So I managed to get a nasty trojan/virus on my system. Yes, I run a very good virus software program, as well as several other protections (spyware, registry monitors, etc.). The thing is, the virus software is super sensitive and it gets all worked up over the smallest stuff, and it has been known to have false positives on some things that I KNOW were not actually trojans (it gets worried about the size of zip files, just as one example).

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure how it happened, as I was sorely distracted and not paying as much attention as I should have and I managed to click something that popped up (thinking that the virus warning was a false positive because I wasn't paying close enough attention *sighs and rolls eyes*) and suddenly my computer is very badly infected. Ugh.

Long, painful, aggravating story shorter, I spent hours searching around trying to find a way to fix this (it appears to be a very new trojan/virus combination, and it's a nasty hybrid, so nothing I had available would actually remove all of it, though several programs removed parts of it and I removed some bits of it manually). I got rid of the actual files that were causing trouble, but at some point during the adventure, the registry got corrupted. Big time. Like, you couldn't write to parts of it at all. I'd make changes and reboot and it was like that movie, Groundhog Day. Same thing over and over and over and over because the registry changes weren't being saved.

After trying everything I could think of to fix it (and having been mucking around with computers for more than ten years, that's quite a lot), I finally gave in and accepted that I'd have to reinstall Windows, which I did.

Happily, I thought to make backups of all my documents and settings and my bookmarks are magically saved via Foxmarks (good extension for Firefox, I recommend it!) and most of my files are on drives other than the boot drive, plus I'm a digital pack rat and I keep copies of files that I download, so I had almost all the files I needed on hand, including Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. I even had all my passwords backed up (I use RoboForm, another program I highly recommend).

I still have some more stuff to install, and I'm quite irritated about having wasted the weekend on something stupid like this, but I must say, doing the reinstall fixed a few really annoying issues with the boot sequence and it's always good to have a cleanup now and then. This computer has been running on the same Windows install for years now, and it was getting a little raggedy (which is probably why the registry corruption happened; on a more functional installation, it probably would have been fine once the offending files were removed).

It is quite weird that Windows has, for reasons that are beyond me, reassigned all of the drive letters. My boot drive is now E, and C is my scratch drive (i.e., a drive where I just put stuff I don't want to keep, so I can format the whole drive if I want to and clean it up). I didn't know that Windows could boot off of a drive other than C, but there you go. Learn something new every day, eh?

Andrew's a bit of poet. He's not like one of those dramatic, scarf-wearing, standing-in-the-rain type poets. He just likes to play with rhythm and word density. He writes amusing verse sometimes. On the main page for this very website is a poem Andrew wrote which is meant to sound like the King James Old Testament poetry, in fact.

Anyway, he now has a formally published poem, except it's not really a poem. More like... free verse meets haiku. It's on the public transport system (along with many others), but it's also on the web, along with with an extremely amusing autobiographical paragaph.

I did take him to task somewhat over the way he used the word "contemporary" in the description. I think he could have chosen a better word, and I don't think the way he used it was quite correct. He defended his choice of word, of course, but I still think he was wrong on the internet (which is why I must correct him; can't have people going around being wrong on the internet now, can we?)

I will complain slightly that I was originally the one who came up with the idea of nursing homes filled with tattooed people with pierced eyebrows, but he's forgiven for stealing my ideas. Fact is, we've been together so long now and our minds are so intertwined that it's hard to tell who thought what first. But I'm sure that this was originally my concept. No matter. I'll steal something from him and get it published one day. That'll show him. Or something.

John McCain's answer to worldwide recession and severe economic hardship and poverty? Why, sell stuff on eBay!

Well, it's Winter Solstice today here in the Southern Hemsphere. The shortest day of the year. Starting tomorrow, the days start to get longer, and soon it will be spring. I'm looking forward to it, believe me. Not only do I quite dislike the cold, I do still suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, although it's only enough to make me totally exhausted and completely unmotivated, rather than being truly "depressed".

Anyway, in honour of the solstice, here's one of my all-time favourite songs (Here Comes the Sun) sung by my all-time favourite Beatle (George Harrison). Enjoy. (That's an order! Enjoy it, dammit! ENJOY! Do you hear me?!)

The ACCC's rejection of eBay's compulsory PayPal plans is good news for consumers, but eBay's naked grab for cash has done irrepairable damage to the entire online auction market.

