After 6 days, numerous calls to Puget Sound Engery (PSE), complaints to Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (1-800-562-6150), we got our power restored. How? I told my dad that if he saw a PSE repair truck to call me. So this morning, he saw two waiting on the side of the road a few blocks away from my house and he called my cell. I drove up to the truck and greeted the repair crew. They were very understanding and helpful. The one was eating an apple and the other was making a phone call. The gentleman behind the wheel (the one eating the apple) told me they were waiting for a tree to be cut down before they could start work. I told them that my street a block away was still without power (since Thursday 1am) and that the primary lines were still intact and that I'm pretty sure it was just a fuse that needed to be replaced on the pole that connected to the main street. He said that would't take long and he would swing by to restore my power. It took 10 mins total!!

In fact, when I told the crew that PSE said there are over 400 repair trucks on the road, he told me he hadn't seen any and that he has been working 20 hour days. I think PSE is blowing smoke up our asses. When he looked at his list of repairs for the day, I wasn't even on the list (even after speaking to a supervisor at PSE that said he would try to escalate my repair). When I called PSE (a private power company), they told me that they had asseted my lines and that it would take 7 trucks of 3 men or a total of 21 men to repair my power. I was floored, angered, depressed and did't understand where or how they got that number. It's all completely false! It took 1 man and 10 minues to get me powered up. I urge everyone that has PSE to call the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (1-800-562-6150) and file a complaint against PSE on how they handled this storm. Clearly, this company is clueless, unprepared and not giving us the service and truthful information we deserve.

If my dad didn't find the crew, and I didn't talk to them, we'd still be without power until after Christmas (that was what another PSE operator told me when I called them). It's scary to think that a wind storm would do so much damage and knock us out for almost 1 week. Imagine what it's going to be like if we have a major earthquake!

Now I can finish trying out the HD DVD drive with the new HDCP enabled video card and Vista...

It's very interesting to see how reliant we have become on electricity. Everything I blog about needs it and without it, they are worthless chunks of plastic and metal. A powerful windstorm hit Seattle Thursday night and our power went out around 1:00am Friday morning. It was restored for about 30 minutes this morning (Sunday, 2:00am) but then a big bang took that joy away. I called up Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and they say it may take until Saturday to get our power back -- I really hope not. Luckly, my parents live right around the corner and their power has been fully restored -- that's where I'm writting from.

At night, my wife and I have been sitting by the fireplace catching up on magazines, books, and playing cards. We look at all the technology in the house and realize that all this stuff really doesn't matter, what's most important is being warm and safe.

Ok, enough of that... The new HDCP graphics card arrived. Once the power is restored I'll try it out with the HD DVD drive and post the results.

I just upgraded to MT 3.33 and I cleaned up all the comment spam from the site. I still need to fix a few UI elements, like if you try to comment, it will now go to an approval page which looks like crap -- I'll work on that this weekend. If you notice any pages not working or anything else that seems jacked up... please let me know.