For those of you who think I'm dead, you just keep thinking that.


For the rest of you, I'm not dead.

Let's just say that Verizon tech support is neither technical nor supporting very well (brownie points if you can identify that line's origin).

A couple of weeks ago, our DSL conked out. That was friday afternoon. So on saturday, I called tech support. He couldn't get a signal from our modem, despite all the lights being steady green (which is what they're supposed to be). So he sets up a ticket to send a tech guy out on monday. Monday comes, the guy is early. That's good. He looks at the modem, checks the phone lines (even the phone terminal we have upstairs, since this place was at one point, a telemarketing office so it had lots of phone lines). He spends hours (we were his only call of the day) trying to find the main terminal box for our area. Finally he does. Then he leaves. The tech support guy I spoke to the saturday prior calls back saying, "we are too far away from our area terminal box for dsl, as a result our modem burnt out."

Keep in mind, we've had steady DSL service for over a year, not once did I see smoke or smell electronic burning, and the green lights were STILL steady green.

He tells me if I don't hear from them in 24-48 hours, to call tech support back. I can only assume they were to have some alternative solution. They didn't. I called back on the thursday after the tech guy came. They closed the file! Thanks for the technical support Verizon. Well, apparently I got on the line with someone a tad more tech savvy. After a few minutes doing stuff from his end, he discovered that we in fact were NOT too far from the terminal box for DSL. On top of that, he, and he ALONE had the smarts to ask the one magical question: "Do you guys have a router?"

Sonova...!

Well hot damn, we do have a router! It's configuration was password protected, so I couldn't get into it (have to talk to Jay, the store owner, since he set it up). BUT, after I got off the phone with tech support, before I called Jay, I decided to hook the modem up directly to the computer. Guess what? All those steady green lights didn't mean, "the modem is actually burnt out" after all!

Three green lights actually means... there's not a darned thing wrong with the modem! Well what do you know... Turns out there was a problem with the router.

So now I'm back, and mostly lurking. I haven't even logged onto my main stomping ground, Digital Webbing (not that they miss me anyway).

I almost considered shutting down all my communication avenues, and just taking a break, but you know, I own prime real estate on the internet, so I can't just leave all my friends hanging. Okay, I can, but you know, I'm miserable here, the net is my only 'getaway', so I'm not going to just throw it away if I don't have to.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if he was outside my store?


I know there seems to be something peculiar between myself and the local rodentia fauna, but today was just weird. They paved our parking lot yesterday, and are paving the one behind the store (it's a driveway actually) today.

But at about 12:30pm today (yes, about 15 minutes ago as of this writing), before our saturday business picks up, someone did a little "window shopping".

It was a woodchuck (groundhog).

My desk is in the corner, so I can see the door from the corner of my eye. There are four panes of glass in the entrance (two doors, and a window on each side). Peripherally, I saw something move into the far corner of the entryway (the door is closed, this all took place outside the store). I look over and see... well, just look at the picture above. It checked out the first (and farthest from me) pane of glass (leaned up on the window sill). Then it moved over to the first door, leaned up again and looked inside. About this time I had to get up and walk over. It then moved to the second door (closer to me). I waved at it and said "hello". Didn't phase it at all. It then moved onto the last window pane, not a foot away from me. I waved again. Either it was really, really short sighted, or totally not bothered by my presence.

It really was cute, and completely unexpected. What I found so odd was the way it checked each and ever window. Not in a "looking for a way in" manner, as it didn't scour the windows, it just leaned up and looked in the store.

As my friend said, "maybe he was just window shopping and forgot his purse."

:D

Hey, btw, I turned 30 on monday. Was going to write something on that (since 30 is a 'big year'). I still might later, after I reflect on it some more.

But in the meantime, feel free to enjoy some of my rodent stories, and feel free to send me some of your own!

Given my penchant for squirrels, I found this card incredibly humorous:

You know what's annoying? Annoying things.

You know, I find it odd that as an artist, the one thing I never really considered having was a muse. I was deeply in love once, and it inspired me to write poetry. Poetry that was good enough to be published. That's probably the closest I've ever been to having a "muse". Other artists complain that their muse isn't being good to them, or ride a high note saying their muse is being exceptionally generous to them.

Huh?

I just feel inspired sometimes. And uninspired at other times (lately, the latter). Still, I find it rather amusing that many artists seek to personify their inspiration, as if it were an elusive creature to be caught and um... fondled... Okay, not the best term, but you get my drift. Please the muse, ride the creative wind. Piss her off, and watch the blank canvas ridicule you to no end.

Any other artistic/creative types out there who consider such a concept as a "muse" (ie an external, ever tempermental source of inspiration, or the great taker-away of such inspiration) to be... well, odd?
That's not to say that there aren't things out there that inspire me. I love just about all music (except rap and most country music), and each inspires me (I'm very visually minded, so everything translates into imagery for me, and since music doesn't have "built in imagery" like movies and TV do, my imagination takes over and the sky's the limit) in different ways.

Television wise, anime is my biggest inspiration. Particularly Dragonball Z. It is so my style. I love dynamicism in my artwork, and DBZ is practically dynamics animated (when they fight anyway). It's the extreme: Speed, power, magnitude. They don't just punch and kick, the blow up mountains when they fight! It tickles my creative bone.

Movies inspire me as well. Many times I'll be watching a movie and go, "it'd be cool if they did this..." or even re-write it in my head adding characters and whatnot. If it gets my creative juices flowing, then I consider it inspirational.

Granted, many people would consider those "muses", but I don't feel the need to personify my inspirations (of course, if my inspiration is an actual person, all the better :)

So what's your mu... source of inspiration?