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So the Comcast technician came and said that the problem is that our wires are all chewed up. (We have a cat that likes to chew cords for some reason.) Then he tells us that they would charge us $60 to come in and run new wires. We told him no thanks, we can do it ourselves for a tenth of that. Then he questioned us having a 3-way splitter in our basement (which I guess we really don't need because we don't have a TV down there anymore) and tried to insist that the wires in our house are causing problems for other people and he would have report all this to his boss and our service might get shut off. Yea, I'm definitely switching now. I talked to someone from DirectTV and they said I can just call up before the free 3-month period ends and cancel the premium channels I don't want/need. Plus I'll finally be able to join the 2000's and get a DVR.

It's really not much of a secret. Put a little effort into making the lives of your employees a little better and easier (even if it costs a little more money) and they will be much more willing to work a little harder and will actually want to stay with the company. It's amazing how many companies don't realize this.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) 140+ channels for $54.99 LINK I found that link in my searching. When I select one of the packages it asks me to log in to verify my DirecTV account. So I'm guessing that's only for existing customers?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 01:52 PM) They certainly have packages without premium channels. That's what I have with them. I guess I'll have to call them. I've been scouring their website and the only packages they offer include them automatically and it doesn't give me the option to remove them.

If I could get DirecTV for less than what I pay for cable I would make the switch in a minute. I've checked their packages and it would be cheaper for the first 3 months. Then they start charging for HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz. I can't seem to find a package that doesn't include those channels.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 2, 2013 -> 09:37 AM) Me too. To this day I have never traded in a car. They have all become either not worth fixing, or totaled in an accident. I just traded in a vehicle for the first time in my life a few months ago. It was a 1993 Suburban with 145,000 miles on it. It had a handful of mechanical and cosmetic problems but they offered me $900 for it without even seeing it. That's about what it was worth considering the shape it was in and I didn't have the headache of trying to sell it myself.

I missed SOA last night because 2 of my cable boxes decided to take a crap 5 minutes before the show started. The main box was making the picture on the TV huge so that it was literally cutting it off on all 4 sides. I tried adjusting the picture settings on both the TV and the box to no avail. When I unplugged it and tried to switch it with one in another room they both quit working completely. I called Comcast's completely unhelpful customer service and they are going to send a tech out tomorrow. After an hour or so I got about half my channels back on one of the boxes but it was completely random which channels I got. All the basic local channels (ABC, NBC, FOX, etc...) and a handful of cable channels. This morning when I checked it I had everything except FX. The other cable box was still DOA. So here's a nice big FU to Comcast and their s***ty equipment.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 1, 2013 -> 02:40 PM) If the Sox hired Guillen again, I'd be a happy camper. I just wish some team would hire him again. He's an entertaining chap IMO. I'd like to see the Cubs hire him to watch that unfold. I would love to see that as well considering Ozzie is the exact opposite of what the Cubs want/need in a manager.

My biggest complaint are the people that wait until they are within 1/8 of a mile of the exit they want and then need to cross 2-3 lanes of traffic to get to it. I see this every pretty much every single day with both cars and semis. Getting onto I-90 from I-290 right there by Woodfield Mall is the worst.

He didn't say the job isn't difficult. He said your tone is condescending. There's no reason to act like truckers are infallible and us "four-wheelers" are the ones screwing it up.

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 27, 2013 -> 05:28 AM) If Sale had 20 wins on a crappy team like this, how many of us would be pointing towards wins to build his case? That would certainly be pretty impressive if he had 1/3 of the team's total wins.

Sean Lowe. Mostly for the time he picked off Mark Grace with the old "fake to third, throw to first" play that never works. But it worked that time.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 26, 2013 -> 09:19 AM) Congrats to the Kansas City Royals on a 28th consecutive season without reaching the playoffs. In today's wild card era, it truly takes effort to accomplish such a feat. In that 28 years, they've finished 2nd 3 times. 1987 they won 83 games and ended 2 games behind the Twins. 1989 they won 92 games and ended 7 games behind the A's. In the strike-shortened season of 1995 they finished 2nd even though they were 4 games under .500 at 70-74. Had the WC existed in 1989, they would've gotten it. Other than that, they haven't even really been close.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 26, 2013 -> 10:46 AM) To get the government subsidies (i.e., cheap premiums) your income can't be more than 4 times the federal poverty line. Balta had a link a few pages back that will let you see what the cost would be. I'm under the 400% of the poverty line but I can't find anything that gives me actual cost numbers. I found the official site that won't have anything until Oct 1.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 25, 2013 -> 05:11 PM) For the complete losers out there who haven't watched Breaking Bad, AMC is doing a 5 day marathon of all 5 seasons in order starting tonight at 7pm CST. Set those DVRs. I'm a complete loser because I've never watched Breaking Bad and I don't have a DVR. I have enough trouble keeping up with SOA and Under the Dome.

