再見

是很久很久沒 update 了。

真的是很忙很忙沒有掛網的時間呀。

現在回歸職場喇，是有多點點的時間掛網的。但新回來不久，老細轉了人，team 都轉了，成 team 人９５％我都是不認識的，感覺是新工上任一樣，當然不可以太放肆。

在家絕少用電腦，用的話主要是和娘家對話。相片也很久沒碰。由於家中的電腦不知不覺已經九年多，開始有毛病，實在不知會不會一天當機，於是我近排有時間的話都是用來將多年的相慢慢燒出來。

而且，開始始 reevaluate this online journal. 說實在的，近年真是少了東西寫，生活大都環繞著大少二少，但有時很多的細節不想在這細說。加上我的 online gallery is based on Gallery2, which has long been discontinued. I have been thinking about moving to a different engine but the web domain belongs to 詹占，要轉我要佢 log in 幫我轉，太煩了，同埋很久前佢已經投訴過說我 uploaded a large number of files。

Anyway, 長話短說. What I have decided to do is to switch to Shutterfly. The main audience of my online gallery is my family, plus 笨。As far as my journal’s concerned, I think 笨 is probably the only one reading. Not even sure about it now that I haven’t updated for so long. Occassionally, my sis also came along.

With Shutterfly, my family can see the pictures, and journal (if they are interested) in one place.  Slightly more user friendly so my 爹娘不用 click 來 click 去。It’s gonna be a closed site, so whoever interested will have to become a member. It’s a bit more cumbersome but then I can control the readership and therefore I can post more freely, especially cos it’s mostly abt the kiddies. 我是有想過，shutterfly for kiddies, and here for me, but then I highly doubt that I have the time to maintain both.

所以嘛，由現在起這麼是 abandon 了喇。新址嘛，要的話直接找我拿吧！


又一個時代的終結，蠻感慨的...

Battling with Rogers

AGAIN.

I have been battling with them since October.

(This is a long post)

In the beginning, we have some mysterious internet traffic that uses up our usage limit. Worked with the tech support of Rogers and they kept saying that it must be because we were either hacked or careless about how much shows and videos we were watching and hence the high traffic. But really, there’s no way there would be that much traffic one some random days. One of those days we were even out of town for a good part of it. So they had us temporarily changed to an unlimited usage account while we tried to figure out why. (of course we had to pay extra to change to the unlimited usage)

In the meantime, we changed our WIFI password and name. But the problem persists with random surge of usage. Since Rogers wouldn’t even entertain the idea that the problem might be on their end, we ended up buying an extra router (the modem from Rogers already has a router bundled in it) at home to monitor the traffic. We did the monitoring for a month and a bit. It turned out that for the most part, when there’s no traffic surge, our monitor and what Rogers telling us on the day-to-day usage on their website is essentially the same. But when the surge occur, that’s when our monitored traffic shows that we didn’t use that much data. I had to contact tech support again and told them what we found. And without sending them the monitoring report that our router generated to support our claim, the tech support scheduled a cable guy to come check the hardware outside out of our house immediately.

I have always heard stories that Rogers is always trying to scam ppl for a few extra dollars here and there and because they have so many customers, they ended up getting lots of money that way. I wonder if Rogers knows that it’s their problem all along and just wouldn’t admit to it until we figured out a way to prove it. Otherwise, why would they suddenly decided that it’s their fault without even seeing hard evidence from our report??

Anyway, cable guy was good. Found the problem right the way. It was indeed Rogers hardware issue outside of our house. So they fixed it and no more data usage surge.

But then I had to call in to downgrade our service back to the original plan (don’t want to pay unlimited cos we really don’t use that much). Also, I wanted them to credit us back the money we pay for the unlimited usage since the problem was on their side so why did we pay for extra for 2 months?? I didn’t even hope for a refund but just a credit.

For the downgrade, I had 2 complains. First, according to the representative, the downgrade can only start in the next billing cycle. That is totally BS. When I did the upgrade, it was effective immediately. The extra cost of prorated for the month. So how come they can’t do the same for downgrading? Again, back to the point that Rogers is trying to get a few extra dollars out of their customers whenever possible.

Second, and this is the big one. I used to have this 80GB usage plan and is locked in a contract. Since then, they have changed their packages and the closest package to my original only has 70GB. When I did the upgrade, I specifically asked the lady if I could get back to my old plan once everything’s sorted out and the answer was positive. But of course, now that this is actually being executed, the rep said that I can’t get back to that plan since it’s not being offered anymore. I can only get the 70GB, despite the fact that I was told otherwise previously. So effectively, I am paying the same to get less of the service. NOT IMPRESSED.

