Saturday, October 27, 2007

Crazy Week!

I haven't posted anything (which is not me at all) or really visited any of my regular blog buddies for close to almost a week now and I have a perfectly good excuse, urmm, I mean reason for that ... LOL! Today is really the only time since Monday that I've had some time to actually sit here and type something out.

What happened first was my silly internet connection upped and died on me for close to two days (almost). Most of you who are using Streamyx would probably say, so what else is new? But the thing is I don't use Streamyx. I'm using a totally different service provider called Jaring and for the past 2 or so years since I've been using their wireless broadband, this is only the second time their service died on me.

The first being when the undersea cables broke or something and that wasn't really their fault. Besides, I didn't own a blog back then so I was not affected by it. The second time was just last week when all of a sudden, my wife said the service was down. I didn't really give it much thought cos I'm using a wireless broadband and it just rained and sometimes, the connection is slightly buggy for a few minutes after a heavy rain spell (which we've been experiencing quite a bit last week).

I told my wife to give it a few minutes and after waiting ten minutes with still no connection, I knew something was wrong. Their service and reception is that good that if you're not connected back in a few minutes, something really is wrong. So I went and have a look at the settings and stuff but found nothing wrong with it. Now this was already around an hour and I couldn't get online. I was shocked! I was devastated even ... LOL! (I can laugh now but I wasn't laughing then).

So I called their customer service (which I must stress is excellent) and they tried to help me troubleshoot my problem. After an hour on the phone troubleshooting together with their customer service and not getting any success, they decided to log my complain in the logs and let their technical people try to solve it. They said it might take anywhere from 24-48 hours to figure it out. Oh, man, 48 hours? I couldn't get angry with them, cos they were so helpful and apologetic so I waited patiently. I couldn't even log on in my office cos we use the same wireless broadband provider as well. Drats!

Then the next day, the worse thing that could happen, happened. My client calls up and says they need to get an ad out in the local media the next day.

'What!', I screamed in the phone ... (well, not really screamed, sounds more dramatic when I say scream ... LOL!)

They want an advert out tomorrow and they call me today. Don't they know it needs at least 3 whole days for material submission deadlines and such? Well, not really but that's what I always tell them :) Ok, normally this wouldn't be a huge problem cos I could just email them the artwork for confirmation but remember both my office and home connections were down.

Man, I panicked cos this would mean having to drive all the way to their place which is in the heart of the city to get the artwork approved and that would mean wasting a lot of time driving. Time which I really didn't have. But I had no choice. So the next couple of days were a frantic hell for me. Even my wife's needs were placed secondary to my client (sorry honey). But in the end I did manage to get things done for them and that took me a stressful 4 whole days since Tuesday.

True to my service providers assurance our connection came back in the next 36 hours but because of my last minute work, I couldn't get to replying my comments and posting anything new until yesterday evening. But after replying all my comments and visiting most of my regular blog buddies pages I got too lazy to post anything. And today being a Saturday I was even lazier. I don't usually post on weekends cos I'd rather spend the time with my beloved wife but today I just had too cos I can't stay away from not updating my blog for too long ... hehehe ...

Both my wife and me were pretty pissed when connection went down cos we're pretty avid blogger and she was even more pissed than me cos she has some paid posting assignments to complete by a certain date (which she just barely managed to squeeze in when the connection came back). Oh, and she's been doing a pretty good job with her paid postings, making loads of money too ... LOL!

This episode made me realize how much I've come to depend on my broadband service, both for my work and my personal life. I practically do everything online, from paying all my bills to my communication with my clients, research for my work, to just plain blogging and sometimes I wonder how the heck did I ever get anything done back in those old days when it was just plain dial up, worse still, when the internet wasn't even heard of yet! Boy, that is a scary thought ... LOL!

Ok, now enough with the heart stopping moments of not having connection already. It's time to go visit my regulars and see what they've been up to the past week. I've also got quite a bit of meme's and awards to post. Been sitting on it for way too long now. And since my wife is downstairs watching some movie called 'Click' I have the laptop all to myself for a whole 2 hours or so :D Happy weekend folks.

30 comments:

  1. Urmm, am I the 1st to comment? I think I am!!! Yayyyy... welcome back Nick:)

    I thot you disappeared from earth and joined your alter ego Spiff, visiting other planets! LOL

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  2. gosh nick, like it took me three minutes to open your site and another five minutes for the comment page to load, hehehe, i am on a dial-up connection since i am at home, i still lucky though i have internet connection, happy for you to be back in circulation, i've been waiting actually for your next post, "you complete me..."

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  3. I also experience that. I almost make a non-flying laptop to a flying one lol. Anyway, welcome back.

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  4. Nice to see ya back! I would be lost without my internet connection.

    Hope your wifey likes "Click"..LOL..sometimes I fantasize that for my husband!

