• I will post my blog entry on my trip to Negril this weekend. The entry is done but I do not get my pictures from the water camera developed until tomorrow so I wanted to wait.
• I am surprised I do not have warrant for my arrest. I just got notified by a law firm that I have an outstanding red light camera ticket from 2 years ago. I got it right next to my work which has cameras at each stop light. They said they sent the ticket to my Brentwood address since that’s where the car was registered to at the time. Luckily it is only a $100 fine and a non moving violation.
• Lost was decent last night. I feel like it has more of a season 1 flow now. I totally missed the image of girl in the background with Sun and Jack’s dad at the end of the show. I like how Sawyer is now the man instead of Jack.
• It is March Madness time. I am somewhat excited and basically only because MU is in it. I had a hard time filling out my brackets. All the good teams have really not been tested or they have hurt players so I think there will be all kinds of upsets even though I did not pick any. I expect the Big 12 to do well in the tournament. I will be taking a half day on Friday to watch the MU game. I feel sorta bad since I have taken so much time off in the past two weeks.
• My brother is selling a car alarm and two graphic cards on Craigslist if anyone is interested.
• I am so looking forward to sleeping this weekend even though I am going to F15teen on Saturday for a Wash U grad party/going away party for 3 of the girls from PMBA 22.
• My fast food binge is about to come to an end. I think I got it all out of my system. I also made some really good beef stew last night. I will go back to eating healthy in preparation for swim suit season after it is all gone.
• I am not sure I am going to get through all my DVR shows before I get my new one on Saturday. I have knocked out about half of the 19 hours I had on there. Luckily, I have been saving all the Showtime and HBO shows for last since I knew I could get them OnDemand even though it would not be in HD. I am super excited about my Moxi 2 coming this weekend. I feel like I am special for getting it.
• I got 4 tickets (thanks to Luke H.) to the Blues game vs the Blue Jackets on the 28th if anyone is interested in going with me. They are really good seats.

I have been a Charter customer ever since I moved back to St Louis since 2004. I have experienced more problems than I ever imagined I would have experienced. I can only imagine why the company continually loses money and it’s customer base hand over fist.

Below is condensed list of some of my problems

1. Could not get Digital Cable to work for over 4 months in a new residence while they continued to bill me. They explained that the condo building was using older MediaComm lines that were smaller than the normal Charter lines so it was not providing enough signal boost to work the DVR. They finally resolved the problem and I had to fight extremely hard to get reimbursed for my lost time.
2. Got continually billed for two locations after I moved from my last apartment to my condo. They would fix the problem and then it would come back the next month compounded. I was getting bills for over $500. This went on for over 4 months until I finally wrote them a letter in which I had someone call me and get it resolved.
3. Various outages all the time at all 4 of my residences.
4. Their pricing is all over the board. My internet and cable bill was $200 last month. I just stripped it down to the lowest internet and got rid of a bunch of channels and it is still $165 even though I priced in online for $125. They said I am not eligible for promotions not will I ever be anymore.

I seriously think that I have spent over 100 hours on the phone with Charter in the past 4 years which is purely ridiculous. Why are they still in business? I am not sure why people use their crappy services when they have other options.

I really want to leave but have little options. I can not get U-Verse which is the option I want. I can not get Direct TV or Dish since my building does not have a HD Satellite on it nor can I run multiple lines into my place to have a fully functional dual tuner. Maybe I just need to move.

Update #1 – I had a Eric Ketzer from the Charter’s UMatter2Charter team. He was able to get me in at a lower rate which was very helpful through a 2 year high speed internet contract (as long as I live in St Louis), removing a $10 music service which I did not even know I had, and signing me up for a new 1 year promotion package. The best thing about the deal is that I am getting a new series 2 Moxi box on Saturday that Charter has been beta testing here in St Louis. I am not getting my hopes up but it looks to have a much bigger HD (not sure if it is 160 of 500GB), can add an external HD (which is huge), and can do online scheduling (which is something I have never tried but seems like a pretty big feature to me). I will let you know how I like it once I get it this weekend. I am still not satisfied with Charter’s pricing on cable. It seems to me that they have a $20 to $25 premium on their pricing compared to Dish on the same services and channels but I do appreciate Eric’s teams initiative to seek me out and try to make me a happier customer.

