Woke up at 1:50. Coughing. Thirsty. Shit. I don't have time to be sick. After coughing fit, I climbed back into bed. Turned on talk radio. They had a renaissance man for a guest. I can't do it justice, so I copied this from Coast to Coast AM:
Philosophy & Hidden Knowledge
Radical academic and empiricist Jeffrey Grupp shared philosophical and metaphysical concepts, and discussed how hidden knowledge is sometimes suppressed, and used against the general population to control them. The "telescreen"-- the barrage of mass media images and information that floods human consciousness, is a kind of everyday mind control that acts to despiritualize the populace, he explained.
Grupp outlined his concept of "Dark Ecstasy"-- a kind of religion that the Illuminati practices in which they derive spiritual euphoria through artistic expressions of death, sado-masochism, murder, war and pain. This force has influenced and tainted an incredible number of humans, he added.
A former atheist, Grupp said he's found empirical proof for the existence for God by seeing the "golden ratio" displayed throughout nature, the cosmos, and in quantum chaos. He also spoke about "telementation," a variation on the Law of Attraction that focuses more on feeling reality into existence rather than using belief or visualization to manifest things.
Through his study of numerology, Grupp noted that the change into the 21st century, with years all starting with 2 instead of 1, signifies a large change. This suggests we're entering a time of dramatic camaraderie, and improvement for humanity, he noted.
But at least I missed the first hour. That topic always scares me. Daddy has a pacemaker - cordless phones are terrible for that. His ticker works fine. Wonder if the EM smog which is thick in my house (wireless routers, cordless and cell phones, microwave oven) can affect the lungs... In case you're interested, here ya go:
Cell & Wireless Dangers
First hour guest, researcher William Thomas shared an update on the dangers of cell and wireless phones. He reacted to a new report that cell phone usage causes increased brain activity, saying that the study downplays the hazards. We are looking at a "brain-wiping of our population within the next few decades." Children using cell phones now will be senile by the age of 30 and unable to function in society, he warned. Thomas advocated taking steps to avoid or mitigate exposure to electromagnetic smog including removing wireless routers from the home, as well as cell phones and portable phone cradles (which he said give off even more radiation than cell phones).
The brain-wiping thing might explain a lot. I'd rather die than give up my cell phone, though...
Then the WSJ reporter came on to say the stock market futures were "markedly lower." Dammit. Thank god I bought a gold ETF not too long ago. And a silver stock.
Needless to say, I couldn't go back to sleep. Somehow, it popped into my head that I need to pay Mother and Daddy's county property tax by Monday. Shit. What if I'd missed it?
Then like every other morning for the last four months, I started thinking about the fact that I haven't cancelled Mother's pension or filed for her life insurance. At the rate I'm going, the life insurance proceeds will be less that what I owe the government. I have such a mental block about this.
Jumped up and headed to my den/office, remembered that my ComCRAP email (the one I use for biz) wasn't receiving messages. At least they were coming through on my phone. I decided to call. I was told by the Stepford CSR that, due to unusually high call volume, my expected wait was more than 10 minutes. At three-o-fucking-clock in the morning? I put it on speaker and decided to try the chat help at the same time. They always come on quickly. Needless to say, neither Cyril the Chatter nor Bobby the Phone Drone(whose real name had to be Kumar or Dhangadamajhi) helped me in the least. I had to repeat my phone number four times for Bobby. In the meantime, Cyril kept asking me if I had tried the series of random instructions he gave me, including a trouble shooting link that would explain it more clearly. GMAFB. I just made that up. Give Me A Fucking Break. I decided to save the transcript for posterity. Here goes:
user carol has entered room
carol>
prob w/ email
analyst Cyril has entered room
Cyril>
Hello carol_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Cyril. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Cyril>
Welcome to Comcast Live Chat Support. Thank you so much for bringing Comcast to your home. In line with this, we do promise to provide you the best service you deserve. You may call me Cyril, I will be your Customer Representative to assist you with your concern today.
