I'm so sorry if doing your job is inconvenient to your social life.

Ugh. I have one word to describe my frustration: Comcast.

I know, I know- who doesn't have issues with this internet provider?

But hear me out. It's not because of their sketchy internet (although that was one of the main reasons we cancelled last year).

It's because of their rude customer service agents.

After months of sharing the internet with our extremely friendly neighbors (a fantastic deal, as we split the cost), we have decided to try again. This is partly because when our neighbors go on vacation, and the internet goes out, we have no way of pushing the reset button.

(On a completely unrelated note, my apartment complex frowns on breaking and entering.)

So that was my assignment this week. Find our own internet.

I started with Comcast. I looked up their prices, and then compared them to Verizon.

Hmm. Verizon is looking a bit cheaper.

Still, Comcast is familiar. And I have to start somewhere.

So this morning, I got on my cell phone and gave them a call. The guy who answered the phone set me at ease immediately. He was friendly, and helpful, and on the other side of the country.

Shoot. They routed me to the Utah office, because that's where my cell number is from.

We laughed about the mix up, and then he kindly transferred me to the Pittsburgh office.

Where I was treated like crap.

"Hi! I am looking into getting the internet set up at my home. And I was hoping you could tell me about the prices."

"Um, ok. Are you calling to have the internet installed?"

Those words sound so innocent here, but believe me, they were not. He was talking down at me like I was stupid. It was a total "you're wasting my time" kind of voice.

The rest of the call went pretty much like that. Him sighing loudly, being almost-sarcastic, and generally treating me like I was a waste of oxygen.

WHAT THE HELL, COMCAST? I am the customer. I'm sorry if doing your job is inconvenient to your social life. I get that you are being asked to do such terrible things like sitting on your butt, answering the phone, and typing on a keyboard.

But do you have to take it out on me?

I am so tired of bitchy sales clerks, and customer service people who act like I'm ruining their life by asking them to do their job. You don't feel like opening a dressing room, looking up a price, or answering the phone? TOUGH SHIT.

Maybe it's my fault for not saying something. Maybe I smile too much, or back down too easily. Maybe I have a sign on my back saying "kick this one, she won't hit back."

And maybe I just need to lose my temper, and start talking to them like they talk to me. If it all escalates, and I get a reputation at the local police station, well, what can I say? At least I stood up for myself.

...but I probably won't. Instead, I will grit my teeth, and keep the peace, and then spend the rest of the day running different scenarios through my mind, and muttering under my breath like a crazy person.

So in conclusion, I will be calling Verizon tomorrow. And if they are nice to me, I will sign up in a heartbeat.


So how about you? Do you have any Comcast stories? Or stories about rude sales people in general? Because I would Love to hear them.

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If you loved me, you'd send me spam.

So, yesterday's post made some of you feel left out. For the record, if I could, I would send all of you creepy free movie ticket emails. I really mean that.

Now, if it was real movie tickets, I would just keep them for myself.

...Too much honesty?

For more spam, please be sure and enable your email in your blogger account.

That's how I reply to comments, so you will also get emails from me saying things like "No, you are the most awesome person on the planet!" and "Yes, I should have my own TV show" (depending on your comment).

No really, you should do this. It makes blogging so much more fun. You will suddenly get tons of bloggers replying to your comment, and less people will hate you for showing up as a "noreply-comment@blogger.com."

As for the random, questionable email that went out yesterday, I can't promise a lot of those. Heck, I'll even try to limit them in the future. But just know that every one is sent with love. And a whole lot of malware (I assume).

And if you ever click through a link, and it asks for your credit card number? Run away. Like, book it into the other room, and hide under a table. And take your credit card with you.

...Unless it's a LivingSocial Deal. Those things rock my world.

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I didn't send you a movie ticket

So, I think I need to change my password. It looks like something hacked my Gmail address book, and sent out a thing for free movie tickets. I have no idea if it's legit, but I'm thinking not.

Sorry guys.

I tried to send out emails to everyone, but there are 924 people in my contacts, and I reached my sending limit pretty fast.

Hopefully people see either this, or my facebook update...

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Someone hacked my blog, and is redirecting my traffic!

I woke up this morning to a text from my sister, Chantel.

"I want to read your Disneyland post, but every time I got to your blog, it takes me to some weird website. I don't know if it's my computer, or you."

I ran out to the computer, and tried it myself. I typed in lifeinthepitts.com, crossed my fingers, hit enter...

...and it redirected me. Bastards.

I quickly changed my password, and started searching on google.

It was disheartening.

"...I don't know who my webhost is!"

"...Crap, I haven't backed up my blog in months!!"

"...But I haven't added any new widgets!!!"

Things were looking grim.

I decided to start with something simple. I went into my design page, and deleted everything in my sidebar. Once all the widgets were gone, even the seemingly harmless ones, I swallowed hard. Then I typed in my url, and hit enter...

...and it worked just fine.

Oh yeah. I owned that malware! There's no stopping the Helena. See this dance? That's a victory dance. Because you lost, widget. That wasn't luck, my friend. That was SKILL.

...Ok, it was luck.

I got lucky. I was lucky that it was just some sneaky widget hacking my site, and now things are back to normal.

Next time I might not be so fortunate.

When I was doing my google search, I saw a lot of stories from people whose entire blogs were deleted, and their posts were gone.

Just...gone.

I can't imagine what that would feel like. Well ok, I can, and it would be awful.

I put my heart into this blog. It's the closest thing to a journal I will ever have. I have spent so many hours typing out my thoughts, tweaking the wording, reading your comments. And if that was just gone, it would be heartbreaking.

It might seem silly to be so attached to a website, but I'm sure my blogging friends understand what I'm saying.

For the rest of you? Imagine waking up one morning, and not being able to find your puppy. Someone stole him while you weren't looking, and there isn't even a ransom note. For all you know, he's being kept in the back of a Filipino restaurant, and the customers are getting hungry.

It's just like that. Only, you know, less bloody.

This is why I will be downloading my blog more regularly.

Also? Why I love my sister (she's useful).

So if you tried to visit last night/this morning, I am sorry you were redirected. But hey, it could have been worse, right? The site it went to was pretty tame. No naked grandma's named Bambi, crocheting seductively.

....Which gives me an idea for another post.

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Here is a link which describes how to backup your Blogger blog, and here is an updated one for Wordpress, straight from the comments section.

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And I'm linking this up to Small Treasures Tuesday (which is open all week long). Because Naked Grandma's are a treasure.

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HTML is my life.

I should have just majored in Computer Science at BYU. I didn't, because I hate writing code, and I figured I'd never use it.

I was so, so wrong.



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