carpuzzi_kiki's Xanga

Moving on

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:34:08 GMT

Ok, so I have moved to a different blogging site. :o) You can keep up with me here.

Moving on

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:32:53 GMT

So, while I may still write here every so often, I have decided to move to blogger. I apologize for all of my loyal readers who depend on me for their livelihood. It just had to happen. Happy Independence Day!

For those of you who want to keep up with my new blog, you can do so here.

What would you consider to be your greatest Xanga accomplishment to date?

Tue, 12 May 2009 03:40:09 GMT

It may sound a bit silly, but my greatest accomplishment was being able to delete one of my past xanga accounts. I had so many entries with so many memories. Yet, due to the circumstances, it was something that I had to do. I will never get those entries back, and there were some pictures that I no longer have that were deleted with my account. All in all, I know that I did what I had to do.

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

Facebook Friends

Sat, 09 May 2009 18:51:36 GMT

Adding someone as a friend on Facebook has often been joked about as "making the friendship real." This is a total lie. I have around 300 Facebook friends (not a very large number, I know), but I only speak to a handful of them.

There are those that shared a class with me, and those that I have met once through a friend and will probably never see again. There are the "obligatory" friends that you add even though you don't want to since somehow your life will be made more difficult if you refuse them.

All in all, these so-called friends are just acquaintances. A very select few are truly friends. How sad is it that our feelings will be hurt if someone we met through a co-worker's roommate doesn't accept our friend request?

It has become quite easy to cyber-stalk using Facebook, and I for one do not like it. That is one of the reasons I blocked my mom on Facebook. She used to read my Xanga all the time, which was part of the reason I deleted it. She joined Myspace so that she could keep tabs on my sister and I. I set my profile to private.

Back to Facebook friends. I suppose that it isn't all bad. I've been able to reconnect with people that I haven't spoken to in years. I recently found a friend from first grade on Facebook (he's number four...and five). I'm also friends with a couple of my past crushes, but I won't go into those details.

Oh well. It's still better than Myspace.

Disservice by Silence

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:17:31 GMT

What do you do when you need to tell someone close to you something that they do not want to hear? What if it's something they have heard from everyone else, and they expect you to be different? What if they are doing themselves harm by ignoring everyones' warnings?

This is the situation that I am in right now. I have a dear friend whom I will refer to as Carla. We have been friends for years, and have seen each other through a lot. Our lives have been, in many ways, parallel. We have had man trouble, we have had financial issues, and we have ranted about how horrible our lives have been over coffee and cheesecake.

Carla is now choosing to be friends with someone who has hurt her in the past; a girl that I will refer to as Melanie. Carla and Melanie were very close, especially when I was on the other side of the country and could not be here for her as much. Yet Carla confided in me that Melanie had stolen from her, lied to/about her, spoken about her behind her back, and actually spoken about me behind my back.

Carla had decided that she was done with Melanie. Melanie, however, was not done with Carla. They have since spent time together and Carla is choosing to be friends with Melanie again.

I have tried to gently suggest that Melanie is a negative influence upon Carla , but she has become defensive and told me that I'm telling her the same thing everyone else is telling her. I don't want to shut her out when she needs a good friend, but at the same time I feel that by keeping silent of how strongly I feel about this situation, I am an accessory to what may be an even more painful episode than last time.

Melanie does not have Carla's best interests at heart. Yet Carla does not seem to want to listen to someone who does.

I am at a loss.

Hasta la vista, Habanero!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:21:52 GMT

It has recently come to my attention that Tim's Cascade Potato Chips has discontinued their delicious Habañero flavor. One of my co-workers is truly devastated and has written to the company, hoping that they will bring them back.

Today at QFC I managed to pick up the last bag in the store, and possibly the last bag I'll ever see. These spicy chips did fire up my mouth and made me start coughing after eating more than a serving, but I didn't care.

So I ask that all of you out there that have ever had a favorite product discontinued, such as GAP White scent, Bath & Body Works Honeyed Almond scent, or MAC's discontinued glitter eye liners, please join me in a moment of silence.

CRUNCH!! Oops, got a little hungry there.

What is your most cherished material possession?

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:45:00 GMT

This isn't a difficult answer for me. Some may say their phone, some say their purse. Mine would be my baby; little Hundai Elantra. My car has gotten me through so much and seen absolutely every emotion I've experienced. I have traveled from Virginia to Florida and back for spring break, and Elantra brought me from Virginia back home to Washington. I cannot stand it when other people try or actually do drive my car. It hurts. Maybe it's stupid, but it does.

