My Review: Charter Communications

So today I’m going to review Charter Communications on both internet and TV. 

I’ve had Charter as my internet provider for a year and TV for a month. Like many people, I’m not crazy about Charter and as a matter of fact, if I had other options I would take them. I’ve had nothing but trouble on the internet side. Paying an astounding $44.99 a month for “high speed” internet. Now, I put high speed in quotation marks because well, they just don’t match up with the speeds they claim you’ll receive. I feel that their prices are ridiculous compared to what you actually get. Also, I’ve had to have a technician and a supervisor technician come out more than 20 times in the past year to repair all sorts of problems. There’s constant outages, the internet will just turn off and you have to reconnect, sometimes it just doesn’t work at all for a day or two and it’s just always something wrong. 

The TV portion. Expensive, Expensive, Expensive! The prices are absolutely ridiculous for basic TV. I could get way more channels for a much lower price if I went for satellite verses Charter. Charter knows they don’t have good prices and they could care less! They only reason they sucker people like me in is because they don’t have any contracts and you can cancel your service any time. Oh and be prepared to be billed for 2 months at once every month on the TV service. When I signed up, I was told that I would have a prorated amount to pay on my next bill. Exactly one week later, to my surprise I had the prorated amount plus a months worth of internet and a months worth of TV which brought it to a ridiculous $135 and it had to be paid within 3 weeks. Are you kidding me? Is that how they love to scam people? Oh and by the way, after the first year (even though there’s no contracts), you’ll expect to pay $118 for internet and TV combined every month and you’re also penalized for having wifi so they charge extra if you want to keep your wifi (Imagine something that’s been around a long time, is free in many different hotspots and yet you have to pay extra for wifi) and you’ll have to pay for the router and each cable box. The price just goes up and up, being charged for everything under the sun. 

The customer service: HORRIBLE! Most of the employees are real jerks there. They don’t want to hear you out, they don’t want to help you out and if you’re unhappy their response is “Well, you’re not under contract, you can always cancel and go to another company”. As if that’s some sort of threat. I would love to go to any one of their competitors. I know that I would get better customer service, better pricing and better product. So in closing, if you can avoid Charter, do so! 

Social Media

I decided to write a blog about Social Media because, there are a few things that are important when deciding whether or not social media is for you. 

#1 – Social Media can be helpful if you’re only using for it is games and to talk with friends/family.

#2 – Social Media isn’t for anyone who can’t handle conflict. Know that every single comment you make on any page concerning Facebook, you will be ridiculed for it regardless of your intentions.

#3 – Social Media contains every person you can imagine and that includes all of the bad people.

So today I’m going to focus on point #2. When it comes down to using Facebook and liking pages, you have to be aware that there are going to be various people commenting. In particular, when you’re looking at news Facebook pages, you’re going to see various stories which are upsetting to people in different ways. There are several different types of scenarios that will happen regardless of the subject of the news story.

#1 If it’s a “racially motivated” crime, you’ll never hear the end of it. You’ll always find that if it’s blacks who had a crime committed against them, they’ll load the comments and be ready to fire at the first person who says anything other than “That’s sad to hear”. You’ll be attacked so fast for making any comments that can possibly be skewed as racist and you’ll definitely hear “You’re part of the problem”. They are already waiting for any white to come along so they can vent that anger and race card so be prepared.

#2 Any crime against children. Now normally this would be loaded with people who believe the molester should be killed and that’s to be expected but, you’ll also find a lot of Atheists in there too who are loaded and ready to bash Christian’s for everything they are worth. Any type of disaster that involves the death of someone, be prepared to have some Atheist troll ready to attack you and God. If you’re not Christian, this won’t bother you.

#3 Like with all news stories, you’re going to hear similar stories. In this case, if you’re tired of hearing someone killed, raped or robbed someone, you probably should avoid liking pages with news stories. As far as other types of pages go like for instance movies, know that once you hit the like button, you’ll automatically have your news feed filled with either old scenes from that movie through pictures or loaded with really old comments. It can become obnoxious if you’re only wanting to say that you have seen the movie.

