Archive for June 27th, 2005

I have a bullfrog problem

Posted Monday, June 27th, 2005 at 8:21 pm
bullfrog

Last year, there were maybe three bullfrogs living in the small pond next to my condo. I used to enjoy hearing their deep croak as I drift asleep with my windows open.

This evening, I counted 27 bullfrogs as I walked the shoreline closest to my bedroom window. I can only speculate that my pond contains 50 adult bullfrogs, perhaps more.

Listening to just three bullfrogs was peaceful. It reminded me of the pond at home and gave me the perception of being closer to nature.

Fifty bullfrogs, however, are a different story. Windows shut, A/C running, stereo on, and I can still hear them croaking.

They croak all night long. It often starts with just one, followed by 49 others who respond in kind.

To put the noise in perspective, I live less than 300 yards from an airport and I’m writing about how the bullfrogs are loud.

I don’t know what to do. I thought about a humane way of gigging them (with a net) and moving them to another pond. But there’s just too many.

I also have a lot of spiders. I manage to find and kill a spider almost everyday. Though they are quite scary, at least spiders are quiet.

The good news is I don’t think I’ll see a mosquito at all this summer. I can grill in comfort knowing that I won’t be bit. Though I’ll still have to fall asleep with the noise of 50 frogs and the thought that a spider might be hiding in my bed.

Posted in Home | 3 Comments »

Dell support is slipping

Posted Monday, June 27th, 2005 at 5:36 pm

In the past month, I’ve had a lot of problems with Dell products and the level of support pertaining to those products.

When ordering a new server, Dell created a new credit account for us instead of using our existing account — and didn’t tell us. We assumed the order was placed, not knowing Dell was waiting on additional paperwork from us, which wasn’t needed in the first place. I spend an hour on the phone with various departments (accounting, credit, sales) helping Dell to fix its own error, only to have to do it all again the following day. We got the server on time, but not without a lot of hand-holding and pushing on my end.

And on Friday, when a older server crashed, the Dell support representative made countless errors in providing me troubleshooting steps. He even suggested I take a screwdriver to pry a cover open, which ended up damaging the cover. Hours later, Dell decides to send us a replacement server.

A week passes and the replacement server has not arrived. Dell said they were waiting for us to answer some questions they had not yet asked, but never bothered to call or email us. More than a week has passed and I still don’t have the replacement server. And at this very moment, the support rep on the phone can’t even determine the status of our service request.

And don’t get me started on the new Treo 650s we bought from Verizon last week. Let me tell you …

Posted in Fraternity | 2 Comments »