THIS and THAT

Hi All,

I’ve had a few little tidbits on my mind lately, so I figured I’d take a moment and inflict… I mean share them with you.

First there’s THIS little problem I’m having:

Okay, this is a bit of personal problem rant.  The only way I can get broadband internet at my house is through Hughes Net Satellite.  Three weeks ago, I finally went ahead and moved from their old system that was probably worse than dial-up internet to their new system – which I can tell you does work much better.  EXCEPT… as soon as I got changed over, I could no longer reach Fictionmania where I upload all my stories.  I have to go into work and do everything on that site from there.  Major pain in the #$%@! ass!!!  (Please excuse my French).  There is no real error message that I get when I try to go to that site, the system just tries for almost four full minutes to reach the site, and then it just times out.  As far as I can tell, I can pull up just about anything else!  Just not Fictionmania.

 So in my frustration over this issue, I went ahead and did something that in hindsight was really, really stupid!  Hughes Net does have very good customer service – at least they’ve always been good for me.  Your mileage may vary of course.  And in searching for a solution to my problem of being unable to reach Fictionmania, I discovered that the Hughes Net website does offer an option to “email” their technical support section.  AND wonder of wonders it offers a distinct option for dealing with being unable to reach specific websites!  Sounds just like my problem!  AND their little form for this had an “email” contact address I could enter!

Um…  Please bear in mind that my Karen persona is known only to me… and you of course, but I’m not counting you… sorry.  But bottom line – my wife knows nothing about this side of me and I want to keep it that way!  She also doesn’t know that I even access sites like Fictionmania!  Enough said?

Now, where was I?  Oh yeah, that “wonderful” little contact customer support email form.  Yes, yes, I was a kind of worried that it was possible that they would go ahead and send a copy of whatever email reply they gave me to my “home” email address – where my wife might see it.  But as I said, I was really, really stupid!  I guess that since they did have that “specific” little email contact box in there that I was hoping they would only send to that one address.  WRONG! 

Anyway, I filled in my work email address hoping I could have a nice little email chat with them about solving my little problem.  Of course, the form also asked for the specific site I couldn’t reach – and of course I filled in Fictionmania’s address.  Of course!  So I also supplied all the information I had regarding the problem – including the final timeout message I was getting along with my computer information – and I hit the send button.  And I hoped everything would go perfectly. 

And later in the day, my problems really started!

The first clue I got that they had responded to my problem, was when my wife emailed me that she had gotten an email from them and she asked if I had contacted technical support.  Of course, their email completely spelled out just which site I couldn’t reach!  Not Good!!!

It wasn’t until AFTER my wife emailed me about the problem that I received at my work address the same email from them!  So now I know that in their zeal to offer fantastic customer service, they will definitely go over and above and send out their replies to everywhere possible. 

Now, as if that wasn’t bad enough!!!  In their email to me – which is from a “Do Not Reply” address, they said that someone from their technical support service would “PHONE” me in the next twenty-four to forty eight hours so they can run some diagnostic tests!  And guess what phone number they have – my home number where my wife is!  She’s caught right in the middle of all this!  Which is exactly where I don’t want her to be!!!  And I’m somewhat sure that the problem is not in either of my computers which run different operating systems and different anti-virus programs.  I’ve shut down my firewall and my anti-virus and I still can’t reach Fictionmania.  I’ve even tried “pinging” the site (for those few of you who understand that) and I can’t ping them.  Yes, I may be wrong, but I don’t feel like the problem lies on my end of the stick!

Well, that problem may not be on my end, but I’m really, really worried that because of me trying to solve this problem that I’m going to have a different problem now… my wife!!! 

Please pardon me while I scream and curse and rant and rave!

So far, my wife thinks the site is somewhere I was trying to get “writing” information for publishing some of my books.  Yes, I’m STILL looking for an agent.  I haven’t given up yet.

I’ll have to let you know how this all turns out.  Since that was all two days ago now and I’m still waiting to hear back from them. 

So Now THAT THAT’s out of the way I’ll tease you with THAT other little thing:

Ummmm…  I’ve done it again.  While you all were reading Chapter 3 of “The Housekeeper,” I went and wrote another story – a complete story.  

This new story won’t get uploaded to Fictionmania until probably December (if I’m still alive) – after all of “The Bet” has finished being posted and the dust finally clears.  I think that will probably be a good idea since this new story will probably raise the dust that gets kicked up – by a lot!

I’m not going to tell you more about it today.  But in the near future I will be offering it to those who are interested.  But I warn you – this one isn’t like anything you’ve read from me before!

So watch for it in a future post.  I’m not quite ready to send it out yet.  But I will be soon.  I’ll let you know more about it then.

So please keep your fingers crossed for me and my little problem everyone.  And go ahead and do something nice for yourself today – you deserve it!

Karen