What's up

I guess I should post something. I've had a few posts cooking but blew them off since I'm not much in the mood to post anything right now.

My cell phone is in the process of biting the dust. Right now the display has given up the ghost. I can still use it, but mostly only for receiving calls because making calls is kind of difficult without a display. We've been planning on dropping our old service anyway and going with one of the prepaid services. So I picked up a cheap phone today from the local Dollar General. I was going to play with it some because--even for a cheap phone--it has a better camera plus an mp3 player once you stick in a 2GB microSD card (which I've already done); unfortunately file transfers require a micro USB cable and I have only regular and mini cables. So that will have to wait for a day or two until I can get the right cable or an adapter.

I got an ad in the mail today for a wireless broadband service that is focusing on providing such service to rural areas called Stelera. $30 a month. So this coming week I'm going to stop by the the local rep's office and ask about it. If they actually do reach where I live, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm not getting my hopes up though, because according to their coverage map I'm right on the line. Also, something I don't like about it is that it's a connection only--no email service or any of that. I guess I'm still old-fashioned enough to think that internet service should include email and usenet, although I haven't had a service with it's own usenet servers for a long time (and I still miss it--using G00gl3 Groups just isn't right).

I tried downloading the full album of the latest Metalhit Free Download Series. Can't do it. One of the tracks is an "album only" track meaning you have to click on "download the whole freakin' album at once" to get it, and the album is too big.* However, in researching the bands from this collection, I discovered a thing or two quite interesting about the group that made this one track that I can't get (also: the track is 12 minutes long) which really makes me want to hear it. So, I'm thinking as a last resort I can see if the album is still available and download it again later on, next time I visit my mother and can use her broadband connection. Or I might just go ahead and buy the album that it was originally released on. In any case I can still get all the other tracks and my first cursory listen was quite enjoyable; doom metal tends to be very atmospheric and even if the vocals are non-melodic they are usually so buried in the mix that they are more of a "vocal instrument" or even "vocal effect" than actual singing.

Having done some research on the fireplace model that came with our house, I have discovered that there is a blower kit manufactured for it and I can get one online for $84 plus shipping. I'm still looking into that and deciding whether to go for it or not, but I'm sure that would help a great deal toward making the fireplace something that actually heats part of the house instead of something that's just for looks. There's also a fireplace insert that will fit it, which essentially turns your inefficient old fireplace into a real wood stove. Unfortunately, it costs about $1,400.

I discovered, thanks to Oddee, another funny website this past week called DamnYouAutoCorrect.com. Some of those make the think the smartphone makers are intentionally screwing with people.

*I don't understand why they do this with free samplers. With real albums, I can understand it. But these freebies? It just doesn't make sense to me.