Adventures of Comcast Bonnie

Today is a day none of us will forget. It's something that may have hit you close to home, or something you only saw the effects and horror on the tv. For me, this day marked the single biggest day in my life. I can honestly say that when those planes hit the towers, every bit of that childhood innocence I had left was gone. Up until that moment in my life, nothing in my life had such impact on the way I viewed the world.

Maybe you think I'm going a little overboard, but you have to put this in context a bit. It was the first week of my senior year in high school and I was 16 (going on 17, for real). The only war in my life was Desert Storm, and that was when I was in elementary school. The only "terrorists" I knew of were those guys with issues that bombed the building in Oklahoma City. So, when something of this magnitude happened, it wasn't anything I had ever fathomed happening. I'm sure you think the same thing, depending on your life.


So today, on the 8th anniversary of 9/11, I pause to remember those who lost their lives in all three locations where these tragedies happened. I mourn the loss of the first responders who dove in head first, not even blinking at the risk in front of them. I remember sitting there in 3rd period art class hearing whispers from classmates about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I remember the teacher turning on ABC, and a minute later the next plane hitting the other tower. Right then and there, we knew this was no accident. There was something else going on, and we were all sitting there jaws dropped and terrified.

And then... they fell.

They fell, and I fell. On the floor. Crying hysterically.

@gbrunett, my cousin, and one of the most influential geeks in my life (beside my Grandfather), worked on the 25th floor. I had been there only months before visiting his office and the city for the first time. I still have my WTC guest pass ID in my wallet. The teacher wouldn't let me use my cell phone to call my mother. The woodshop teacher next door let me use his phone, but I could not get through. I tried calling my aunts, uncles, and anyone I could think of who would know if he was ok. The lines were jammed, the whole eastern seaboard was doing the same thing as I.

Lunch came, and my friends tried valiently to calm me down. I couldn't eat, and I couldn't think. I was in this state of total utter and complete shock. My cell phone rang. Mom had been trying to call me for over an hour now, to let me know that @gbrunett was ok. A sudden nosebleed had delayed him, and he had not yet arrived at work.

A wave of relief washed over me.

I barged into my sister's spanish class (small town school, easy to find who you need), with her sitting at a desk white as a ghost and panicked looking. I took her outside, and let her know exactly what happened. This was her first week of high school. What a way to start it...

While I am glad my family and friends are OK, I am still VERY saddened by the loss of life and the fact that something like this happened. Eight years later, it still bothers me. My family of firefighters and first responders lost a lot of great people that day.

So, I ask you, dear readers and followers... What happened to you on this day? Did it change your world? Do you remember where you were, what you were doing, and how you felt? Do you think I'm nuts and blabbering on? I'd love to hear from some of you not on the east coast about what happened with you.

This is a personal post, the only thing comcast-related is the appearance of the Comcast bag in the background of the pictures :P

I've spent the last few weeks checking out dogs on PetFinder.com, and stumbled upon several shelters and rescues with dogs I've fallen in love with. After a solid week of hopping from shelter to shelter, I finally found one in Lancaster with a BUNCH of dogs I liked.

Now, this is out of state for me. Lancaster is a good hour and a half drive from my house, so emails were exchanged and applications were filled out prior to me driving all of that distance. Sadly, I arrived only to find out two out of the three I was interested had been picked up by a rescue group. The other little fella had some serious issues with guys.

Imagine the sadness I felt as I was standing at the counter hearing all of this. I was sure this would be the shelter I would adopt from. Did I really just drive forever to go home empty-handed?


