Here's a picture showing a test that I'm running to show how badly our internet connection is with Communicomm.


As you can see (you may need to click on the image to show the full size), there are a lot of failed packets. The test has been running for almost 3 hours, and almost half of that time, the internet was unaccessible. Also, you can note that the average response time for the data that does actually get through is high.

So, take my advice. If you have the choice between Communicomm and another ISP, choose the other. With Communicomm, we've had nothing but bad customer support, high prices, excessive downtime, low bandwidth, and filtered packets (see the post several days ago). Cox Communications is an excellent cable internet provider. If you have them in your area, go with them. I've used them for twice as long as I've used Communicomm when I lived in TX, and I can't remember more than 5 minutes of downtime. I can't say that their customer service is better though, because I've never actually had to use it. That's a good thing, though, heh.

Well, time for some pictures. First, my new pickup. It's nothing special, but we finally have that second vehicle, yay!



Next is a picture of our newest addition to the family, Elise Hannah Fox. In this picture, she is almost 7 months old, and, can you believe it, smiling!



Next is a picture of my cousin, Jamie. This picture is inside Anna's house in Detroit, TX. I believe this picture was taken the day after his father, James, passed away.



Finally, a picture of my other cousin, Amber, holding Elise. She is pregnant in this picture, although you can't really tell it, with her second baby. Her first baby, like ours, passed away.



Alright, well, that wraps it up for this session.

Ugh, my ISP hires such morons. I've been talking a bit with this person [edit: name removed] via email about peer-to-peer filesharing software, and his stance on why it is so important to filter it. By filtering, I mean removing the packets that I should be receiving, which basically slows my download speeds to a crawl. Here is how our emails look:

We have filters in place that reduce the amount of peer to peer programs that can be used on our system. These programs often allow the distribution of copyrighted material as well as little or no virus protection for customer’s networks. All of the legal means of retrieving music off the interent have no limitations on our networks. Examples of such sites are musicmatch rapshody and itunes. Please let us know if we can be of any more help.

Alright, I can understand why they would want to reduce the amount of peer to peer programs that allow the distribution of copyrighted material, but virus protection is something that should be done client-side, not server-side. Here's my response:

Torrents are also the fastest way to transfer legitimate software, such as various distributions of multiple CD/DVD software, like Linux. The other method of transferring this monstrosity (FTP) won't get near the speed and reliability that a torrent would. Many other services also provide for the distribution of copyrighted material (Gnutella, Kazaa, FTP, IRC, etc.). Why do you not filter these?

As for virus protection, the only likely thing you can filter would be data that is stored on the server (POP3 for instance). You're simply unable to process all the data that moves through your server, and even if you did, many viruses will be compressed using methods that your server wouldn't even recognize.

His reply?

We do filter gnutella and kazza. IRC is used for more than simply file transfers.

Peer to Peer software opens up for the spread of viruses due to the unknown nature of the remote computer sharing out the files. The pop3 references you make have no bearing on peer to peer programs. Our virus appliance strips out all attachments regardless of the files being compressed or not.

This will be my final reply on this subject. If you need any more help, please let us know.

Now, if you've been reading carefully, you'd note that my POP3 comment referred to virus protection, not peer-to-peer software. Also, as I haven't tested this, I'm almost certain that their "virus appliance" does not strip out attachments, as many attachments are legit, even so far as to say necessary, especially for businesses that might be transferring things like spreadsheets via e-mail.

Either way, wouldn't you agree that, for one, his attitude is abrassive toward me, and two, he acts as if I do not know what I'm talking about. "Gee, IRC is used for more than file transfers? I'm such a doofus for not knowing that... With an acronym that translates to Internet Relay Chat, I would never have known that it was only for file transfers!" In my opinion, I'm almost certain I've used IRC before he even had internet access. I can remember running through a shell on my BBS to connect to IRC.

I've also looked a bit into our technological wizkid here. Here's a link where he talks about banning a Communicomm user for sharing copyrighted data. Now, do you think he has absolutely no copyrighted data on his home PC? I would like to think that he does, as anybody who knows a thing about computers has some kind of illegal software on their computers. After more digging, I've found a few other tidbits about him, although I can't say this is fact.

1. He met his wife from IRC.
   
2. He's an avid gamer. Hooray!
   
3. He's older than 26, but I'd like to say 28.

Peace out, [edit: name removed]!

