go on and on. We do have some serious success stories in the neighborhood, and I am not glossing over them, but the idea of Elmwood being a stable community is an illusion.

What makes me angrier is that people and orgs like... well... Buffalo Rising are complicit in this overt dramatization because its good for their member businesses and advertising revenue. The "strip" is still the place to be in this area as far as I'm concerned though, and I'd never live outside of a block or two from where I am now if I could help it... I do like Ashland, Lancaster and many of the side streets. It would be a radical lifestyle change for me if I actually had to get in my car or take long ass walks in the snow every time I needed a gallon of milk. I have to be honest - if I couldn't stumble out the front door every time I wanted coffee I'd be devastated!

james writes at 12:46:05 01/03/08 - Comment #29829: shit's fucked in Buffalo? Get out of town!

I am willing to bet a few landlords need to die before all the sore spots are fixed. And friend, I just might be willing to do the deadly deed.

Permalink: Talking_about_Buffalo.html
Words: 132
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: holiday

01/02/08 10:58 - 16ºF - ID#42731

New Year's Eve 2008

On New Years Eve we went to my mother's for dinner before the estrip party. I found these yummy sugar eyes in my mother's cabinet.

New Year's eve we ate lots of sea food.

Smelt are kind of like little fried gold fish that taste like potato chips.

I bought crab legs. I just bought the normal Kind crab legs.

Wegmans also had collosal crab legs or about $25 each. They were as big as my wrist. The small ones in these pics are the normal kind crab legs I bought.

Afterwards, we had the party at our house (e:jim,42704) (e:metalpeter,42717)

We dropped the ball down the stairwell again.

I think we wore (e:mike) out - the last people left around 6am. I had a really good time at the party. I spent most of the night hanging out with (e:kookcity2000)

Permalink: New_Year_s_Eve_2008.html
Words: 162
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

12/31/07 02:35 - 33ºF - ID#42695

Ulcer Me This

I am having the most stressful nerve wracking day ever. It started out getting my tooth drilled and filled and went right into a high stress work day without even getting a chance to eat. I seriously hate my job right now.

Then I sit here babysitting the new application while everyone else is gone until I have to go to a dinner party at my mothers followed by a party at our house. I hope it was the kind of party where someone brings me valium, please serenity now.

So "they" decided to launch the new version of the system I was working on today. A live system that lots of people are using, with high priorty, and serious security risk if it fails and. We switched in the middle of the day , while people were using it, just before a holiday. It is about a 60% re-write based on new technology and data sources we have available. I am going to go out on a limb and say it seems FUCKING RETARDED to launch something like this right before a holiday. We even have some sort of policy against it I think.

Normally, we don't do this but apparently someone higher up was promised it would be ready for the New Year and here we are launching it today. The person that promised them was supposed to test it and barely did, which left me doing all the development and testing - most of the testing I can't even do because I don't know enough about the data in the application to know if it is right or not. I don't even have any test cases to work with.

Now if there is a problem it will be super compounded by the time I get back. Hopefully, we can bank on my skills and it will just work.

pyrcedgrrl writes at 11:36:24 01/04/08 - Comment #29928: Okay, I'm going to try to remember all of this b/c it was about 3 years ago. When I was having my tummy pain my first attack had be doubled over. I went to the ER and it subsided--the doctor glanced at me and said, 'I don't even need to do any tests. You have gastritis" and gave me Nexium, which my insurance refused to cover. 3 days later- had a sonogram which showed nothing. another week later- another attack, could barely move, slept on a heating pad b/c the pain went through to my back. Went to the ER 3 times in 3 days and was sent home each time b/c the first Dr. had told me NOT to take painkillers, so as soon as they gave me painkillers I felt better. :)
Finally, Christmas day after working a midnight while unable to hold even water down, I went to the ER again. They did a CT scan which showed "a small bile duct stone" which they deemed able to stay in until my doctors office opened 2 days later. Gave me a prescription--pharmacy was closed. :) FINALLY called my surgeon that had performed my gastric bypass years earlier from the empty parking lot of Rite Aid, bawling my eyes out. He told me to go to Sister's Hospital. (which is where I had the surgery performed)

Went to Sister's a couple hours later. The Triage nurse took one look at me and told me I was being admitted. I had jaundice. (apparently yellow skin and eyes was not enough indication that I needed help for St. Mary's Hosp.) I had bright orange urine, which was fun. :)
A small partially-sedated procedure 2 days later and i was perfect...except for the itchy jaundicy skin which lasted for 2 mos. YUCK.

