Close encounters of the stupid kind

Well, I have officially had my first "uh...where's the 'Any' key?" caliber of support request at work today.

One of our customers called up to say he wasn't receiving responses to his support requests. "I've been getting a lot of spam lately, where the subject line started with 'Re:'. So I added a rule to filter that out. Did your support responses start with 'Re:'?"

In other news, I had a humorous encounter with shoddy delivery service quality today. One of those things that is irritating while it's happening to you, but you'll probably look back on and find outrageously funny once everything is resolved. I was going to put this tale of woe here, but on reflection decided it belonged in my essay journal instead. (And I also submitted it, in slightly altered form, to comp.risks.) Read it and marvel at the moronity inherent in a particular package delivery service.

Dreading the weekend

Well, I've just begun the last half hour of the last workday of the week. After this is over, I get together with my brother, we pack my stuff, and it's off to the BioKinetics medical study center for the first of four all-weekend stays. Last time, I took my old Mac laptop; this time I'm taking my Windows desktop and monitor. Thus I can at least play computer games and watch movies to keep myself entertained.

Despite the exchange of letters I wrote about some months ago, apparently BioKinetics has not yet installed wireless net access for study participants. My brother checked on it when he was up there a few days ago, and reported that the receptionist thought that wireless Internet sounded like a pretty neat idea. So, I guess I'll be writing another letter after this weekend.

The brother has a five gigahertz wireless Internet antenna system that he was supposed to be checking out sometime today to see if he could get line-of-sight up there. He has not had the chance to yet; I'm wondering if he actually will before we have to show up there. Not that it would make much difference either way. If he can't get a signal, he can't get a signal, and I'll have to be satisfied playing Max Payne and Starcraft in lieu of City of Heroes. (I wish he'd hurry up and test it and tell me, the long wait to find out is doing nothing for my disposition.)

But if that's the case, I'm seriously thinking of acquiring a cantenna and a PCI wireless card sometime between this weekend and next weekend. I wasn't able to get a wireless signal last time I tried (with my laptop), but maybe with the added range and directionality of a cantenna, I can pick something up that I can latch onto. It's worth a try.

Grr. I hate hate hate being out of touch for the entire weekend. I don't want to do it. I'd do anything to avoid it. But the $900 I'm getting from the study is money I desperately need, so it's not something I can really avoid.

Nerves nerves nerves...