what a surprise

i am usually a very tolerant, patient person. i can watch the same movie over and over again and still enjoy it, and routine doesn't bother. except one - and it narks me even more, because i have bugger-all i can do about it.

my isp. they bite on *such* a large scale, it's not funny.

as you know - or, if you don't, you will - i run dungeons and dragons games via email. SEVERAL games in fact. i also play in several... now, running a game is just like playing one at the table, except as DM i do everything including dice rolling, and all the descriptions for places, people, sounds, smells - you name it, i create it. as a player, i am responsible for getting my posts out so people can read/reply/react to them - and in a couple of games, i am actually considered the leader, so i have to make the decisions to move the group on. delays cause problems, then you get into the realms of cross posting and everything goes wrong.

so, with me so far? right - well, at least twice a day - if not more - my email starts to slow down - checking takes several minutes instead of a eeny-weeny bit of a second, and downloading 2 or 3 mails that usually takes about >..< that long, takes forever. then the password is not recognised, and finally, the error messages appear. i don't even need to look anymore, but you can bet your bottom penny that the isp have a new message on their status page:

- Some customers may currently be experiencing password and timeout problems when trying to access their email. Our engineers are investigating this issue and working to restore service.Some customers may currently be experiencing password and timeout problems when trying to access their email. Our engineers are investigating this issue and working to restore service.

wonderful. and it can take them a few hours to fix it, and then you have to wait for the backlog, and blah blah blah. it happens last thing at night, it happens during the day, and NOW it's happening before I am even up.

so far this morning, i have sent 25 emails, over the space of 47 minutes, all to various groups, so i get a copy as well. so far, i have received precisely bugger all. blueyonder (the isp) always follow up a few hours later with:

- Our engineers and support groups have advised that this issue is now resolved and service has been restored. Blueyonder would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

well jolly good for them. and the MOST amusing thing - this has been going on for 2 months now? maybe even 3?! before it was the email AND the web-access, so i was completely out of luck, but not that webacess is slightly more stable than a drunk walking across marbles, i can read my mails on the webpage... which usually shows me that in the time my mail has failed to come through, other people have posted, so my info is out of date, wrong or otherwise in need of an edit.

will i change isp? pffft, no one around here offers the speed, and the A/DSL access require a British Telecom phone line - which i don't have. there's always satellite broadband - yours for just £199 install fee - and if it rains, don't expect a good signal.

jolly good then. all is well in the house! hehehe

other than that... had a busy but boring day yesterday. had a bit of a cookery bug, so i made a worlds supply of chocolate chip cookies that you can eat and eat and eat - as we proved when amber and ross came over. me and ross just sat there with "no more, too full" and then a moment later, reached for one!

shows how boring things were yesterday - making cookies was the highlight! hehehe

well - off to shower and do some stuff before i sit down and scream at my mail servers a bit more. if you read this far, bully for you :) have a gold star*

*gold star not included.