I have NO idea if this will help you in any way, but you need to DEMAND some kind of a scan, first off. CT, sonogram...SOMETHING. An x-ray will not show most of what could be wrong w/ you (IE: your guts). I was told after I had my blown ACL ligament x-rayed that that is does not show soft tissue. (have no idea if this is true)

You need to KEEP CALLING THE DOCTOR. Keep on their asses. There is NO REASON why you should still be sitting there in pain with no relief after all this time!!!!!!

You need to DEMAND BLOOD WORK. This should have been one of their first priorities. It can show them so much and help with diagnosis.

You need to pretend you're an IRATE ITALIAN like me to light a fire under their asses. ;)
--I give lessons--cheap! :)

I truly hope you feel better soon, I just think it's totally moronic that they have not taken care of the basic, bottom line procedures before moving on to a colonoscopy. I think I missed what happened before..the last post of yours i read you were drinking that phospho soda crap. Did that procedure show nothing? Grr.

I hope your doctor gets his head out of his ass soon. You're in my thoughts.

~Dana

mrdeadlier writes at 02:31:29 01/01/08 - Comment #29730: 2007 is behind us. Better circumstances in 2008, I promise!

leetee writes at 06:49:04 12/31/07 - Comment #29729: When we were at New World Record today (just waiting for our chinese food next door, actually), i saw a bin of stuffed toys. They were germs... one was a stomach ache. Almost got it for you... but i wasn't sure what they were stuffed with and what kind of allergic reaction you might have to that. Still, i thought you would find it amusing to get a stuffed stomach ache germ with plastic eyes...

paul writes at 05:10:17 12/31/07 - Comment #29724: I just left work. Miraculously, (okay a lot of care and time from me) it looks like it is working and people are successfully using it - at least according to my log files.

metalpeter writes at 04:46:27 12/31/07 - Comment #29722: I wish I had those drugs you needed if I did I would bring them. In terms of the computer stuff I don't really know what it is. But I know it shouldn't be changed in the middle of the day. I could see having who ever does it come in early or at a time when what ever the program or system or what ever it is will hardly be used. Then send out a memo to everyone with an e-mail or some other kind of in house mail system so that everyone knows that if there is a problem or if something has changed who to get in contact with for help or for there issue. It sure would be nice if they could have done it on say friday and then had an entire day to test it and then the weekend also. I don't deal with much software doing my job. But every year there is a new form of UPS software and when we last got Fed Ex software it said that it wasn't compaitable with vista. When they updated some stuff in the office I was hoping that they weren't going to change my computer on me and ad vista on my day off. I have no idea what the changed on the office computers. But when ever things are changed I get a little Nervous. Part of my job if the computer doesn't work there is no way to do it by hand. I hope that at both parties you are able to have a good time. Hopefully at your place some crazy fun stuff happens and that will make you feel better. Then the next time you are having a bad day you can look at the pictures and brighten your day.

jason writes at 04:31:02 12/31/07 - Comment #29720: I am pretty shocked that "they" would even be willing to release the new version under those circumstances. We would never ever ever do that.

james writes at 02:44:14 12/31/07 - Comment #29719: Well, happy new year to you. Man that sucks.

Permalink: Ulcer_Me_This.html
Words: 309
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: stuff

12/31/07 12:51 - 31ºF - ID#42688

The Party And The Server

I hope to see everyone at the party tomorrow night. Come by around 10PM @ 24 Linwood for our annual New Years Even Party.

I worked on the new version of estrip a lot today. The flv video uploads now make thumbnails and I wrote a much better video player that lets you forward to any point in the video without having to play the video sequentially.

Permalink: The_Party_And_The_Server.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: computers

12/29/07 01:17 - 36ºF - ID#42673

The new OLPC

The One Laptop Per Child computer came today for (e:terry). I think the whole thing was a great idea but I kind of wish we donated two of them because it is so slow. The first thing (e:terry) wrote was "I am an American using a 3rd world computer" on it. It has lots of potential and hackability and actually some of the programs are fun but the processor is so slow. I forgot what that is like. It is like slower than the processor on my phone. Maybe it is a lack of ram. I will try adding a memory card and see if that helps. The music mixing and programming programs are fun - and you get a terminal and zero configure wifi, a web cam and a mic - so it does have potential albeit slowness.

