Rock Bottom CONCLUSION

ATTN: If you are looking for post on SIGNAL Leakage scroll down, if you are looking for Troubleshooting your Internet, go to page 2

Welcome to my final "Rock Bottom" post.  I recommend reading this series of posts from the start by scrolling down two posts and beginning with "Rock Bottom".

As I explained in the previous post, my life was going to take a serious change for the worse.  Everything up to this point seemed normal right?  Well, mabe not the "evil spirits" my family and I encountered in my early childhood, but I haven't experienced much of that since then, so, here it goes.

 Everything in my life seems to be going good, I'm doing well at work, (Cable Co.) I'm starting to make good money, I'm finally starting to come out of my depressions brought on by my divorce and the death of my mother.  My son is getting older, and we are able to have interests in common, such as computers and video games.  Well, you may have already guessed it, but one day I get a phone call.  It was my brother.  He has broken up with his girlfriend, and needs a place to stay.  Although I am in a one bedroom apartment, with my son visiting on the weekends, and if the apartment management finds out, I could be evicted, I decide to allow him to stay with me.  It was fine at first, even though he had no job for a while, but it all soon came crashing down.  My brother started seeing psychiatrists in a free evaluation for testing medication.  Around this time, I was going through severe back-pain, and ultimately had to go on short-term disability from work.  My brother was taking experimental drugs, and drinking beer heavily at the same time.  When his "therapy" was about over, his psychiatrist prescribed him a major anti-depressant drug and gave him a free months supply.  I'm sure my brother didn't let them know how much he was drinking alcohol while he was on these things, because for the next couple of months I experienced pure HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was back at work now, and every day after work, my brother would start our verbal fights.  Non-stop yelling at the top of our voices, all night long.  Even if we took off to go visit relatives that lived 1/2 hour away...non-stop YELLING!!! ARGUING!!! He's blaming me for everything bad in his life, blaming me for the past, and for me being too stupid to have things going better in my life.  I lost my voice for the better part of that year, and he would laugh at me for my scratchy yelling back at him.  Keep in mind,  I did not take anti-depressants, and I am not a drinker.  I usually only have about a couple of cans of beer every 2 or three months.  My brother would even start yelling and arguing with me in front of my son when he was visiting, and even pushed me hard in front of him, trying to get me to fight.  I fell back on the couch, when he pushed me, and I jumped back up, and looked at my son, who was watching this go down.  I decided to move into my dad's house that was going to be vacant when my sister was going to move out, after getting maried.  I told my brother he could not move there with me because of the way he now acts.  He moved to Georgia to a high school friend's house.  I told him before he left to don't act that way with his friend like the way he is with me.  Two months of peace I had in my new house, I get a phone call, his friend kicked him out, and he's apologizing for his behavior, he has nowhere else to go, and he promises things will be better/different.   I told him I'm still mad at him, things better change, and he needed to slow down on the alcohol.  He agreed.

I know your probably thinking "he's (me Wes) a dumbass, after all that, he's going to let him move back in with him.  Well, just let me say " I AM A DUMBASS FOR LETTING MY BROTHER MOVE BACK IN WITH ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nothing in the passed can even compete with the craziness that is going to start happening in about a year!!!

Not long after he moved in, I started telling him, " I'm not going to make it much longer at this job, my back is continuing to hurt, and it's causing a reduction of strength in my left leg, and I am loosing my confidence in climbing ladders."

Well I had to go on short-term disability again for my back.  I had to cut it short and go back to work still in pain, because the STD Insurance company wasn't paying me.  They were holding out, trying to get me to come back to work.  This was in the winter, so my brother wasn't working, because he only had a part-time summer job, so there was no help there.

 I was only able to work about 9 months longer when I couldn't take it any longer.  My progressing fear of heights (acrophobia) that started after my first short-term disability has finally caught up to me.  My repeated talks to my supervisor at work, to try and find something else for me to do, haven't worked, and by now, me and my brother have been starting to argue and yell again. I told my brother to leave, but he said the house we lived at was in my dad's name, and he had the right to live there too.  I just gave up.  I had no support.  I quit my job of almost 12 years at the Cable company.  I know now this was the worst thing I could have done, but I was all stressed out.  Everything was on my shoulders.  I was in pain, tired, scared of killing myself at my job.  I've been involved in trying to get unemployment for almost a year now.  I've been in court, in front of an Administrative Law Judge, after being denied. After being denied by the Judge, my case is now in front of the Appellate Commission.( Appeals Court for unemployment )

To make this long story shorter, I'll just tell you what happened not long after quitting the cable company.  About a month after quitting, my brother's anger with me kept growing daily.  He was in a " it's my way or the highway" type mindset with me and my son.  He was drinking very heavy, both beer and hard liquor, and a few days before Thanksgiving, he threw the biggest kitchen knife at my head, barely missing me.  I threatened calling the police.  A couple of days after Thanksgiving, he was drunk and he got in my face, yelling, and I turned to walk away, and go to my room, and he pushed me, hurting my neck.  Again I threatened to call the police.  A couple more days goes by, and it was night time, I was upstairs in my room, helping my son with his homework, and my son was also playing music on the computer ( not very loud ), while my brother is downstairs stomping around, swearing, drunk as usual, and he yells up the stairs

