A Few Examples of Non-Stop "Problems"

As I write this I am getting a booming noise from an adjacent idling pickup truck that won't depart the parking lot and remains there, making this horrific pulsing racket. I put my hearing protection (ear muffs) on and the noise got worse! As in augmented noise of course, nothing new there except the brazenness of it, that being a theme that regular readers will have noticed.

I now use a cell phone as my only phone, and it has become the subject of many pranks, the nuisance calls being the least of them. The latest was to covertly reset my voicemail access code for the week that another managed "problem" was unfolding, that being the sabotage of getting a motherboard to rebuild my PC. I emailed the cell phone company to have the access code reset to gain access to voicemail and duly recieved a call and message 4 days later. They said it would be reset in two hours. Fine I thought.

And now, some 30 hours later, still no access to my voicemail, using the supplied reset access code. Talk about blatant sabotage; the perps used to be more subtle about this. But that doesn't seem good enough anymore.

The week that my voicemail access code was covertly changed, there was substantial voicemail generated because the calls were not coming through for some reason. Even on a Saturday, the calls got re-routed to my voicemail without ringing the phone. Later "testing" acitivity with my mother's phone indicated that the cell phone is working normally.

And all the voicemail and calling back was related to the most strangest of goings-on a local computer services company that was to rebuild my PC. I had ordered all the parts online from Ontario to be delivered there to the computer services company because the prices were fantastically better. And all parts "were availiible" when the order went through. The next day, they weren't; the motherboard wasn't availible, even if >20 were in their posted inventory. A week goes by and no action. Finally I decide to pay the extra and have the PC services company supply the motherboard, which they had in stock, they said. A Foxconn 965 motherboard for $250, a 90% markup, but what the hell.

Then they said the new Foxconn 945 (note) price was $150 and they are availible "overnight" and convinced me to have that instead. Fine, I said. Then a few days go by and no word, as by then the Ontario sourced PC parts (memory and CPU) had arrived. I phone, and then it "turned out" that the Foxconn 945 motherboard was "backordered" and they didn't tell anyone, not even their own staff. More bizarre behavior.

So I said, back to plan A, put the Foxconn 965 motherboard in instead as it is on hand, ready to go. The next day I phoned to find out how it was going and the Foxconn 965 motherboard had "failed", even if new out of the box. But as it so happens, two other Foxconn 945 motherboards are on order. When they arrived, the only choice was a micro-ATX version, which I didn't initially want, as the other didn't have on-board video, and needed a video card, which would have to be ordered. Finally I relented, and said put the Foxconn 945 micro-ATX motherboard in, and that ended the idiotic hassle that had played out for some 10 days, and generated the many voicemail calls that I couldn't access. It was more complicated than I have explained, but it was interesting to note that when they delivered my PC, the computer services company didn't apologize in the least as to their avowed "fuckups", nor explain as to how everything got messed up for 10 days running.

What the real objective of all that sabotage (IMHO) was I have no idea beyond delaying my PC re-build, which they could of done without the back and forth hassle (brazen ineptitude), voicemail shunting, voicemail access code sabotage etc. They may have wanted me to have an micro-ATX motherboard over the ATX form factor, but for all that hassle?

And to cap it off, the Ontario supplier sends my rebate check to the shipping address instead of my mailing address, and thereby screwing me around again as I don't have a vehicle to get to the computer services company, some 15 minutes drivetime distant.

And I cannot tell you how many times the word "motherboard" has been noisestalked as I wrote this up in my handwritten journal, mentioned the word over the phone, and even as I have typed this blog posting. And also, that very word is the subject of an additional method of "stalking" that is becoming more apparent, one I will call "shadow flashing". This is where in sunlit conditions, a momentary shadow (darkness), or series of them, is flashed into my room. These occured at my last location as well, but like all recent assaults and affronts, it is becoming more invasive and common. Never mind the over-obviousness of characters like Mr. Passport Tosser in a past posting.