(Apologies for the double "eBay" posts, but this is news around here and it's something I've been following quite closely.)

eBay faces prosecution under Australian competition law if it pushes ahead with plans to force users to use PayPal for online auction payments, the ACCC said today.

After 105 witnesses and three months of evidence, a drug trial costing $1 million was aborted yesterday when it emerged that jurors had been playing Sudoku since the trial's second week.

Wow. Just... wow.

This article made me smirk and shake my head and sigh a bit. Gee, whiz, George Bush is suddenly concerned that the world thinks he's a warmonger! Oh, gosh!

Mr Bush voiced regret at divisions in the international community created by the war in Iraq, adding: "I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric".

He admitted that his use of phrases such as "bring them on" and "dead or alive" had "indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace".

I don't normally pay any attention to the Nigerian scam emails I get. I just report them and get on with my life. But this one really caught my attention. I love how FedEx uses Gmail and has lost contact with the sender via Western Union and calls on the name love of God and the Spirit of the Lord.... This was obviously written by a truly, TRULY clueless scammer. I hope and pray that nobody would be stupid enough to fall for this one (which is why I've removed any/all contact information), but it was such an amusing read, I just had to share it.

GFedEx Courier Head Office 70 International Airport Road & nbsp; Mafoluku, Lagos. Email: fedex.serviceXXX_@googlemail.com Tel:.+234-808-102-XXX_

Attention' Attention''Attention'''

CLAIM NOTIFICATION.

This is to notify you that your parcel is still in our possession,this parcel
contained an International Cashier Bank Draft/Cheque worth the sum of
$750,000.00 dollars only and it is ready for delivery to your door step.
Meanwhile, before the delivery or shipment will take place,you are advice to
send to us the following datas mention below:

1.Your Name .......
2.Address ............
3.Telephone ........

The above requested informations will enable us deliver your parcel correctly
without any mistake or delivering your parcel to a wrong person.Furthermore,you
might be asking yourself how comes this email,cheque or draft,Anyway,your
cheque was brought to this office by a Lottery Fudiciary Agent Or Claim
Agent,signifying that you are a rightfull winner to their Lottery Award
selected randomly from 10 lucky email addresses which your email address is one
of the lucky email address.

FedEx Courier Service Company mailing you as per your parcel that was brought
to this company to be delivered to you by lottery groups, along the delivery
process that brought a misunderstanding between you and the lottey claim agent
and in regards of their request as per their insurance certificate cost and tax
fee which happened to be the course of your parcel being pending for the past
months/one year.

Meanwhile we are hereby happy to inform you that the FedEx Courier Service
Company has finalized everything with the nicon insurance company of Nigeria
and the internal revenue office as the company organization has also listed 24
valuable parcels to be intact in their office after the released of the parcels
from the nicon insurance company and internal revenue office.

We are happy to inform you once again that your parcel that contains the sum of
$750,000.00 dollars is among the 24 parcels listed which is now in our office
and also with your name as the receiver despise that we lost your private
residential addresss, which is an indication that you can now re-send your
residential address,telephone as stated above back to the United company where
your parcel can be delivered to you without hesitation with this e-mail
(fedex.serviceXXX_@googlemail.com)

Meanwhile remember that the sender of this parcel to you that the fudiciary
agent still owes this company the sum of $140.00USD before incident occurs,
know you that this company has spend out of their incomes in the process by
recovery back your parcel.So dear customer we once again appreciate your
patronage in our favour.

Without hesitations you are to pay for just the balance left by your sender
since we have lost his contact.via western union so that your parcel can be
delivered to your residential address before it accumulate a demurrage after
one week only,as you know your parcel is not just an ordinary parcel but with a
huge amount and I think you understand what I mean by accumulating a demurrage?
Which you will not allow to happen to your recovery parcel that almost gone if
not for the love that the good god have for you by favoring you with his favour
because it was god who did it not by your power but by the spirit say the lord.

We assure you that your parcel will arrive at your country in two days time and
it will get to your door step the third day as soon as this company receive the
balance left by your sender and the tracking number of your parce l will be
sent to you via e-mail immediately so that you can track it yourself to see
your parcel coming on the way and you will also know when it will arrive at
your country because we operate in trust and loyalty in your favour.

