I guess they are called Roto-Rooter, and not Roto-CleanYourBasement
Posted on | May 19, 2011 | No Comments
Generally speaking, when I’m done taking a poop, and I flush the toilet and hear that reassuring “glunk” sound of the bowl emptying, signaling that I didn’t once again overstuff the bowl with Quilted Northern, I consider that the end of the transaction. Not today. Today my girlfriend Beth woke me up for work, told me that she had cleaned the cat box, taken out the trash, and that the basement drain had overflowed again. Now, in my house, with it’s forty year-old plumbing and equally old oak trees in the yard, this is not an entirely uncommon occurrence. I went downstairs to find an even smaller problem than I expected: a small, shallow pile of sediment (that’s an industry term for “dirt and poop”) around the drain. Since it was clearly not stopped up, I took a shower and went to work, and called Roto-Rooter.
Let me stop this story right here and say that Roto-Rooter did their jobs well and promptly. As soon as I told the dispatcher my name, she had my address and last date of service. And I didn’t call the local ‘Rooter office, I called 1-800-GET-FUCKING-ROOTER. And less than thirty minutes later, a dude was at my house. Now, this part of the story is all secondhand, since I wasn’t there. But according to Beth, the guy with the drain snake broke the T-joint of the stack trying to get it open, and he called a plumber to come out and fix it. This being St. Louis County, he also arranged for a permit to replace the stack and an inspection. Again to Roto-Rooter’s credit, they paid for all of it. I only ended up paying the original call-out fee. So apparently he left, and a little while later the plumber showed up and replaced the T-joint and half of the stack. He then left with the promise of bringing back the permit and scheduling the inspection.
Now we’re back to me. I got home from work, and after hearing the entire saga from Beth, went downstairs to assess the damage. What I saw was an even larger pile of sediment, and, poop. Not partially decomposed poop mixed with dirt, but poop. My poop. The poop I had pooped earlier this morning. Pretty much everywhere. I don’t know if the guy had to empty the stack out on the floor to replace it or what, but there it was: sizeable piles of my poop and toilet paper all over my basement floor. I guess I just wasn’t expecting to see it again. Like I said, once I’m out of the bathroom, I consider that business finished.
I suppose I can’t really be upset, since poop cleanup was nowhere on the bill of services provided. But still, as far as Roto-Rooter is concerned, prompt service and making right their mistakes: A+, cleaning poop out of my basement: F-. At least I have a mop.
This is why I fucking loathe Charter
Posted on | October 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
Fuck Charter. Seriously. I moved this weekend, and my scheduled appointment to get my cable hooked up was from 3pm to 5pm today. Now, I understand that they can’t give me an exact time. Whatever. But I was very specific that I would like a phone call when they were on the way. I don’t think that’s too much to ask these days, especially from a company called Charter Communications. A company which is offering Goddamn phone service. Whatever. Fuck them. Anyway, the install techs show up. The first guy seems polite enough, even if he seems to be having some trouble figuring out why he’s there. Literal conversation:
Me: Hi.
Trainee Tech: Hi.
Me: (wondering how long he’s gonna stand there)
Trainee Tech: So what am I doing here?
Me: I need my cable hooked up.
Trainee Tech: (looking at clipboard, which is apparently just his shopping list) OK….
Me: I would like my TV to work.
Trainee Tech: OK…
At this point, Jackass Tech walks up, moves Trainee Tech out of the way, and walks directly in my house, without so much as acknowledging my presence. He then decides to get down to brass tacks:
Jackass Tech: So, what are we doing here?
Me: I want my TV to work.
Jackass Tech: (looking at TV) You want us to hook up the TV?
Me: I want my cable service hooked up.
Jackass Tech: But you already have a Moxi, and it’s hooked up.
Me: But it doesn’t work. I want it to work.
