"So, You've Decided to Steal Wireless Internet!"

My Girlfriend bought a laptop last week. We were pretty excited about actually having our own laptop in the house. Also, since we live in a condo, we figured there had to be someone in the building who had a wireless internet connection we could mooch off of. We were in luck when we realized that there were two wireless connections in our building! The only problem is that they are both password protected! Our joy quickly crashed into sorrow.

Then again, how mad could we really be. It's like, "Damn! It's so unfair that we can't steal internet!"

Now we have to take the plunge into the world of internet service providers. I have no idea where to start. I'm letting Clare take care of that one.

After all, I've been fighting ComEd over our electric bill from our last apartment. Basically, the meter in the basement of our old apartment building was miss-labeled. For a year, we had been paying our upstairs neighbor's electric bill and he had been paying ours. We didn't notice until last summer started and he bought four air conditioners and added a second refrigerator . Actually, I don't know what he did. All I know is that we did nothing and our bills tripled in a month.

The battle with ComEd was long and drawn out, but I'll spare you the details. There were a lot of phone calls, missed appointments, collection agencies, and general aggravation.

But dear readers, to aid you in your struggles against unregulated monopolies, I will Provide you with this translation guide:

If ComEd says... - It means.....
"Our technician will be there." -"Our technician may or may not be there."

"I see there's a problem on your account"- "You have fallen thought the cracks."

"Let me talk to a supervisor and call you back." -"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"We'll put that in the mail today." -See above

"I'm really sorry this has been a problem."- "It's not my fault. Please don't report me to my supervisor."



After all the trouble I've had with the electric company, I'm dreading the idea of having another utility that could potentially go very, very bad. Now if I could just steal internet.....