access forecast
Oct. 29th, 2003 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
buggery::deep breath:: Okay, I'm probably getting nervous over nothing, but...
Over the weekend, the part of my telephone line wall jack that houses the plug (I'm so tempted to refer to it as the foreskin, but that would just be wrong) -- there's no better term for it -- shattered. For no apparent reason. I was just chatting along, and suddenly, the modem line goes slack and there are little bits of plastic everywhere. Fortunately duct tape is able, among its sundry other talents, to hold the cord and plug in place at just the right angle to allow continued use of the jack.
Yesterday I trundled off to Radio Shack to find a replacement jack. I got one for a fairly reasonable price, and also succumbed to temptation and got myself a PDA (which, yes, I am going to be using the memo feature of largely to compose drabbles and jot down story notes), then bugged out of there before the affably geeky store associate James could sell me anything else.
This morning, I will be attempting to replace the stupid broken jack with the shiny new (and improved!) one. This involves tools and wiring. I'd like to say I'm confident that I will quickly triumph overthese inanimateobjects that are designed to work together the way I want them to... but I guess the various disasters that interrupted my ability to get online this year have made me wary.
I've waited until this morning so that, in the event of uncooperative inanimate objects, I'll have the option of going down and using the management office's phone to call James for help, or if it should become necessary, the evil phone utility company bastards. (Yes, my flat brilliantly has only a single jack installed.)
Even with all this planning and preparation, there's still a possibility I may not be able to get online tonight due to wires dangling uselessly from the wall. So, if I'm not around later posting drabbles to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
wednesday100 and squeeing and/or sneering at the new eps of SV and A/S in chat, well, at least you'll all know why.
Edited to add:
Well, as my ability to tell you all this will attest, the jack issue is resolved. James assured me that though I would have to mess with tools and wires, it would be possible for a layperson to install, and I could always call and have him walk me through it. This tells me that not only is this guy not particularly good at his job, he didn't even read the back of the package. As it turns out, the jack replacement I bought is designed to fit over an existing wall jack (it has a built-in splitter for your modem line), and so all I had to do was slide the thing on. Click! And I'm back in business.
The general incompetence of Radio Shack in getting me all worried over nothing, and giving me the perfect product sheerly by accident and my own ignorant suggestion, makes me feel much better about the fact that I'll be returning the so-called PDA. Why, you ask? Its alleged "memo" feature allows only numerical and symbol entries. Ditto for the address book (beyond the name line) and schedule functions. I am not fluent in binary, bugger all.
Over the weekend, the part of my telephone line wall jack that houses the plug (I'm so tempted to refer to it as the foreskin, but that would just be wrong) -- there's no better term for it -- shattered. For no apparent reason. I was just chatting along, and suddenly, the modem line goes slack and there are little bits of plastic everywhere. Fortunately duct tape is able, among its sundry other talents, to hold the cord and plug in place at just the right angle to allow continued use of the jack.
Yesterday I trundled off to Radio Shack to find a replacement jack. I got one for a fairly reasonable price, and also succumbed to temptation and got myself a PDA (which, yes, I am going to be using the memo feature of largely to compose drabbles and jot down story notes), then bugged out of there before the affably geeky store associate James could sell me anything else.
This morning, I will be attempting to replace the stupid broken jack with the shiny new (and improved!) one. This involves tools and wiring. I'd like to say I'm confident that I will quickly triumph overthese inanimateobjects that are designed to work together the way I want them to... but I guess the various disasters that interrupted my ability to get online this year have made me wary.
I've waited until this morning so that, in the event of uncooperative inanimate objects, I'll have the option of going down and using the management office's phone to call James for help, or if it should become necessary, the evil phone utility company bastards. (Yes, my flat brilliantly has only a single jack installed.)
Even with all this planning and preparation, there's still a possibility I may not be able to get online tonight due to wires dangling uselessly from the wall. So, if I'm not around later posting drabbles to
wednesday100 and squeeing and/or sneering at the new eps of SV and A/S in chat, well, at least you'll all know why.Edited to add:
Well, as my ability to tell you all this will attest, the jack issue is resolved. James assured me that though I would have to mess with tools and wires, it would be possible for a layperson to install, and I could always call and have him walk me through it. This tells me that not only is this guy not particularly good at his job, he didn't even read the back of the package. As it turns out, the jack replacement I bought is designed to fit over an existing wall jack (it has a built-in splitter for your modem line), and so all I had to do was slide the thing on. Click! And I'm back in business.
The general incompetence of Radio Shack in getting me all worried over nothing, and giving me the perfect product sheerly by accident and my own ignorant suggestion, makes me feel much better about the fact that I'll be returning the so-called PDA. Why, you ask? Its alleged "memo" feature allows only numerical and symbol entries. Ditto for the address book (beyond the name line) and schedule functions. I am not fluent in binary, bugger all.
