When providers go down

I had so much to say yesterday - I'd rehearsed it while walking the dog - and then my dial-up refused to connect. Ozemail's server went down in the afternoon and was still offline until just before midnight. I had a terrible sinking feeling I had missed some final last chance to switch over to broadband - someone had left me an urgent phone message a few weeks ago, following up an earlier quasi urgent letter, that Ozemail really needed to convert all its old customers from their now very ancient dial-up facilities. But, because I detest hanging on the phone (like usual), listening to recorded announcements that I could solve most problems by simply getting online and downloading something called "Toolbox" (if I could get online, sure, I'd download anything, but I'd also then be able to upload this and wouldn't need to get the helpdesk's attention, dammit), so I kept putting it off.

I did eventually try the help line, and had to wait about thirty minutes for attention. The friendly but slightly stressed female voice assured me it was just a temporary New South Wales server meltdown, but we did all the prep work to get broadband while I had her on the line... In about a week my problems shall be no more. (Mmmmm, I wonder. The phoneline still crackles terribly during rain and Telstra always denies it's their fault. Sometimes we should be grateful for droughts?)

Anyway, it's all back up again, and I'm assured I have lots more web space that I previously believed, so I can uploaded lots more old pics to the website to utilize here. So cool.

So what was I originally going to say? Oh yeah, I devoted some time yesterday to listening to the official audio commentary to the movie on the "Number 96" DVD. It was very, very cool, although I ended up feeling rather depressed listening to it all by myself. I wanted to be there in that room, getting all nostalgic about the movie, hobnobbing with Elaine and David and Andrew, or at least to be watching and listening with a roomful of friends. ("Number 96" is an excellent movie to watch with a roomful of pals and a bottle of Muskrat.) Blog entry continues after the graphic - I've taken out attempts to allign it more artfully beside the text because my three iMac-compatible browsers seem to hate Blogger parameters - and view these pages so inconsistently from visit to visit. Keep scrolling.



Yeah, so how come it's always just me and the dog lately watching all my DVDs...? Where is everyone on Sunday afternoons? Somehow, every time I buy a new DVD, I imagine myself in a room, kicking back with friends and popcorn, enjoying the movie and all the bonus features. The pile of as-yet-unwatched DVDs gets taller and I still end up seeing them by myself. Now that's pathetic...

Ooooh! I got a credit on the new (second) "Number 96" documentary! Excellent! Now someone pass the popcorn. Anyone..? Hello...?