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As some of you may know I gave up my broadband Internet connection a number of years ago due to a problem with my provider. Dial-up worked passably well for several years. With much patience I could watch Youtube videos up to about 3 minutes long. Beyond that just took too long. In the last year and a half things started going really bad. I couldn't download updates for programs, because the service would kick me off before the download was finished. Couldn't get Youtube to work at all for most of this year. I probably would have muddled on, but my dial-up provider had a major glitch, I began intermittently losing service altogether, and I decided I'd had enough.
My new broadband service works considerably better than the old one I had years ago. It isn't the fastest serivce available, but it works plenty fast for me.
In the few months since I've had the ability to watch anything on the net, I 've become addicted to watching Youtube vids: monologues from The Ellen Show, Norwegian lessons from a girl from Norway, a guy from Toronto who records himself fixing guitars, car crashes from Russia, guys and girls failing to do athletic feats in their own backyards.
The last couple days I've been fascinated by folks experimenting with weird foods. I've learned that there are a number of varieties of the fruit called Durian and some folks who think they are mildly bad smelling have probably only experienced the tamest export variety. Personally I've never tasted the fruit, but I have had things with natural Durian flavor from my local Asian supermarket, and the smell is seriously disgusting. Imagine someone with really bad B.O. who runs a marathon in his street clothes, then throws his clothes into a sealable hamper. Then throw a fresh cow flop or two on top and put the lid on the hamper tightly for about a week. Open the hamper and breathe deep. The items with Durian flavor are edible nonetheless. You just don't want to have them sitting around in the fridge or on the kitchen counter, because the smell will get to you.
The other thing I'm watching today are people trying to eat hot peppers. I like jalapenos. I can eat serranos and those dried Chinese peppers mixed in with lots of food. I cannot take habaneros. Watching dare devils trying peppers that are many times hotter than habaneros is fascinating. A lot of them are instantly recognizable as stupid. Remember guys 10 years ago looking stupid in short pants with the big pockets worn low on the hips with baseballs caps on backwards? The short pants thankful are gone, but the same guys still with the baseball caps on backwards and ten years older seem to be the ones most likely to take dares to eat insanely hot peppers. The videos are fairly similar. The guy swears a lot describing how tough he is (though usually showing some trepidation about eating a ridiculous pepper). When he gets tried of hearing the sound of his own voice he puts the whole thing in his mouth and starts chewing. Usually they keep up a straight face, but they can't help their face flushing within seconds. They look fine (or close to it) till they stop chewing and swallow. Then instantly the pain hits their throats and they start writhing. They try talking but the fire keeps interrupting them. The fools who didn't chew long enough invariably start hiccoughing which leads to even more pain in the food pipe as the big clump of pepper tries to make its way back up. Soon they start taking off their hats and often their shirts complaining about how hot the room is. Sweat sometimes pours down their faces. Noses run. They spit and spit to get the little fragments of pepper left in their mouths out... And then a few months later the next tough guy who must have seen the others go to pieces has to film himself doing the same stupid thing.
The worst one is the guy who as a "prank" shreds up one of those impossibly hot peppers and puts it on his girlfriend's pizza without her knowing. It doesn't take two seconds after the first bite before she shouts, "What did you do?" One wonders how this guy got a girlfriend in the first place.
My new broadband service works considerably better than the old one I had years ago. It isn't the fastest serivce available, but it works plenty fast for me.
In the few months since I've had the ability to watch anything on the net, I 've become addicted to watching Youtube vids: monologues from The Ellen Show, Norwegian lessons from a girl from Norway, a guy from Toronto who records himself fixing guitars, car crashes from Russia, guys and girls failing to do athletic feats in their own backyards.
The last couple days I've been fascinated by folks experimenting with weird foods. I've learned that there are a number of varieties of the fruit called Durian and some folks who think they are mildly bad smelling have probably only experienced the tamest export variety. Personally I've never tasted the fruit, but I have had things with natural Durian flavor from my local Asian supermarket, and the smell is seriously disgusting. Imagine someone with really bad B.O. who runs a marathon in his street clothes, then throws his clothes into a sealable hamper. Then throw a fresh cow flop or two on top and put the lid on the hamper tightly for about a week. Open the hamper and breathe deep. The items with Durian flavor are edible nonetheless. You just don't want to have them sitting around in the fridge or on the kitchen counter, because the smell will get to you.
The other thing I'm watching today are people trying to eat hot peppers. I like jalapenos. I can eat serranos and those dried Chinese peppers mixed in with lots of food. I cannot take habaneros. Watching dare devils trying peppers that are many times hotter than habaneros is fascinating. A lot of them are instantly recognizable as stupid. Remember guys 10 years ago looking stupid in short pants with the big pockets worn low on the hips with baseballs caps on backwards? The short pants thankful are gone, but the same guys still with the baseball caps on backwards and ten years older seem to be the ones most likely to take dares to eat insanely hot peppers. The videos are fairly similar. The guy swears a lot describing how tough he is (though usually showing some trepidation about eating a ridiculous pepper). When he gets tried of hearing the sound of his own voice he puts the whole thing in his mouth and starts chewing. Usually they keep up a straight face, but they can't help their face flushing within seconds. They look fine (or close to it) till they stop chewing and swallow. Then instantly the pain hits their throats and they start writhing. They try talking but the fire keeps interrupting them. The fools who didn't chew long enough invariably start hiccoughing which leads to even more pain in the food pipe as the big clump of pepper tries to make its way back up. Soon they start taking off their hats and often their shirts complaining about how hot the room is. Sweat sometimes pours down their faces. Noses run. They spit and spit to get the little fragments of pepper left in their mouths out... And then a few months later the next tough guy who must have seen the others go to pieces has to film himself doing the same stupid thing.
The worst one is the guy who as a "prank" shreds up one of those impossibly hot peppers and puts it on his girlfriend's pizza without her knowing. It doesn't take two seconds after the first bite before she shouts, "What did you do?" One wonders how this guy got a girlfriend in the first place.
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Is it Century Link that "isn't the fastest service available", or do you just have one of Century Link's less speedy options?
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