Seriously.

Yesterday I was happily surfing the internet over my morning coffee. Happily! Then my internet cut out. Aw, I thought. That sucks. But then I thought perhaps there was some maintenance going on, since it was a low-volume time. Ah, that's alright. I will actually go outside today and socialize with other humans! So I was happy again.

Until I got home in the evening, that is. Then I was quickly unhappy again. Still no internet!

So we gave Telus' tech line a call. Quel suprise! The account had been turned off for non-payment! What the? No, they couldn't fix it on a Sunday night. We would have to call Billing Department in the morning.

Went to bed very unhappy and a little miffed, to boot.

Woke up feeling similarily. Instead of surfing the internet over my morning coffee, I called Telus. Got in the queue. Finally found out that no, they can't tell me anything because the account is in my man's name, even though it's my credit card that is being charged.

So over HIS morning coffee, my man called Telus. Surely we should be getting to the bottom of this by now! Ah, so simple, the gum-snapping woman said! Our credit card expired! Oh, so it's no problem. I will give them the new info and we'll be up lickety split. What? There's interest? Well I hadn't known the card they had expired! They hadn't billed me since July! This is where it got fun.

My man: We didn't know the card had expired, so we didn't bother calling you.

Billing Woman: We sent you an email to the email address on the account. We sent out a mass email explaining our new account numbering system.

My man: I didn't know we had an email on the account. I use my gmail, not Telus.

Billing Woman: Well, we called you twice.

My man: What number?

Billing Woman: The number on the account.

My man: You have my cell number on the account. The number attached to the ADSL doesn't have a phone plugged into it. We got the ADSL because we didn't have to pay for a separate phone line that we would never use. Call the other number on the account. It's my business line. In fact, it's listed as the business number for my account.

Billing Woman: We sent you a letter.

My man: To this address? It never arrived.

Billing Woman: *sigh* That's not my problem. You should answer your phone more often. But this time we'll turn it back on and reverse the interest charges. You should check your email, too.

So today I have my internet back. But thanks to Telus, I have a much bigger headache.

Why don't you check out this fun little sample from my latest video update to ElliNude.com?

I've been a mad scientist all week and finally chose my newest video quality level! This one has been added to my site in full widescreen, h.264 format at 960x540! The file size is WAY smaller than my .wmv files and the quality is WAY better!

Translation:

You can make this video full screen and still enjoy all my freckles! :)

Click HERE to watch the full sample video in .mp4 format (MUCH better than the YouTube clip above!)


~ Elli
elligirl@gmail.com
my Adults Only photos: http://www.ElliNude.com

11:08 Happy Turkey Day to my American friends!! #

17:45 Fuck YEAH I'm running quad core, bitches! :) #

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After much fussing and loss of hair and sanity to my video encoding habits, I finally bit the bullet and bought a quad core processor. I read the reviews and balanced the numbers, and I stood to gain about 50% of my time back, so at $230 it was worth the sacrifice.

I must say I heart this chip. Quad is SO much more uber than dual. :)

12:45 omg today is just a bit too hectic. I need a pause button! #

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12:13 hahah ok Tropic Thunder was pretty funny :) #

12:14 @surfsearcher Coexist? What's that supposed to mean? #

12:15 @FarmerPhoebe It is a very good time for a rainy night. Maybe not so much for the dog... but entertainment is guaranteed! :) #

12:17 Darwin Award Winner! *News Flash* Pandas don't like to cuddle! www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/panda.bites.man.china.ap/inde ... #

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San Francisco was a blast! I will blog more about it once I'm back and all caught up for real :) Yesterday was sleepy on the couch day to recover and today was workin workin and making chili day!

About the chili.. my slow cooker was acting up again. The plug that had worked perfectly before was underpowered today! It took 3 hours for the chili to come to a boil. After much thinking, I decided it was because the dishwasher was running and then on heat dry.

We watched Wall-E last night and absolutely loved it. I almost cried twice! Wall-E and Eva.. awwww :)

09:55 Good morning! Today I get to see Alcatraz! Woot woot! #

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02:25 Sooo tired! The food at Butterfly in San Fran is amazing!! Duck spring rolls! #

09:13 Good morning! It's off to the Napa Valley today! #

22:08 It's club time! Gosh, when am I going to get to go to sleep? #

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17:04 Arrived in San Francisco! It's a little warm down here for November, no? #

17:04 @FarmerPhoebe My tomatoes always get soft on their bums! #

17:05 @FarmerPhoebe hahah I used to rub catnip on my dog and watch him get totally confused as the cats chased him and rubbed on him! #