Social Media can be fun, frustrating, depressing and it can also be a nightmare. There’s nothing more dramatic than talking to people on Facebook. I primarily talk about Facebook and not other sites like Twitter because they aren’t loaded with trolls like Facebook is. You’re going to find that there are so many people out there who use Facebook as a way to bully others, to vent their frustrations against a certain race or a religious person and that’s all they will ever do. If you’re not careful, they will actually follow you all around Facebook relentlessly and comment on everything you comment on. It becomes like a game for them to torture you. If you still think Facebook or other social media is for you, just use caution and known that you can deactivate and reactivate your account at any time and make sure that you block anyone who you notice is harassing you or following you around.  

Warning Review: BoBrowser

I left my desktop computer on as I normally do while my husband, son and I went out for a morning of shopping. When I returned home, I didn’t get on the computer right away. Tonight, when I got on the computer I noticed that Google Chrome was missing off of my desktop and that a browser called “BoBrowser” was installed in it’s place. It mimics Google Chrome in that it uses a similar icon and makes you think that you’re going to legit websites. 

If you see any words in this that are clickable, do not click the words. I haven’t completely managed to get rid of all the BoBrowser stuff yet. 

I noticed that my AVG protection  had all kinds of warnings up telling me that my computer was loaded with malware and viruses, which doesn’t happen ever. I also noticed that there were tons of icons on my desktop that weren’t there before. When you open this BoBrowser, you will see that there are ad’s galore all over pages that don’t contain ad’s such as the Social Security Administration page. It will also automatically open various tabs while you’re on a page.

This new BoBrowser is apparently a virus and it seemingly installed it’s self while ridding my computer of my beloved Chrome. Be aware that if you see this on your desktop along with the many icons, you will need something strong to uninstall it. The first thing you want to do is go down to your toolbar where the clock is and close on BoBrowser and then you want to go to another browser you have on your computer, for instance you can use Internet Explorer. Go and download a program called Iobit Installerand then go in through your regular control panel, click remove programs and find BoBrowser and make sure that when you click uninstall, Iobit installer opens up. Then select the program and press the green button at the bottom called Powerful uninstall. After it uninstalls the program it will say “Do you want to clean up the files left behind” press yes and then press “Shred files” then “Remove Files”. This is very important because, BoBrowser installs tons of cache’s and embeds its-self in your computer leaving behind tons of files that typical uninstallation doesn’t get rid of.

Once you have finished doing all of that, restart your computer and when your desktop reloads, make sure that it’s no longer on your desktop or in your system files.

So, this is what you should see when you open the iobit Powerful Uninstaller Program

Then once you click uninstall of the program, you’ll see this

Make sure that you do not select “Create restore point before uninstalling”. You don’t want this sort of thing to remain anywhere in your computer, no chance of back up!

Next you’ll have this option which begins scanning for any leftovers. With BoBrowser you will have left overs so once it finds them, you’ll be taken to another screen which allows you to “Select all” make sure you click the check box and that every single file left behind is checked and then press the check box that says “Shred Files” and then click “Clean up”

I had already gotten rid of BoBrowser before writing this blog and taking screen captures so these screen captures are from another program I uninstalled.  

Defending Ones self Makes You A Bully?

I find it to be very obnoxious where we live in a society that doesn’t truly allow a Freedom of Speech without a person being labeled as mentally ill, ignorant, racist or bullying. It seems that people are more sensitive in this generation than ever before. You virtually can’t say anything without being attacked for it and then people wonder why you’re so defensive and have all of these walls going up. It’s true that other people can sometimes bring out something from deep within you that you never knew you had. That’s exactly what I’m going to discuss in this blog. 

