In March she tried again, this time after a long hold she managed to get through to a customer service representative who found out that she wanted to cancel, asked if she could please hold and then left her on hold for 45 minutes until frustrated as all get out mom finally hung up.

Today we get a bill for two months showing the account as still active! So, I call the number this time ready to give someone a piece of my mind….except…their customer service number never actually connects you to a human…just one automated system after another.

I got online and found their “new business” number which…SURPRISE…someone live answered right away! So I proceeded to explain what was going on and that I needed to cancel this account and their customer service number provided anything but. The lady was nice and gave me some sort of “back door” 866 number to get a live customer service agent.

And I did get a live one…who…in…broken…English…explained…that…she…couldn’t…help…me….but…the…cancellation…department…could. And then she put me on what would break the record for the longest hold I’ve been put on. But I wasn’t getting off the phone without this shit getting done. Finally Elise the cancellation lady, whose English was slightly better than the previous broad’s, came on the phone. For the third time I explained the troubles mom had trying to cancel the account and that I wanted to get this resolved.

She then told me she understood and asked if there was any friend or family member I could think of that I could have take over the account! OMG! Now I had lost all patience and proceeded to Chew. Her. Ass. I couldn’t have been more rude but listening to the same hold music for almost an hour really just put me over the edge. I didn’t find any sane reason that I would curse someone else with shitty customer service and horrible reception…especially someone I actually like and want to remain on speaking terms with.

After a massive reaming from me…which I’m sure she only understood about a quarter of she finally realized it was time to just cut me loose and give me what I wanted in the first place. So at the end of an almost one hour and forty-five minute phone call they finally cancelled the account!

Word to the wise…all the horror stories you hear about cricKet…they are ALL true. Worst company ever.

It’s scary that I’m supposed to be a part of the tech-savy generation…

Say I meet you for the first time and let’s just say you tell me you’re a “hacker”.

And so in JEST I snarkily (it’s a word! No? Ok.) reply

“Oh, so you uh, like, know how to hack Gibsons?”

And you say “Yes.”

And you’re actually serious.

It kinda tips me off that you’re NOT a “hacker”.

And it’s a pretty good bet the conversation is going to halt right there.

And I’m going to pee my pants from laughing so hard.
—
It boggles my mind that people still watch that damn movie and BELIEVE it.

Figured I’d start with this one…

Didn’t figure I would make my whole fucking blog disappear!

I don’t know what happened or why but after the update everything was just blank. Somehow managed to fix it (don’t ask me how, there was some fiddling and many swear words involved) but I just about lost my mind because silly me didn’t back up! Methinks I’m ready for a beer now…jeez lousie…

P.S. 2.6.2 looks pretty damn nifty back here…I suppose after I finish my others I can sit down and play with it! wh00t!

Much to my chagrin I found that when I entered my IP/Port info from the Live365 site into VirtualDJ’s Broadcast config it would say that it was connected and broadcasting but when I’d try to stream the station Live365 would say that there was no broadcast. *grrr* I tried everything, blocking ports, unblocking ports, telling the ports their mother was a wilder beast and their father smelled of elderberries, etc etc. NOTHING was making it work.

I sat down and had a good long think about it and decided to try ONE last thing before I wrote it off as useless and went slinking back to crappy Winamp. I logged into Live365 and went to My Profile (little grey tabs in the main window). In that window in the third box down was my Live365 Broadcast Format (“Your Broadcast’s Format”).

The format on mine was set at 64kbps/44kHz/stereo mp3PRO. So, I go back to my VirtualDJ and change my bitrate which was set at 96kbps per everyones advice to 64kbps and tried for the last time to broadcast using my shiny new toy…

TOTALLY FREAKIN’ WORKED!! So if you’re having the same problem just check what format your Live365 broadcast is set at then adjust your VirtualDJ bitrate accordingly and give it another try I hope this helps someone – good luck!

And folks do install those plugins at great length. But as the saying goes “All things must be in moderation.” I’ve been a website host for over 4 years and one thing I’ve noticed is the lack of regular “maintenance” people do on their sites. When it comes to Word Press I’ve noticed that folks find it a little too easy to just install a plugin and forget about it.

I’ve worked on blogs that have an entire laundry list of plugins installed and activated (I’m talking well over 15 folks). The effect is that the blog loading slows drastically because some plugins don’t play nice with each other or you get a badly coded plugin that causes other issues. And let’s not even talk about those awful Error messages that pop up all over the place.

Since it’s Spring Cleaning time I urge you to take a look at your blog (or pay someone to do it) and do a little preventative maintenance. Below are some items you should look at regarding your blog’s plugins.

Back it On Up:
Before you start tinkering with anything back your shit up. That way if you make a mess of it you can restore no problem-o.

Get All Dr. Phil:
It’s time to get personal with your plugins. Go to your admin area and click on the Plugins tab. One by one go down the list and ask yourself have you HONESTLY used the plugin actively on your blog in the last 60 days? Is that plugin REALLY making life easier for you or is it just taking up space. If you’re a self admitted plugin whore this may be a hard task. But if you do it right you may just find there’s a lotta plugins hiding out that have worn out their welcome. Start purging.

Brings Back Memories (or does it?) :
While looking at your plugin list do you find plugins that you don’t even remember why you installed them in the first place? Visit the plugin site to read up on it’s purpose and if it’s not something you’re actually using then get rid of it.

Good Things Don’t Always Come in Threes:
You don’t need multiple plugins that do the same thing. Do you really need 3 “What I’m Reading Now” plugins? No, you don’t. In fact they might just be working against each other code-wise. Pick your fave of the group and ditch the extras.

De-Clutter:
If your plugins are piling up in the back-end that usually equals clutter on your blog-front somewhere. Take a hard look at everything in the sidebars of your blog, if you aren’t actively using it but don’t want to toss it just yet consider making a separate page for all the random shit to live in then link the page in the sidebar. Or better yet try taking something out completely. If you don’t hear anything from your readers and you totally forget about it after two days then it means it wasn’t even missed.

The Dreaded ‘U’ Word:
After you’ve cleaned out your plugins you need to ask yourself “Self, when is the last time I checked my plugins for updates?”. If your mind goes blank or you start to twitch uncontrollably then it’s probably time to visit the plugins website and see what’s new. It’s a good idea to update your version of WordPress at the same time so everything stays compatible. If you’re not comfortable installing updates yourself then talk to your web developer or someone who knows about WP and see if they would help you out.

And in case you’re wondering I use 3 simple plugins here:
-Collapsible More Link
-Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam
-Text Link Ads

Next, if you are living in the U.S. and currently running a blog that has to do with any of the following:

-Technology
-Computers
-Internet Technology
-Programming
-Web Development
-Web Design
-Computer Languages

Please leave me a comment or email me (bug AT thelastcowgirls DOT com) ASAP because I have an awesome freebie for ya! My favorite online programming community that I belong to called Dream.In.Code has given me 15 of their brand new kick ass retro style t-shirts to pass onto all you geeky bloggers in return for a link in a post on your site!

The shirt will be shipped to you at no cost and all it takes is a single “a href” tag on your end…not a bad deal But hustle up and get in contact with me if you want one because I only have 15 of these suckers!!

The Sexy Graphic Mock Up

Ok that’s it for now, I’ve gotta get moving…hope y’all have a wonderful day

I have a sneaking suspicion it isn’t helping me any…