Sunday, May 16, 2010

Albany, CA

I'm all moved in to a new apartment in Albany, CA (along the shop-lined street of Solano) and I started biking to work last week. Thursday, May 13th, was bike-to-work day. It's nice to start your day with a beautiful bike ride along the coast through the bay trail with a great view of the city, wildlife, wetlands, and the quiet morning breeze. I also pass Point Isabel's dog park along the way and I'm such a dog-lover! I can't help but smile when I see one.
It's nice to be in a walking neighborhood where I can pretty much walk to anywhere - the cafes, the theater, shops, restaurants, banks, post office, wine store, galleries, etc. It's such a sweet location. But, there's no internet at the house right now so I have to go to a cafe each time to log-in. It's kinda hard. I'm getting sick of ordering coffee and tea just to be able to get a code to connect to the network. I also realized how the internet is such a huge part of my life.
I'm constantly checking the stock market, finding tenants and taking care of financial stuff for my house, craigslisting items we need, listening to music, watching movies, reading the news, checking emails, updating personal and travel blogs, finding new job opportunities... and the list goes on. I feel so paralyzed without it and I'm just bored out of my mind sitting at home unable to do anything. I think I spend enough time with friends and families and activities and my mind just have a list of gazillion of things to do and most of them can only be accomplished online. It's kinda sad but I guess that's just how it works. The only time I can be (almost) tech-free is when I'm on vacation or traveling.
Since I have to move out of my house, I have to rent out all the rooms and I have to do a weekly maintenance / clean-up and deal with any problems they have (and going to have) at the house. It's more work and I'm just scared that I might get really burned out after a while. I can't wait until I can sell (or pay off) the house.
One of the major problem we have is our internet and TV service. ATT dsl cable is just so slow and has been causing a lot of problems. So, I started eyeing offers with Comcast and guess what, they have couple of things in common - they're both ridiculously expensive and their customer service is just horrible! I called Comcast to get more info. on the packages they have advertised online and instead of answering my questions, they wanted me to get help through the online live CHAT on their website. Unbelievable! So, I had to call my friends and ask them instead on whether or not I need to pay the $8/box/tv for the TV cable (answer is yes) and if they'll provide a modem/router for the dsl cable (answer is no). This made me wonder what the heck is going on with consumer products and services. How can they get away with ripping us off and charging more fees for each tiny option they can offer? Next thing you know, they'll be charging us for the air we breathe (I'm pretty sure we're already getting charged for air space).