To all of my fellow bloggers, you understand and know the passion of being able to write all of your thoughts out and hope that at least one person will be inspired by them. Your words are incredibly powerful and they express what we could only hope to say from our mouths rather than our keyboard. Sometimes you can be greatly criticized for your words and people will be quick to label you and then before you know it, suddenly you have become a bully. I find this to be incredibly unjust.

When it comes to Freedom of Speech for many American’s, how much of that do you really have? Sure it’s in the constitution and many people believe in it but, what happens when the people who are looking for a fight could give a damn less about the constitution?  You see there are some people who are so sensitive and cannot handle anything. Those people virtually live in a bubble and stand on eggshells. You know the one’s! They are those who have a miserable existence or were overly spoiled as kids and are now facing a harsh world.

I would describe such people in the same way I would “Addiction”. The people are incredibly “Addicted” to maintaining a false sense of importance and struggling to make their name known. Any attention is better than none and they will fight to the death to feel important and to have support from another person just like them. So here’s what ends up happening, they type in keywords into Google or some other search engine looking for some debate they believe they know everything about. You’ll often find these people on sites like these, Facebook and YouTube. For instance: Someone who’s feeling like they have never had a fair shake at life due to color will type in the word “Racism” looking for something, anything to vent their frustrations on. It’s easy to find hundreds of blogs and video’s about so called Racism.

I have met several people on YouTube who are looking to call you a Racist or Ignorant. They have this grudge against the world, a world they believe to be full of people who are out to get them and suddenly, you’re the target. So now what? Well, you could defend yourself and then once again become labeled by being called “Stupid, Mentally Ill or a Bully”. Yep, there’s that sense of importance, that sense of proving their point. Here’s the problem, you can’t be responsible for someone else’s issues and though they automatically make you the target, you have to know when to keep fighting that battle. Here you have some faceless, nameless person who’s on a frenzy and you have to decide whether you’ll engage them or not and if so, will you say things you never imagined you would to them out of anger?

Now, many people do let their emotions get the best of them and when targeted directly, many people will say as many harsh things back as possible and then you have opened that big, flashing, neon sign that says “Thanks for proving me right”. The people who are targeting you and anyone else they can find, love that noticeable flashing sign. It’s their way of seeing the world to be a dark and negative place and suddenly, you’re the blame and reason for why people like them can’t cope. Before you know it, your entire day has been ruined by some person online, who’s gotten the best of you. Then you carry that stress throughout your day and impacting every person you encounter in that day’s time whether it’s at work or at home. Now, you’ve spread this incredible ridiculousness to other people who you’ve just stressed out and they are spreading it too now and suddenly, you’ve got this plague going around.

In the end remember this, people are going to be who they are but, you can change how you handle the situation so that you don’t become the one inflicting these negative emotions onto other people and though you can’t save everyone from the stress, if you save just one person from it by not inflicting it on them, that’s one person who may just go on to have a good day. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this blog!

Internet Trolling

Many times on the internet you’ll find the master troller. This is someone who’s always looking for a good argument and usually they are there to piss you off. You’ll meet a lot of these people on Yahoo Answers and YouTube. You know they are the person who’s always commenting on everyone’s comments and making it seem like you’re the idiot.

I recently met one right here on WordPress. He’s a man who felt I was being ignorant and babbling about the Transgender conflict blog. Imagine that, someone comes onto your blog and calls you ignorant. Well, that’s the world today. My faithful blog readers know that I’m always saying exactly how I feel. There’s nothing wrong with anyone saying how they feel, it’s your thoughts and you’re entitled to them. Sure, you’re always going to strike a chord with someone and everyone won’t be happy with what you write but, nevertheless, you shouldn’t change how you feel to make everyone else happy.

Trolls can come in all forms, they are the one’s who write stupid and outrageous comments just for the heck of it. For instance, on Yahoo Answers I saw a question that said “Is it legal to name your child McNugget?”. It’s trolling post like these that will often spark laughter and entertainment. Then you have trolls that enjoy seeing you live in misery. They will make comments to try and push you into anger. These are the kind of people who have nothing better to do and their life sucks more than anyone else’s in the world.