Jackass Tech: OK…
This went on for longer than I care to remember, and it’s pissing my shit off thinking about it, so I won’t regale the entire exchange. Needless to say, it never got much better. They did, at one point, get the TV to work, but then it stopped again. Their fix was to replace my Moxi, which took all of my recorded TV shows with it. I would have protested, but I don’t fucking care anymore. I’m getting U-Verse installed in three weeks anyway.
So the moral of the story is that the install guys were total dicks. Real fuckwads. And I don’t count the fact that they got my service working as a point in their favor. If something is your fucking job, you don’t get points for not completely fucking it up. And I really shouldn’t have to tell the guy what he’s there to do. What’s on the goddamn work order? Is the information I give the dispatcher recorded anywhere? And it’s not like there are that many options for him to choose from. Hooking up? Disconnecting? Repair? Fucking guess. You have a one in three chance of being right. I don’t even want television service now.
Fuck Charter.
Enable two-finger touchpad scrolling in Linux
Posted on | March 5, 2008 | No Comments
So I finally found a thread about touchpad scrolling which lead me to explore the output of the `synclient -l` command on my Gutsy notebook, and lo and behold, the answer I’ve been looking for:
VertEdgeScroll = 1
HorizEdgeScroll = 1
VertTwoFingerScroll = 0
HorizTwoFingerScroll = 0
It turns out that two-fingered scrolling (like on the new Macs) is really easy to enable. Here’s how.
Make a backup of your X.org config file. Don’t blame me if you don’t do this and hose up your system.
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
Use the editor of your choice to add the following lines to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
add these lines >>>>
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
EndSection
Restart X, and that should do it. However, if you're like me, and have enough trouble as it is with touchpads, you may want to disable the horizontal scroll, as you end up flipping back and forth between web pages without a clue what's going on.
The Universe of Classic Train (Thanks, Woot)
Posted on | December 10, 2007 | 2 Comments
I just got my latest package from woot.com. It’s a battery operated train I got for five bucks to go around the Christmas tree. Here’s the box it came in:
As you can see, it’s The Universe of Classic Train, Handpick Playset. Here’s a little closer on the bottom left:
And in case you need help installing the batteries:
I’m not even sure what “Simulating the true styles and making carefully” is even supposed to mean. But, it does go, and it does have a flashlight, or headlight, possibly, just like the box says.
Happy Holidays.
Happy Repeal Day!
Posted on | December 5, 2007 | No Comments
It’s that time of year again, when we celebrate December 5th, 1933, when Congress ratified the 21st amendment, ending Prohibition. And thus we have Repeal Day, the day we celebrate our constitutional right to drink. So stop by a bar on your way home, or just pick up a six-pack, but pop open a bottle and celebrate!
A Dog on a Log
Posted on | November 23, 2007 | 2 Comments
It’s a Dog on a Log! We had to pass the time this Thanksgiving somehow, and canine acrobatics seemed like a good idea.
Verizon BlackBerry 8703e OS 4.2 finally released!
Posted on | November 2, 2007 | No Comments
Looks like Verizon wireless finally released the 4.2 OS for the 8703e handhelds. It’s about time. You can get the software here:
Insane.
Posted on | May 18, 2007 | 1 Comment
Ok, so this seems really unlikely to be true. But you never can tell with people. Check this out: the geekiest tattoo ever. Someone is going to have a lot of explaining to do. All the time. I mean, what percentage of the population actually knows HTML?
Like I said, I doubt this is real. If it is, though, props to this guy. And he should probably see a shrink. Or go on a date. Or both.
Repeal Day is December 5th!
Posted on | November 28, 2006 | 1 Comment
Let’s all celebrate Repeal Day this year, and commemorate the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, and the end of Prohibition. Have a drink because you can.
Returning to the blog
Posted on | November 22, 2006 | 2 Comments
So I’ve decided to start updating this thing again. Random stuff, but it’s going to stay geek-related. So, for my triumphant return, I decided to post this while hurtling down I-74 in the middle of Indiana at 80 miles an hour while my sister uses the shared WiFi connection from my notebook to surf MySpace. Because I can.
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