I’ve been having a blast for the most part from our holiday trip to the US. I actually started posting pics in the gallery… which is a work in progress.

The only bummer in this trip is that it’s so hard for me to get an internet connection. My aunt and uncle’s house only has one PC which can connect, and it has a couple of issues:

• It connects via dial-up (the MPB doesn’t have a dial up adapter)
• It had a resolution of 640x480
• It had 16 colors (yes, 16 colors, not 16-bit color)
• Its OS is Windows 98

There’s also the disturbing confirmation that a MacBook gets better WiFi reception than a MacBook Pro. My sister’s MacBook can surf from the second bed inside the room we’re in. I have to be by the window to get a sporadic signal at the very least - which is too unreliable to surf with. The kicker is that there are actually at least three open wireless signals from the surrounding houses. I know this because I can access them when I step out on the veranda.

No problem right? I just have to step out of the veranda! WRONG! This is Seattle… during winter! Then I just go out fully covered right? WRONG! While I can surely cover-up the rest of my body - buy my hands need to be exposed because wearing gloves renders the trackpad useless.

Bottom line is that I can only go out for about 15 minutes at a time before my fingers start hurting (and fear of frostbite sets in) Simple enough right? WRONG! The door to the veranda is a pain in the arse to open and close!

And let’s not forget to mention the fact that it’s probably illegal to be wardiving¹ for a signal to begin with.

As if it wasn’t bad enough to not be able to be with my girlfriend during the holidays - now even the simple fact of communicating with her regularly and easily has been stripped from me!

I can’t wait to get back home!

post updated on April 11, 2007 @ 03:15AM