Something happened today that really pissed me off, my Yahoo account got hijacked. To anyone affected, I am sorry.

It started with an IM on my Yahoo screen name from a buddy who was on my buddy list, it was a link to a page of photos, I figured he was sending me a pic of him and his boyfriend or something and I clicked on it. It took me to a Yahoo Photos page and asked me to login like it has a million times before and I entered it. I then got a no photos shared message and thought nothing of it.

Today, I signed on to my “other” Yahoo name and got an offline message from myself. It was the link. I thought it was strange but dismissed it. Then a friend on AIM said “Oh that link you sent me didn’t work” I was confused and decided to sign onto my first screen name and found that I had no access. My password had been changed. I took a second look at the link and sure enough it was NOT a Yahoo site. I went through the steps to change my password back praying that they hadn’t changed anything else, luckily they hadn’t and I got my password change and when I got signed on there were messages from tons of people saying “that link didn’t work.” So it seems that everyone on my buddy list got this link, but LUCKILY, whoever sent it, mistyped it and the link was broken with a <font> tag so everyone got a 404 not found error and not the yahoo login. Thank goodness for small things.

Sorry to anyone who got the IM…

We just got home from my parents. It was a long day. It took most of the day but they finally let my mom come home from the hospital. It was a bit touchy there since they had talked about admitting her to the ICU. They got her potassium under control and they finally sent her home.

We had dinner (I really still wasn’t hungry) and spent some time together. It was just nice to be with my family.

Two things I wanted to say to two dear people…

Erica, thanks so much for the books. They were perfect birthday gifts.

Vu, I am sorry for being short with you on the phone, I was just really stressed about my mom. I hope you’re not mad.

I’m so tired. I am off to bed.

Well yesterday was my 32nd birthday. Happy birthday to me! I had a great day thanks to Shawn.

We woke up early and went to a favorite place, the Shady Maple for breakfast (hey it’s free on your birthday!). I ate light though and just had a few favorite things. We came back to the house and dealt with the HDTV issues (see yesterday’s post). Shawn said he wanted to go visit AJ at his new apartment. We headed down to his place and it’s really nice. He has it decorated nicely and it’s very roomy. We sat around and chatted and finally Shawn said he was ready to leave, and we headed downtown, I was under the impression we were going to meet a friend for some drinks but we ended up at the Loews Philadelphia. The hotel is the famous PSFS building the building is an impressive skyscraper that originally served as a bank branch, retail store space and office space. The building was closed in 1992 when PSFS went bankrupt and was purchased by Loews eventually to be converted into a hotel.

It was a hell of a surprise I had no idea he was planning anything! I asked what was going on and he said we’re staying here for the nite and we have reservations at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. I was so happy. We checked in to the hotel which is so cool, the lobby is the lobby of the bank and is covered in black granite and cherry colored wood, the vault is exposed and is impressive. Our room was a corner room on the 25th floor and the view from the room was impressive…

View from the Loews Philadelphia

We settled in, got changed and went to the restaurant. Let me start by saying I’ve never had a better meal in my life. The food was awesome, the atmosphere extremely comfortable and the company exquisite. We ate so much that even right now my side is still hurting. We started with martinis, followed by salads, Shawn had a lettuce wedge big enough for two, smothered in blue cheese and bacon. I had a tasty Caesar. Dinner for me was a Filet Mignon cooked Medium, Potatoes Au Gratin and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. It was hands down the best steak I’ve ever eaten. The asparagus was perfectly al dente and the sauce was delish. The potatoes au gratin were made with a sharp white cheddar sauce and shredded mild yellow cheddar baked on top. Fantastic Shawn had Cowboy Rib eye, a bone in steak that was amazing. Garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. It was so tasty. I had a second martini that was very stiff and hit me hard. Dessert was a Key Lime Tart, with 2 candles (one for this year, one for the future as our waiter, Ron, informed us). The tart was amazing and even though I was too full, I ate it anyway. Amazing meal.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and rested awhile. We gave AJ a called and arranged for him to come down and go over to Bump for drinks. When we got there it was kinda of dead. It filled up and there were lots of things to giggle at, I did get cruised by a daddy bear and young, very muscular Asian guy dressed in vintage from head to toe kept staring at us. After a few more drinks at Bump, we headed over to Woody’s, a very popular club in Philly. I had not been there in about 6 years and I found out two things…

1. nothing ever changes at Woody’s, it was exactly the same bullshit as before
2. I am so not cut out for places like that.