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  5. Buddy! You sound like me during my dial up days...which was not too long ago LOL
    But still having problems with something today...still s l o w! :)

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  6. I cannot live or function without my broadband connection. Period. I will work relentlessly until said connection is restored in the event it is severed. They have my reservation at the looney bin just waiting.

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  7. I wondered what you were up to, 'cuz it really isn't like you to go that long without a new post. Downed Internet - that can drive you crazy! I am totally lost if I can't connect. I've been known to drive down to the office just to check my email and blog! If they were using the same provider as I do, it would be worse. Glad that you made your deadlines and are back among us!

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  8. whoa, that sounds like some real frantic hell! @-o must be real busy for you right haha.. never knew jaring had downtimes too! @__o well streamyx is the old story, thinking if i should switch my service to Metrofon too @-o

    p/s: does your company has slots for graphic design student interns, for like, erm, me? :P

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  9. Hi Nick - like you I'm spending a few hours catching up on everyone. Hope your weekends been a good one.

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  10. Sweetiepie, yes, you're the first commenter ... hooray :) No la, didn't disappear la, and besides Spiff and me don't really get along too well ... LOL! It's good to get my connection back though :)

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  11. Lord Manila Stone, I'm glad to be back. Thanx for dropping by ...

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  12. Lee, I was also having the same thots of trying to make my laptop fly ... LOL! I hate it when I don't have access to the internet.

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  13. Diamond, I'm glad to be back :D Yeah, my wife loved 'click'. Sometimes I fantasize that for myself ... LOL!

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  14. Dude, I so do remember your dial up days ... LOL! You mean that streamyx getting slow already, so what else is new ... hehehe ... hope you get whatever is wrong fixed soon buddy, but if you do need my so called 'expertise' do call ... LOL!

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  15. Kellypea, welcome to my blog. Oh, I do the same thing too when my connection goes down ... I pester my service provider until they get fed up of me ... LOL! Hope to see you around more ...

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  16. Josie, I was going crazy without connection. I am so dependent on it that when it's down, I'm like a chicken without a head ... LOL! Glad to be back among you guys.

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  17. Conan, yeah, I was damned surprised that Jaring had down times too. They're normally damn efficient la. I'm glad they solved my problems eventually though. I'll let you know about that graphic design slots, ya:)

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  18. Hey Loz, haven't seen you here in a long while. Glad to see you here though :) My weekends been pretty good in fact. I'll be writing a post about it later tonight.

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  19. Man that sounds bad... seems that many have been losing connection too... Bokjae did too.

    Singnet has been konking up on me too and I've been calling and calling. urgh.

    Could someone just end all these problems for us??

    BTW... you've been tagged!!! :)
    [Link]

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  20. Bobo, it felt worse than it sounded! I've been hearing of a few people who've also been complaining about slow connections. There must be a conspiracy going on somewhere ... LOL!

    Oh and thanx for the tag, will get it up as soon as I can ...

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  21. Life sucks without a connection!
    Nowadays businesses rely totally on automation and the Internet. Recently, I have encountered 'system down' at the airports during check-in and the whole process just came to a standstill! It shouldn't be the case right?

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  22. BT, it really shouldn't be the case cos technology was invented to help us not to make life more difficult but then that's technology for you I guess ...

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  23. Aghgh - it just shows you how much we rely on technology. My email server malfunctioned on Friday just as I was trying to download artwork. I nearly had a stroke. and thought the same thing... when did that happen?

    Glad you're back online.

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  24. Hey AB, I read you loud and clear. I'm just too dependent on technology that if it ceased to exist, I'm be a total doofus, that's for sure!

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  25. Okay, that explains it! I would have been running to the nearest coffee house with free wireless I could find!

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  26. MP, the wife and me actually contemplated going to the nearest cybercafe to get online ... LOL! I don't ever wanna go thru that experience again, that's for sure ...

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  27. Hahah... Nick.. now I know why you went MIA.. I thought you "merajuk" or something.. oh well we Malaysian and our internet connection eh.. at least you can still praise Jaring's customer service.. while we can't say the same for streamyx..

    Oh well.. welcome back buddies.. I missed you at my blog...hehe

    Pstt..say hello to you wife for me. and say "hurray for paid post" eheheh

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  28. Lady Java, me merajuk? That would be the day ... LOL! I was mad as hell but I have no ill feeling towards Jaring's customer service though, they did their best to help me and I'm grateful for that. Let's not even talk about Streamyx here now, shall we ... LOL!

    Will say hello to my wife for you. Oh yes, hurray for paid posts!

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  29. Hey Nick! Well, I was suffering a similar fate too last week... but it's good to hear that unlike Streamyx, Jaring's customer service is good! :):):)

    Genie Princess

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  30. Marzie, I have nothing but praise for Jaring's customer service :D Actually I've been hearing so much recently of bad connection problems all over the blogsphere. I wonder if there is some kind of conspiracy going on ... LOL!

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