This is a post to have something new here

Which is to say that there isn't too much to say.

Ah, I guess I can go off on a monopoly-based, small-town-business rant.

I just dropped my local phone service. Now, I know many people are switching to cell phones anyway, but I just can't bring myself to make that switch entirely. I need some land line. When I was preparing to move here I figured I'd just stick with BellSouth ... er, AT&T, and all would be good. Not quite so. If I lived about a mile south of where I do, yes. If I lived about five more miles north, yes. But I live in an area only serviced by the small town's local telephone company and it charges pretty high prices for their services.

Your only choices, if you don't want to be bent over the barrel by this telephone company, is to opt for cell-only service or get VOIP. We had debated going cell-phone only, but while coverage is pretty good through most of this area, we have a dead spot right in our house. So, we went with VOIP. Just hooked it up the other day and last nigth got it set up where all my home's phone jacks are live. So far I'm pretty happy. The one problem I've had is that my wireless routher sucks. I've got a new one of those inbound. If my damn cable modem had more than one ethernet output it wouldn't be an issue, but ... oh he-well.

In other news, I got As on both of my final research papers and was told by my Media Law instructor that I should submit one of them to the Association for Education of Journalism and Mass Communications, Southeast Colloquium. If I earn a spot there, I will be exempt from comprehensive exams at the end of my degree program. So, I think I'm going to take the time to polish the paper a little.

So, that's me lately. Recovering from semester one, dreading semester two and enjoying the Play Now feature of Netflix. Even when I decide to watch a really, really bad film.