My most frightening internet story occurred about 6 months ago.... I was just cutting an absolute swathe on XB1 playing BF4...on point like a mofo, channelling my inner warrior. I'd settled in for a good 12 hour Saturday sesh when my conn buckled completely. Staying in the zone, I sought to neutralize the threat by getting straight on the phone to my service provider, an Australian business who's support desk is based in Manilla. Not prepared to acquiesce to a setback given I work Mon-Fri and 'I'll be god damned if some son of a bitch was gonna get their greasy mitts on my birthright' ie. My primo Saturday arvo online multi-player slot. So 3 hours, and twice as many call-centre employees later....my conn is probably worse. Id rebooted, reconnected, reconfigured, re-explained, re-evaluated my life and re-doubled my efforts during this harrowing window. Did I consider cutting my loses and conceding defeat 'sure I did', but fuck that..these guys suck $400-500 per month out of me for phone/net/cable TV hook up so - 'fix my shit now' was as flexible as I was inclined to be. Also there is a strange conflict once you're 3 hrs down an absolutely joyless and non-productive call-centre rabbit hole ...do I stick it out for as long as there is a Philippino Telstra sub-contracter prepared to flick to the next page in the trouble shooting manual and give me some hope or do I wilt? To surrender my side arm at this point and compound having wasted the previous 3hrs of my life for squat seemed like an even more ignominious outcome than just digging in - sooo that's what I did. I hung in their like an ANZAC for another 3 whole hours....to 'astonishingly' be informed that one Telstra's international servers had been shut down and wasn't likely to be up an operational for at least 8-12 hours & that's what would have been screwing up by download speed. As this wave of 'im going to absolutely lose my fucking shit at this poor woman' took hold....she has the discourtesy to inquire (like the previous 8-9 minions) if she has been 'helpful in resolving my inquiry' and would I like to hang on the line to complete a quick survey? Ironically the only thing between me, spontaneous truck rental and the impulse purchase of 15mt of fertilizer at that very moment was my FUBAR Internet conn....