Getting the credit part was actually pretty good. They didn’t try to get out of it and give me the credit right the way. The only complain I have for that is how they transferred me back and forth.  I was with tech support to downgrade the plan so they had to transfer me to customer account to get the credit. When I explained the situation (AGAIN) to customer account, she told me that she had to refer me back to tech support about it. I was about to say what the fxxk. Luckily, she changed her mind and gave me the credit without going around in circles.

---

So that was all dealt with.

And then Dec came that’s when my contract with Rogers’ up so I had to contact them again to see if they will renew my discount (I was about to leave Rogerrs for Starts communications a year ago so they used a discount to keep me with them). And then good, my stuff was renewed (altho it would have been nice if I don’t have to do it every freaking year).

But came my last two bills. The internet service fee had increased by $3/month without warning. And they are also charging me for modem rental which was supposed to be waived according to my deal with them. So I contacted them on Wednesday night for an explanation.

I have to say, that guy, Michael, is as moron. Or he was hired to pretend to be a moron in order to scam their customers.

Apparently, there was a warning in my Dec bill but since Rogers decided that they will lump my Dec bill with my Jan bill, I didn’t get the warning. WTF. Anyhow, nothing I can do abt that anyway but to accept the change of service fee in the new year. But the modem, they said that the deal doesn’t include modem. WTF.

The package I had was supposed to include modem rental (no separate charge) but because I was going to get mine waived anyway, I didn’t press the point back then cos I figured that I wasn’t going to pay for it anyway.  So now, they were saying that it wasn’t waived. Unfortunately, Rogers has changed its packages (yet again) in the new year so the old package info cannot be found on the website anymore.

I did my homework before contacting them. I ended up paying $51.40 every month with the increased fee and modem rental with 70GB usage.  One of new plan Rogers came up with is 100GB, with the same d/l and u/l speed as the one I have. The package include modem rental. If I can keep my discount, I will end up paying $51.41, one cent more than I used to but with 30GB more usage (we are pretty closed to 70GB each month).

So now that I know I can’t get my modem waived and keep my old plan, I want to ask the rep if I can switch to the new plan and keep my discount.

The rep said that I could keep my discount and quoted me $52.xx per month cos he included $2 modem rental in the quote.  Another option to do get $25 off for the 1st 3 months (something that they offer to new customers) but after that I can’t keep my discount. So in the long run, of course I’m going to keep my discount.  What does he think I am? Stupid??

So I asked him why I need to pay for modem since the new package should have modem included already. He said that yes modem is included. I asked him how come the modem is in the quote then. He said he got some sort of error when applying my discount. So I asked him does it mean that I need to pay for modem if I want to keep my discount. He said he had to check. I kept getting back to him about how the website advertise the new package includes modem. And he finally agree that I shouldn’t need to pay for modem.

So finally, I said I would like to make the switch and the total should be $51.51/month. And then guess what? He got back to me saying that I had my figures off, it should be $52.xx instead. I was getting really pissed!! Cos all the back and forth he was working very very slowly. After every single comment I made, he said that he had to check or he’s looking into it and only gets back to me like 3-5 min later. I don’t know what the fxxk he was checking.  I don’t work for Rogers and I seem to know their packages better than this dude.

I told him to bring out his calculator and punched in the $64.99*0.7*1.13 to get my figure. He got back to me with his original quote with the $2 modem charge. I was furious at that point. I asked him once again how come there’s a modem charge since he himself told me that modem should be included in the package a few minutes ago and why we were going in circle again and again. Of course, he has to check again. Wasted some more of my time and came back to tell me that it’s the charge for the ‘rocket modem’.  But rocket modem is only necessary for some of the faster packages which I’m not subscribing to so I told him so. And he went off to check again.  Finally, he told me I was right and that we were on the same page. I honestly don’t know why there would be modem charge anyway cos even if I’m with the higher speed package, modem rental is still included in those package. I didn’t press the point since I don’t want to waste any more of my time with this idiot.

So finally finally, I told him to make the switch for me and make sure that the total I am going to pay is $51.41. Just as I was abt to get off the line with this dude, he told me that I have 5 days to switch the modem. I was like WHAT MODEM? I’m not getting any upgrade in speed so why wouldn’t my current modem be sufficient? And then he told me that I was right (once again) that I don’t need to change my modem.  He told me that it’s been a long day for him. I didn’t tell him but having a long day isn’t good enough of a reason to be SUCH a moron. One mistake maybe, but not again and again and again. Totally intolerable!

This person is either hired by Rogers to try to scam their customers or he is indeed to complete idiot and needs to be fired. I suspect that it’s both.

