Blog News

Xfinity can lick my taint.

I have been paying $40 per month for 300 mbps Internet since we moved in. I am lucky to get 60 mbps most of the time. So this morning, I saw a deal on their website to increase speed to 800 mbps for $60 per month. I took the plunge.

A couple of hours later, I got an email confirming that I was now on 1000 mbps for the low price of $127 per month. WTF. Even worse? I was still only getting 56 mbps. (The BS clause of “speeds of up to” means never actually hitting that speed, but you would think paying 3 times as much would get you SOME kind of speed increase)

I called the customer service number and got some middle eastern moron who couldn’t really speak English. I got up and drove 45 minutes to the nearest Xfinity location. When I got there, they told me that there was no 800 mbps plan offered, only 300, 500, or 1000. So I told them to put my account back the way it was before they did this.

They said that price is no longer available. I can have the 300 mbps for $60 a month if I sign a 2 year contract, or I can pay $80 a month without a contract. That’s it, and fuck you very much. So now I am paying DOUBLE what I was for the same shitty service. I have few choices- I can stay with Xfinity, or I can opt to pay for Tmobile 5G internet, or try Starlink. The thing that makes me leery of Starlink being my primary Internet provider, because of the service disruptions that happen during thunderstorms, which we all know happen virtually every afternoon here in Central Florida.

Here is the thing- I have proof that they sold me a plan that they had no intention of actually giving me before putting me on a different plan at double the price. I took a picture of the screen- proving that they DO offer 800 mbps.

On Monday, I am calling Florida’s Attorney General’s office to report this obvious “bait and switch” scheme.

The purpose of society, and in particular of government, is to protect the rights of others. Even more specifically, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The person commenting from Live Oak, Florida, a commenter that I am calling Odd Poster, has been advocating sex with minors.

Yet 100 years later with better nutrition human brains are maturing more slowly now? How did that number of 10-12 get picked by the legislatures, were the majority of American voters in 1880 all pedophiles? Today some 16 and 17 year olds are more physically developed than 25 year old women, but their brain development doesn’t keep pace with their body development? Does that make medical sense?

wikipedia: Restricted by age difference: younger partner is deemed able to consent to having sex with an older one as long as their age difference does not exceed a specified amount.

Today that age is 14 in Indiana, and 13 in some other states. Because the “child” does not have a child’s immature brain if she picks another high school age person as a partner? Or you’re less pregnant if the father is under 18? Gee that makes sense.

Rule 1 of posting on this blog:

The owner of this blog (me) has the final say on what you can and cannot post. It’s my house, I make the rules. Content here is moderated, and I will not be approving any comments that I find, in my sole judgement, to be unworthy. 

Then there is also Rule 10:

These rules can change with no notice, and rules may or may not apply retroactively. That’s up to me. See rule #1.

I try to support the free exchange of ideas on this website, but I cannot support people advocating sex with children as young as 12 years old. Accordingly, I am banning the entire IP address 71.29.27.11 because I will not allow comments that defend preying on children.

I do so as the owner of this blog. You want to diddle children? You aren’t going to do it on this blog, or on this server, nor will you advocate for that. The last thing I need is more of a spotlight on this blog by the Feds, especially not for pedophiles. Anyone who has a problem with that, there is the door- Go do that shit somewhere else.

My son testified in court against his best friend, a kid we had both known since he was 8 years old, because that friend was screwing children, filming it, and posting the film on the Internet. That friend is currently serving 30 years in Federal Prison, and I fully support that. I would do the same thing my son did in a heartbeat.

A series of comments were just posted by an “anonymous” poster. They are a bit odd because all of the comments are on the same post, all come from the same IP address, and just read a bit- oddly. I am allowing them, but I am editing the name of the poster from ‘Anonymous’ to ‘Odd Poster’

This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to require signing up in order to comment.

There has been a dick of an Egyptian leech who has posted in comments here for quite a few years. He has been banned from this site more than half a dozen times over the past two and a half years, but each time he comes back under a different IP address, different user name, using a different email address. He has posted here under the following names:

• Thatguy
• TheMan
• Earthsurfer
• Hedge

and a few others. His real name is Tarek, and he is a student at the University of Oklahoma. Let me refer you to rule 8 of the commenting rules on this blog:

If warnings don’t work and you keep at it, I will ban you from ever posting on this site again. I know that you can pull tricks like IP spoofing, changing your name, etc. So don’t think doing that is going to earn you “I’m so clever” points. It doesn’t make you clever, it makes you an ass.

I have added yet another ban to the list. That makes 8 different names that I have banned you under.

