I think there’s a tiny bit of confusion I need to clear up regarding the wireless Internet being broken at my apartment, and how that affects my communications. Way too many people have been asking about it, so I decided to explain it here so I don’t have to repeat it over and over for each person who asks.

If you don’t know already, I own an Apple iPod Touch with which I use Meebo, an instant messaging application. I never turn my iPod off, and only restart it about once every one or two weeks, which means I am almost always connected to the Internet with my instant messaging accounts. Even when I walk outside of a wifi hotspot, Meebo still shows me as online (but away) and I am able to see the messages I receive during my non-wifi times once I reenter a wifi zone.

Unfortunately, the wireless Internet in my apartment is not working at all. The router is in my neighbor’s room and he’s almost never in his room, so it’s extremely difficult for me to find out what’s wrong with it. I’ve tried calling our Internet service provider before, but they say that they can’t even detect a router connected to the port, which leads me to believe that the router isn’t even plugged in and my neighbor is doing this either as a prank or to annoy me.

So, in case you haven’t made the connection yet, I cannot use Meebo while I am in my apartment. Which seems fine, because I can just connect my laptop to the wall and get Internet via a LAN cable, but this poses a slight problem with my instant messages.

When I sign in on my laptop to Pidgin (which automatically signs me into AIM, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, and IRC), I only see messages that I receive from that point on. All the messages that I received while I was outside of a hotspot are still queued up to send to my iPod. That means, if you instant message me while I’m away and outside of a wifi zone, I may not actually see it until the next morning when I connect to the wifi at my lecture hall (or later that night when I go to work, if that day happens to be a day that I work).

So, please stop complaining to me about not replying to your instant messages even when my status is set to Available. I most likely just haven’t seen it yet, and will still get back to you if you instant messaged me something valid that prompts my response.

The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Topic #61: What’s the longest you’ve been without sleep? If your blog is about work, tell the story of an all-nighter you have pulled. If your blog is about an area of interest, tell a story of the last time you missed sleep, or got up extra early, to do something you enjoy.

The longest I have been without sleep is about 26 hours.

This occurred on September 17, 2010 when the Facebook Hackathon was held in Madison, WI. I went there to film a video for the Badger Herald. I intended to stay only for a few hours, but ended up staying the entire night. I had woken up at 7 AM that morning to go to class. The Hackathon started at 8 PM, and went on for 12 hours until 8 AM the following morning. After it ended I walked back to my apartment and went to sleep by around 9 AM.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 18

Number of times I did my own laundry: 2