• It took me only 8 minutes from my house to get to the Schnucks on Loughborough even though there are 9 Schnucks that are closer miles wise to me. This store is 10 times better than Richmond Center location I have been going to prior to 40 closing. This location had a better variety plus no wait on a Sunday afternoon in the checkout line.
• I am still questioning this Low Carb diet. I had some stuffing on Monday and fruit on Sunday and I was 5 pounds more than earlier in the week.
• Can you please get A-Rod off the TV? Didn’t he put all this pressure on him? No one told him to cheat on his wife with Madonna then continue to see Madonna after he and his wife got a divorce. And now he is saying he only did ephedrine? That’s not a steroid.
• I am thinking about what colors I want to paint my place. I want light vibrant colors but not sure if it would go with my couches.
• I had a rather interesting drive through East St Louis and Centerville yesterday. That whole area is super run down. I thought my normal drive to work down Jefferson and Natural Bridge was bad but this did not even compare. It looked like a flood zone.
• There is some satisfaction that it is going to be super cold this week. I was expecting it to be warm since I was missing the festivities.
• I have mixed feelings about my simulation this weekend. I am sort of looking forward to it but I also want to get it over so that I am done with the class and start my stetch run of my final two classes in term B.
• I can’t wait for Jamaica. It has been the only thing on my mind lately.
• I am possibly going to Vegas the last weekend in August if anyone is interested. It is my brother’s girlfriend’s 21st birthday so she wants to do it up Vegas style.
• I have no interest in the mobile phone conference in Europe. I am really happy with my phone except for the dropped call issue. Technology wise, it does everything I need it to. I had my razor for over 3 years so I imagine I will keep my Bold for a while.
• New episode of Lost on tonight. It seems like we are on the verge of sending some or all of the Oceanic 5 back to the island. I have been watching a lot of season 1 reruns on Sci-Fi in HD. They are always on and something good to watch when nothing else is on.

I have been thinking a lot about goals lately. I think it is because I have pretty reached the goals that I established in college. Those were (1) get a good job that paid good and I enjoyed (2) get my MBA.

My new job has made me feel a lot more like an adult since I have so many responsibilities plus so many people count on me. It is a lot of pressure but it is worth it. One of my main goals of getting a Wash U MBA was that it would allow me to go anywhere in the country and still be highly recognized.

Below is my “bucket list” of thing I would like to do in the next 5/10 years and what I am shaping my goals around. Some of them are big picture while some of them are small. A lot of them deal with travel of some form.

Travel (in order of priority)

1. Go to Peru and see Machu Picchu. I have been a history buff in hiding for the past 4 or 5 years and would really like to see this ancient ruin. I have talked about it for the last couple years.
2. Australia – I want to get my scuba diving license and dive the Great Barrier Reef.
3. Helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. I have been talking about this one for a while.
4. Travel the Amazon Rainforest. I could see where Ludacris (the fish) came from.
5. Visit the Colosseum in Rome. I am drawn to it as an engineer. I was supposed to go to Rome for a weekend for work but the entire European trip got canceled the week before we were supposed to go.
6. Africa. Not sure where but a safari would be cool plus I would like to say I have been on every continent.
7. A trip to Antartica. Kayaking in the frigid water along with general exploring sounds awesome. These are very expensive trips so I doubt I will do this in the next 10 years but I am keeping my eye out.

Life in General (not in order)

1. Live somewhere internationally for a year. Not sure where but I feel like I would be missing out on an experience since so many of my non-engineer friends did this in undergrad. It gives you perspective of another culture while also seeing the US from the outside.
2. Live on a beach. This has been my goal for a long time. I thought San Diego was in my future but I am not sure. My trip to Indonesia at the end of 2007 put all kind of crazy ideas in my head. I could knock out #1 and #2 and the same time.
3. Get my scuba diving license. It is expensive but I can also see this as one of my major hobbies once I graduate. As you may or may not know, I have always been fascinated by underwater ecosystems thus why I have owned multiple fish tanks throughout my life.
4. Get married. People might not think I would be serious about this but I would like to get married in the next 5 years. I feel like my life is settling down now so it is a perfect time to start dating again.
5. Kids. I do want kids but this is probably at least 4 to 5 years away (hopefully).
6. Go to the Home Run Derby in Saint Louis. I am ready to pay a premium for these tickets. The hype of the competition has gotten to me.
7. Get a dog. I loved having a dog but definitely don’t have the time to keep a dog. A girlfriend or wife would have to come into play before I could get a dog (or if I got really rich). Keep in mind, I said “come into play”. This does not mean that I want to get a dog with my girlfriend. What I mean by this is that a girlfriend could watch the dog if I was traveling or could not make it home in time.
8. Buy a superbike. I have wanted a motorcycle ever since undergrad when I would see all the motorcyles lined up outside the Engineering building. The perks of having a bike in college were that you could park basically anywhere plus they are super fast. As I have gotten older, I keep working with people who are riders so my infatuation has not died. The two things that are holding me back are that they are dangerous (actually this doesnt both me as much as it should) and the possibiity that I would not like it after I bought one.
9. Buy a boat. I got into boating last summer on the river. I always wanted a waverunner growing up. Goes back to the love of water. I doubt I will ever buy a boat unless I move somewhere coastal or somewhere very close to a big lake. I am afraid of running into things in a boat. We always used to go to Lake of the Ozarks at least twice a year when I was growing up. We would always rent a pontoon boat and I was always nervous to drive it.
10. Get into better shape. I have really let myself go in the past two and half years while I was in school.
11. Start playing ice hockey again. I  want to get back into a mens league to work on my “skillz.” This will help goal #10.