" TURN THAT SHIT OFF!" I told my son he didn't have to.  A minute later my brother comes walking up the stairs, complaining, swearing, etc. and I tell him to please leave, I'm helping my son with his homework, and right now my room is private time for me and my son.  He continues to swear, so I stand up and get louder "please leave"  he pushes me.  I threaten to call the police, he just laughs at me, and says "give me your phone I'll call them."  I tell my son "come on, I'm driving you to your grandmother's house."  My son goes downstairs first, after I block my brother from blocking him,  I then tried to walk down, as my brother is pulling me from behind, all the way to the front door, where he is pulling me and pushing the door closed as I am trying to open it.  I let go of the door and spun around, breaking his hold, and he drunkingly falls on his but in front of the door.  I yell to my son "go out the back door and get in the car!"  I'm right behind him, but when I got out the backdoor and checked my pocket for my car keys, they are not there.  I ran back in looking for them, and my brother wasn't at the door anymore.  I look around, and they are not in the usual places I put them.  I open the front door and looked at my car to hopefully see my son inside, but he wasn't...my brother was in the passenger's seat, grinning at me.  My son, walking almost half-way down the block.  I had enough.  I pulled out my cell phone and dialed 911.  My brother jumps out of my car, and says, I know your not calling the police.  I said "yes I am this time, I've had enough.  The police were there within about 3 minutes, as my brother is stomping around yelling and swearing.  Loud enough that the 911 operator said " is that him?"  I said yes and I hear her say " I need you to get there as soon as possible." He wnt to jail for about 2 days, probably due to giving officers a hard time in jail, I think. I dropped the charges before his court date, but the State picked them back up.  He was sentenced to community service, random drug and alcohol tests, and anger management and AA classes.

Although he wasn't supposed to, I let him move back in, after he called me and begged to, he kept getting drunk, and didn't finish all his classes, and he continued to be a big headache for me for the following 10 months after, and I had to threaten calling the police multiple times.  He even got into it with my son a couple of times when I wasn't home, the first time getting my son so angry that he punched the front door and broke his hand.  The second time, he sat on my son, trying to stop him from leaving.  My son left that day, and I didn't see him again until my brother left, about a month and a half later.

My brother left 6 days ago to live in Indiana, hopefully for good.  I do not even want to have contact with him for a good period of time, and I never want him to live with me again.  I hope he gets help.  Things may start looking better for me now.  I felt such relief the day he left. I hit rock bottom, stayed there for a year, and now the long climb back up to a normal living.  Thank you to all the people who have put up with me and supported me this last year.  I wont forget it.

Note:  This whole story was written leaving alot of the things out that my brother has done.  The story was not meant to bash my brother, but point out the struggles people go through when someone abuses drugs or alcohol.  I do not think my story is rare, but this world would be a better place if it was.

Thank you for reading.

Wes Burgan 

Rock Bottom Continued

As I explained in the previous post, me and my brother were good friends starting out in early adulthood, and it continued that way for many years.  The things I would put up with, that would probably end most friendships, I would forgive him for, and think that he didn't really mean to disrespect me by his actions, but now I know he's kept his resentment toward me, and blames me and everyone in his past for the way he is today, including our parents. 

When I was 21, I got married.  A few months later my wife had a baby boy.  From then on, my life changed, and I was a proud father.  I was working one full time job and two part time jobs at the time, and my credit was excellent, and I was able to afford a new car.  I had an older car that I would drive to work, and I bought the new car so my wife could get around safely with our newborn.  One day I get a call from my brother, he needs a place to stay for a while.  Against my wife's wishes, I agree to let him stay with us, in our little 2 bedroom apartment.  The only place we had for him to sleep was on the couch.  One night, while I was sleeping, my wife woke me up, claiming our new car was gone, and my brother was gone too.  I couldn't beleive it!  I looked out the window, and the car was gone.  I waited for a half hour, thinking he just went up to the store, but he wasn't back yet.  I called my parents house to see if he went there, mabe to pick up some clothes, but he wasn't.  He showed up an hour later, and me and my wife both let him know we didn't appreciate him taking our car without permission.  He apologized, and as far as I know it didn't happen again.  After a short period of time, he moved down to Texas with my parents.  My dad's job transferred him down to Fort Worth, and I was free to continue my new family life.  A couple of years later, me and my wife separated, and devorced a short time later.  She found someone else that she worked with, while we were married, and ultimately married him.  My finacial situation went to peices due to at this time I had only the full time job now, and she had a job making a little more than me, and now I couldn't make all the payments on the rent, car, and multiple credit cards.  I filed bankruptcy, and lost my car.  By this time, my dad was transferred to Indiana, and let me borrow one of his cars, and my brother asked to move back in with me. I let him, but I was still depressed about my divorce, and I stopped paying rent on my apartment, and was evicted.  My uncle was nice enough to let me and my brother stay with him for a couple of months, until I could get back on my feet.  While staying with my uncle, my dad asked me and my brother to move down to Indiana and stay with him and my mother, to help out with her care while she was dying of cancer.  I quit my job I had for 10 months at the cable company here in Michigan, and my brother and I moved to Indiana.  I worked most of my year and a half stay in Indiana, at Wendys and as a cable contractor, but my brother moved back to Michigan and stayed with my sister.  My mom soon passed away, and I stayed a couple of months to help out my dad, and I worked and saved up enough money to move back to Michigan.  My sister let me move in with her family, and I could not get my old job back, they said because I was gone for more than a year.  My brother in law got me and my brother in at the job he worked at.  About a year later  I was able to get a job at another cable company.  Not long after, I started seeing one of my sister's employees, and we both moved into an apartment together.  The apartment was in her name because I still owed on my previous apartment.  I payed for the rent, and she payed the utilities. For the first time in years I was happy.  About a year later I got a call from my brother.  "Can I stay with you for a while?"