Income tax time! Yay! This year, we've decided to use Jackson Hewitt for a faster refund. So far, we've bought a new TV (since the old one was kinda dying), a printer, a futon, which I am assembling as we speak. I would like a couch, but I don't want to pay $1,400 and up for one, bleh. The TV supports S-Video, so I'm thinking of purchasing a S-Video adapter to connect the PS2 to the TV. Eh, oh well...

All news isn't good news, however. My Uncle, James, is dying of cancer. How I have heard is that at the most, 6 months is as far along as he'll live, but that's at a 30% chance. I feel so terrible for Anna, but there is nothing I can do. I can't imagine the pain of losing your lifelong partner, because it's simply indescribeable.

So anyway, keep the comments going, and keep clicking for the advertisers. I can't wait to see a $50.00 check in my mailbox for doing nothing, heh. Later.

Aren't dreams funny? I had a dream last night where, in my dream, I was telling someone about a dream I had inside my dream. It was some kind of joke in my dream, and I wish I could remember what the joke was, but I can't. It probably wasn't funny, anyway, as some things that happen in dreams only seem to invoke emotions that don't necessarily apply to the situation. This is most likely the case in my dream.

Bleh. The Fog sucked, don't watch it unless you have nothing better to do. Anyway, don't you hate it when you see a movie, and would love to see it again, but you have no idea what it was called? I saw one the other day, and I believe it was a comedy, about these unlikely people going through what I guess was apartments. I remember one part, where this guy was afraid of heights, and then had to ride the back of the other guy to get across buildings or something. Anyway, he ends up falling over, hanging over the rails, and his pants fall to the ground. It was crazy! If any of you have an idea what this movie was, PLEASE let me know! Welp, have fun guys!

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, and I have some great recommendations for you guys. The first two are sort of related: The Cave and The Descent are both dark, spooky monster-ridden cave dwellers, guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. I personally like The Descent better, I guess because it's more bloody, heh. The next two are Flight Plan and Red Eye. They're both airplain thrillers about strange evil things that can go on while you're flying. I'll be watching The Fog later tonight. Have any good movie recommendations for me? Comment them, I'll give them a watch!

It's been a wild week. Here in Oklahoma, fires are running everywhere. You can see black spots where fires have been, especially on Hwy. 69, you can see a lot of damage. The baby is doing good, although she still spits up her milk. I need to get out of this house, heh. Anyway, I've been playing Final Fantasy IV Advance, it's quite a bit different from the original. Old, but still fun to play. I can't wait for SquareEnix to put out 5 and 6, my god I'd be up all night playing 6. It's my absolute favorite. Google seems to be doing well... I have a gmail account (which you have to be invited to) that I now use, and which I need to update in the settings when I get the time.

Final Fantasy XI is a sort of let down, not near what I would have expected from this great gaming giant. If any of you happen to have FFXI, leave a comment, so we can group up and go kill stuff together. Anyway, I'm out.

Oh, by the way, on your way out, click the link on the top of the screen. Some new ad program that lets you earn money. Heh. Have fun!

Link of the day: Shoutwire

I almost forgot about the blog, sorry about that. I'll try a little harder, eh? Well, Christmas is past, and the new year of 2006 is upon us. Elise is 5 months old now, and still babbling as usual, but we love her to death. She should soon be learning to crawl and get her teeth, I hope. I've been keeping her at home while Kim works, at least until I get a job with her. We're just waiting on the extra money to pay for the babysitting, which shouldn't be much longer than a few weeks, I hope. I look forward to being able to work again and have the money to do stuff again instead of being all cooped up in this apartment.

Anyway, that's it for now. See ya soon.

