So I wasn’t able to finish or post this until now. Sorry for the late email. Or early.
Thanks to AT&T and its shitty, unreliable fiber, 5G hotspot, and mobile internet services, today was less than stellar and way less productive than planned.
All three have been going in and out since around 4:30am. It’s now just after 8:30pm as I update this post that was ready to publish around 8am and at least one of the three connections, AT&T Fiber, finally seems to be up and running again.
That’s the same AT&T Fiber we were told would be fixed by 11am. Then we were told it would be Friday at 4pm. What a bunch of fucking assholes.
After a year of having separate modems and routers, my roommate and I recently decided to share an internet connection. With the help of a handy-dandy Wi-Fi extender, we can both get online using his AT&T Fiber, which is considerably faster than my 5G-powered AT&T Air. It also saves us both a little money.
Both of our phones are on the AT&T network, too.
Which makes today’s situation extra frustrating. At least two of the connections have been down all day. And the third, AT&T Air, kept going off and on like a strobe light at at an underground rave all day.
After today’s internet fuckery, I’m realizing just how much I’ve become reliant on being connected all the times And I’m longing for the good old days when I was only dependent on a multinational, monopolistic corporation to work and play.
Since I first started using AOL in the mid-1990s, the internet has gone from being a nice-to-have luxury to a necessary evil. It’s how I watch TV, check email, scroll social media, pay bills, work, shop, communicate, research, entertain myself, and do just about everything else.
When the internet goes down, it’s not YouTube that stops working.
Of course, I recognize the irony. I’m sitting here complaining about a temporary loss of connectivity while surrounded by devices, services, and conveniences that would have seemed like science fiction not all that long ago. And I’m doing it from a relatively comfortable life in Pasadena.
Still, there’s something fundamentally ridiculous about needing the internet to troubleshoot the internet.
First-world problem? Absolutely.
It would be great if AT&T could just get its shit together. But I won’t hold my breath.
Keep calm and connect on!
Clint 🌈✌️
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
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BORN THIS WAY + ON THIS DAY
08-17 = Ken Ryker (1972- ) = American adult actor and model 🌈
08-17 = Jake Davis (1994- ) = American adult actor and model 🌈
08-17 = Larry Rivers (1923-2002) = American artist, musician, and filmmaker 🌈
08-17 = Phoebe Bridgers (1994- ) = American singer-songwriter and producer 🌈
08-17 = Richard Hunt (1951-1992) = American puppeteer 🌈
1807 = The North River Steamboat leaves NYC for Albany, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
1876 = Richard Wagner‘s Götterdämmerung, the last opera in his Ring cycle, premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
1945 = The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.
GIRL CRUSH OF THE DAY
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Mae West“Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.”
Mae West