Shortly after he moved in, my girlfriend left me, and I continued paying rent in her name, and stayed in the apartment.  One day I came home from work and found an eviction notice on my door.  My brother left his keys inside the apartment, and went in the leasing office and claimed he was me, and asked for a spare key.  They checked the lease, and found only my x-girlfriends name on it and told him that I wasn't supposed to be living there, they weren't going to give him a key, and to expect a notice of eviction.  So, we were kicked out of there.  The best apartment complex I ever lived in.  We put all of our belongings in storage I payed for, and moved temporarily into a friend's camper in his backyard.  When winter came, I was able to move into an apartment on my own, and my brother moved in with his girlfriend.  This time was the best few years I would have, because I was by myself.  So peaceful.  I would get my son on the weekends, and I had my car to myself, and even though child support kept me pretty much broke, I was happy again.  No one but me and my son to worry about.  Even though the tenants above me played loud music all day long, and walked loudly above my head, I found out later this was the only peace I would have for many years to come.  The conclusion of this story will be in my next post, and it will be the most crazy experinces I have ever had, and expect to have in my life.

Rock Bottom

 When I was a kid, I remember my dad, a few times, explaining to his friends or family members, that he considered himself to be " lower-middle class".  I didn't understand what he meant at the time, because I was so young, and it was the only life I ever knew.  I knew there were many people out there that were a lot poorer than us, and that there were other people who were alot more comfortable than us, and even very wealthy.  My dad was an auto worker, working on the assembly line for a major US automaker.  He had a wife and 3 kids to provide for, all about a year apart, two boys and a girl, and he never seemed to be able to save money and get ahead in life.  My mom even worked at various jobs trying to better our family's financial situation, but no matter how hard they tried, it seemed they could usually not afford to bring us to full-middle class. 

The first house I remember living in, we moved into when I was 3 or 4 years old.  It was in the city of Inkster, Michigan.  It was a small 3 bedroom ranch house on a corner lot, with a big backyard.  About a year after moving in, we all felt that there was a negative energy in the house, and after a while longer, after some horrifying experiences, we came to the realization that the house was haunted.  This wasn't a case of "we thought we heard things" or "we thought we saw things" that shouldn't have been there, we saw/heard things that I won't go into right now, it was real.    Real enough for my mom to seek help from our church, and our pastor and his assistant came over to our house, bibles in hand, and walked around praying for God to drive out the evil spirits.  It seemed to help, but I continued to have reoccuring nightmares, and I have even had one of the same a little over a year ago.(at age 39)  Of course those nightmares don't affect me now like they did when I was young, but it amazes me that I still have them this many years later.  We moved out of that house probably less than a year after the pastors visit, and the tension in our family was cut literally in half.  Tensions that continued were mostly between me and my brother and between my dad and us boys.  My dad was a Vietnam Veteran, and he didn't take no crap from anyone.  He was strict in his dicipline, and many times, my brother and I received punishment in the form of pain, usually by using his belt, or a smack in the face or the head.  My mom beleived in using the belt too, and if we were diciplined by her, we usually got it 100 times worse when my dad got home from work, and she told him.  I never blamed my dad for this because it kept us in line, for the most part, and created a high tolerance for pain.  Knowing what I know now, my dad probably suffered from PTSD, and probably went too far in his dicipline, but I always looked up to him and felt loved and cared for.  I still think to this day I have the best dad in the world, and hold no resentment toward him.  He has helped me "over and beyond" all the years of my life, and I love him very much. 

