Tuesday Tidbits

Some folks might sa-ay that I'm no good
That I wouldn't settle down if I could
But when that open ro-oad starts to callin' me
There's somethin' o'er the hill that I gotta see
Sometimes it's har-rd but you gotta understand
When the Lord made me, He made a Ra-amblin' Man. -- Hank Williams

I'm kind of all over the place today, but that's my brain this morning. It's a scary place to visit, but living here is even more ... interesting.

Hey, it's snowing out. In case you wondered.

DD starts art lessons again today. Last night, she ran up to me, hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe and said, "I'm SO glad I have art lessons tomorrow!" and then ran off again.

I think she enjoys them.

DH went in to swim in the jury pool again yesterday. This time though he got hooked and landed. He starts as a juror on a civil case next week. Oh. Joy.

At least it wasn't a capital murder crime. We have one going on currently -- four guys broke into a house and killed a mother and almost killed her daughter -- the weapons were a machete and a knife and the mother curled up around her daughter. Saved her life. Broke my heart.

Anyway....

My mom's computer died (a virus again -- I hate hackers), so she's been calling me every day and I check her emails. She gets upwards of 40+ spam emails daily. Amazing. It made me wonder: do people REALLY think they've won $50,000,000 pounds in the British lottery? Do they actually BUY drugs online from people they don't know? As an aside, my DH says those folks who peddle cheap V1aGrah don't care if you buy their stuff, they're looking to get onto your computer.

If people would stop falling for the idiocy of spam mails, maybe they'd stop.

As for Mom's computer -- she's sending it here to me, so my DH can fix it and we'll send it back. While it's going to take longer, it's WAY cheaper than taking it to the Geek Squad (heaven forbid) and I know it'll be fixed correctly.

I wish she was out here. *sigh*

I suppose I've rambled enough. Time to wander on somewhere else.... have a great day!

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You Are Sensitive

You are very intuitive and insightful. You understand what's going on around you without needing to be told. You are naturally nurturing and caring. You look out for people, even if they don't ask you to. You tend to stay attached to those you love. It's hard for you to let go when you need to. You are in touch with your emotions. You know exactly what you're feeling and why you're feeling it.

The Donut Test

Um... I'm not really sensitive, but some of the rest fits. And I LOVE me a Boston Creme donut. Oh. Yum.

2000

"It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired." — Robert Strauss

Today is my 2000th post. Who knew I had so much to say? 2000... it boggles the mind. My first blog post went up on July 10, 2005.

Two. Thousand. Five.

I'm trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I've been doing this for nearly five years. Time really does fly, because it feels nowhere near that long. Amazing.

Anyway... moving on...

Yesterday was not a stellar day -- it wasn't awful, just not fab. One of my reviewers at LASR/WC had her computer fried by a virus that's been hitting us intermittently at the Yahoo group we use. It's a nasty one, the same one that fried my mom's computer. The worst thing about it is that it looks like a pop up box for your virus scan, but if you click it? Be prepared for the blue screen of death. FYI, my mom picked hers up at a major news site, and my SIL got one at another different, major site, so it's not restricted to Yahoo.

Here's the scoop: if you're out on the net and a gray box pops up and says that it's detected a virus and you need to click for a scan -- DON'T. Don't even click the "X" to close the box. Don't do ANYTHING. What I do is close my laptop, pull the plug and the battery and then put them all back and reboot ... and then run a virus scan from my own software. I have one reviewer who, when she gets that pop-up, closes IE (or Firefox... can't remember which she uses) and then shuts her computer down, reboots and runs a scan.

The big thing is this: DO NOT CLICK ON THE BOX IN ANY WAY.

/end service announcement

The other not-so-stellar moment was when I hopped into my car/SUV/whatever-it-is, affectionately known as The Pea, turned the key and heard: rurururururur... click, click, click...

*sigh*

Thankfully, the click-clicking means the starter is okay. And DH came home and declared the battery dead. And I'm grateful that it happened at home and not 50 miles from home, and that we have a third vehicle (the truck he uses to haul his boat), so I was able to run errands (even though I really don't like to drive the truck... it's so BIG). But, even so... we just got the blasted vehicle. I wasn't happy to have that happen.

The dog that bit Dakota at our last agility competition arrived at our agility class last night with a big shaved spot on his rump and shaved forelegs. When I asked what happened, I was told that he'd gotten bitten. I probably didn't endear myself to the owner when I said, "Ah, he took on someone who fought back this time, huh?"

I just get really frustrated, though. For whatever reason, his dog acts as though Dakota has a target on her. He hasn't hurt her again, but whenever he's off leash, he runs for her and takes her down, and then will stand over her and if she moves in the least will go for her again. She's the only dog I've ever met who is 100% submissive -- even Bailey, who was a sweetheart, had a little bit of a spine. Dakota doesn't have so much as one alpha gene in her body. Our class is full of alpha dogs, and she doesn't always know what to do with them, but this dog is the only one who forces her to submit to him completely. She knows what to do to keep herself safe... she rolls over on her back and holds totally still, and that seems to satisfy him, but ARGH.

And then, DD had math questions again (why is it always math? Why doesn't she have language questions???) and I was, once again, stymied. As always, it was something I could figure out myself, but not the way THEY wanted her to figure it out. Took me a good 45 minutes to understand how to do it the way they wanted it done (it's finding percentage increase/decrease) and I was about to tear my hair out. We got it, though, but MAN ... every time this happens I'm reminded how different things are now than they were when I was in school.

So that was my day... how was yours? Anything good, fun or interesting you'd like to share?

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You Are a Pen

You are a very precise and detail oriented person. You don't make many mistakes. You're the type who can risk writing in pen. You like making things permanent. You are decisive and focused. You know what you want, and you go after it. You like to be in control, and you don't really care for change. You like to count on yourself.

Are You a Pen or a Pencil?

Ahhhh... yep. That's me.

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No Joke: Computer Virus

I stumbled across this on ZDNet (so... this isn't some weird email whoosie going around):

http://news.zdnet.com/2424-1009_22-213604.html -- it says in part:

On Wednesday, the FBI and its partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), warned against a new email campaign being used by the creators of the Storm worm botnet.

The email uses the phrase 'FBI vs. Facebook' in its subject line and contains a link to view an article about the FBI and Facebook, the popular social-networking website. Clicking on the link downloads malicious software onto the victim's computer.

I've already rec'd this email in my spambox several times and just deleted... but wanted to pass it on. I double checked it with Snopes, being naturally skeptical, and it's real: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/fbi-facebook.asp