Technology Withdrawal Syndrom

Well, I was happily on my way to the beach for my 4 week rotation when my ipod suddenly died on me in the middle of a spanish lesson. I pulled over to administer CPR...okay, the ipod version of it including the version of the sternal thump (that's when you hit your patient's chest as hard as you can to see if it will kick the heart into action)...I hit my ipod. I'm normally against violence to my electronic devices but this was crisis mode. My ipod was apparently dead. So I decided not to get too worked up and that I could further try to revive Otter Pop (his name) once I got to the beach. Once unpacked, I attended to Otter Pop. Still no sign of life. I tried plugging him in...no luck. Then I decided to tackle my internet connection...and that's when my full blown technology withdrawal syndrome symptoms hit.

Netzero sucks. I downloaded their required proprietary software and it didn't have Pacific City on it. Granted, I should have looked into this sooner to allow myself time to find a better company but I didn't so it's partly my fault. At any rate, I get down here to discover that I can't connect to the other numbers listed to update the phone list. So I connect with internet connect program and I get online...except all I can use is the netzero site. So I send them an email telling them that I need help and they send me a file with the updated phone list. So now my hopes are up...only to be dashed because when I restart their precious proprietary crap software, all the access numbers are gone and I get a message saying that I must connect and logon for the list to be updated...um hello losers, if I could connect properly in the first place, would I really need your "help?!?" So i write back telling them about the problem and they again tell me that my problems will be solved if I logon to the network using the proprietry piece of crap software or I can try uninstalling then reinstalling the software. So I do this and the phone list is the old one without the pacific city number. So I write back telling them that I'm right back at the same problem I started with. The response was that they understand my problem and that I should try to logon to the network or reinstall the software. Okay, so Bangalore, India is now the capital of internet help workers...I think the netzero folks chose all the rejects that other companies wouldn't hire. Thankfully today I had high speed internet access at the clinic I'm working at here. So I went online and found that earthlink does not require piece of crap proprietary software for macs to connect to the internet. I got the 1800 number to get a new account. Again, bangalore, india is where my sales agent and tech support guy was. They were better trained...that and earthlink is clearly more superior and costs the same. So I replied to the last netzero tech support email saying that they clearly didn't understand my situation but that's okay because I'm now a happy Earthlink customer and had just cancelled my account with Netzero...that was an ordeal in itself. The woman who was helping me with that kept trying to sell me services so I told her, not to bother offering me anymore of their services because the answer is no.

The lesson - Netzero sucks, I should have done better research.

Dialup is okay but I miss cable internet and my wireless router.

Oh and Otterpop was apparently only in a coma since when I looked at him this afternoon after work, the screen was no longer frozen on that spanish program but was off. So I plugged him in and he was functional again. Not sure what did it but maybe the stereo. As upset as I was with otterpop's apparent death, I was somewhat okay with it cause then that would justify buying a new ipod with video capabilities and radio capabilities...that thought occurred to me on my drive down to lincoln city to get food when I realized that my pathetic car can't pick up any radio stations at all even though other people's cars can.