Hello there... This is Kim, and today I wanted to update the blog to let you guys know what all has happened lately. Well, first and foremost, our new arrival Elise Hannah Fox. She is the sweetest gift from god. Jeremy and I are ecstatic about her. Our family keeps growing and she is the light in our days. She was delivered via cesarean section at Durant Medical Center on Thursday, July 21st, 2005 at 8:31 am. She weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 11 oz and is 20 inches long. Her eyes are blue, and her hair is reddish-brown. She is not a fussy baby at all, but rather quiet (Unless Hungry...). We were in the hospital until Sunday afternoon and were finally discharged (Finally..). Jeremy is wound-up all the time now. I'm still recovering from my surgery and I'm going to my doctor Wednesday to get my drain and staples removed hopefully. Its going to be a rather busy week with all of our appointments and moving (Again). Hopefully one day this week we will be moving to a small town not far from here, where we will be able to have a low-income appartment. Jeremy has worked so hard and struggled at his job. Finally on July 4th he was fired. I will let him explain that situation a little later. I feel sorry for him. He tries so hard to do the best he can and it always seems to not be enough. I'm hoping that when I am recovered I can go to work and help him out. Jeremy has been so sweet to me and given me so much, that I think it's way past due to repay back to him. Watching him with Elise just makes me love him that much more. I know he will be the best father and very protective of Elise, as he is of me. Well, I just wanted to add this for now and let Jeremy update you more later. To see a picture of Elise you can go to http://www.growingfamily.com and visit the WebNursery. There put in July 21, 2005 and last name Fox, state OK, and finally country USA. Goodbye for now...

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've got an internet connection now at my own home. Kim is just about ready to have the baby. She's been having contractions almost every day, so I feel like the baby cuold come at just about any time. Of course this interferes with work, but hey, my family is more imporant than this job, right? Speaking of work, it's going pretty good, I guess. As good as it can get, you could say. I don''t really like working where I work because I feel singled out. I'm pretty much the only white person there, plus all of my co-workers are pretty much related to each other, so it makes things a little difficult. If you say something bad about what another person does, it's like the whole store knows and you're ridiculed for trying to get another person in trouble. Bleh, I hate this job, but I have to keep at it in order to raise a family of my own. Just so you know, as of this posting, Kim is about 35 weeks pregnant. The doctor said that if she continues along the way she is, the baby could be here in a weeek or two. Sad thing is though that Kim is scared to call me at work for fear that I may be fired for calling too much, or having me leave too often. I just wish they would understand what it's like in my condition with how things are going, that, unlike others, I need this job.

Anyway, peace out everybody. Oh yeah, link of the day: Gas Buddy. Maybe it can help you save money.

I'm back, again, but for a short one, this time. The reason is that I'm a member of another one of those internet money programs, but this program has paid me already, so I thought I'd share it with you in hopes of getting referrals so that I may make a little extra money. Here's the link: http://www.itpaystolearn.com/default.asp?ref_id=AOP425 . Sign up, and be sure to make at least 500 QuizPoints a month in order to be able to have the cash carry over. Just so you know, each quiz is worth about 30 QuizPoints. Each quiz consists of 10 questions and comes in 3 levels of difficulty. A quiz takes me about 45 seconds. 10 QuizPoints is worth 1 cent, so you can figure making 3 cents per quiz. Thanks to all those that sign up, I really appreciate it!

Well, things seem to be going good sometimes and bad others. I'm still trying to get over this cold or whatever it is that you want to call it. Its much better than it has been, but my nose is still constantly runny. Hopefully I'll be completely over it in the next couple of days. What else has happened... Well, I finally got my new shoes. They were $17.00 at Wal-Mart. Just some plain old black boots. I don't have to walk on holes anymore now, thank God!

Tomorrow is going to be another plasma donation day. We're trying to save up as much money as we can from donating so that we can go visit Mom for a few days, but it isn't easy. When you only make $80 a week from selling your body fluids, it's hard to save. We spend most of it on eating out the day of donating and bus tickets. After all of that is said and done, we only have about $10 left, or $20 a week. We also like to buy a few things while we're away from the Center of Hope. Well, hopefully in a month's time we will be able to leave this acursed place for a weekend!

That's all for now. Keep those comments coming!

Blah, I'm not feeling too well. I've got a cold or something, in the middle of the summer! Well, that's what I think it is anyway. My nose is stopped up, my throat is sore, I'm sneezing and coughing a lot, not to mention my left ear is clogged or something, because I can't hear too well from it. It's not doing me much good at all, especially since I have to walk so much lately. But the walking is starting to pay off; I've already lost four pounds, can you believe that? Kim is also losing weight.

The heat has been near unbearable lately, with temperatures in the upper 90's. Most of my uncovered body is staying sunburnt, but I'm used to it, so it doesn't actually hurt too much. My feet are probably the worst part of me. My expensive shoes that I'm wearing right now, which Mom bought me a couple of months ago, are almost worthless. The soles in both shoes are rubbed out. Well, I put a pair of $16 shoes at Wal-Mart on layaway and I'm paying as much as I can afford every time we go to donate plasma. I only owe $10 now, so I'm looking forward to having them hopefully by the end of the week.