Anyway, that’s my recent battle with Rogers. Have been contacting them like every single month. I really hope that this is the end of it, until Dec anyway, when I have to call them to get them to renew my discount yet again. What a waste of my life!

House of Bricks

Sesame street released this House of Cards parody.

I don’t usually like sesame street. It’s not part of my childhood. I don’t relay to it. But I still find this awesome! If you have seen and like House of Cards, you’ve got to watch this.

http://youtu.be/92NXMtVtv8o

Even Kevin Spacey left a message on u2b. Pretty cool!

Seeking A Friend for the End of the World

Surprisingly cute little movie. To me anyway. Don’t think it’s for everyone.

Even liked the oldie music for the movie. I don’t normally pay too much attention to the songs of a movie or I should say, they don’t usually catch my attention. But I do like the ones in this one.

Spoiler below. You are warned.

Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley. Quite an unusual pair, in my opinion. But somehow they made it quite cute.

And their world did actually ended. That surprised me a little. The premise was that the last human attempt to avoid some extraterrestrial object (I can’t rmb what it is exactly) to impact the earth has failed and they are on the count down stage to the end of the earth. So I kept thinking that the earth will somehow miraculously survived. Maybe the astronomers calculated the trajectory wrong or the object was deflected by some other ‘natural’ ways or something like that. But no, their world actually ended and that was the end of the movie.

Steve Carell and Kiear Knightley did end up as a pair of lover at the end. Maybe the world did have to end in the movie cos their love are really based on the fact that the world is ending. It is all beautiful and romantic and all but if they actually survived, their love may just die with time and that probably won’t make a very good story.

Another thing I like about the movie is that, most of the ppl are nice.  Sure, there’re quite a few crazies due to the end of the world that they gone nuts on drugs and sex and stuff. But nobody was really mean to other ppl. And Steve Carell’s character is just unbelievably nice and good that you can’t help but love him.

Kiera Knightley isn’t as beautiful as she once was. She’s been trying to rise above the “I’m just a beautiful girl” thing and wanted to be taken seriously as an actress so she’s not trying to be the pretty vase in quite a few of her movies. And her character here doesn’t need to be beautiful anyway cos she’s a bit of a screw up and a druggie. I personally think that her beauty peaked at Love Actually.  Not bad in Pirates either. But man, super gorgeous and sweet in Love Actually, even tho she only had a tiny little role in that movie. It’s almost worth it to see that movie just to watch her being all beautiful and wonderful. Anyway,  離題了.

Phone Problem

It is happening again. As mentioned in previous post, one of my phone’s power button doesn’t work so you can turn it on and off. The other phone can’t charge.

And then eventually, the 1st phone won’t charge either.

For some miraculous reason, the 2nd phone started charging again before everything died on me. So I’ve been hanging on with the 2nd phone only.

Yesterday, I dropped my phone on the floor… again… And the power button on the phone failed… I thought I was screwed but then I searched on Google Play for some app that would have an on-screen on-off button. I know it exists for iPhone so I figure I just need to find the Android counterpart. And I did succeed. Pretty pleased abt it. It’s working fine and solved my problem.

So I’m still hanging on with the crippled phone until, hopefully, when I go back to work so that I hv money to buy a new phone.

又被洗板

First of all, happy Chinese New Year!

However, this post isn’t going to be a pleasant ones. It’s gonna be the kind of post where I rant about other ppl… again… (Ya, I know. I’m such a bxtch!)

My FB update was totally 充斥著 various ppl’s kids ‘同大家拜個年'.  Some of them wearing some sort of Chinese New Year-sy clothings. Some of them not even bother. For the most part, the kids are not in any type of 拜年 pose. The older ones were just standing in the pictures. The young (baby) ones were simply staring into the camera.

To me, it’s just another excuse for those ppl to post pictures of their kids, which most of those ppl do all the time anyway. I am not completely against ppl posting pictures of their own kids, but I don’t want my fb updates to completely flooded by them for a few days. Same goes with Christmas and other festive seasons. And these so called ‘greetings’ are so impersonal. Well… that’s the essence of fb anyway.

Online Gallery

小笨has reported to me that the image for spam protection on comments was not working a long time ago. Unfortunately, my online gallery is using 詹占's web host so I don't actually have control over a long of things. I asked him to fix it but of course it never got fixed. I finally disabled the plug in just so that the comment function works again.

The plug in doesn't work perfectly anyway since there's always some spam that somehow get through and left all kinds of spams that I had to delete manually. Instead, I activated Akismet. I'll see whether this will work better than the old thing or not.