My brother and I have had a very shaky relationship most of our life.  We would fight all of the time, from the years we lived in the above mentioned house in Inkster, all the way until I was about 17 years old.  He never beat me in a fight, and could only get back at me by telling my mom or dad on me for hurting him.  By the age of 8, I was blamed so much for hurting him, that any time  my brother was taken to the hospital for an injury, the nurses or doctors would ask "was this injury caused by his brother Wesley again?".  I didn't know it at the time, but I was causing very deep rooted resentment in my brother towards me.  I resented him alot back then, because I remember he would sometimes lie, and blame things on me that I did not do, because he knew my parents would beleive it, because I had hurt him so much already.  I would get punished by my dad (very painfully) and I would hate my brother for a couple of days, and then got over it, until the next time.  The last fight I remember we had, was when I was 17, and he was 14.  He started it, while in the living room, and he thought he was finally going to be able to get the best of me, and was standing in a fighting stance toward me, but he made the mistake of saying something that pissed me off.  I took a running jump kick at him, hitting him in the chest, and causing him to fall back over the arm of the couch.  I made the mistake of doing this while my dad was home.  When My dad heard my brother yell out in pain and cry, he ran into the living room and started yelling "what happened?". My brother was able to get out "Wes...Wes" as he was laying in the floor crying and holding his chest.  My dad turned to me and  Beat  my  ass!!!  I guarentee that I got the worse end of that deal. (x 10)  I know I deserved it because I could have seriously injured him, but for a while he had tried to get me to fight him, because he thought he could win a fight with me, because he could beat everyone else he would fight, including guys my age.

Years went by, and we were young adults, and we talked about our fights when we were younger, and my brother claimed he didn't hold a grudge.  We became good friends, and there seemed to be nothing that we wouldn't do for eachother.  Little did I know the "timebomb/s" I had helped plant in my younger brother in our early to late childhood would come back to haunt me as I was approaching 40 years old.  More about this story will be revealed soon.

Wes

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We will never forget 9/11 !!!

 

http://www.911truth.org/

Time Flies-Even when your not having fun

I know I havent posted anything in over a month and 1/2, but I thought I would let you know what's going on.  I'm still unemployed.  I worked for my neighbor for a week, and lost the job due to my back problems.  I see now that I may have to file for SSDI because my back can't tolerate walking from room to room in my house, much less a day to day physical job.  My back problems/pains went from a specific area in my lower left side of my back to all over now.  As soon as one area of my back starts feeling a little better, another area starts giving me pain.  I will not be able to continue working as hard as I have in the passed due to this, an can not see me doing any of the things a newbie is required to do in most jobs.  I was hoping to keep posts more current in this forum, but the fact of not having an Internet connection and the stress caused by joblessness and my soon-to-be homeless situation have caused me to loose more and more hope for my situation as the days keep flying by.  I am not scared of being homeless but I am not happy about it.  I have always been generous to homeless people in my past, so I don't beleive Karma is out to teach me a brutal lesson, but I can't help thinking that I shouldn't even be in this mess if my past work and loyalties to the previous company I worked for meant anything.  But just because you do a good job doesn't mean your company is going to be loyal to you.  Over these past months I keep thinking about all the things I put up with for the good of the company, all the money I made them and all the money I saved them, and I think, if I ever get in a position of company ownership or management, I am going to look out for my good people.  A good product or good service must always be backed up by good workers for it to survive.  Anyways, thanks for reading. 

Time Flies-Even when your not having fun

I know I havent posted anything in over a month and 1/2, but I thought I would let you know what's going on.  I'm still unemployed.  I worked for my neighbor for a week, and lost the job due to my back problems.  I see now that I may have to file for SSDI because my back can't tolerate walking from room to room in my house, much less a day to day physical job.  My back problems/pains went from a specific area in my lower left side of my back to all over now.  As soon as one area of my back starts feeling a little better, another area starts giving me pain.  I will not be able to continue working as hard as I have in the passed due to this, an can not see me doing any of the things a newbie is required to do in most jobs.  I was hoping to keep posts more current in this forum, but the fact of not having an Internet connection and the stress caused by joblessness and my soon-to-be homeless situation have caused me to loose more and more hope for my situation as the days keep flying by.  I am not scared of being homeless but I am not happy about it.  I have always been generous to homeless people in my past, so I don't beleive Karma is out to teach me a brutal lesson, but I can't help thinking that I shouldn't even be in this mess if my past work and loyalties to the previous company I worked for meant anything.  But just because you do a good job doesn't mean your company is going to be loyal to you.  Over these past months I keep thinking about all the things I put up with for the good of the company, all the money I made them and all the money I saved them, and I think, if I ever get in a position of company ownership or management, I am going to look out for my good people.  A good product or good service must always be backed up by good workers for it to survive.  Anyways, thanks for reading. 

Sorry!

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I have not been keeping my posts up lately, I have noticed a drastic decline in views to this site, but I have kind of been depressed lately with the way everything is happening at this time in my life.  I am not having any luck with searching for a job, other than next month I will be working for a short period of time with my neighbor on a job installing equipment in classrooms.  I don't have any experience doing that job and am looking foreward to learning the ins and outs from a professional like my new neighbor.  Thank God someone has decided to give me a chance.  He even decided to give me a 2 dollar raise before we start next month, after talking to me, because he said with my backround I should be able to pick up on it easily.  As I explained in my previous post, I have been denied unemployment benefits, and have to wait a few months for the appeal process to run it's course.  I can see that my chances to win this appeal are very slim, but I continue to hope, seeing how getting a good job is not appearing to work out for me.  If anyone reading has any good ideas for me to try to get a job, I would appreciate it if you ould post a reply.  keep in mind I live in Garden City Michigan and have no car or money.  I only have a 10 speed bike for transportation.  A copy of my resume can be found on the home page of www.xcableguy.com.