Permalink: The_new_OLPC.html
Words: 147
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

12/29/07 01:17 - 36ºF - ID#42672

Food and the drain

Here (e:imk2) is a pic of what I eat now. It is really plain.

At least I can eat fish. This is a new kind of fish for me called monchong

It came from the coop. It tastes kind of like lobster a tiny bit.

Last night after work I had a family party. I have yet another family party today. This whole week has sucked. Between being sick and working ridiculous hours on this last minute projet at work and then family events with Holiday food - I kind of feel on the brink of death.

I feel like this pumkin on our porch.

Thursday night I came home from a 12 hour work day and wanted to take a shower but the tub had apparently not drained from earlier that morning. No one else ever fixes that which makes me fucking crazy considering it is a long hair and dirt from potted plants thing that I pretty much have nothing to do with.

Once I got the hairball out by prying it out with a coat hanger, I used a plunger to dredge up the dirt. I couldn't believe how much black dirt there was.

Permalink: Food_and_the_drain.html
Words: 213
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: web

12/27/07 10:21 - 34ºF - ID#42661

Gold rises after Bhutto death

I think it is kind of sick when the headline news item in the top news stories on google news about Bhutto being assasinated in Pakistan is that iit rose the price of gold.

Gold rises after Bhutto death, platinum hits record
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit a one-month high on Thursday as buying picked up after news that Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in an attack.

carolinian writes at 12:45:27 12/29/07 - Comment #29673: (e:mrdeadlier), I think that any time a leader beloved by some group of people is assassinated, there's the potential for riots regardless of the dead leader's stance on violence. For example, riots followed both MLK Jr's and Ghandi's assassinations in spite of these leaders' strong objections to the use of violence in any situation.

jason writes at 02:45:23 12/27/07 - Comment #29657: Oh, hehe, and I didn't mean to sound harsh. I mean, she didn't deserve to die, absolutely not. I'm saddened for Pakistan because this is one of those situations that really could blow up in someone's face (Who first, India?) given the right string of circumstances.

jason writes at 02:43:52 12/27/07 - Comment #29656: Bhutto was, above all else, a sleazy, corrupt politician, just like the rest, and also shared an affinity with Musharraf for sort of appeasing the extremist element. The situation is so fucked up that even people with the best of intentions would have a hell of a hard time getting through to them.

I really wonder who did it, if it was the extremist, Islamist element or whether it was a dirty hit by Musharraf to silence a political rival. After all, the attempt on her life in October shared certain characteristics with this one.

imk2 writes at 02:30:00 12/27/07 - Comment #29655: omg, i couldn't believe it when i heard the news this morning. i didn't even know who to talk to about this because just about everyone i know would not have a clue as to who this was. the world is full of kelly picklers.

mrdeadlier writes at 01:37:31 12/27/07 - Comment #29653: As an illustration of crazy that area of the world is, I read that her supporters began smashing windows and stoning cars after hearing of her death...

Wasn't she supposed to be a moderate/liberal politician who eschewed the radical Muslim outlook? Huh.

You know, not to sound cold but I'm surprised it took this long. Her refusal to make use of a "pope-mobile" (which I guess had been offered to her) or even to use better security made this inevitable -- in my opinion.

Still, though... Sad news. :(

james writes at 11:30:38 12/27/07 - Comment #29652: This isn't even news. The price of gold always rises during times of political uncertainty.

so, WTF Google news?

Permalink: Gold_rises_after_Bhutto_death.html
Words: 80
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/26/07 11:15 - 32ºF - ID#42650

Asacol - Will it kill me?

I really don't know what to do yet. My colonoscopy is on the 6th I think or the 9th. I need to check but the "doctor" who I have never actually seen or heard from since I first spoke with him a month ago prescribed asacol.

But no one told me what to expect. The serious side effects that should force you to stop taking th emedicine are some of the very symptoms I am supposed to take the medicine for which iis just screaming too dangerous for me.

I found this site where people talk about the effectiveness versus side effects of the medicine's for colitis and it seriously has a 3 out of 6 stars for 127 ratings. I wouldn't normally buy something with that kind of rating. I mean if that was a test I would say it was failing.

Check out the reviews

I just refuse to take it until after I have spoken to a GI doctor or at least the Colon doctor I already have.

THE GI doctor had an opening before my Feb 6th appointment. They called me this morning. I was all excited because I thought it was maybe today but instead it is on Jan 22, the day of my birthday, freakin' yeah.

Permalink: Asacol_Will_it_kill_me_.html
Words: 220
Location: Buffalo, NY