Happy Holidays everyone! I’m heading back to Rochester for Christmas and will probably leave tonight. I don’t think I’ll be online much, but I’ll try to blog and give a post-Christmas review of the Holiday.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be in Rochester, but I hope to see all of you who are there if time permits.

I’m actually very busy today, my last day of work this year, so I cannot do a really big blog, but I hope you enjoy the Christmas colors I tossed up on the site (thanks Kevin for the snow script), that it helps keep or get you in the spirit, and that you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

… now where did I put that wrapping paper?

Ok Seriously. The world is simply not fair! NOT FAIR!!

As you all should know by now, I have been without internet connection at home for 2 weeks now. And as all of you should also know … this is for me a huge huge deal. I have been going through withdraw for 2 weeks! Serious withdraw! It even inspired me to get an xBox.

Well now, ladies and gentlemen I have PROOF that the universe is out to get me.

See, tonight I got home from work and noticed that all 3 lights on my modem were green. ALL THREE!!

Amazed I plopped into my chair and checked my internet connection. Something was wrong. By all accounts I should have been able to connect no problem, but I couldn’t. Somehow both of my PCs had Microsoft’s Internet Connection Sharing installed and configured. I didn’t install it, I certainly didn’t enable it, and in no way shape or form configured it … not even once … but it was on both PCs and screwing up the internet.

So I thought “no problem I’ll just take that off”.

Well it wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t delete the connection, or change it’s properties or even disable it.

About an hour later I’d somehow (I seriously have no idea how) managed to remove it from both PCs and convinced windows it didn’t need it.

Unfortunately I couldn’t convince windows that I really was sure that I didn’t want it’s firewall turned on. (I have a superior and separate firewall and cannot use the windows provided one or things go wonky). I turned off that stupid firewall 15 times in 5 different ways and each time it would just turn back on.

About twenty minutes later I managed to get it turned off on one of my PCs and it shot out to the internet like a champ. I tried desperately to redo whatever I had done on my main PC (my gaming PC).

About twenty minutes later I had my gaming PC online, patched, updated, and ready to go.

I fired up Star Wars Galaxies and got in game. Within a minute I was getting tells from players I thought had long since forgotten me, or that I thought I had only met in passing.

“Arhg! THERE YOU ARE!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?” and “THANK GOD! I thought my last friend in game had quit” etc etc etc …

Relieved to be back and touched at having been missed I started to respond when …

My monitor died.

…

…

I sat there staring at a black screen hearing the incoming message beep mumbling “you’re kidding me. you’re fucking kidding me” over and over again.

Well all, I’ve put up a links page. For those of you who need something more than DavidMeade.com to surf in a given day (can’t imagine), be sure to check out my links page where you will find more entertaining sites to keep you happily distracted from whatever it is you SHOULD be doing.

Something is horribly wrong with my web server. The people who run the server changed something and broke everything. I’m working on getting it back up and running like before, but without internet at home it could take some time. Please forgive the inconvenience, and pray for an understanding and knowledgeable support representative.

Wow, I can’t believe it, but I’d totally forgotten to rebuild my “Other David Meade’s” feature of DavidMeade.com when I upgraded to the new site!

I’m so ashamed!

Someone actually just signed up. How he managed to find the page I have no idea, but we David Meade’s are pretty resourceful.

If nothing else, it’s reminded me of a long lost feature that I really need to get working again. I’m gonna come up with some cool new interface for the Other David Meade’s page here soon. Until then, everyone please welcome:

David Shane Meade, age 14 from Pound Virgina.

From one David Meade to another, Dave, welcome to DavidMeade.com Thanks for visiting and don’t be a stranger. Feel free check back often for the upcoming “Other David Meades” section, or to just comment on the blogs. Also feel free to register as a DavidMeade.com user … the new other David Meade section will be run off of this system.

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Well … I did it … I purchased an xBox.

I have tried for a very long time to NOT buy one, and I managed to make it quite a while before I caved. I got it this past saturday so I just considered it a birthday gift from myself.

In the end it was the fact that it has now been 1 week now without internet access at home, and it will be at least one more week before I’m back online that finally pushed me over the edge.

Seriously, while it sucks more to be Doug than it does to be me at the moment … still … I’m going crazy without an internet connection! I cannot take it much longer, thankfully the xbox distracts me.

I purchased Halo2 (awesome) and Knights of the Old Repulic 2 (also awesome) and each game can keep entertained for several hours.

In other news, my drastic measures to combat spam seem to be working although I’m surely missing some email that isn’t spam. Such is the price of spam free email I guess. (damn all spammers to eternal hell!)

I have taken drastic measures against the amount of SPAM I’m recieving. If you believe that I am not recieving your email, please tell me your email address and I will make sure it’s allowed. You can tell me of your email address by sending me a private message here on DavidMeade.com.

The Whats New list now correctly links to the specific blog, news article, or guestbook entry for which the notice is for. Both new articles and new user comments will now link directly to the specific article.

It’s a long sorted story, but my DSL is down at home.

I haven’t had internet at home since the morning of Friday Dec. 3rd … 6 days so far at time of this writing. In all likelihood, I wont have internet until Dec. 11th (2 and a half more days) at best … perhaps Dec. 13th.

I’m going crazy.

It’s like I’m stuck in 1989. The internet is out there … somewhere … used by some people but not me.

I CAN’T TAKE THIS! There is NOTHING to do with my computer when it’s not online. Seriously folks … I think every application on my PC other than Freecell and Hearts was designed to be used with an internet connection.

I went to CompUSA last night DETERMINED to buy an Xbox to help me make it through this dark period. But at the last moment - just before I grabbed a sales guy - something caught my eye.

I saw a PC-based game that I wanted to play so I purchased that instead. Thankfully this game does not require an internet connection. And so far its GREAT!

So while I think now (with the help of Vampire: The masquerade: Bloodlines) I may make it thought the long night. But holy crap people … I’m goin’ crazy here.