Comcastic Service!

Never before have I been so annoyed w/ a company than now. My whole ordeal started out simple enough. I wanted the triple play package (phone, digi cable, and internet), but instead of a digital dvr box from them, I wanted to cable card for my TiVo. Rep said he would get back to me as he was unfamiliar w/ the whole cable card thing. He got back to me the same day and said they have the M-Card Cable Card. Cool.
So far so good, got a call scheduled for Saturday installation week of Memorial day weekend. Confirmed w/ the rep twice that it would be a M-Card, not a S-Card. Tech comes out, doesn't have a M-Card, but digital box. Doesn't have a M-Card w/ him. So he installs internet, removes the 4-way splitter in my smart box and replaces it w/ a two way splitter like I wouldn't notice. The modem/emta he gives me is missing the battery, you know for when like the power goes out so my phone service continue to work.
Call the rep, he apologizes, schedules to have a tech come out Sunday to get me an M-Card. No call, no nothing. Call him Tuesday after Memorial Day, he schedules a call for Wednesday morning. Tech comes out installs the cable card, (opens TiVo slot, inserts, give rep over the phone serial number) done. He says give it about an hour before channels start coming in. Had to leave for work, so I would check after I got back. Still not working.
Call Comcast tech support, they try something. Doesn't work, they say I need to replace the card and that a tech would have to be scheduled to replace it. He asks me if the same time is fine. I say yes. Next day, waiting, waiting, waiting... nothing. Come to find out I was scheduled for a different block of time. Nice... Waiting, waiting, get a voicemail on my cel, didn't receive call weird. Voicemail says, "sorry we missed you, call comcast to reschedule"... WHAT!!!!??? No knock, no note, but a voicemail!? WTF!?
Call Customer Service pissed beyond belief at this point. The rep tells me that I can just exchange the cable card at a payment center. So I drive to payment center, wait 15 min in line, then the payment center rep tells me they don't have them and that a tech must come out... I'm about to turn into the hulk here.
This is who the tech is going to see tomorrow opening my door. Fine, I have them schedule another tech to come out tomorrow morning. That boy is not leaving until I get all my channels and he has a battery for my modem.

[Update: The tech came out improved my already really good signal (was getting 90% now at a full 100%). He also replaced the two way-splitter w/ a four way in my smart box. And finally he called tech support and they were finally able to figure out the provisioning error on their end to get all my channels.]

Walking Ein in our new apartment's neighborhood

I thought this was cool looking. It's a small bridge that leads to an island w/ a couple of benches.This picture was from the other side of the lake. You can see the apartments that Ein and I are in.

Ein wanted to sit for bit and take in the view... He was really curious about the ducks.

He wanted to take another break, this time in the grass, he had just pooped near by. The lake was beautiful and with a nice trail all around. The weather was also beautiful.

Optical Illusions

I love the optical illusions, something about messing with peoples heads.

Curry Udon in a can... part 2

Heating up the can...

First impression... Looks kinda gross...

WOW, Curry Udon in a can is pretty good. Like SURPRISINGLY good. It looks kinda nasty and I had warm it up w/ some boiling water, which worked pretty well by the way. They really should get this stuff out here in the US. The downside...I'm still kinda hungry.

Cool Mac OSX Music Video

I love my mac. The damn thing is so versatile. I'm really curious to find out how someone was able to make this. Imagine the amount of time it must of taken. It's also a pretty good demonstration, albeit, ridiculously fast demo of a bunch of Mac OSX features.

Curry Udon in a can...

For those of you that don't know what Udon is, it's basically Japanese style Ramen. The noodles are thicker than that of Ramen and the soup base tends to be less oily. Anyway, you can think of this as Ramen in a can. Complete w/ fork for you eating pleasure. My wife brought this back for me from Japan since I wasn't able to go to Akihabara on my last trips to Japan. Akihabara is where these things seem to have originated from and have exploded in popularity.

I wanted one out of pure curiosity. I wanted the Ramen version, but wife could only find this one. Apparently they've expanded out to other classic japanese foods like "Oden". Anyway, I'll post later on about the taste of Curry Udon in a can. Since it's in a Steel can (yes STEEL can not aluminum), I can't readily throw this into a microwave. Probably will need to get a hotplate or maybe immerse the can in some boiling water...