i live no longer at the mercy of my internet connection. i no longer have to disconnect to make a phone call. i no longer click on the "low bandwidth" version of links. i am, once again, WITH DSL.

it took the technician and i nearly three hours just to get the cable installed. i live in an old building with old wiring. so we had to run drop a line from the roof down the lightwell behind my shower, run it through the bathroom and into the kitchen.

then there was some weirdness with how the phone line was hooked up that took a good hour to solve. (if you live in an older apartment building and want to be amazed, go find your phone box -- it's a wild, wild mess)

but now i'm zinging and zooming from virtual space to virtual space on my super fast connection, happy as a clam, talking on the phone while i download porn ... i mean, stock quotes ... i mean, zen teachings. it's lovely.

in case you were wondering, i went with an ISP named Verio for my service. NorthPoint (not Covad, not PacBell) handles their installations. both have so far been excellent. PacBell, on the other hand, couldn't even place the order for nearly three months. pfft! losers.