Last weekend had been frustrating for me. Without reason, my internet connection faced a sudden breakdown.
Let’s backtrack a little...
Just so you know, I’m using a Celcom Vodafone USB Modem.
Yup...My whole life during this holiday (that is to be saved from boredom), teeters precariously on this little device.
At first glance, this nifty and portable little device is like a dream come true for frequent net surfers like me or those who always go travelling. But it wasn’t long before I realised that I had fallen into another advertisement trap. Typical as it is, it seems that advertisements never fail to blow their horn in persuading customers that their products are top-notch and invincible.
The attack
However, it wasn’t long before I discovered there are plentiful of flaws. If my memory serves, the advertisement claims that their broadband promises ‘unlimited connectivity’ and ‘fast connection anywhere’, but little do they say that the fast connectivity is only limited to certain areas with 3G coverage. Unfortunately, my housing area was not covered and it was by luck that only the third floor of my house, which is my room (Hurray for me!) is able to receive the 3G signal.
But the flaws don’t end here yet. Its user-friendly concept which is “plug in and play” only applies for Window XP. For Window Vista users like me, I’m in deep trouble.
The first few days I arrived home, I’m in great dismay when I realised the modem didn’t run on Vista and my streamyx is gone. The notion of me not surfing the net for almost 2 months was completely deplorable and unimaginable.
Thus, I resorted to spending a few agonizing days trouble shooting and finally managed to download a software that enabled the modem to run on Vista. It took me the hell of a time (it was a large file) and I had to use my friend’s XP laptop to download it. Thanks again, Steward :)
The return
Just as I thought the dust had settled and all problems had been solved, a new wave of problems surged forward. The perfect smooth connection for 24 hours that I yearned for didn’t quite materialise. Instead, the modem seems to have its own irritating habit of disconnecting every hour.
Just imagine, you are happily chatting with a friend on MSN then suddenly: ‘Your message cannot be delivered’.
Uh-oh! This is bad.
You check the bottom right screen that says: ‘Disconnected...’
In other words, you have been rudely booted out from cyberspace! Care to leave a message for your online friend while you are offline? Taunting indeed.
There are other errors make me broke cold sweat, like the ‘Blue Screen Error’. It occurred sometimes when I plug the modem in. My whole computer crashed and a blue screen appeared which said it identified a critical error and need to be shut down to prevent further damage. Then, the computer restarted. Until now, even after viewing the problems details, I still can’t find the source of the problem. But after a few blue screen errors, I’m getting used to it since my computer seems to be ok after restarting. I just hope it isn’t something cumulative that will go Boom! In the end and my computer just totally shut down and died. :(
So, back to last weekend...The modem was plugged in, no errors, but there is just no signal! Not even the faintest heartbeat. It just laid there showing you an empty bar and said ‘sim card not detected’.
After several futile attempts, I handed it over to my dad who also had the same result. In the end, he promised to fix it on the following Monday. Thanks dad. But that mean I had a whole weekend off without any internet. Being not able to go online is hard. It’s like being cut off from the rest of the world. No chatting, no web surfing, no Friendster, no online news, and worse...no facebook. Imagine the amount of virtual gold I lost for not signing in for one day.
But as the saying goes: Every cloud has a silver lining.
Things were not as bad as I though. With my internet addiction abruptly halted for the time being, I discovered I had time to do other stuff that I like or enshrined in the holiday-to-do list. The best of all, I had a great family outing this weekend.
Bukit Jalil Golf and Country Resort
On that Sunday, we went to Bukit Jalil Golf and Country Resort. It was the first time I had been to the clubhouse and I was excited. With all the necessary sport gears loaded in the car, we set off. We drove a long way and it was further than I had imagined, dashing my hope for going there myself in my free time. I had not really mastered the KL highways with its rowdy traffics and congested roads.
We soon reached our destination and the place was HUGE! We drove through a park full of people jogging, strolling, and kids playing around. After parking the car, we entered the indoor stadium. The resort had all sorts of sport facilities but you need to book prior to use. At the back was probably a golf course that I had yet to explore.
The stadium had five badminton courts but they were all fully booked! Hence, we booked the squash court which seems quiet and unoccupied. Due to lack of training, my squash skill had certainly plummeted to an appalling point whereby I even missed the ball I intended to serve. Oh well, I admit I still need a lot more practise since I had just recently been introduced to squash back in UTP by my good friends. It was really an interesting sport and I’m hooked to it.
After squash, we went to the bowling alley.
Bowling
Yay! I’ve never tried bowling before in my whole 18 years of life! Seriously, I need to get out more often. Anyway, better late than never...
I never knew bowling balls have a range of weight. I tried the heavy ones which gave more power but also difficult to control so I switched back to the lighter balls which I’m more comfortable with.
Believing myself to be a future engineer, I tried to apply the concept of Physics, Bernoulli’s Principle, by adding a spin to the ball. Annoying enough, either my direction of spin is wrong or I’m not supposed to anyhow spin it, the ball always end up in the gutter, or the so-called term: ‘cleaning the drain’. In the end, I just trusted my instinct, rolled the ball and that score me a few strikes! Best of all I had fun with my family. Bowling is definitely a fantastic get-together game for families and friends (as long as they dun hit each other with bowling balls). My father won with a score beyond 100 while I only scored 80+. Not bad for a rookie player I guess.
After that, we had dinner and did some shopping in Tesco (the sales are on) and arrived home late, tired but no doubt satisfied and happy.
Internet vs Family
Time passed quickly indeed and I had completely forgotten my internet woes!
Perhaps it was a good thing that my modem was damaged for a while, to show me that holiday isn’t all about doing what I want or spending the time online whole day. Instead, it is our precious moment to be spent with our beloved family, which I would leave behind again in two weeks when I’m heading back to UTP.
Every cloud does have a silver lining. But sometimes the silver is too thin that we fail to search for it, and instead grumble and curse at every misfortune that we encountered in life.
In a nutshell? Be positive, even when you’re negative, because every positive charge has the power to move you across the circuit of life that is full of negative charges. And with power, you can get more work done over a rate of time taken. Ok, I better stop reading my Physics textbook...
Meanwhile, on Monday, my dad brought back the repaired modem. It turned out that the Sim card was damaged due to overheating, which mean I overused it.
I can’t believe my ears! I thought this thing can stand 24 hours! But it doesn’t matter anymore, bcoz the most important thing that everything is fine and I can go online. I limited my online time these days and gave the modem plenty of rest, and amazingly the internet tantrums ceased and I faced less disconnection and errors. So machines have feelings too huh?
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