1. He does not even like dogs …. he likes cats!
2. Where does the dog go when you go out to da club?
3. The dog is like a child and it makes you one step closer to you know what.
4. Who takes care of the dog when you go on bachelor parties?
5. Don’t you have enough excuses for why you do not go out?
6. Dogs are expensive. Have you ever seen vet cost for a dog? Doggy surgery is not cheap nor is doggy daycare.
7. Dogs are clean. They will rub their ass on nice couches without wiping.
8. Rengel will hang out with you more! so really think about that before you pull the trigger.

These rules apply do not specfically apply to Matt Smith but do apply to everyone else (from the great words of Mike Hoff)

• Whats up with pushing back the digital television transition again? This is just ridiculous.
• The idea of femotcells is very interesting. What is the range for these things? It could be a great move for the phone carriers. They are basically having their customers improve the carriers network coverage at their own expense. Could one AT&T device in my building provide better coverage for the whole building (especially me)?
• I think it is a good idea to cut mail back to 5 days. Why do we need to get mail 6 days a week? You could always send it another way if it is that important. Why not knock it down to 4 days? They could make the mail business more profitable if they cut down the days since other people could compete for those off days (even the USPS).
• Not happy with one of the first Obama decisions. This stimulus plan better not distribute checks again. I would really like to see evidence proving that method helps.
• I having been cutting my food intake by half but my weight has not changed. I have also been doing cardio and weight lifting every day. It seems like I am stuck at my current weight no matter what I do.
• The new Gears of War 2 update seems like it make some differences in online play. The third update to the title is supposed to really address the issue with lag. I like how they finally made each round of Horde count as a game played for the 1999 achievement. I could play a 3 hour Horde match and only get one game played while other could play 20 or 30 games in that time period in non Horde matches.
• I am loving my new laptop setup with a dual screen setup and dock at work. I think it is going to cut my printing down by half. Now I have no need to print something just so I can use it on something else I am working on.
• I despise my new Charter DVR. The firmware has serious problems when it comes to recording. Here is my short list: (1) it records all HBO and Showtime series every time they are on if I have deleted them from my DVR. I had to delete the series recording because it was so frustrating. (2) It sucks at recording two things at the same time. I haven’t had it work right. It is almost like one of my tuners is out. (3) no external HD (4) the search function does not show the HD version of network channels. Makes it really hard to find programs in HD without paging through multiple days. When will Uverse come to my area?
• I never had problems like I did yesterday in the snow. My car almost got stuck leaving my garage and definitely did get stuck trying to get to it on my side street. All the other cars just zipped right through but I would spin in 1st gear and couldn’t keep the car alive in 2nd gear starts. I am so happy I was finally able to get moving.
• I am not very excited about the Superbowl. Why does everyone in St Louis think they have a stake in this one since the Cardinals played in St Louis at one point and so did Warner? The Cardinals were in Chicago for 60 years. Are Chicago fans cheering for the Big Red?
• 107 days till graduation. 35 days till Jamaica.
• I am probably going to get my scuba diving license. I do not think I can get it locally in such a short time plus I don’t want to pay extra to have my open dive in a cold cave. I will probably just do it in Jamaica.
• I think I have been doing my taxes wrong since I started Wash U. It looks like I could have been deducting my entire $25k tuition instead of doing the ~$4k Lifetime Learning credit. The articles I read make it sound like an MBA is some kind of special case when you can do this. Hopefully I will get a big chunk of change back when I refile.
• Last but not least, I forgot to mention something about ratings for Lost. Everyone is wondering why ratings are down. I think you will know this if you are a Lost fan. These past episodes are not made for the new watcher or even the every once in a while watcher. These episodes rely on the fact that you understand what has happened in the past 4 seasons. This is what makes the show so great but what also makes it unappealing to new users.