Thanks for reading, and I will try to get out of my current depression and continuing my postings from time to time.  My Internet and power will be shut off soon, so I will have to post using my sister's Internet/computer whenever I get a chance.  She lives only a mile or so away, so I will be able to keep you posted every now and then.

Wes

It's tough out there!

I can't get my x-employer of 11 years to pay me unemployment benefits when I quit due to health reasons!!!

I tried to get them to give me a different job within the company, but I guess all the hard work I've done for them over these years doesn't matter to a big heartless company.  They would rather let me rot in the street then pay me for 6 months to find another job out there.  It's tough out there.  I've filled out lots of applications and only got one interview...in over 6 months!  I'm about to get my power/gas turned off, loose my internet, and probably loose my home.  But the company and the Unemployment Insurance company keeps saying it's MY fault for quitting my job due to I was unsatisfied with it.  Like Iwas unsatisfied making a living.  I have been sayiing all along I liked my job, I just couldn't do it for health reasons, all verified by doctors.  It's funny how you have to rely on a decision from a court that has a vested intrest in making sure they pay out as little as possible to as few as possible.  I am going ahead and appealing the latest decision, my lawyer says that they are ignoring a part of the law in which my claim is based off of.  Since that is going to take another month or two, I will continue to look for jobs, and fall further and further into the hole of financial ruin.  Thanks for nothing big business, I hope you get yours someday.

Wes Burgan

Xcableguy

Cable Signal Leakage

Hi everyone, I thought I would write this short article to inform you about something important when it comes to your cable or broadband services.  You may or may not know this, but I'm going to share it anyways, because I think that if this topic was known by more cable subscribers, it could bring down the cost of broadband products and services.  This would be the topic of cable ingress/egress, otherwise called more often in the cable industry, leakage.  Cable signal leakage, to put it simply, is similar to a leak in your plumbing.  If something isn't tight, or is defective, you start loosing water, costing you money in lost water, and eventually in repair costs.  In cable, the problem might not be as obvious as seeing water dripping, or a rotted floor, but the seriousness of it should be looked at the same way.  Cable companies spend a lot of time and money every year trying to control leakage (egress) in their systems, and they are watched very closely by the FCC to make sure they are doing it diligently.  This is because cable signals leaked into the air, may be strong enough to interfere with communications between airplanes and their control towers.  If you have ever had a big enough leak, (usually over 80 decibels) you have probably already received a visit from a cable technician/s, claiming that you have a leak, and that it needed to be repaired.  You probably noticed a piece of equipment they were using to track down the leak, called a leakage gun, or sniffer, and I'm sure the problem was found and fixed.  90% of the time, leaks are corrected by tightening connectors.  The connector behind your tv, cablebox, or modem are usually not tightened down with a wrench.  This is because if you overtighten the connections, you can cause serious damage to your tv, or cable equipment, which could result in the need for professional repair of your tv, or the cable company having to have their equipment serviced by the equipment's manufacturer.  So because these connections are only hand-tightened, over a period of time, the connections naturally work themselves loose.  When they get to a certain point of loosness, they start leaking signals.  Not only do they leak, but the reverse happens as well.  Signals from radio stations or cb are able to enter the cable signal flow (ingress), and can produce interferences in your cable services.  It is possible that a defective or damaged cable is resposible for leakage, but again the most likely cause is loose connectors.  If everyone could become more conscious of possible loose connections in their home, from the back of their tv (if you have basic tv with no cable box), the back of their modem or cable boxes, to the connections in their basements or utility rooms, it could save the cable companies a lot of time running around finding and fixing these problems, and give them more time to fix the many problems that arise outside, from old, weather-beaten drop cables, to replacing drop cables that have been chewed on by squirrels or other animals.  Saving them time saves your cable company money, which in turn may decrease how much your future increases of your cable bills will be.

If you have any questions about this or any broadband cable topic, just post them in the response below, and I will be happy to post a response to your questions. 

Wes 

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As if we weren't busy enough in Iraq and Afganistan

Libia

What the Xf!u$c%K is going on?!?!

Can't we ever have a government that will keep us out of foreign affairs that we shouldn't be involved in?

I said...Can't we ever have a government that will keep us out of foreign affairs that we shouldn't be involved in?!?!

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More Info on Japan Quake

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2011/03/14/want-to-learn-more-about-the-nuclear-disaster-in-japan-here-is-a-bunch-of-information/

My deepest condolences goes out to family and freinds of lost loved ones in Japan.

Wes Burgan

Troubleshooting Your Internet Connection - Check These Things Before Calling Anybody

Cable companies rely on people having problems with their services to make more money. Although its true that they are already making lots of $$$ in billing us for their services, they expect to make a decent portion of their profits in service charges every year. I'm Wes, the X-cable guy. I have worked for almost 12 years for one of the biggest and wealthiest cable providers out there. I'm not going to mention their name, because they are not important in this article. What is important, is saving you money, or informing you about your rights as a cable customer, in case you eventually have to call for service. Today's topic will be focusing on high-speed internet problems. If you would like to know about cable tv, or telephony,(phone) you can look for more articles from me to be written soon.

