MyLife

Just a personal rant, is it me or does Verizon just love overcharging people for crappy slow DSL?

Effective August 14, 2006, Verizon Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Service Fund) recovery fee. We will stop being assessed the fee by our DSL network suppliers. Therefore, we will no longer be recovering this fee from our customers. The impact of the FUSF fee is as follows: for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 768Kbps, the fee eliminated is $1.25 a month; for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 1.5 Mbps or 3Mbps, the fee eliminated is $2.83 a month (based on current FUSF surcharge amounts). On your bill that includes charges for August 14, 2006 you will see either a partial FUSF Recovery Fee or no FUSF line item at all, depending on your bill cycle.

Starting August 26, 2006, Verizon Online will begin charging a Supplier Surcharge for all new DSL customers, existing customers with a DSL monthly or bundle package, and existing DSL annual plan customers at the time their current annual plan expires. This surcharge is not a government imposed fee or a tax; however, it is intended to help offset costs we incur from our network supplier in providing Verizon Online DSL service. The Supplier Surcharge will initially be set at $1.20 a month for Verizon Online DSL customers with service up to 768Kbps and $2.70 per month for customers with DSL service at higher speeds.

On balance your total bill will remain about the same as it has been or slightly lower.

Why was this lengthy email needed, when the last line would have sufficed? Phew, I’m done venting.

Quite long, but worth the read. If you ever believe that your day has turned into sh*ts and giggles, take some time to read through the personal accounts of a father coming to the realization that he is becoming his father. On top of that, he has an auditing wife, a moronic son, and some of the worst luck possible on a single day.

Always entertaining to hear an adults perspective concerning an exhaust that sounds like “two-dozen weedwackers coming down the street”, a confrontation with a police officer as a bong falls out of the glove box, and kids who believe they can hide the fact that they failed classes requiring summer school.

I was attempting to enhance my blog with new plugins and features and i came across this.

Notice I’m not using Internet Explorer.

As usual Click To View.

If you have ever been to a video torrent site you see all this jargon, TC, SCR, WP. Confused? You aren’t the only one.

Here is a quick rundown of what it all means:

• CAM: A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera make shake. Also seating placement isn’t always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there’s text on the screen, but a lot of times these are left with triangular borders on the top and bottom of the screen. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor, but sometimes we’re lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.
• TELESYNC (TS): A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality. Quality ranges drastically, check the sample before downloading the full release. A high percentage of Telesyncs are CAMs that have been mislabeled.
• TELECINE (TC): A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed. A great example is the JURASSIC PARK 3 TC done last year. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film.

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Wikipedia will never fail to entertain with its vast archives of valuable information. I could honestly browse through the wiki archives plugging random search strings in hopes of findings something to bide my time. It works, I do it all the time in lecture hall.

Care for a sampling of the weird and wonky?

The Penis Plant is a monstrose form of Echinopsis lageniformis. Contrary to the typical columnar habit of the species this cultivar displays short stem sections that branches avidly, forming a low spiny bush. The upper part of each stem segment is smooth and spineless, somewhat resembling the male reproductive organ. The lower part is spiny and showing a tendency to form ribs. The plant is of light green color. The German name for this cultivar, ‘Frauenglück’, is somewhat more subtle than the English moniker but conveys the same meaning as it translates to “woman’s luck”.

Something tells me that the Penis Plant rarely finds discussion in introductory botany courses. Wikipedia has a number of additional unusual articles.