17:06 @curvyclaudia Yikes! Maybe get some snowshoes? :) #

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Let's swat some balls around! I have a brand new photo shoot on my site at ElliNude.com! Why don't you bring your raquet and I'll bring my tennis skirt and we'll see if we can't get tangled up in the net!:)

~ Elli
elligirl@gmail.com
my Adults Only photos: http://www.ElliNude.com

09:59 yay yay yay! I won the NHT speakers on EBay! Merry xmas to us! #

10:00 @BornRandy haha that is so generous of you ;) #

10:01 @curvyclaudia No shit, eh? She had TWO pens on her desk right in front of her!! #

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09:56 Still no audio or proper nvidia video in Intrepid Ibex. Not very intrepid, I say!! #

09:57 @capoc *shakes fist at capoc* Damn youuuuu! #

09:57 @ravivasavan Yeah how much junk do we all have, seriously? #

09:58 @bigmike302 You've actually seen it? That's so cool and weird all wrapped up in one :) #

13:57 So Royal Bank refused to lend me a pen so I could endorse my cheque. The teller said, "I'm sorry, but I can't do that." #

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While batching up some photos I like to surf my favourite news and commentary sites. Tonight I stumbled across a piece on AlterNet.org by Chris Hedges of TruthDig. Here's an excerpt:

"The Princeton Review analyzed the transcripts of the Gore-Bush debates, the Clinton-Bush-Perot debates of 1992, the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960 and the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. It reviewed these transcripts using a standard vocabulary test that indicates the minimum educational standard needed for a reader to grasp the text. During the 2000 debates George W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6.7) and Al Gore at a seventh-grade level (7.6). In the 1992 debates Bill Clinton spoke at a seventh-grade level (7.6), while George H.W. Bush spoke at a sixth-grade level (6.8), as did H. Ross Perot (6.3). In the debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon the candidates spoke in language used by 10th-graders. In the debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas the scores were respectively 11.2 and 12.0. In short, today's political rhetoric is designed to be comprehensible to a 10-year-old child or an adult with a sixth-grade reading level."

Amazing. I remember when I was editor of the high school newspaper, I was supposed to check all articles to make sure none were too complicated. At the time the policy was to put out a paper that had a literary "skill level" of tenth grade. Too low and it would look like a tabloid, and too high and most of the students would throw it away. So I see why the campaigns dumb down their material over time.

But that doesn't excuse people from demanding better. I assume I'm not the only person who feels like smacking the smirk off George W. every time he opens his mouth. He talks down to his audience, and he uses "See Spot Run" words as if he's talking to preschoolers. If your own president doesn't treat you like an adult, who will?

This is another reason why I really admire Obama's speeches. He uses advanced sentence structure, strong words, and filled-out concepts. He doesn't speak down to his listeners. He's reassuring without being condescending, and he pauses to think before speaking.

I hope the country can take the cue from their new leader and get back on track. Pick up a book! Warm up that brain! Do a crossword puzzle! Let's put down the credit card and get back to work!

16:14 Alrighty! I've got a website started for a friend, sold a tv on craigslist, and ummmm not much else. Where did the day go? #

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16:01 Just made a drawing on Google Sketchup of my office and determined that no, the desk will not fit better by the window. #

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Meatballs, that is! They turned out lovely, even though I didn't start on them until 6:30pm. We were at the family's place, fixing up computers. Before that we did sweet dick all. We woke up late (10ish) and I made an omelet from Friday's fajita leftovers. Then we watched tv until we had a nap at 1:30pm. And that, dear readers, was my day!

12:12 hahha Watch out for MACHINE GIRL! (Gosh Japanese folks sure are creative!) Sushi, tempura, and machine guns! tinyurl.com/63lr64 #

12:13 @Torn_Rose hmmm... do I? :) #

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I bet you are :) It's been far too long!

Stay tuned! Update is going live in 3...2....1!

It is! i was supposed to be meeting friends for late night "all you can eat" sushi, but my tires suck and it's raining pretty bad. AND I don't like eating late AND "all you can eat" fish is always nasty AND they don't let you sit with other people getting the "all you can eat" rate unless you ALL order the same special. I guess they're concerned that sweet little Elli will steal a sushi roll or something.It shouldn't cost me $15 plus tax and tip and gas to hang out with friends, methinks. Call me cheap. I'll join them on RockBand night.

I've been learning Audacity today and dealing with various customer issues from my part time job.Once again, haven't been able to check anything off as "done" but I am somewhat closer to my goals.

At least my fajitas were yummy.