Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Kristie's adventures in HMTL Land

First off - the reward



And then fries at the food court.

The stiff drink? A Bacardi Tropical Orange Smoothie

On with the story
Jennie had a scathingly brilliant idea of doing a poll so I decided to go for it. I had seen what I had in mind at Let's Gab so I went to Brave Net. Of course in order to get the poll I had to become a member. This is where the first of my 'problems' arose. After I joined, they sent me a temporary password by e-mail. Now when I went to get my temporary password, I had that message that I get every so often wanting me to give my e-mail password. It's so automatic, I just entered. Oops - it came up incorrect password. Sometimes I enter it so quickly, I miss a letter or something so I did it again. Same incorrect password message. This really puzzled me since I knew I hadn't changed it so I tried again v e r y s l o w l y. Same damn message. So then I went to the screen you go to if you forget. It wanted my customer ID. I had no idea what that was so then I went further on how to get my customer ID. They wanted my Account Number. Hmm - where do I find that? So I looked up an older bill, looked it up and entered it. Incorrect number it said. One of the things I've done lately is put all the bills under my name so I figured it meant a new account number. Sweat began to form. This meant another call to- - - - Cable Guy. Yes - Cable Guy and I had another conversation.

Cable Guy: Yes, this is "Bob". May I help you?

Me: (right off starting to giggle wondering how I would mess up this time) Yes this is Kristie. I seem to be having problems signing into my internet. It's saying the password is wrong but I know I didn't change it.

Cable Guy: Well, if you tell me your name, I'll look up your account and see what we can do.

Now at this point I should mention that Kristie is not my name. Well - it is, but 'officially' it isn't. I have a completely different first name and my second name is actually Kristine. But for some reason - my parents decided to go with Kristie when I was a wee lass rather than either my first name or Kristine. So when Cable Guy asked for my name, I was stumped as to what name to give him.

Me: Kristie

Cable Guy: I don't seem to have anyone listed under that name.

Me: Well it might be under my first name Debra

Cable Guy: OK, there it is. But you are Kristie aren't you?

I had to explain that yes I am, but I'm also Debra

Cable Guy: All right. If you give me your password, I'll see if I can get in.

I gave him my password

Cable Guy: It seems to be working fine for me M'am.

At this point I happened to look at the keyboard and I noticed this little green light next to num lock was lit up. Yes, you all know what that means! I had been trying to log on with caps.

Me: Let me try and see if I can do it (feigning ignorance). Hmmm. It worked!

Then I decided to 'fess up.

Me: I think I know what my problem was. I had the caps on.

Cable Guy: (laughing) Well, that will make a difference. So, your problem is resolved then?

Me: Yes. When you write up your report on this one, you can just say "user incompetance"

*sigh* I think I'm fast becoming a legend among all the Cable Guys"

So - I got my temporary password and went back to Brave Net to sign in. I fumbled around in there for a while and figured out where to get the HMTL code and pasted into my test blog. With great anticipation, I hit publish and low and behold - there was a Web Poll. Only thing was, it was a poll on rating my blog. Well - that struck me as being somewhat narcassistic and it wasn't what I wanted. So back to Brave Net I went trying to figure out how the heck I could get what I wanted. I'll give the short version here. I figured it out - finally and then reposted it into the test blog. AHA!! Success!! It was what I wanted. Now - to 'go live' so to speak on my regular blog. It was at this time that Blogger must have been having 'issues' because I kept timing out. I tried it 4 times but I kept getting the same error message.
AAARRRGGGGHHH
I was soooo close! But I would not be deterred. I had a very late morning coffee, waited for a while and tried it again.

That's why I needed a reward, lunch and a stiff drink!

And thus - we have our poll!

'til later

13 comments:

Lori said...

Yay!!! Congrats Kristie! As a code freak, I often look to Bravenet for free stuff. :)

Kyahgirl said...

yay, a good display of perseverance :-)

I love Ross Cannon for some reason although many of Kleypas's hero's warm the cockles of my heart. Its a tough choice.

Kyahgirl said...

p.s. I thought I dropped in and said hello the other day (CindyS sent me) but I don't see it.
Anyway, just another Canadian blogger dropping by :-)

Kristie (J) said...

Kyahgirl: Well hello and welcome to another fellow Canadian - and not only that!!!! but a fellow lover of Loreena McKennit too I see!

Lori: You have no idea how difficult that was to do for me - a complete moron with that kind of stuff. And how incredibly excited I was that it worked!!!

Noneya said...

Can't wait to take the poll.

And if I had to admit how many times I have had to change my password b/c I kept entering with the damn caps lock on...well, its embarassing.

:D

Sandie

Jennie said...

Nice job!! Now I have to read DoY so I can vote. :)

CindyS said...

Ohhh, I so can't wait for the next Cable guy story!! You might want to keep your eye on me when I visit in case I decide to throw your caps lock on just so I can read another Cable Guy entry ;)

Everything in our house is in Bob's name becuase both of us are way too lazy to change the stuff over but since I do all the financial stuff it gets dicey.
Cable Guy: Your name?
Me: *sigh* Cindy
Cable Guy: I don't have you listed on the account and therefore I cannot discuss this with you.
Me: Hold on a sec *covers phone and hollers for Bob*
Bob on the phone: yep, okay, uh, wait *turns to me* do we have TMN
Me: yes
Bob: she says yes. You know what, I don't know anything about what you are talking about so can you just talk to my wife? Yes, I give you permission. *rolls his eyes*
Me: *covering phone* we really should get our shit together. *gets back on phone* Okay, so what I was saying....

Cindy

CindyS said...

Ooops. Forgot to mention that I thought the reward was for those who voted in the poll - I read this post first and thought, oh goody!!

Cindy

nath said...

You did really good Kristie :D At least, you have the guts to call the Cable guy... I hate calling them... and let me know of what you think about Parallel Heat. Wasn't a big fan of Parallel Attraction, so I didn't get it yet, but maybe I'll give it a chance if you like it :)

Tara Marie said...

Very cool, I almost stuffed the ballot with "Nick" just to throw off all the Derek vs. Sebastian thing.

Rowena said...

LOL, you are TOO cute Kristie! I'm glad you fixed your password problem! haha...I love your poll too!

~ames~ said...

LOL Kristie! I love reading your cable guy stories. They're very endearing. Hmm..since I haven't read Sebastien's book, I'm not sure if it would be fair for me to vote. LOL

Anonymous said...

caps lock.....oh how familiar!

Deb