Revenge of the internet service provider

Having managed to get the T-Mobile content lock successfully removed and post my contribution to the Cinema Viewfinder David Cronenberg blog-a-thon, I found myself disconnected from T-Mobile just hours later and I am now temporarily without telephone and internet access at home.

Long story, and I don’t want to start scraping away on the world’s smallest violin and bore you all with my financial woes, but Paula’s firm recently changed their payroll arrangements. Used to be I got paid on the last day of the month, the mortgage and a couple of other bills went out, we shopped for food, fuelled up the car and that bank balance basically flatlined until Paula got paid on the 10th. Now, though, for reasons best known to themselves, Paula’s workplace are paying their staff on the 25th.

We knew about this a few months in advance and did our best to budget accordingly, including changing the dates of a few direct debits. Nonetheless, something had to give and I was faced with the choice of either not paying my car insurance or not paying T-Mobile. Not paying the car insurance would have been tempting fate, so I called T-Mobile, explained the situation and even managed to scrape enough together to make a small grace payment.

Obviously, it wasn’t enough for them and my account has been suspended. Unless I benefit from a lottery win or unexpected inheritance in the interim, I won’t have internet access at home until at least the 25th.

How much material appears on the blog between now and then depends on the availability of friends’ computers. It might be a bit catch as catch can for the next two weeks.

I’m still busily preparing reviews and I’ve set myself a deadline of 10th October for completing Operation 101010 (ie. 101010 finished on 10.10.10). I’m confident I’ll get the remaining films watched the reviews written by then, but whether they all get posted on The Agitation of the Mind in time is something I wouldn’t put money on … even if I had any right now.

So, this post is just to apologise for the absence of Something For The Weekend yesterday (it would have featured Julie Christie in ‘Darling’) and for the fact that I won’t be able to leave as many comments as I normally would on my favourite blogs. Please bear with me; normal service will resume soon.

Bring me the head of T-Mobile

For about two years now, my internet access (at home anyway) has been via one of those T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk sticks. Apart from vacillations in upload speed and an occasional tendency to drop out of connection, it's served me fairly well.

Tonight, however, and with the service unasked for and definitely unrequired (I'm over 18; I don't have any children), it's decided to impose a content lock. Blogger? Blocked. YouTube? Blocked. Anything that might return a hit from a Google search along the lines of "hot girl on girl action"? Fuhgeddaboudit! I tried logging in to the T-Mobile website, but the unlock feature didn't work.

After much searching and perusing of forums, I've finally managed to log-in via a proxy site. Most proxies, if the last hour and a half of wasted life has been anything to go by, either don't let you log on to Blogger or let you log on but give up the ghost when you hit the "new post" button.

This one (hiddenkurt.info) has allowed me to create a new post, however the upload and link buttons are missing. Hence the post I had written for tonight (my set of answers to Dennis Cozzallo's latest quiz at SLIFR) complete with links and illustrative material will have to wait until I've had the opportunity to call in at a T-Mobile store tomorrow with proof of age. The fact that you have to be over 18 in order to have a fucking contract with them in the first place seems to be lost on them.

Hopefully The Agitation of the Mind will return tomorrow.