Well, I’m in the new apartment now, and just about all of my stuff is moved over here. Most of it is as of yet unpacked, but I’m really in no hurry. I’m not in a rush because I’m no longer certain I’m actually going to stay here. I was told I could get cable modem service here (by management, not Cox) and Cox came today and told me the wiring in the building can’t handle it. So now, I have to wait until Monday to talk to them about getting another line drop or having some rewiring done. The only apartment in this building that has cable modem service is the one on the end, right next to the main cable box outside.

It seems he also has wireless, or someone else around here has both wireless and a cable modem, because I’m online with my cantenna through a cox.net IP address right now.

I also can’t get digital cable right now, and I need my MLB Extra Innings package, so I have to get that, too. Hopefully, they’ll just let the cable company run a nice drop to my apartment, but I don’t know how likely that is. If not, I really don’t think I can stay here. I just signed a one year lease, but that was after I was specifically told that I could get a cable modem here. I just hope I won’t have to take them to court to get out of it.

I got my sample ballot for the recall election in the mail today, and was looking down the list of candidates. First of all, I want to kill whoever had the brilliant idea to not have the names in alphabetical order. They seem to be grouped by letter, but I can’t figure out any pattern other than that. Now on to the candidates themselves… there are the expected ones, Arnold, Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, (Leo) Gallagher, but then there are some interesting ones. Mostly, just the occupation listed is the interesting part, as that’s the only information there other than name and party.

Some of the candidates listed:

• Ivan A. Hall, Custom Denture Manufacturer
• Joel Britton, Retired Meat Packer
• Mary “Mary Carey” Cook, Adult Film Actress
• William “Bill” S. Chambers, Railroad Switchman/Brakeman
• Ned Roscoe, Cigarette Retailer
• Kurt E. “Tachikaze” Rightmyer, Middleweight Sumo Wrestler
• Michael Jackson, Satellite Project Manager
• Bruce Margolin, Marijuana Legalization Attorney

This whole recall election is insanity. Not that Davis is a good governor, but…

I still have no clue how I’m going to vote.

I called up all my utilities to get them set up to move with me to my new place next week. The gas and electric companies’ activation/transfer fees are reasonable. The cable company seems a bit high, but they do actually have to send someone out to hook things up.

Verizon, though, pisses me off. It’s $46 to “transfer” my service. And by transfer, I mean not let me keep my old number and just flip a switch somewhere to activate the line in the apartment. I’ve been debating calling them back and just cancelling the line altogether. I never call out from my landline, and the only calls I get on it are telemarketers. I do, however, want a phone number other than my cell number to give out to companies that ask for my phone number. I don’t want them to start telemarketing my cell phone.

So, I was looking around for an alternative. One option is to buy a phone from Amazon that is -$99.99 after rebates with service signup. If I sign up for the cheapest plan, the monthly cost is the same as my Verizon bill now, lower activation fee, and I get $100 back. It’s a possibility. It does lock me in for a year, though.

The other option is to get a voicemail box. I came across VoiceNation while Googling for options. They offer a local number in Santa Barbara, the activation fee is a third of Verizon’s, and the monthly fee is half. Plus, telemarketers will always have to leave a voicemail. They’ll also e-mail me when I get a new message, and for another $5/month actually e-mail me the message itself.

So… does anyone have any experience with VoiceNation, and with not having a landline in general? Let me know if I have any other options. There’s that whole comment thing below that you can use…