Flotsam & Jetsam » House

Energy Savings

Zeke — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:34:03 +0000

This was a bad winter here in the Northeast. Bitter cold, lots of snow. Spent a good portion of last fall weatherizing the house, but wasn’t perfect. I kept feeling drafts that I couldn’t find. Black and Decker have released an affordable Thermal Leak Detector for $50 that might be helpful next time around.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=20626

Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?

Zeke — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:37:12 +0000

I love this poster. I saw it at a friends house a couple weeks back and had to track down a copy. I think it’ll be a perfect addition to our bathroom.

http://www.georgetownbookshop.com/georgetown/display2.asp?id=167

Verizon DSL

Zeke — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:52:01 +0000

Ah, Verizon. The company we love to hate.

I’ve had Verizon DSL for near on 9 years now. I got it when I lived in Morningside Heights and they first started offering it in NYC, then moved the service to Brooklyn when I graduated from school, then moved it to Astoria when I bought my house. Throughout that time I’ve had long bouts of good service followed by long (but shorter) bouts of bad service. This last long bout (for poor internet service that is) has lasted about a month. Every couple of days my download speed – which should be 3mb / sec down falls to, oh, 3KB / sec and stays that way for several hours, or days, depending on how long it takes me to get through the myriad of drones Verizon has manning their tech support lines and convincing them that the problem isn’t the fact that I’m not running virus protection, but that they have a problem in their switch. In the past month I’ve spoken to support people in India, Mexico, the Philipines and somewhere in the fly-over. Well, now thanx to the Consumerist, I have a secret weapon – Verizon’s Landline Executive Customer Support:

Call 1-800-483-7988 and press 3 to reach the Verizon Customer Advocates for landlines and DSL

I called them today and got a support manager on the line who filed an escalated complaint and has promised to send out a technician tomorrow. Hopefully this will get the situation solved once and for all. If not, Speakeasy here I come.

*Edit*

If that doesn’t work, call the New York State Public Service Commission: 800-342-3377. They take complaints, register them and then force the utility companies to respond. From everyone I’ve spoken to, going this route gets the most difficult problems solved quickly.

Here’s their website: http://www.dps.state.ny.us/

Cool Chair

Zeke — Fri, 05 May 2006 19:49:47 +0000

I want one of these

Toilet Paper Wars

Zeke — Thu, 04 May 2006 15:50:35 +0000

Which way should the toilet paper be put on the roll? Over the top, or under? I’ve noticed that lots of people have strong opinions on this, but rarely discuss them. When they do express their opinion – it’s generally in a strange passive / agressive way. I’ve seen it at house parties a couple times. You go to the bathroom and the TP is in one position. You go back and someone has turned the roll around.

I wonder where this preference comes from – nurture or nature? Do your parents instill it in you or are you born with a preference at birth? Is one more recessive than the other? Both my parents kept the roll under, and my brother and I both do it. We also all have recessive blue eyes – coincedence?

In my house you can always tell who changed the roll last – over the top is Niki, under is me. It hasn’t been the topic of any discussions (much less arguements), but you can tell we each have a strong opinion in the matter (surprise). Here’s the question – if / when we have kids, which way would they want it? If they have blue eyes will they like it under, and over if they have brown? I guess only time will tell…..

Grrrr…..