An extremely chaotic new year, part 1

A lot of personal BS, drama, change, etc....
I've recently gone to war with Time Warner cable for starters. Last november, I fell 1 month behind on the cable bill. As some may know, I was getting Telephone, TV, and internet all through the cable company. The first week of December they cut my connection in a most abrupt way. When I went down to the office to settle up, they charged me the past due month+the current month+next month+deposit. A grand total of $450.
Being the internet junky I am I coughed up the cash and got reconnected. BIG MISTAKE!
Two weeks later, I was disconnected again! The office told me that they now wanted another month in advance + they charged me for the equipment I've been renting monthly as part of my bill. Grand total, another $430...
I had to draw the line, so I gave them back their modem and TV box and told them to sue me. Their response was, "your remote is missing the batteries".

So now I'm back with good ole corporate pirate Ma Bell for telephone, Yahoo dial-up for home internet, and rabbit ears for TV. All of which is not that bad, the television's free and being as how I live in the 4th largest city in America, there's plenty of television channels to be had for free. The dialup is okay, it's actually keeping me honest as I can no longer download gig's of pirated movies and porn + it's only $7 a month on my phone bill. Oh and hey, my voice no longer digitizes on the phone if Im on for longer than 5 mins!
As for faster internet, I know a few good wifi hotspots around town if there's something I really need to download.

I know, it all seems shallow, but for a computer geek like me- this all hit me where it hurts.

P.S. Mirc is better than Java chat! ;-)