SLOW SPEEDS

 It is a common misconception, that a slow computer is the result of a slow internet connection. (I don't know why) Think of it this way...if you try to open any program on your computer, and it takes "forever" for the window to even pop up, or if you try to type something, and there is a delay between the pressing of the letter you typed and that letter appearing on your screen, there is something wrong with your computer. The internet itself will not slow down your computer's operation. To prove this, you can unplug your cable modem from power, or unplug the ethernet cable from the back of it that goes to your computer, and then try to open a program, or type something. You probably have the same performance you did with the internet hooked up to the computer. I the very unlikely case that this increased the speed of the operations of your computer, then there are two possibilities for this: 1. Your computer is infected with viruses, and when the internet is hooked up, those viruses are "alive" and using a lot of your computer's resources (memory/processor). 2. It is possible that your cable modem is defective, and sending an electrical back-feed through the ethernet cord, to your computer, but in this case, you usually wouldn't have any internet at all.

In the case of # 2, you will have to have your modem replaced, but before you call your cable provider, you'll want to make sure that #1 isn't the problem. Keep the modem unplugged from your computer or power, and run a full virus scan. If your virus protection software didn't find any threats, does your computer have Windows Defender, or any anti spy program? Maybe your internet browser (Internet Explorer/ Firefox/ Google Chrome) has Yahoo toolbar with Yahoo Antispy on it? If so, run a scan with one of those programs. If there are no viruses, you may want to check the background or startup services running on your computer. Click start...run(or "search all programs or files" for windows 7) then type msconfig, then click ok. When the new window pops up, click on the "startup" tab. Every program that has a checked box, is running constantly on your computer. The only programs that need to be "checked" is your virus protection software, your fax machine if applicable, Magic Jack if you have it, and system tray(for operating systems older than Windows XP). Uncheck all others and restart your computer. When you get back to your desktop, a new window will pop up letting you know of the changes you've just made, just check the box that says don't show again, and click ok. If you have un-checked a few programs, it probably freed up some of your computer's memory, and you should be able to open programs quicker, or notice less lag while you are typing. If you are still experiencing considerable lag, you may want to run system restore, (usually found under all programs/accessories/system tools) and restore back to a date before you started experiencing the lag, and when the computer restarts, check and see if that helped. If not, your computer's operating system needs to be reloaded. After everything is working good on your computer, you can hook your modem back up, and get online, and check to see if your browsing or download speeds are better. You can also perform a speed test by going to <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chi.speakeasy.net">http://www.chi.speakeasy.net</a> and click on the city that is closest to you. It will run a download test, then an upload test. Your download test should be close to the speed you are paying for from your ISP. If you are paying for 6 Meg service, the speed test will show a download speed close to 6.00Mbps. Note: if you have a router hooked up, it will show a decrease your download speed. If your speed is way under what you are paying for, call your ISP (cable provider) and tell them about this. Tell them to check the rate code provided to your cable modem. If they say it's the wrong one, stay on the phone with them, wait until you see all the lights on the modem go out, and come back on, and build up until it syncs again.(block sync) Then run that speed test again. Don't worry if it shows your download speed is just a little below what you are paying for, because the test can't be exact, it is just a good tool for troubleshooting to make sure your speed is in the right range.

INTERMITTENT OR NO INTERNET

 Dealing with these problems can be the most frustrating of all. Intermittent internet can be caused by a lot of different problems, and so can no internet. But don't call for a service call just yet! There are things you can do that may save you a service charge. First of all, the most common fix to both of these problems, believe it or not, is making sure the cable connector to your modem is tight. I know that sounds too easy, and with all the other things that could go wrong, this might sound like it is the least likely to be the case, but it is the third most likely cause, and since it is so easy to get to, you might as well try it first. Make sure it is as tight as you can get it without over-tightening it, because over-tightening causes problems too. After each connection that you've found loose and had to tighten, check your internet for improvement. Next, check to see if there is a SPLITTER on the floor, or a BARREL SPLICE, which should be easy to spot, because they would be metallic and have cables and connectors hooked up to them. One of the cables should be going to your modem. If you've found such a device, make sure all connectors are tight on it as well. Next, find your main splitters, either in your basement or utility room, or maybe on the outside of your house, even in a plastic box attached to you house. It is totally legal for you to gain access to this box, because it is attached to your house, and it only has cable connections in it. You may need a phillips or flathead screwdriver to open it. If there is a "lock" on it that you can not figure out how to unlock it, the next time you have a cable technician at you home, ask them to leave it unlocked. Since it is attached to your house, the tech. should not have a problem with this. If he/she strongly recommends it being locked, let them know you will buy a lock for it and provide the tech. with the key when you need service. When you gain access to this box or main splitters, make sure they are all tight. Remember not to over-tighten.