I may have asked this question before but is everyone eligible for the Obamacare or just people that aren't offered insurance through their employer? Both my wife's and my job offer insurance but we really don't like it.

QUOTE (onedude @ Sep 24, 2013 -> 01:02 PM) Yeah, I heard that Lithium actually has nothing to do with meth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_batte...mphetamine_labs

A few theories.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 22, 2013 -> 10:56 AM) So after a couple months at the helm of a big rig I feel qualified to give your 4 wheelers some tips on dealing with us that will help you: 1. Never pass on the right. Never pass on the right. NEVER PASS ON THE RIGHT. Once the highway goes to the 3 lanes trucks will mostly camp the middle lane, this keeps us from having to get out of the way and let in merging traffic while not blocking the passing the lane. A lot of 4 wheelers take this as an invitaton to use the right lane as a 2nd passing lane. I've come very close to running over numerous cars because on the passenger's side of the truck I dont have blind spots, I have blind fields. I cant see you down there, you're underneath the field of my side mirrors and unless you're driving some lifted truck I cannot see you out the passenger window. Everytime you do it you are risking death, I'm not kidding. If there's one rule you can follow around trucks its this one. I'm forced to pass them on the right every single day because of the 35 miles of construction on I-90 between Elgin and Rockford. There are only 2 lanes and the signs all say "trucks use left lane".

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 01:02 PM) It's amazing how the two architects of the 05 title, Kenny and Ozzie, predictably couldn't sustain it and flopped. Kind of like Ditka/Ryan. I guess we should be very very happy the Bulls sustained with Jordan, winning multi titles. And the Blackhawks more than one, with the future also looking bright. I happen to love Ozzie in the KW/Oz duo. A lot of you despise him and like KW, who I despise. Funny how that works. Both have the ultimate prize, but both also could be considered huge failures by others because of their lack of sustainability. I guess we should be just happy attendance is good enough to prevent anybody from hinting the Sox might move. The Sox may rise again. How long is anybody's guess. Sustained winning is difficult in any sport. A couple of teams have figured it out but they are the exceptions to the rule.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 02:25 PM) The L is pretty awesome and if they did away with it, then traffic would be an even bigger nightmare than it already is. FIFY

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 08:38 PM) Oh, and has anyone encountered a security truck yet? I found one, and they are apparently loaded with cash, which I need desparately because I just lost $4500 on the stock market w/ Michael, but I had a got damn mini van and after taking a shot at the back door from the car, the truck drove away faster than the minivan could go, and I lost it. Real bummed right now. I have to apologize for laughing at your expense, but reading this made me literally LOL. I can totally imagine this happening to me though. In the previous versions, I hated getting stuck with a slow, crappy car while watching the person I was chasing drive off down the road.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 01:08 PM) The state has no solution to mass shootings Nobody does because there really isn't one "fix-all" solution. Rules put in place to have possibly prevented Colombine wouldn't have prevented Sandy Hook. Rules that might have prevented SH wouldn't have prevented this latest one.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 11:11 AM) Shooters at Washington Navy Yard, Sandy Hook CT school, Aurora CO movie theater, Tucson AZ Congressional Town hall, and Virginia Tech. I was just pointing out the fact that some people do it for fame and I don't even know/remember who they are. Although two that we know for sure did it for fame are the Colombine killers. I actually remember their names.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 17, 2013 -> 11:32 PM) I for one would love it if the media never ever announced the names of the people who do this s***. I am sure that many of them get off on the idea that people will be talking about them after they are gone. I haven't really followed this shooting all that closely and might be in the minority here but I have yet to actually hear the name of the shooter. QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:36 AM) Aaron Alexis, Adam Lanza, James Holmes, Jared Loughner and Seung-Hui Cho are/were all mentally ill. Fixing the mental health system will go much farther in stopping these tragedies than any gun laws. I only recognize one of those names.