DCI isn't a very reliable source of income, though. Every time you get poked, you risk infiltrating a vein, and if you can't get your blood back, you are deferred from donating for 8 weeks. If we're not able to donate, we won't be able to ride the bus around town to look for jobs anymore, not to mention eat out every now and then, which is about the only thing we can ever look forward to anymore. The stress at the homeless shelter is pretty bad, so we look forward to every day that we can get away from it all.

Well, anyway, I hope this blog keeps some of you up to date on my happenings. I'll talk to you people later!

Well, we've been donating more lately. I've donated twice since the first time and I haven't had any other problems, so I think it was just because I didn't eat enough the first time. We've got $5 left from yesterday's donation after going to Wal-Mart and getting a few necessities, and we don't have any other things that we really need since most things are provided for at the Center of Hope. So from now on, after each donation, we're going to eat, and put the rest back into savings unless we need things like shampoo or whatever.

Also, a lot has been going on at the Center of Hope as well, a lot of drama. The people there fight all the time and sometimes Kim and I find ourselves in the middle of it. Not actually a part of the fight, but sort of asked to take sides, you know, and we're not going to do it. A really Christian black lady there (named Willie) told us that it was Satan doing what he does best (divide and conquer), and it really does seem true. It's just funny how she talks, because everything is in some way related to Jesus.

Anyway, I'm done with this blog for now. It's time to get back to StarSphere! See you guys later.

Phew, what a day yesterday. Everything started out fine, you see, but it took a change for the worse, much worse. Yesterday was the day we were going to donate plasma for a little extra spending money, so we took the bus to DCI (the plasma donation center) and signed up. We were figuring on being there for about two to three hours, but instead we were there for about seven hours. We got there about 11:50 AM to donate. We signed up and filled out all of the paperwork, but were waiting because there was only one nurse who could do physicals on the new patients. How unlucky we were, because there were 3 or 4 people ahead of us. Well, after waiting about six hours or so, I finally took my physical and went to get hooked up to the plasma machine.

First, let me explain what happens: after getting hooked up to an IV in the arm, they draw blood. The blood then goes through a centrifuge and is separated from the plasma. The plasma is collected in a container and then your blood is fed back into your arm. Very few people seem to have a problem donating, but however, I seemed to have ran into some. While the blood was collected and spun, I was getting very light-headed, dizzy, and such. It was bad enough that I honestly felt like I was about to die. I couldn't think of anything but what was about to happen and whether or not I was going to feel better. It just happened so quickly that I didn't really know what was going on. I got very hot and was sweating profusely and lost most of the color in my body. However, once the blood was fed back into my arm, I was fine. However, they repeat this process enough times to fill the container, so I went through this four times, if I can remember correctly. Anyway, after getting disconnected and sitting up, my blood pressure was VERY low. It was at 90/60, and which if you know me, my blood pressure is high if anything. So, this has got me wondering if I have a bad heart or blood problems or something of the sort. I made a measly $25 for this, which I then used to eat with and pay for a taxi back to the shelter.

This morning, I wasn't able to get up because I didn't sleep very well and was very weak, so Kim had to go outside alone today. For lunch, I wasn't hungry because the shelter just doesn't really serve food that is appetizing for me (and yes, I know, I'm picky, but I just don't eat chicken and turkey, which is what they have served almost every day that we've been here).

Well, anyway, I hope some people start signing up for the e-mail programs I've been talking about. Some extra money for me that I don't have to feel like I've almost died for would really be appreciated. Anyway, later all.

I just got an idea, and I would like everybody to help me if at all possible. As most of you know, there are paid-to-read-email sites that send you advertising e-mail, but you get paid to read it. As I am in a jam right now, I would like to refer everybody that would be interested in helping me to these programs. Then, if you can refer others, we both get a percent. It's not much money, but if I can get enough support, I will have a little bit of living money until I can find a job. First, though, you need to sign up for a program called e-gold. It is a lot like Pay Pal, but I'll make a little extra if you sign up for that too. Here is the link for it: http://www.e-gold.com/e-gold.asp?cid=1368798. After signing up for that, you'll get an account ID that you can use for many of these programs that don't send personal checks. Anyway, here are the sites:

http://www.himalaya-mail.com/pages/index.php?refid=jfox1980
http://www.beta-cash.com/pages/index.php?refid=jfox1980
http://getmecashmails.com/pages/index.php?refid=jfox1980
http://www.acar-cash.com/pages/index.php?refid=jfox1980
http://www.ProPaideMail.com/pages/index.php?refid=jfox1980

Sign up for as many or as little as you like. As I find more, I'll post them here. Thanks for everybody's support, and feel free to comment if you sign up for anything. Thanks!