I was not at all impressed with the people who had no consideration for others, the noise, the smell, the attitudes or the crowd. I like places like the Dugout in NYC which to me was more of a bar, and less of a club. We had two queens who kept jumping up on the stairs behind us and shaking their asses. Trash! I also had a couple next to me who were obviously having an argument over me. It appears the one guy got caught checking me out by the other and that didn’t sit well. What I don’t understand is that it was pretty obvious that Shawn and I were together! Still it was a little nice to be the center of attention for a few seconds!

After Woody’s we went back to the hotel and and Shawn gave me my gift, a Griffin Technologies iMic, a USB sound card for my Mac. I need it to do the recording for the podcast. I am so excited, I can’t wait to use it. Next, I grabbed a shower and crashed. I was so tired. We got up this morning and are now headed out to my parents, sadly my mom was admitted to the hospital while we were out on the town :(. We’re still waiting to see what they’re gonna do with her, I sure hope they send her home.

All in all except for that, it was an amazing birthday! Thank you Shawn

Wow what a bitch. This HDTV thing has been one hell of a bitch. We set to work on it this morning and called up our cable company. I explained to the person on the other end that I could get only basic channels on the HDTV converter, and I could only see the guide banners on the digital cable box. She suggested maybe I had them connected wrong, umm hello I wouldn’t get a picture if they were hooked up wrong. She suggested they send a technician out on Monday but warned me that there’d be a $35 charge if it that turned out to be the problem.

I got a little annoyed and yelled at the woman a bit and asked to speak to the person who helped me yesterday. I was finally connected and she was some help. She did some stuff back at the office and suddenly the HDTV converter was working but not the digital box. After some more talking, the woman offered to send a hard reset to the box and call me back in an hour, I took it.

So now with the HDTV converter working, it was time to set about the task of figuring out the High Def connection issues. I chose to use the DVI-D cable as it’s supposed to be the highest quality hook up but when I set it up, the LCD TV would get a picture and display a message that said something about HDCP (High Definition Content Protection), an encryption scheme to ensure that the signal from the HD box makes it to the HD Monitor with zero degradation, and then loses it’s picture.

I started reading up and read the TV specs which state that HDCP is supported and is not supported. It very much contradicted it self. The TV is supposed to be able to support 1080i but I could not even get a 480i signal to work. Frustrated, I decided to try the Component cables, I unhooked the cables from the back of the DVD player and hooked it up to the back of the HD box. Hooked up this way, I could get 480i Video from the converter but I could not get anything higher. I am now beginning to get really really confused. After about 20 more minutes of playing with it, I went and grabbed the owner’s manual. And found out that:

1. The DVI-D connection on my TV is for a computer output only, not HDTV.
2. There are two component connections, one for DVD one for HDTV
3. The DVD component input is capable of 480i which is enough for DVDs
4. The HDTV component input is capable of 1080i for HDTV.

Some cables were moved and bang it right out, mine eyes were awash in all the yummy HD goodness of Discovery HD! Hot!

The digital cable box however did not work still and they decided to send out a technician, on Monday, which with Shawn’s new job situation, meant I’d have to work at home to be here. We decided to say f the second digital cable box and just return it. Once we had wrapped it up and got it ready to take back, the cable company called to tell us there was a problem on their end and everything should be working now, I said thanks but no thanks, we’re giving it back! So we kept the HDTV box and we’re returning our digital cable box.

Thank goodness that’s sorted.