• The season premiere of Big Love was good. Might be one of my top 2 or 3 shows for the year. The United States of Tara was very interesting. I think it will be a good show but not sure if it will survive.
• It is nice to have my Charter DVR back up and running.
• The Lakers looked really good last night against Lebron. Lebron was almost having a tantrum because the calls were not going his way. Very entertaining. I still think the Lakers are going to win it all based on their depth and combination of Odom, Bynum, and Gasol.
• Can’t wait till Lost!
• Half way through my papers for my International Business class. I have to finish them tonight.
• My fantasy basketball team is at a point of no return. They are too far behind even though they are playing good now.
• Excited to see a Gears of War 2 patch coming out. Hopefully it will fix a lot of the issues in online play.
• I am excited about my trip to the Big Easy this weekend. It doesn’t make up for the fact that I am going to miss Mardi Gras in Soulard but it does come in second.
• I am having an insanely product day at work today. I am finally making my way out from all the rubble of the new position.

I did not really enjoy my weekend at all. Things seemed like they just did not go my way. I was supposed to spend the weekend doing my International Business final but I could not get motivated. I did go out both Friday and Saturday but did little to no drinking both nights. For some reason, I could  not get pumped up about going out which prevented me from having fun. We did go to the new MPOs on Friday to peek in (stayed about 10 minutes). It will be the one and only time I ever go there.

Here is a summary of things that make me unhappy:

1. My Charter new DVR quit working (again). I had this new one for 3 weeks. I wasnt happy getting it in the first place since I liked the Moxi box with option to add an external HD. Because of this failure, I missed all of my HBO and Showtime premiers that I was looking forward to. I am hoping to get a new box today.
2. I bought the wrong Call of Duty 4. I was mentally exhausted but I wanted to use up my gift card Circuit City before it was no good. I called my sibling to ask him if the one I was holding was the latest one. He said yes and of course it wasn’t. I was skeptical still but did not see World at War so it didn’t raise a red flag. What did raise a red flag was when I put it in my xbox and it asked me if I wanted to continue my game. I am stuck with the game since I opened it plus all sales are final at CC.
3. My internet went down late Sunday so I just went to bed.
4. My phone is a piece of crap. I constantly keep getting my calls dropped. I think it has something to do when the phone goes from 3G to Edge. I went to the store and they said I did not have a 3G SIM card so they replaced it. It is still dropping calls so I am going to take it back. Yet another thing that I am going to have to re-setup like my DVR.

On one good note, we booked the trip to Jamaica. We went from going 7 nights to 5 to 9 to 11. Crazy right? 12 days in Jamaica … I can not wait. I also did not realize that Margaritaville orginated in Jamaica so a visit there will be in my itinerary. Let me know if you know any good things to visit or do.

I woke up this morning to the smell of something weird. I open the door to find Steve passed out on the couch with the TV on and the room full of smoke. I look at the oven and it is off but I then remember Steve cooking a Totinos pizza as I went to bed after a long night of drinking. I open the oven to find the below scene. I think it was done. Have no clue how the oven automatically turned itself off. What a way to conclude a very interesting night.

I have not been very fond that I could not watch CBS in HD through Charter but the latest news is just ridiculous. STLtoday is reporting that Charter is going to lose the standard definition feed after December 31st. This is horrible. There are several shows that I record with my DVR for CBS so this now means that I have to go and watch the shows online since I normally miss when they are on.

I would switch to a dish (Direct TV or Dish Network) but we can not get HD through our building’s satellite dish. My unit is not wired for two lines so I would never be able to record two shows at a time with a dish so I will never go for it. My only hope is that U-Verse come to my area some day.

I am not sure if this is a Charter or CBS problem but I can only presume that Direct TV, Dish, and AT&T are all paying for CBS so someone needs to settle their problems and get the issue resolved. I would pay extra if that is the problem.

UPDATE : I was watching one of the football games for 15 minutes on CBS in HD through Charter before I realized I actually was. Sounds like they settled their issues and brought back CBS in HD.