Wai

01

I woke up one morning and discovered that my internet went down. I supposed I should reset the modem and the router, but they were in my roommate's room. His door was locked. He left for home and probably won't be back till... I don't know... some time before the semester starts. A week or two without the internet. What the hell.

I live in an apartment that belongs to the university. The T1 line is free. But my roommate didn't want to use that line because he needed to download movies. He told me that he can't sleep without watching a movie every night.

"Let's get DSL," he said, "then we can download whatever we want."

"But I don't download," I said.

We got DSL because it wasn't that expensive and I didn't want to ruin his sleep. He had told me the ordeal he had with his ex-roommate, who was an environmental engineer.

"He didn't let me use the AC in the summer, didn't wash his dishes with detergent, didn't use toilet paper and washed his underwear in the bathroom sink. He opened all the windows in the summer, all the bugs would fly inside. It was like a jungle in his room. I plugged my door at the bottom to keep the bugs out. It was so horrible I couldn't sleep and went to my friend's place. I never confronted him because I wanted to keep the harmony in the house. Are you cool with having the AC on in the summer?"

"Sure," I said.

"Do you have much stuffs?" He asked.

"Nope, all I have is a bed and a desk."

"That's good, everyone who had come to see this place thought that it is too small, you are the first one who doesn't think so. Do you know what year you were born?"

"Year of the Dog."

"Oh! That's awesome, I was born in the Year of the Rat, we will get along well! Ten people have come to check out this place, you are the only one I like. It's so great, we are even in the same department! Can you believe that?"

Thing would have been well if the DSL were more stable.

"Would you plug in the line for me so I can use the T1?" I asked. The active T1 outlet is in his room.

"If I plug it in, my bed would be sticking out."

"How about opening a port in my room?"

"They charge you if you want to open additional ports."

I went to the office and asked about the charge. When I returned, I told my roommate.

"It costs me less to open a port than to pay for my share of the DSL for a year. Do you know what I mean?"

If he wanted to keep downloading he would have to pay for the DSL on his own, since it would be better for me to just open my own T1 port. He thought for a while and told me that he would cancel the DSL by next month.

Hmm but what about his bed?