For the past 36 hours or so, I could not access the blog’s admin pages. I could access the website as a viewer, I could access the server. As near as I can tell, all of the other websites hosted here on this server were functioning.

Looking at the server, we were not experiencing a large amount of traffic, so this wasn’t a DDOS attack. Still, every time I tried to log in, I got an error saying that my database was missing. I logged in to the server last night, intending to restore the site from a backup, and it was working again.

Odd, that.

A search for the original claim or story about pets being killed and eaten in Ohio reveals nothing but ‘fact checkers’ calling Trump a liar from the past 48 hours. If anyone knows where the story originated, please place it in comments.

Thank you.

I can’t believe that I have to do this post again. It seems like every few months, people have to read this, so here we go again.

A couple of people got their panties in a wad because I disparaged Pit Bulls, and they decided to take the argument personal. Since they demanded that I show my work and provide sources, I did so. Then I demanded that they do the same.

Instead, they engaged in a two part attack: They declared that my sources were not reliable, then engaged in personal attacks. At the same time, there was Internet chest thumping about how they would be willing to go to jail for murder if someone shot their pitbull.

One of those who commented even called me a communist for daring to call CFS because a dog who was known to attack people was permitted to be in the yard alone with the child and had torn off a child’s scalp.

Having had enough of the nonsense, I locked comments on the thread, as there was no productive dialog going on at the time, just Internet chest thumping and finger pointing. After that, I received messages about what an asshole I am and how they won’t be back to read my blog. Here is my answer to that:

I don’t care. This isn’t an airport, you don’t have to announce your departure.

This blog costs me money. I blog because I want to. I don’t make money on advertising, nor do I need large numbers of readers in order to validate my feelings. If you don’t want to read what I write, then don’t read. If you want to comment, that’s great. I love a back and forth debate, but let’s not pretend that “I demand that you provide sources,” then refuting those sources with, “I don’t believe them,” while not providing any sources of your own, then impugning my character.

There are rules here for commenting, and I link to them here. They are simple rules, summarized below-

1. The owner of this blog (me) has the final say on what you can and cannot post. It’s my house, I make the rules. Content here is moderated, and I will not be approving any comments that I find, in my sole judgement, to be unworthy.
2. Deliberately posting statements that are aimed at insulting the blog owner (me) will get your comment tossed in the trash. Feel free to disagree with me, just don’t call names or impugn my character.
3. Don’t deliberately insult others. No personal attacks. Feel free to attack ideas.
4. If you are making a comment about one of my posts, it should be made on the post that you are commenting on, not on another, unrelated post.
5. No spam.
6. I don’t approve comments that are out of bounds.
7. If warnings don’t work and you keep at it, I will ban you from ever posting on this site again. I know that you can pull tricks like IP spoofing, changing your name, etc. So don’t think doing that is going to earn you “I’m so clever” points. It doesn’t make you clever, it makes you an ass.
8. Too many people using those tricks to circumvent the rules is what got us full time moderation, which is a major pain in my ass, and a major time waster for me.
9. When in doubt, please refer to rule #1.

Because of this incident, and the amount of work that arguments like this cause, there will be another rule added to the above list:

If you demand that anyone provide evidence for an assertion that they are making, then you must hold yourself to the same standard when making a counterargument. It takes time and effort to research sources, and replying with “Nuh, uh, I refuse to believe that” while not providing sources of your own to refute them is how an 8 year old debates.

Again, I don’t need everyone to agree with me, but I do require that people be civil and hold themselves to a standard of decorum. Locking the comments on that particular post was the least intrusive thing I could have done. I keep moderation to a minimum here.

With that being said, the people who engaged in personal attacks have seen their entire IP banned from commenting.

I added about ten more manuals to the training materials page. Check it out.

This blog gets anywhere from 20-40 spam comments per day. I periodically scan the spam filter to make sure legit comments are being filtered out. Spam comments are trying harder and harder to appear as though they are legit. This one tickled my funny bone:

I appreciate the way you use your platform to advocate for positive change, social justice, and equality, making the world a better place for all.

This one obviously doesn’t read this blog.

I received some tragic news this morning by email. It appears that the bastards at my HR department began firing people here at AreaOcho this morning.

Dear divemedic,

Good Day,

Find below names of staff whose employment has been terminated with immediate effect.
Please find attached
<file attached that I will not link to or click on>

Kindly note that henceforth they should not be copied in all email correspondences.

Find where your name falls and comply accordingly.

Thanks and regards,
areaocho.com Human Resources
HR/payroll Manager

This comes as quite a shock to all of us here at AreaOcho. The employees that were let go will be sorely missed, but I want my readers to know that it will no affect posting or operations here at AreaOcho headquarters.