Today was day one of my four days off. It started off very well, got up had some breakfast, went out for a bit in the nice cool morning with Shawn. We bummed around most of the day. We really just enjoyed each other’s company, as usual. The day however got interesting when we remembered to call the cable company to finally see if they had gotten HDTV and Digital cable finally setup in our neighborhood. To our shock…they told us they did.

We hauled ass up to the cable office to pick up the HDTV converter. When we got there we got off to a bad start. The lady behind the counter told us that they don’t usually give boxes out this late in the day because if there is a problem, they won’t be open to help us and could we come back tomorrow. Well we said no just give us the box. They did and we talked to another very nice woman who was very helpful and we were on our way.

Of course we get home, all excited and hook up the box and nothing. It wont work thru the DVI cable, no menus come up, it only shows a few channels and the digital cable box no longer works either. I am assuming there is something wrong with our account now and we’ll have to call tomorrow and get it straightened out. What a downer!

At least we had regular cable because I did not want to miss Big Brother 6. As expected, Eric was voted out but the surprise was that Maggie (his partner who is NOT in Kaysar’s gang of six, won HOH. This could make it interesting. I can’t wait to see who gets put up!

Sigh… I love that show.

G’nite

I mean it. I love Reality TV. Tonight after dinner with Barb, we sat down to catch up on some TV and TiVo, and we did some heavy duty reality shows. We started off with “So You Think You Can Dance?” I loved it. Some great folks and some messes! Barb laughed as well. Our catching up started with Big Brother 6. High drama. Kaysar got himself, Jannelle and 2 other couples aligned to try and get out Eric. The veto competition was so dramatic. I love this show.

After BB6, we watched Hell’s Kitchen. Are we having fun yes? I think this show is so good. We like when Chef Ramsey yells at everyone. Such a good show too bad it comes to an end next week.

Like I said, I love Reality TV.

Tonight was another great night. Barb came over and we went out to Smokey Bones and had some BBQ in celebration of Shawn’s last day at his job and to celebrate my impending birthday. The food was great, the company was better. We had so much fun.

Thanks Barb!

Well today I got to don my Mac Zealot hat. I have a friend online who has been contemplating a Mac purchase and I of course offered to help him navigate the waters from PC to Mac. I met up with him at the Apple Store in the King of Prussia Mall. He was very interested in the Mac and had lots of questions. I talked for damn near 3.5 hours. What did drive me nuts is the sales people. It’s not that they came over to ask if we needed help, it’s that they stand there, and listen to me talk, and it has to be obvious that I know what I am talking about, and they just wait until they think they can jump in and try to discredit me. I mean we are all on the same team. When the first salesperson did that, he cut me off mid sentence and pissed me off. A bit later a very creepy guy came over and stood way to close to us. Definitely in our personal space and he was so creepy. He stood and listened to me talk for about 10 minutes before he asked if he could help. I so badly wanted to say “What do you think?”

After I got off my bully pulpit, we headed over to Champps for dinner and had some great conversation and a good meal. I know it’s geeky of me but I had such a good time talking to someone who was interested and wanted to hear what I had to say. It was a great evening.

Well, my left nut is safe. As expected the worker from the building company did not show up this morning at 8am as promised. Another day wasted. I don’t know what to do. Do I call and complain or just say f it.

There are two things I am getting damn sick of and it goes back to the same principle, consideration.

I am tired of people promising things and then not delivering and that being the way it is. It seems more and more expected that people don’t do what they say they will and that sucks big time.

I am also tired of people who only contact you when they need you. This weekend I had a friend, someone I counted as a good friend call me up and leave me a message like they were calling a tech support line. Not even a “hey how are you?” or an “I hope all is well”, nope… just a very business like call. I am so tired of that too.

It all comes back to consideration. Have some for your your neighbor, it doesn’t cost a damn thing.

Tonight Queer as Folk was soooooo good! Goodness. I got totally sucked into it and it’s finally getting good. Of course just as it’s going off! No spoilers here. It was just damn good.