And also the FedEx Courier Service Company is hereby to inform all their
customers by eradicating all their communication with the scam mails that are
going all-over the world be careful with their e-mails so that your parcel will
not be in danger with their evil planes. FedEx Courier Service Company provides
access to a growing global market place through a network of supply chain,
transportation, business and related information services.

PAYMENT INFORMATION OFFICE .

RECIEVERS NAME------ Mr Dele Charles
SENDERS NAME-------
SENDERS COUNTRY-----
RECIEVERS COUNTRY----LAGOS NIGERIA AFRICA.
TEXT QUESTION------------WHAT FOR?
TEXT ANSWER---------------.DELIVERY
AMOUNT TO BE PAID---------$140
MTCN NUMBER......................

Please you ahve to send the full payment information including the MTCN Number
for we to fully proceed on your delivery
FedEx is one of the world's great success stories, the start-up that
revolutionized the delivery of packages and information. In the past 30 years,
we've grown up and grown into a diverse family of companies a FedEx that's
bigger, stronger, better than ever. Call me: Tel:.+234-802-209-1645

WAITING TO READ YOUR E-MAIL.
YOURS AFFECTIONATLY.
MR.EVAN PIPER
fedex_serviceXXX_@yahoo.it
Tel:.+234-808-102-XXX_
FEDEX COURIER SERVICE MANAGING DIRECTOR..
N/B:
SEND ALL THE REQUESTED INFORMATION TO : fedex.serviceXXX_@googlemail.com AND
CALL Tel:.+234-808-102-XXX_

One strange side effect of the Movable Type upgrade is that the RSS feed for this blog went a little weird. I'm not sure what happened with it, but it's no longer where it used to be for some reason. I've changed it at Feedburner, so if you're subscribed via Feedburner (which you really should be), it should be cool. Otherwise, well, if you're relying on your own feed reader to get updates, uhm, you won't be, because the old feed isn't there any more and I have no idea why. Sorry about that.

Ever wonder what sort of information you're giving out when you visit a website? This page will show you some of it. Note, this is only some of the possible information a website can get from your browser. It's also possible to extract stuff like the specific version of your browser (note: that site thinks I'm using Netscape but gives no version; in fact I'm using Firefox...), your screen resolution and colour depth, and various other interesting facts and tidbits.

So, we've just upgraded Movable Type to version 4.x. And when I say "we" I mean "Andrew". The upgrade was a fairly significant one, and the user interface is WAY different. I have no idea yet whether or not all my blog templates will work. I'm not actually looking forward to finding out...

Okay, you sussed me out. This is actually just a test post.

Okay, I'm not a fan of Britney Spears' music (or most of her perfumes, though I do like Curious), but this video is really funny and clever.

In a society under constant surveillance, the photographer has become an object of suspicion.

(Thoughtful essay, well worth reading, and it's where I got the quotation I posted a few entries back. The essay provoked an interesting conversation between Andrew and myself, and I dunno why I didn't post a link to it when I posted the quote. It's a good read. Go read it.)

I wrote the following as an on-topic comment on Dawn's blog, but upon reflection, I decided I liked it enough to post it here, too. So, here it is. Take it for what it's worth.

I always try to say something nice or at least give a sympathetic smile to any parent with a misbehaving child in public. I have been there so many times, and it's NOT because I'm a lazy parent.

I have a child who is Autistic. You can't tell by looking at her that she's disabled, but she definitely is. She attends a special needs school and has all kinds of therapy to help her learn how to cope with the world because, guess what? Her brain is wired differently and she just doesn't always "get" what other people expect of her, and even when she does, she's sometimes literally unable to comply.

As she's gotten older, it's gotten better, but there have been many, many public meltdowns and just general misbehaviour (screaming, for example).

The dirty looks I've gotten from total strangers kind of amazes me. Anyone paying the slightest bit of attention would see that I am definitely paying attention and doing my best to manage the situation, but I can't rewire the child's brain in the food court for the convenience of random strangers, no.

And you know what? Even if I could rewire my kid to fit the pattern that random people on the street think she should fit, I wouldn't. She is unique, and so am I, and if people don't like it, they can take their judgmental attitude and stick it in the orifice of their choice (and they can do it in the food court if they want; I'll just look the other way, the way they should if they're offended!)