This and that

Something I need to get off my chest ... and some other things that aren't very important. :-)

First things first. Canal Digital suck. Darn them all to heck! They're my cable company, not by choice but because my, what, housing coop has a deal with them. OK, whatever. Earlier this year it all went digital, so we all had to get decoders. Now yesterday they'd scheduled some software update on the damn thing, which I was told to install when I turned the thing on to watch an old episode of Futurama. So I did, and it all went well. Or so I thought. >:-( I had the choice at one point to not install it - alas, the beauty of hindsight - but I let the chance slip through my fingers. Damn my trusting nature! The next time I tried to use my DVD player, to set it up for a recording, the signal was gone. Or whatever it is. The player works just fine, but the screen is black. Nothing to see here. And it's the same thing if I try to watch a DVD. The player does its job but the TV shows nothing. Every cable is still connected and so on, I've checked that, of course. It's got to be the decoder. Which I never wanted in the first place! I tried calling their customer service, but, what a surprise, they can't do anything to help me. There's nothing they can do. Fuck that shit. I sent an angry email. And it won't be the last, till this is fixed. I asked the woman who claimed to be in customer service whether I couldn't just disconnect the fucking decoder, and she said, Well, yes, but then you'll miss out on ... whatever boring channels I get through that thing ... you'll only have the regular 15 channels. Oh no, only 15 channels!! How will I survive!! No matter how many channels you have there's hardly anything worth watching in any case. I never even wanted whatever channels I get through that stupid box! But of course when I try to disconnect it the TV image becomes all fuzzy ... and I still can't get anything from the player. Maybe I didn't do it right. I need someone to look at this who understands about TVs and cables and connections and things. trilltrall, I'm looking at you ... ;-)

I'm actually really mad about this, though. The one thing I really need, or at least want, the TV for is rendered impossible by something that I never wanted or needed or even asked for. And then they tell me that there's nothing they can do, even though they're the ones who caused it. Oh yes, of course: The update can't be uninstalled, that's impossible. Growl.

This is especially annoying because of a weird coinkydink: Has anyone seen the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy? It was on TV here last year or whenever, and I thought it was pretty funny ... and a few days ago I thought to myself that I wish I'd recorded it, because I would like to see it again. Well, guess what's on TV tonight?? And I'll have to stay up till like 2:30 in the morning to see the whole thing, because now I can't record it! Darn it all to heck! >:-(

Ahem. In other news, I saw something really weird yesterday afternoon - a wooden train. o_O I know, what the hell is that? But I really think I saw it. I was on another train leaving Skøyen station ... or was it Lysaker? No, I think it was Skøyen. Yeah, must have been. There was another train on one of the other sets of tracks, pulling into the station ... or maybe it was just going to pass by, I don't know, I couldn't tell, we were a bit too far away from the platform by then. I was on my way to Sandvika ... a friend of mine was part of the municipal revue out there, he acted and sang in it and he also wrote some of the skits, so I went with a couple of other friends to see him. It was fun, and pretty impressive ... I mean, they're obviously amateurs, but still, they've put this all together as amateurs and in their spare time, and it's really entertaining. Some really good music. I enjoyed it ... and of course it's fun to see a friend on stage. :-D

He's the one in the middle, obviously. :-) But where was I. Oh yeah.

I saw this other train that looked like it was wood-panelled. It was so fancy, it had decorations on it and everything. There was lettering on the side of the cars - three or four cars altogether - that said DINING CAR and whatnot. But who the hell has a wood-panelled train?? Isn't that incredibly impractical? I mean, maintenance and so on? Maybe it's the royal train ... but I thought that was red. o_O I've never seen a wooden train before. :-D

Also yesterday, Herman did something soo cute. He's spending a lot of time in the smallest travel cage these days, because of the treatment for his infection ... and he's not enjoying it, it's boring!! Yesterday it was so boring that he fell asleep in broad daylight. I've never seen him do that without being stuffed full of food. When I picked him up from the cage he was all sleepy and rubbing his eyes. Awww. <3

I spent this afternoon at Meny at Carl Berner, giving out free samples of Ubuntu Cola. The world's only fair trade cola. :-) Yeah, it was part of my volunteer work at Friends. It went pretty well, or according to the boss, very well. I was going to be there for two hours, it ended up being more like two and a half ... I decided when I got there that my goal was going to be 100, ie, to get 100 people to try this relatively new soft drink. (It's a UK product made with fair trade sugar from Malawi, and it's been on the market for only about two years; only 17 months in Norway.) I ended up with at least 117. There were little crowds at some points so I may have misremembered and missed counting some. Then when the boss arrived and said that it looked like I was doing well, I said I sure was and asked him to guess how many samples I'd given out ... and he guessed 20. o_O So I must be a natural. ;-)

Of course I did this out of the goodness of my heart and didn't expect anything for it, but I got something anyway. Unfortunately I don't drink cola, fair or unfair. But I know that I have friends who do. ;-) So those of you who are within reasonable distance (I'm not shipping this stuff through the mail), let me know, and one of these five cans of delicious Ubuntu Cola may just have your name on it. ;-)