No matter what kind of trolls you meet, you have to maintain your composure. It’s more difficult if you don’t have your own emotions under control and you may lash out in anger and some people lose their shit so bad they actually start making legit threats towards the troll. These are things that you absolutely can’t do. The person on the other end is never worth it.

Nigerian Scams

PHOTO CREDIT: GIFSec.com

I decided to write about this because there are obviously some people who are still falling for these email scams. There’s a couple of things that people need to know about the scams from Nigeria and cat-fishers in general.

1. Emails claiming to be from someone in need of help, lottery winnings or receiving inheritances are ALWAYS scams

2. These scams almost always generate from Nigeria

3. If you don’t accept the scam they send you by email, you’ll find them trying to pretend to be someone who wants to be in a relationship with you.

4. No matter what the story, you’ll never receive any money from the scammers.

Scams like these have been going on for many years. I can remember seeing the 1st email back in 2001. Even then, I always deleted it or put it in the spam folder as most people would because, some of us are just smart enough to know that emails like that can’t be true. There are other types of scams where you might meet someone on a dating website, who happens to be from Nigeria but steals pictures from an American girl’s website and uses fake information. They will then have you sending money via Western Union and will give you a phone number to call them on, but they are likely never home. Here’s some questions you may want to ask yourself before sending money.

1. Why would I be getting an inheritance from someone in Nigeria when, I don’t know anyone who’s ever lived there?

2. How would someone like this get my email address?

3. Why would I need to send them money in order to receive a large sum of money?

4. Why would I help someone who’s in a sticky situation that I don’t know?

5. Why would I send a woman money who will only talk to me on the internet?

6. Shouldn’t I research the names they are giving me before sending money?

Those are all very important and especially researching names that they give you or pictures that they show you of their self. Seriously, you can find everything you need on Google. You don’t need to research the inheritance part because you already know it’s a scam, it’s always a scam and you won’t be an exception. The story about “I’m stuck in Nigeria and I need help”, that’s a scam! I hope this helps so many people because you need to know before, sending your hard earned money to scumbags.

The Generation of Looking Down

With all of the new technologies now and most of them being consolidated onto cell phones, we have become a generation of looking down. I can clearly remember being a kid and going somewhere like the doctors office and running to my room before we left, I had to grab something to keep me busy which ended up being either a coloring book with crayons, a toy or a handheld video game system like my Nintendo Gameboy. Ah those were the days. Now we have a generation of people who carry their smartphones and can do anything they want to keep their self busy.

The older generations who don’t use technology will tell you that our generation is missing out on so much in life. What are we really missing out on though? Not much actually if you think about it because, everything is available to us. What our friends are doing, what news is on TV, what new game is out that everyone is playing, controlling our home alarm system and many other things that can be done on a smartphone. We can even travel the world through Google earth. The great smartphone even gets us out of a boring situation, by having something to distract us. Yes we truly are the generation of looking down.

What did people used to do for entertainment before cell phones became smart? Well, many people spent much more time outside, kids rode their bikes and played a good game of hide and seek or basketball. People had to go home or to a friend’s house to play on a bulky video game system, you had to pull out a camera to take pictures and then have them developed at a store. If you wanted to see what the other side of the world was doing, you would have to spend thousands to travel.

There’s no doubt about it, we all have our heads buried in our smartphones and most of us have our phone’s glued to our hands everywhere we walk. We’ve become so obsessed with our phones we rarely put them in our pockets anymore or leave them laying somewhere and wall hugging to keep that cell phone charged is a way of life.

It’s so important to us as a generation to be liked online. We want the whole world to see our tweets, instagram posts, Facebook statuses, what we’re eating, where we are going, what we are doing and for people to press that like button, reblog, retweet, sharing, commenting and so on. We determine our self worth by what other people, even strangers think of us and some people take it much harder than others. 

If anyone here doesn’t have a smartphone, would you own one and if not, why?

For those of you who do have smartphones, would you ever live without it?