DSL drama and Bizarre Happy-Ending!

OIAHF:OEIFAEF:OAJFI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that. But it's 4AM, an ungodly hour to scream in real life.  I just can't contain my excitement right now so I'm having trouble sleeping.  So....Here's what happened (Warning: lengthy nerd talk ensues):

DSL Drama
So the past few days, I've been having a shitty unstable DSL connection that would crap out ONLY at night.  My DSL has had random periods of solid connection, but spurts of disconnecting for many years now and I have never been able to resolve it completely.  The only thing I've noticed is that it always happens at night. 

So I call the Sonic.net support rep a few times, and every time they keep telling me: "Sir your line seems fine"  "please check your filters blah blah"  "reset modem, reset router, reset computer" (reset this <^>(-_-)<^>!!!) and we could never figure the damned problem.  On Monday, support guru "John" tells me I should probably switch out the modem and see what happens.

By now, my patience has worn thin, so I head to Best Buy the next day and buy a complete set of Modem and Router.  I never buy electronics from retail stores, but I was fed up and needed a solution QUICK.  Luckily Angel's cousin was working there and I got a discount to lessen the pain :)  It was a nice router though, because it had NAS support (Network Attached Storage) so that I could access a USB harddrive from anywhere in my house (and maybe outside my house too!)  I was so happy.   I plug everything in that night, and man everything was so snappy, solid connection, cool features = BLISS.  I've never had a network up and running by just plugging things in.  This was a great sign, and money does buy happiness haha.

The Belkin N+ router, the answer to all my prayers?

wtf.
So this setup is running great until Wednesday, when the guys were over after we went to the Exploratorium.  We exhausted our burritos, boxing, and Mario Kart and got bored as hell, so...let's just look at stuff online! (SCREEEECH!) Internet is dead again.  wtf.  I just dropped 100+ on a new network and it conks out on me.  I'm just floored.  Morgan tells me about his similar DSL problems, and said it was due to worn out rubber around the phone lines outside his house.  Hey! maybe that's it!  I call Sonic again, so that I could have them send a guy over, but they are assuring me that there's nothing wrong with the line.  At that time, the DSL is working again so I just hangup and give up for the day. 

Then God said, "Let there be Light" and there was light, but my DSL got the died.

Today, I finally found the problem to all my white hairs and pimple outbreaks.  I turn on the ultra-bright Halogens in my room downstairs before I went to sleep, cus they're right next to my bed.  That way I can turn them off with my foot once my head hits the pillow.  Internet Dies. (oh here we go again).

Then a crazy idea pops into my head: "what if the lights are causing the DSL blackout?"
I turn off the halogens. YouTube Loads.
Turn on the halogens. YouTube freezes.
Halogens Off....  Hilarious cat video.

...oh my god.

The halogen lights were like death rays to my DSL connection.  Like an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) just like in The Matrix! or Starcraft!

haha reminds me of the light switch Friends episode:

Fast forward to 3:20 for relevancy

Retrospective Reflection and Research

• Felt like I wasted my 100+ on the new network, but hey, this new router is pretty cool so I'm gonna keep it.  Still happy! Plus, my old modem was borrowed 10 years ago from a friend.
  
• Parents tell me this DSL problem started happening again only a few days ago.  The room that I'm sleeping in now used to be used as storage.  I used to sleep in the top bunk of my brother's room until I got fed up with his 5:30AM alarm clock that he doesn't hear until 7AM!!?  So I cleared out this storage room, set up my bed, and unknowingly turned on the Death Rays. 
• DSL gets flaky not just b4 I sleep, but also around 7:30PM (dinner time).  We also use Halogens with dimmer switches in our kitchen. 
• But how do these Halogen dimmer lights affect the DSL?  It took me so many years to find out because the lights were never in the same room as the modem or router!
  

The Answer: Science
Here's what I found researching online:


Some DSL modems are overly sensitive to RFI (radio frequency interference). Lighting dimmer switches and/or electronic (non-magnetic) power supplies for halogen lighting are a common source of such interference. The result can be a degradation of DSL performance or even a complete loss of DSL sync, even when the source of the interference is not in close proximity to the DSL modem (because the interference can be not only radiated, but also conducted through building wiring).



Old phone lines? nope.  Moisture at night affecting the external phone lines? nope.

Who woulda thunk it?

As Bill Nye the science guy says it: Science Rules.

So... if you guys have erratic behavior with your DSL, it could be your lights!

Post-Halloween Post

Been on a mini-blog-posting hiatus because life has been hectic, but good hectic.  Now that I finished taking the GRE's I can post again.

(10/29)Drove back from Eugene starting at 10:30PM !! and we got back to sweet ole' San Franciso at 6:30AM (its great to be back).  The drive was a lot more fun with Dillon and David there.  We actually saw the moonset! I don't think I ever noticed the moon setting before and I wish we had a decent camera.  It just sat there on the horizon getting flatter and flatter; kind of like a ball slowly losing air, pretty cool and funny.  There was also this one stretch of road where there were no cars so i just opened the sun roof.  It was pitch black and the stars were amazing, you could almost get lost in them (not trying to be poetic or nothin', it really felt like that!)  Too bad it was dangerous to look at them for more than a second while driving.  Lucky Dillon and David!!