Luckily, this wasn't the case! :)

Say Hello to Mylo! He's the newest addition to my crazy family. One of the administrators overheard my story of looking and driving, and asked if I was ok with a dog that needed a quiet and relaxing house with no kids. Of course, the answer was yes! He's a bit of a shy boy, so he takes some time to warm up to folks. He's about a year old, neutered, up-to-date with all of his shots, and has no crazy medical issues. There are bits of Chihuahua (pronounced chee-who-ah-who-ah in my family), Pug, and Terrier in this little guy! Nuzzling up next to you, chin rubs, car rides, and kisses are a few of his favorite things already :)

I can not say enough good things about the Humane League of Lancaster. They are not affiliated with the humane society or SPCA, but they are an AWESOME group of animal advocates. They rely completely on donations, as they receive no funding from their local municipalities they serve. If you'd like to check them out, their site is here.

And now, a few more pics for your viewing pleasure! :)











(p.s. this little bitty dog has a VERY stinky butt)

Like many of you, I received and email from Comcast earlier today with a big announcement for you sports fans. ESPN360 will be available starting August 4th (very soon!!) at http://www.comcast.net/360 . This is only available to Comcast Hi-Speed Internet subscribers. So make sure you're up to speed with your internet connections (hahaha, get it? up to SPEED? oh i'm horrible...). If you're having problems, let us know!

Remember, nobody likes a stinky internet connection. 75% of the issues I see with internet connections are NOT outage related. If your connection goes down frequently due to "outages" or you find yourself having to reset your modem more than once a month, we need to check it out for you. As always, we're here to help solve life's little cable problems :)


Now, if only we can solve life's little housing problems I'd be set! :P

For those of you wondering about my housing situation, here's the latest update!

The USDA said YES to my loan, so all I'm waiting on now is the actual settlement date. When this happens, I'll be out of the office for a good week... so no surprises! Now, why is the USDA involved in my mortgage process? It DOES seem a bit strange to those of you not residing in rural areas. The answer to that question can be found here.

I'm working on getting the final details hashed out right now, and am understandably VERY stressed out. I have to vacate my current rental on July 31st, so things are coming down to the wire. Over the last few weeks I might have come off of as irritated or short-tempered... to which I apologize for if I sounded that way. I have always, and will always be here for my Customers when you guys need me. When everything settles down again, things will flow much smoother.


So, would you like to take a peek inside my new place? Check it out here! Figured you might want to see what I've been posting about these last few weeks :) Bear with my spastic first iMovie experience...

Here's a bit of news to start the day:

Starting today, Comcast will begin trialing a service in several markets called “Domain Helper,” which will impact approximately 3 million Comcast net subscribers. This service will be automatically turned on for customers who live in the following markets

* Portland
* Denver
* Houston
* Seattle
* North Arizona
* Utah
* New Mexico


Domain Helper causes a Comcast-customized error page to display, instead of a standard 404 error page, when a user misspells a website URL or types in any non-existent URL, for example http://www.comtcas.com. Most other major ISPs are providing this same service including Verizon, TWC, Cox, Charter and Earthlink.
Got a question about it? Thoughts? Let me know in the comments!

UPDATE: To Opt-Out of this service, go to https://dns-opt-out.comcast.net

So I get this email from John at Seesmic asking if he could pass along my info to a NYTimes reporter. I'm instantly skeptical because the press and us have a weird relationship. Once I found out that it wasn't about Comcast, that skepticism disappeared.

So this Paul guy emails me asking when we can chit chat and sends me a list of stuff to answer. He instantly found out how the A.D.D. affects me, when he got responses completely off topic. After some clarification, he got the right info :) We finally touched base on SUNDAY when I was at my parent's house in NJ (I wasn't in Delaware). After many failed attempts on skype and several calls to my parent's landline, we finally talked. We later learned all of those failed attempts were due to the mute button on his headset. Oops! Being at the parent's house made this even more "fun" as bets were getting tossed around for how long it would take him to call back again, and my dad making fun of me while he was interviewing me!

So, just a few minutes ago, I get a message from @bradonmoase saying he read the article. I had no idea Paul had finished it! Now I have to grab tomorrow's NYTimes :)

Check it out! I feel special or something warm and fuzzy like that.

New York Times Article about Tweeting


Wow. That's kinda crazy!