Again, check your internet. Was there any improvement? If not, you can continue to look for problems by inspecting the cables and connections that you can get to. If a cable is cut or torn, and you can see the insides, such as metal "shielding" or white foamy substance(dielectric) then you have a bad cable, and needs to be replaced by a 75 ohm RG6 cable. This is the standard type of cable to use, and if your not sure where to get a quality cable to replace it with, you are going to have to call the cable company. Next, look at the connectors at the ends of each cable that you can get to, do you see a lot of steel braid coming out of the bottom of them, or does it feel like it would be easy to pull off the cable? If the connector can be easily pulled off the cable, then it isn't creating a good seal, and must be replaced. For this I would also recommend calling your cable company.

If all cables and connectors look good to you during your visual inspection, and you are still having intermittent connections or no internet, you will have to call the cable company for service. If the problem is found to be the cable from the pole to your house, or the connection at the pole or main connection at the house, there should not be any service charge from your cable provider, unless it can be proven that you, someone living with you, or one of your pets have damaged the outside cables. Depending on the cable company, you may be charged for damaged or defective cables or connectors attached to your house or inside of your house, including the tightening of any cables attached to or inside your home. Damages done to cables outside the home caused by wild animals usually cause the service charges to waived. Damage to cables done by a worker contracted by you will usually cause you to pay a service charge. Damage to cables done by a worker contracted by someone who does not live on your property, usually the charges will be waived. If cables and any cable equipment such as cableboxes, modems, remotes are damaged in a house fire, flood, hurricane...you get the point, most cable company's equipment return policies state that their equipment should be returned in an undamaged condition, providing a little leeway for small scratches and normal wear, therefor, make sure your homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance knows of your intent to claim cable equipment damages during such emergencies. It is up to the cable company whether or not they will hold you responsible for the loss of their equipment, after you prove its loss was beyond your control, but if they decide to collect on it, the small increase to your insurance policies might be well worth it compared to the brutal prices most cable companies charge to replace their equipment.

Wes Burgan

www.xcableguy.info.us.mn

Will u give this to my daddy???????????

Will u give this to my daddy?

...As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'
Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed One of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.
Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As t......hey began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.
When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and Cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our Service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi...'

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her...

The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second... Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday - and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED.
The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is.....We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

Author Unknown

How to follow the #JapanQuake online - Holy Kaw

via holykaw.alltop.com

ALLTOP

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Liberty and Justice for "Some?"

When I was a kid, I beleived in our liberty and every man's right in our country to live free, as long as that person didn't kill, hurt, or rob anyone. I also thought our leadership, through their great wisdom, would somehow make sure that justice would be made possible for all, even the poor. You know, like the good always wins over evil kind of thing. As I got older, I noticed an ever increasing decrease in our freedoms, and an increase in our judicial systems's focus on making money, rather then just doing the job before them, and punishing the guilty. In fact, if you are as guilty as a red-handed crook in a paint factory, as long as you have enough money, you can usually get out of trouble with a couple of lawyers, and a new suit and haircut. The poor however, can not afford the lawyers, or the nice clothing, and usually find themselves trapped in the system. If the poor person actually commited the crime, he/she deserves to be caught up in the system, but if they were falsely accused, where can they find justice? You see it all the time on the news, a rich or powerful person, sitting in court, with a smirk on their face, knowing that if they are convicted, they will only get a very light sentence of probation or community service, while the poor person in the next courtroom receives 2 to 5 years for the same crime. This is hardly what you expect our founding fathers had in mind when they drafted our country's first laws, and hardly the reason so many of our good military people have given their lives to protect our freedoms. In fact, our founding fathers cared more about the "average" citizen, by proclaiming that "the PEOPLE" were in charge, only giving their representatives the responsibility to vote over new laws. Somehow, over time, these "representatives" have taken it upon themselves, to tell us how we should live our lives, and how we should answer to them. Not only adding laws to our legal system faster than a mongoose on a mouse, but making them so hard to understand, that they can be interpreted many different ways to satisfy whatever agenda they come up with in the future. Re-writing or repealing our rights as outlined in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, over the years, have made the "average" citizen no more than a "vagrant" in their minds, wandering the country, looking to them for their great leadership, and begging for their good graces. I'm not saying all of our country's leadership is guilty of this, but it seems, as more years go by, more politicians of this way of thought get "voted" in. Doesn't it bother you, like it does me, that only members of the "two-parties-system" can be the President of the United States? What makes those parties so special? Isn't it strange that there are usually less than a handful of differences in thought between these two parties? During election time, you see members of these two parties going after each-other like "dogs over a meat bone," but when it comes time to vote over something, you see little "deals" being worked out, and a more civil tone usually. Why do we all seem to get "screwed" when politicians all seem to "agree" on a subject. I thought they were supposed to "agree" with the majority of their constituents. (or at least vote in favor of them) Why has our right
to carry a gun been so visously attacked and in most cases taken away? Do you think all of these "nut jobs" that are just going into public places and opening fire on innocent people, may be stopped quicker, with less loss of life, if you or I can just take care of the problem on the spot, instead of having to wait for the "Campus Police" or the "Boys in blue" to arrive? I am still proud to be an American, and love this country, but I can't understand why things are allowed to go on the way it does. Why are illegal aliens allowed to protest in our streets. I always think, "there's a bunch of them RIGHT THERE!" "Where is the INS or ICE? They can pick up a bunch of them and send them back RIGHT NOW!" "What right do they have to protest in OUR country?" "Do we have the right to go to THEIR country and protest?"
My suggestions to many of our problems is this: Do away with the "two pary only" system, get rid of the Electoral College, and make every single vote count, close our borders to any new citizens or illegal aliens, and send them back on the next flight or ship, and restore our country's Constitution, and individual state constitutions,(allowing for civil liberties to all races of course,) to the state it was in when it was signed by our country's founders, increase taxes on foreign goods or reinstitute tariff, decrease and cap taxes on American citizens. Renounce our country's citizenship in the United Nations. Simple as that. This would be a much better world with OUR country back in charge. You might remember from reading your history lessons, that after World War 2, that things started looking better for our country, that even though we were the "new guys," we were the world leaders, and we didn't intend on taking crap from anyone. We showed up and straightened up this crazy world!