Cyril>
Carol, I definitely know where you’re coming from and I truly apologize for the inconvenience. Comcast is determined to resolve your issue today and I know you we can do this together.
carol_>
so how are we going to do this?
Cyril>
Do not worry Carol your satisfaction is my top priority. I will do my best for you to be able to log in to your account before this chat ends
Cyril>
Can you give me the exact problem that you have with your comcast email please ?
carol_>
i am logged in but not receiving messages on my computer. they ARE coming on my phone though as well as another computer
Cyril>
I am sorry to hear about that
Cyril>
May I know if your are using SmartZone or Outlook for your Comcast email access ?
carol_>
windows mail
Cyril>
I see..
Cyril>
Before you can used windows mail to receive and send email ..
Cyril>
You will need to set it up for Comcast configuration
Cyril>
Have you setup your windows mail for Comcast settings?
carol_>
yes. it was fine until yesterday.
Cyril>
I see...
Cyril>
can you please check on the following on your windows mail settings
carol_>
ok.
Cyril>
For email client port settings;
Incoming mail server :
mail.comcast.net
port value : 110
Outgoing mail server
smtp.comcast.net
port value : 587
Note : You will need to check the option : the server needs authentication
Cyril>
You can also refer to this link " Verifying e-mail settings in Windows Mail " : http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=76514850-837b-4299-9fa3-746c6651199c
Cyril>
Carol, can you open the link ?
carol_>
trying to check settings through tools
Cyril>
By the way , Please also note that you can have up to 7 email accounts and they're all for free with your Comcast subscription. This way, you can have the secondary accounts acquiring their own email access without the hassle of knowing the primary email account. GMAFB
Cyril>
Okay..
Cyril>
the link that I have provided is more accurate on checking on the settings for your windows mail.
carol_>
changed outgoing mail server from 25 to 587. didn't do anything.
Cyril>
Can we check on your email username and password please
Cyril>
Can you please try to login to http://www.comcast.net to check if the password works.
Cyril>
click on the link then look for the sign in link
carol_>
ok
Cyril>
try to login using your comcast email username and password that you used on your window mail
carol_>
i'm in.
Cyril>
Great
Cyril>
can you please try to re-type the email username and password on your windows mail settings
carol_>
wait pls
Cyril>
Okay
Cyril>
Please check again on the mail server settings and please do not forget to click on APPLY and OK button when you change the settings
Cyril>
How are we doing so far , Carol ?
carol_>
hold on pls.
Cyril>
thank you for your cooperation in resolving your issue ..
Cyril>
Carol, is everything working fine now ?
carol_>
no
Cyril>
Do you have an error message ?
carol_>
wait
Cyril>
Okay
Cyril>
Carol, how are we doing so far ?
Cyril>
Carol, I want to ensure your issue is addressed. Can you please acknowledge that you still require support? If I do not receive a response from you, the system might automatically disconnect this session due to inactivity.
carol_>
wait. i'm still trying
Cyril>
Okay
Cyril>
thank you for responding
Cyril>
Carol, are you still with me?
carol_>
yes. i am still trying. can't you help someone else until i am finished trying?
carol_>
every time you ask me, the chat window pops up and i lose my place.
Cyril>
I am sorry ..please continue
carol_>
cyril, i give up. this was not helpful in the least.
Cyril>
I am really sorry to hear about that , Carol
carol_>
i think i will call att & sign up for u-verse. it's cheaper anyway.
Cyril>
but to fix your issue we just need make sure that the settings are correct
Cyril>
can you try to use the comcast email portal in SmarTzone
Cyril>
try to send yourself an email
carol_>
fixed the settings like you said but it did nothing. my incoming settings were right to start with.
Cyril>
to check if your email account is fine
carol_>
cyril, i don't have time to deal with this. i can assure you it is not working. thanks for trying to help though.
Cyril>
I am really sorry for all the troubles , Carol but I am sure that your comcast email account is fine since you can receive it on your phone but not using windows mail
Cyril>
we can check further on this
carol_>
cyril, i can assure you the problem is not windows mail, but i've already spent too much time on this. i'll just figure something out.