My car was the first real thing that was MINE. Yeah, my parents initially paid for it, but they took the money out of my account later. I owned something big. I could go wherever I wanted when I wanted without having to depend on someone else. The cars that I'd driven prior to my Elantra had been owned by my parents. My car was all mine. No sharing with my sister or my family. MINE.

All mine!

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

The difference between GSM and CDMA

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:41:37 GMT

So you get your brand new HTC Touch Pro and you immediately get online to buy accessories for it. A couple cases, some screen protectors, and why not throw in a stylus? You're so excited when your accessory order arrives, and you immediately install everything. But wait...nothing fits! Oh, gosh darn it, you're gonna tell those stupid customer service people just how stupid they are for messing up your order, and if you don't get well-fitting accessories overnighted to you plus some sort of discount, you're gonna tell the world how messed up that company is! So you write your little email to give them a piece of your mind. Then you write a few more when they don't immediately respond. After all, you are their most important customer and they'd BETTER respond asap! Way too many hours later for your taste, you get a response. "May I ask what version of the Touch Pro you have? There are actually quite a few different versions. What service provider do you have?" Who the heck cares what provider and what version it is, everything should fit, dagnabbit! You inform these idiots that you use Sprint. Response? The accessories you bought were for the Touch Pro (GSM). Sprint is not a GSM network, and the Sprint Touch Pro (CDMA) is very different from the Touch Pro (GSM). Oh. Your bad.

So, how can you tell which type of network your phone uses? First, figure out which service provider you're paying. Notice that some providers use both CDMA and GSM. The following service providers utilize CDMA technology:

Sprint PCS, PrimeCo, Alltel, AirTouch, US West - Access2, Cellular One, Visalia to Lodi Via Wireless, GTE Wireless, Ameritech, EATEL, US Unwired, PrimeCo, Bell Atlantic Mobile, Wireless North L.L.C., Frontier Cellular, Horizon Personal Communication, Telus, Centennial Cellular, Chase Tel., Poka Lambro, CFW/Intelos, Verizon, Amp'd Mobile, US Cellular, Virgin Mobile, and Orange Mobile.

For a more complete list, go here.

The following service providers utilize GSM technology:

Alaska Wireless, XIT Wireless, T-Mobile, AT&T SunCom, Get Mobile, Edge Wireless, Rogers Communications, Vodafone and Centennial.

For a list of GSM carriers by country, click here.

Some phones are able to utilize both technologies, which I find extremely cool.

Now, to what CDMA and GSM actually are.

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communication, and it is currently the most-used of the wireless technologies. According to techFAQ, "GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1,800 MHz frequency band." One of the major draws to a subscription with a GSM provider is that they typically have service agreements with providers in other countries, which means that you can use your GSM-supported cell phone abroad.

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, which is actually a system for transmitting radio communication. CDMA uses multiple access, or multiplexing which simply means that instead of broadcasting over a single radio frequency, it uses several to send audio transmissions. If you have ever been driving across state lines while listening to your car radio, you have heard an annoying equivalent to multiplexing when two different radio stations seem to overlap; you can hear both Rush Limbaugh and Blink-182 at the same time. That's CDMA. Kind of.

I hope that I simplified this somewhat confusing technology. Before starting my job, I had no idea that there were different types of wireless communication. Too bad I didn't know what the abbreviations stood for at the company Christmas party. Our team may have won the trivia game. Oh well, second place isn't too bad.

So before you issue threats concerning the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General (you know who you are!), please do us customer service reps a favor and figure out what kind of phone you have, and with what kind of provider.

Thanks, and have a wonderful day!

One of these days...

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:47:41 GMT

I am going to write an entry about the differences between GSM and CDMA cell phone/PDA networks. It's really frustrating when people don't do the research before buying stuff for their phone! GRRR.

Written History - Almost Live!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:46:04 GMT

We no longer seem to live in a time where oral histories are necessary. Tons of books are written every year that speak of various aspects of historical events. Yet somehow we still manage to forget so much. That is why I am writing; to remind.

Back in the 1990's, there was an amazing Seattle-based sketch comedy TV show called "Almost Live!". It spoke to locals with all of the inside jokes. No one in Tulsa would necessarily understand Microsoft studs? Would those living in Lynchburg, Virginia really get COPS in the U-district? Yeah, I don't think so. If you are not a native to Seattle, even if you have lived here for a few years, you wouldn't understand most of the jokes. Before he was the "Science Guy", Bill Nye was on "Almost Live!". I personally loved him as Speed Walker.

John Keister is now making appearances as a stand-up comic (I wanted him for our office Christmas party, but it didn't work out). Pat Cashman is doing commercials for Taco Time. And Bill Nye? Still doing science-y stuff.

So if you remember fair Seattle from back in the day, feel free to spend some time on youtube watching old clips and remembering.