Archive for November, 2005
Phoenix
It’s 1:15 AM, and as I write this, I am sitting on my couch in my new apartment. In the small space of time consisting of Sunday and Monday, I have managed to pack up all my belongings and travel almost 1,200 miles. To top it off, I also have unloaded the entire uhaul truck (with help from a few friends) into my apartment on the fourth floor. Yes. We even carried my gi-normous couch up four flights of stairs.
My back is not too happy right now.
I was hoping that I would be able to connect to the internet wirelessly here, bumming off of some neighbors or what not. Unfortunately, the apartment walls and ceilings consist entirely of concrete, a foot thick, crammed full with who knows how much re-bar. Suffice to say, just about any feasible signals are blocked. Yes, including my cell phone. If I stand in the middle of my apartment complex my phone has zero bars. Stupid thing.
Anyways, so I went out on my balcony with my trusty Linksys WRT54G wireless router (with upgraded firmware), and attempted to scour the landscape for a usable signal outside of the complex. I found a couple of weak signals, including one from a t-mobile hot spot at a starbucks a number of blocks away.
The signal was very faint, so I increased the power on the router to 200mw. Still not quite usable.
Using duct tape and a piece of plastic from a modular shelving unit, I proceeded to create a makeshift platform that stretched out past my balcony and away from the concrete walls by a foot or so. I then proceeded to place the wireless router out on the platform, now hanging precariously four stories above the ground.
Success!
So. Yeah. I’m surfing the web and writing in my journal using a starbucks far away. I’m not sure why, but this concept makes me humourously pleased. Too bad I have to hide my duct taped contraption from the sight of the road, come day time. Somehow I don’t think the apartment manager would find it to be parallel with the current decorum.
More will be written later… Probably after a couple of days once I start getting settled in.
I need sleep badly.