Cyril>
We check if you can send and receive email using the SmartZone email portal in Comcast.net
carol_>
no. i've already done that. gotta run. have a great day!
Cyril>
try to check if you have the time
carol_>
i did and i don't.
Cyril>
I am really sorry for all the troubles
Cyril>
You can contact us back
Cyril>
so that we can check further on your issue
carol_>
bye bye.
Cyril>
It has been my pleasure serving you today and I truly appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Do you have other concerns for me today? I will be glad to assist you further
carol_>
no
Cyril>
Thank you Carol for giving me the chance to help you today. I'm glad that you used COMCAST Chat Support and it was a pleasure having you on chat. We strive to provide with you the best service we can. GMAFB
Cyril>
Again, my name is Cyril . I hope that you would take the time to rate the services that you've received today by answering the 3-question survey after this chat. Please click the END SESSION button to end the chat properly.
Have a wonderful day! Goodbye.
Cyril>
Analyst has closed chat and left the room
analyst Cyril has left room
At that point I bade Kumar the phone drone farewell. I fixed the problem myself by trying something a little different involving the multitude of user id's an passwords ComCRAP requires. I had 710 new emails. Great.
As for the title of this post, here's the plot summary from Wikipedia:
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
From the moment Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, things just don't go Alexander's way. When Alexander gets out of bed, he trips on the skateboard and drops his sweater into the sink while the water was running. At breakfast, Alexander's brothers, Anthony and Nick reach into their cereal boxes and find amazing prizes while Alexander ends up with cereal.
On the way to school, he doesn't get the window seat in the carpool. At school,[1] his teacher, Mrs. Dickens doesn't like his picture of the invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper), criticizes him for singing too loud and leaving out 16. His friend, Paul deserts him to his third best friend and there is no dessert in his lunch.
At the dentist's, the dentist, Dr. Fields tells Alexander he has a cavity, the elevator door closes on his foot, Anthony pushes him in the mud, Nick says he is a crybaby for crying, and Mom punishes him in the act of punching Nick.
At the shoe store, they're sold out of Alexander's choice of sneakers (blue ones with red stripes), so Mom has to buy him plain white sneakers, which he refuses to wear.
At Dad's office, Alexander makes a mess of things when he fools around with everything there (the copying machine, the books, and the telephone) getting to the point where Dad tells him not to pick him up from work anymore.
At home, the family has lima beans for dinner (which he hates), there is kissing on TV (which he also hates), bath time becomes a nightmare (too hot water, soap in his eyes, and losing a marble down the drain) and he has to wear his railroad train pajamas (he hates his railroad train pajamas).
At bedtime, his nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick takes back a pillow, and the family cat chooses to sleep with Anthony. No wonder Alexander wants to move to Australia. The book ends with Mom's assurance that everybody has bad days, even people who live in Australia.
Wonder if I'll have bad days if I buy the parsonage? Maybe I should get a priest to bless it. But it IS a parsonage after all. If that doesn't work, maybe he could do an exorcism. Wonder what that costs? Mary Celeste did tell me it might take two weeks to feel the whole effect of my clean Chakra. It's only been one.
Ok, I'm sitting at my desk and for the fifth straight day, I spend the first two hours at my desk smelling the skunk chair four feet away. I have nowhere else to put it because my house is chock full of two households' worth of stuff. It's a great looking leather chair Deb gave me. I'm sure her four cats must've pee'd on it. Shernitra has been sweetly wiping it down every day. I wonder if it can be salvaged. I guess after two hours, I get used to the smell and don't notice it.
Dammit, Dow futures are down 52 points. Jobless claims come out at 7:30 - maybe they'll be good. The rest of the globe is falling apart. I'm thinking of dumping every single stock I own. And putting it all into gold and silver. Bury it in the yard. Better see what Cramer said last night.
GM just released 4Q results and beat the street. Hopefully, it won't be the only bright spot in my day.
Gonna end this endless post and fasten my seatbelt. It's gonna be a bumpy day...
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