U.S. education continues decline

U.S. education continues decline

How to Be Successful at Rapid E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog

How to Be Successful at Rapid E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog

E-Learning Queen

E-Learning Queen

The good ol' days

Hi, welcome back.  It seems I'm the only one posting here so far, so I would like to encourage my visitors to post.  Post what you want, as long as it's clean, you know the deal.  Anyways, I'm back from a brief vacation from the internet, due to my service provider finally shut me off. If you have read my previous posts, you know that I've been unemployed for a few months now, and finding a job is like finding a bag full of money someone dropped.  I am back now, for a while, apparently writing for a few people to read, so I'll finally start explaining the reason for the title of this blog.  "The good ol' days"; you might have noticed the old black and white picture at the top of my blog home page, and I chose it for my "logo" for a reason.  The picture was taken in the 70's , I am unsure of the exact year, and it was taken in Kentucky, where I used to live when I was about 10 years old. The house you can barely make out, on the right,  is the house I lived in, with my mother, sister and brother.  It was the good old days back then for plenty of reasons.  First of all, I was just a kid, without a care in the world, other than when my next meal was on the table:)  The landscape down there was beautiful, the air so fresh, and if you were hungry, there was all kinds of fruits and vegetables growing all around.  There was even a lake a little more than a half mile through the woods to the left of the picture, or about a mile if you continued down the road in the direction the picture is displaying.  The water that ran through small streams, through the hills, and down to the lake, was so pure, I couldn't help but drink it. (though I know now in adulthood, that probably wasn't a good idea)   It was the perfect spot, at the time to be a kid, even though I only lived there for a year.  I have been back and forth from Michigan to there all of my life though , because family on my dad's side lives on that street.  It was the best memories of my young life living there, and I learned a lot there for those 12 or 13 months.  There, I could wander through the woods, which gave me good directional skills that I still have today.  I would build forts, with my brother and sister, and climb trees, and swing on vines over deep valleys, or ride bikes down hills. All the things city boys only daydreamed about up north.  Although there were many dangerous animals out there, they never attacked us, except I was charged by a bull a couple of times.  The cows on the property, would always be watching us carefully when we would walk by them, but they would just keep their distance, and continue eating.  We owned several pets down there; a dog, two cats, two chickens, and a one-legged rooster.  By the time we moved back up to MI, the two chickens were killed by weasels, and the dog was bit by a snake, and died after a few days.  We gave our rooster (w/1/leg) to our neighbors, who already had a rooster and many chickens.  When our rooster was put in the cage with the other one, they fought for a few minutes, with our rooster winning!  The next day I walked down to the neighbor's house to check on him, and there he was in the cage with about 10 hens laying around him.  The other rooster had 2. 
Anyways, enough about animals.  The best part of living down there to me, was the friendly people.  You would be driving by them, and even though you've never met them before, they would wave at you.  Even when I went to school there, the kids obviously knew I wasn't from there, from my northern accent, but I was soon excepted by most of my classmates.  Many seemed interested in me because they had never met a "Yankee" before.  There was a slight language barrier at first, and I was confused many times when talking to them, but by the end of the year, I had acquired  a relatively close accent to theirs.  I noticed too, that my classmates didn't pick on others in the school who were either overweight, ugly, or otherwise different.  The people down there had a "different" way about them, compared to us folk in the North or big cities.  They never seemed in a hurry, and somehow tardiness wasn't much of an issue; they rarely resorted to violence, although they talked like they were ready for it at all times, and they were never quick to jump to conclusions.  I can't put a number on how many fights I've been in or almost been in, up here, when someone misunderstood what I was saying or doing.  Yeah, the country folk seemed real laid back and relaxed, the kind of life, I hope one day, I could have again.
Well, that's enough from me for now.  Talking about all that has got me thinking about wanting to find a way to get back to the "good life".  But, I'm probably stuck up here with my life.  Thanks for reading, I'll write again soon.