Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

The Site Update Continues

Since moving my blog from a different location, most of my archives have not been available. And what could be more important than the crap that was running around my head three years ago.

Hence, therefore, and so because I have re-archived my entire blog so that it accessible here on the new site. I still need to go through and edit some of the image links, so if you root around you are liable to find some content missing.

But I'm working on it! I'm working on it!

Just for you.

by Dann 

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New To The Blog Roll

There only the cooler than making someone else's blog roll is finding yourself in a blog roll the first time you visit a site. And that's what happened to me on my first visit to Ruth's blog; Live in it then! Five cents, please.

Ruth and I have butted heads from time to time. But things have worked out reasonably well. I've enjoyed her posts in the comic strip newsgroup and [unsurprisingly] Ruth's posts on her blog are pretty good as well. Stop by and look around.

Welcome aboard, Ruth.

by Dann 

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A Season For Birthdays.....

A couple of folks in my social circle are marking yet another milestone in their respective lives. They are both really just a couple of old "dawgs" that still know how to bark into the night sky when the occasion arises. And they are both just a bit set in their ways.

It is hard to tell which one is really older than the other. How one marks the years makes a bit of a difference.

In either case, Happy Birthday to Destry and Sherwood. Here's to hoping that you have many more great years in front of you!

by Dann 

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What This Blog Needs....

Gentle reader, we must ask that you instruct any children to leave the room. The following content may not be suitable women, the elderly, and those with weak constitutions.

Here at Dann's Dain Bramage, we're hitting the sauce! Blog Sauce that is! Destined to inspire greatness! Frequent entries! Witty repartee! New! Improved! Bullshit flowing freely at last!

Ah, the anticipation. I can't wait.

[Special thanks to James Lileks for....well....being James Lileks.]

by Dann 

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Where The Heck Is Dann

Yoo-hoooooo! I'm over here!

A couple weeks ago, we began having trouble with our dialup connection. It started out as a slow response from our ISP, gradually grew into random disconnections, and finally blossomed into a complete lack of Internet service. A check with my ISP indicated that they were connecting to us but weren't really receiving much from us.

And so we called our telephone service, ATT. On the first call we were told that there was a telephone box in the area that was under repair. It would be fixed in a couple days.

The next day, we received a card from the area service manager indicating that our service had been restored. A quick test with the modem showed that it clearly had not been restored. But the two days mentioned above had not elapsed, so we waited.

While we waited, we tested our internal wiring again, and again, and again, and again, and....

You get the picture.

Eventually we had two different computers wired directly into ATT's box that is mounted on the side of the house, thus totally removing our house from the equation.

After the two days had elapsed, I started pinging the ATT customer service line as well as the area service manager via email. The area service manager was pretty helpful. ATT customer service....well, not so much. They were overly concerned about charging $71 to have someone come out to verify the line. Our power company, Consumers Energy, didn't charge us anything when one phase of our power blew out.

My impression was that he is a pretty busy guy, but we traded emails a couple times and I believe he was doing what he could to solve a small problem in the midst of a much larger problem. It didn't help that at one point in the following week he had told one of his techs to come by the house to check things out and that tech didn't bother to stop by. It also didn't help the next day when he said a tech was coming to fix the problem when all the tech did was confirm that there was noise on our line and it was coming from ATT's side of the box.

Not exactly news to us.

Eventually, things got better. I don't know if that was on purpose or if it was the result of the wet wires finally being dried out by several consecutive days of 85 to 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.

We'll have to wait and see. At any rate, I'm back with more wonderful mind candy for my wonderful readers. All 3.2 of you.

by Dann 

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