Spookfest EVIL105

Dillon was cookie monster!! I wanted to be cookie monster last year, but didn't know how.. Angel was Quailman, I was Odlaw >:] and David was a Sumo wrestler.  They were all huge hits amongst the peoples but David's was freakin' golden:

It was the first time my cousins have been to an event like this, and they were stoked!  And boy were they in for a big surprise...when we were waiting in line, we witnessed this one girl in leopard print relieving herself IN LINE 3 FEET AWAY FROM US.  I'm sorry they had to see that, and I'm pretty sure that set the tone for them for the rest of the night.  We finally made it in and saw everybody else, it was good to see everyone again and in awesome costumes nonetheless.  Andy and V's Mickey and Mallory was superb! 

Right when we walk into the palace, I just realized that it was pretty much a Rave haha.  So I turn to Dillon and David "uhh.. welcome to your 1st rave?".  Then almost immediately after that, a druggie comes up to David..:"Dude.. you got any pills on you? any Acid?" lol it was gonna be an interesting night for them.
Later on...
Druggie #2 looks at David in his Sumo costume: "Hey man! you got any drugs in there?"
David: "nope"
Druggie#2: "Man, thats too bad.  You coulda fit a shit load of drugs in there" lol
Dillon also tells me he saw some guy freaking out in the bathroom yelling "OMG somethings wrong with my hands"

Yea, it was pretty shocking stuff for them haha, I hope they had a good time.  I'm sure David did.  That sumo costume caught so much attention from girls it was ridiculous.  It would take forever to walk across the place with him, because they all wanted pictures with him.  Dillon on the other hand, attracted much attention from guys haha.  There were these 3 guys that thought he was the DJ from Crystal Method (cus he was also in cookie monster costume) and wanted pictures and autographs from him haha.

Henry was my arch nemesis, Waldo.  He told me that he got pinched in the ass many times.  I, on the other hand, had recognition issues. No one knew who the hell I was! haha I guess I can't blame them, cus I didn't even know of Odlaw until a month ago.  Some funny quotes of the night:

"OmG! you're a bumble-bee too!! :)" umm.. sure?
"Look its BEE MAN!! BEE MAN!!"  I'm not a bee!!!
"You're the most awesome Waldo in this place!" Thanks! Not waldo tho.
"Dude.. so.. are you supposed to be like.. the Asian Waldo?"  -_-'

Finally, someone who gets it :)

Best music of the night was definitely Infected Mushroom.  I saw the cousins get into it rocking out, and saying "yea you were right, they are awesome live."  Then in the car ride back Dillon goes: "To be honest, the music the whole night sounded exactly the same to me" (face-palm).

Oh yea! forgot, favorite costumes we saw:

Isn't that awesome? a group of friends dressing up as Street Fighters, they looked great.
And the next night, I saw this guy in a laundry basket with dirty clothes.  I dono why, but it was my favorite for the night haha. 
But my facebook favorite, or favorite of all time was Szeto's Sriracha. awesome.
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs063.snc3/13047_863994011923_1211500_48542444_3412629_n.jpg

The Future and TV Shows... Futurama?

Nope not Futurama, but I just finished watching the first episode of FlashForward and man, I am hooked now.  I tend to stray from dramas because I'm more of a comedy show kind of guy, but I heard good things about FF so I decided to try it out.  It kind of felt like watching Heroes for the first time when it was new and exciting (not cluttered and drawn out)!  Shows like this just intrigue you with something improbable, and your curiosity just sucks you in.  I hope the storyline doesn't fray into a billion different directions like what happened in Heroes, but so far so good.  It's about everyone in the whole world blacking out at the exact same time and......ok I have to leave it at that don't want to spoil :)

Ep 1 @ Hulu

Oh yea! Almost forgot.  John Cho is in it lol.  For some reason it always cracks me up when I see John Cho in things.  The dude is everywhere!  Nick and Norah, Star Trek, HIMYM.  I like the guy, but it just cracks me up.

Also caught a couple minutes of Community, pretty funny, but not sure if I'm gonna follow it yet.

Another Future related funny some Oregonian (yea that's what their called) friend of mine posted on his FB: 
The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today)

My favorite are #14, #4, and of course, #1....damn you NUMBER 1!

Blast From the Past II

Henry just sent me a gem from high school lol, putting it here for the memories.


November 2002

b: hey chadmaster
Chun Lick: i see u recognize
b: hahaha
b: you have to say "besta reckanize dizzawg"
Chun Lick: You would best recognize, my dog,
b: "nigga, what be's yo stank ass mo fuckin shit dawg problem brah?"
b: englishize that
Chun Lick: Negro, what in the lord's name are you finding problematic, brother?
b: HAHAHHAHAHAH

Love Fest and Bean

Parade:  MUNI mayhem, 100k+ crowds, parade was definitely worth the trip downtown, my fave was the DNB float.  It just gives you so much energy! Too bad I couldn't learn the step in time, Andy rocked it.  Definitely the most penises I've seen in public. 
Afterparty: I thought this was going to be my last Rave, but I change my mind!  I had loads of fun with a lot of my friends, and also with newfound ones!

Spent a lot of time watching drum videos for some reason?  I'm just amazed at how drummers drum so fast! (see Gravity Blast).  Youtube surfing led me to one of my favorite vids, Mr. Bean is genius!




The guy has a Masters in Electrical Engineering?! You're my hero.

Lonely milhouse

i like it haha