Okay, well, it hasn't been much of good news to report. I'm now homeless living in a shelter with Kim. We're looking for jobs together and have a few good leads, especially with a dry cleaning job. We might get lucky enough to both get a job there, but the bad thing is that we don't have a car anymore, so we're stuck walking. *sigh* Well, after we get our first paycheck, we'll be able to afford some bikes hopefully which will make the transit to and from work a lot easier, at least from the shelter.

The reason we're in the shelter? Well, we were staying with Kim's parents, but it just got to be too much. They were forcing us around without any respect and giving out hipocritical rules which they themselves wouldn't always follow. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind working, in fact I want to work to show them my respect, but they just wouldn't give me or Kim any in return, treating us like children. When we tried to talk to Barbara about it, she just wouldn't listen, she was always more interested in what she was going to reply to us with. We respect her opinion but just didn't believe in the ways, which is why we parted. I said something in anger to her while leaving, which pretty much banned me from their family. I don't care though because Kim is with me, and if I'm banned, so is Kim. I hate to split a family up like that and I've told Kim that she should try to ammend the relationship with her family, but she just won't do it, at least not yet.

Well, I'll talk a little about the shelter now. It's actually a pretty nice place and Kim and I have both made friends with a marriend couple who is just about our age. He plays Dungeons and Dragons, so we've been playing a lot of that lately, but it's hard to find a place to play sometimes. We get three meals a day, and we can get seconds or thirds, but they don't always serve what we want, but either way, we're getting exercise and eating healthier. I already feel like I'm losing weight, and so does Kim. We're also going steadily to a church now, which we both REALLY enjoy. It's a great setting with great people, but with a twist. I can't say what twist just yet, as I've invited my Mom to come, so I don't want her to know just yet.

Well, anyway, I'm going to get out of here. I'm on a library computer, so I don't have a lot of time. Goodbye, all.

Again, another update. First, I'd like to ask a favor of all users who read this post. I have been a member of a website called Epinions, which is a site that you get paid to write opinions. Well, actually, you get paid a few cents every time a user reads and ranks your opinions. So, my favor is to have anybody join epinions (under me) and read and rank my opinions. You can sign up at the website that I just listed. Also, if you sign up, be sure to add me to your web of trust. Read and rank all of my opinions that you can, because it will really help me out.

On another note, I'd like to introduce you downloaders out there about a new file sharing system, called BitTorrent. You can get basic information about the program there, but to actually download files, I recommend using a client called Azureus. It's very simple to set up, just read the instructions on the site. As far as what you can download, it's very extensive: games, music CD's in mp3, movies (DVD and Theater), games, applications (including MS Windows itself), comics, books, etc. To actually download these, though, you'll need to use a website that links to the files. My favorites are SuprNova and Torrent Bits. You'll need to create a user account for Torrent Bits, however, which is free.

Lastly, a little about my life. I'm in a very bad mental state right now, because of bills and the lack of work and such. I'm very close to losing my house and becoming homeless... I don't really like talking about it, but I'm making every move to fix it all. Everybody, please pray for me.

I guess that's all for this post. Leave your replies, I do read them, I just don't always reply. Later, everybody!

Not much new this blog... Sadly enough. Well, a few notable things happened since my last post. For one, I got my income tax in and got a few new toys as well as the bills paid up. I'm happy with my new DVD/Home Theater system and Gamecube, heh. It feels good to be out of debt, at least for a little bit. Yeah, I'm still with my job at RGIS, too, and I love it. The work may get hard sometimes, but it's worth it to be around good people and at least decent pay. It doesn't really pay the bills all the time, but it'll be a great secondary job when I find another job.

So, anyway, I guess that's about it for now. I can't really think of anything good to say since it's so late right now and I'm starting to get sleepy, heh. Well, peace out everybody!