Hello, My name is JAYME.

I’ve been paying nearly $60/month for a landline and DSL from Embarq. After doing some research I read where if you demand Naked DSL (DSL without the need of a landline service) then they will offer you the DSL at $10 more per month as a retention tool. I first talked to the primary representative and of course he said they didn’t offer DSL without the phone service. I told him that they did and if he could push me to the disconnect center, I’d appreciate it. I then got a representative that I could talk to about it. I told her where I read on the net that they offered DSL without the phone service - then she said she could offer me the DSL only but it would raise my data price $10 more. I said let’s do it. Then she came back and said that she could offer me the phone service, DSL AND caller ID for 1 penny more than the data price. So basically I’m getting everything I had before I called plus caller ID for $34/month. I saved over $25/month with one silly phone call. How ridiculous is that?

I’ve slowly dragged Kelly over to the good side. After being a faithful customer of Nextel (now Sprint/Nextel) for probably 10 years or more we’ve both decided to put the Motorola-driven Direct Connecting aside. It’s not that we dislike the beep beeps - it’s more that Nextel isn’t very expansive. You can drive around in the middle of Raleigh and have your signal drop out for 2-3 minutes at the time. I can’t even go to the nearest Walmart and get a signal (yes, I like Target better, but there isn’t one near me). I know that any mobile phone carrier has its flaws and their share of dropped calls, but it’s been 10 years and no improvement from Nexie nor any improvement on their phones. Plus I sound like I’m flying in a Blackhawk when talking on the phone with someone because the nerds at the Nextel store sold me a phone that had been on the shelf for a year. Great job guys. Anyway enough about Nexie - the cool thing about the iPhone is that it eliminates a couple of devices and serves many purposes. You can easily store your music, videos, contacts, voicemail among other things. Yes, I know - there are other alternatives to the iPhone but no one has proved to do it better than Apple. I’ve been made into a believer. Sooo… I’m waiting on the iPhone update that will hopefully ease the pain of integrating it into my in-car stereo system since I’ve sold my iPod. I’m truly not crazy about making the switch one of AT&T’s plans because they are ridiculously high priced, but if I can keep a signal the majority of the time then maybe it’s worth it. If anyone hears anything about an update, please let me know. We are both anxious to make the switch.

My new motto is “say no to citgo”. The next time you pull up to the tank and want to help us give Hugo Chavez a black eye, buy something else besides Citgo brand gasoline. Let’s supply and demand his butt right out of power.

What in the world ever happened to peaceful window shopping? I was at the Home Depot store on Strickland Road in Raleigh the other day just looking around for nothing in particular. I just wanted to kill some time on my lunch break and enjoying the time away from the office, but nooooo. I had three different people from their store stop me and solicit me. You can spot them out quickly because they’re all carrying around black clipboards. They were trying to get me to look at plans for a sunroom and some other stuff. What part of “not interested” don’t they get? I felt like I was at the mall getting the infamous, “Can I ask you a question”. Oh well, I guess Lowe’s Home Improvement would always like the business.