Sunday, January 29, 2006

Kibbles & Bits

It's foggy out there, has been all day but got worse right at sunset. (Sunset used loosely, cause the sun was nowhere to be seen, it was just greygreygrey all day.) My hubby surprised me... he isn't one for noticing anything beyond the windows, but when I heard him say "Wow... freaky" while peering out of the kitchen window I had to go look. I assumed the one neighbor had modded his car again, or the other neighbor's kid had done something weird to his hair, but it turned out he was looking at the fog through the bare trees out back. And it was kinda freaky, like something straight out of the opening scene of a horror movie. Really neat though. If the telephone pole wasn't in the way I'd have taken pictures.

Segue: I love the perspective from the second floor. And higher, when I can get there... the landlord left the attic door unlocked so we could check for leaks (lots of rain lately), and the last time I went up I just had to go look out the window. And since it was dark, and I had a flashlight, I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking. A light in the attic? (Wait, wasn't that a Shel Silverstein book? It was.) So now I want to put the blue filter on my flashlight and go wave it around the next time I check the attic ceiling. Nobody EVER goes up there, or sees lights, so it might get someone talking... *grin*

Last night's TNA wrestling show was another chapter in the Sting history book. He came out and gave a very emotional farewell speech and "officially" retired. Of course it's an angle and he'll be back in a couple of months, but the whole segment was incredibly well done. The man has got some mad mic skillz, yo. I personally don't care if he ever wrestles again, just give him a microphone and some airtime and let him roll with it. He'd be a great commentator too. Guess that's why he's a good guest host on TBN.

February 4-12 is the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Expo in Harrisburg. We obvs aren't going next weekend, since it's Super Bowl Sunday and we wanna watch the Steelers on Dad's bigscreen TV. The weekend after is a good possibility. The Expo is HUGE, and features everything you never knew you needed for any kind of activity that takes place beyond your front door. There's even an indoor archery range, with targets set up in the bleacher seats of the arena. Not to mention trucks, bikes (both varieties), boats, equipment, gun manufacturers, and a whole slew of people trying to sell hunting/fishing/camping trips to the far reaches of the earth plus Colorado and Montana.

We're also having a belated birthday party next Sunday for the love of my life, who turns 31 tomorrow! We met when he was a young 25 and haven't been apart since... Love you hunny! Happy Birthday! XXXOOO!!!

For tomorrow I think I'll bake a cake just for the two of us, since a friend is making one for next weekend. (She makes him some form of chocolate cake every year and it's a given now.) And maybe cook him his favorite dinner, which is... umm... hmmmm... Well, he eats almost anything, so whatever I make should be fine. I'm lacking a fresh deer heart so that's out. (Whew.) Maybe elk steaks on the grill... he'll love that.

A true story: I was having major access problems with my computer and after weeks of fighting with it, took it in to a (well-known chain) shop for repair. It was determined that when the pre-installed Norton Antivirus software expired (and I didn't renew cause I use AVG) it went haywire and started blocking more stuff every day. Cost me almost a hundred bucks (techs ain't cheap!) to have everything manually uninstalled and my access restored. When I picked up the computer and paid for it, the guy at the counter says... get this... "If you want a better antivirus program, we strongly recommend Norton." (begin sarcasm) I said "Isn't Norton WHY I had to bring this thing here in the first place?" He gave me a funny look, smarmed a bit with the "Well, if it's properly installed...." spiel but I reminded him that it came pre-installed, I didn't do it myself. He stopped talking and I thanked him and left. I had an appointment to get my headlight fluid changed... (end sarcasm)

And now I have to go bake a cake, like a good wife who knows her place is in the kitchen and not on a computer or under the hood of a car. *eyeroll*

5 comments:

fart blossom said...

About the whole norton thing...

Wow. I can't say I'm terribly surprised at what you were charged or the guy at the service desks recommendation. Norton. That's got to be an acronym for something really dumb. I've run across several people's comps that had an install or a pre-install that pooched their whole system and would not uninstall. Tech support always blamed me of course before walking me through deleting the certain directories and registry entries. I seem to remember a very complicated online description of how you can do it yourself, but it wasn't easy to find. Norton is just as vulnerable to new viruses as anything else out there and more of a pain to fix when something goes wrong.

I have a 60 day preinstall on my brand new baby notebook of norton and I'm using it and totally non-impressed. I think when I get around to it I'm uninstalling it and putting Avast! free home version on it. If you really want to hear techies roll their eyes at you, tell them you have Avast. I don't care. I take care of my own machine and it never lets me down.

Hey, if your AV gives you trouble in the future, I'd be willing to help if I can do it through email or phone.

Take care,
Waylan

CJupiter said...

Thanks, Waylan, I appreciate that. I'll have to look into Avast as an AVG alternative.

I guess the entire irony surrounding this one is that the 1-year warranty expired... guess when... the same week everything went nuts. I have this odd feeling that if I'd sent them a couple hundred bucks to extend the warranty *nothing* would have gone wrong... but I have an inherent distrust for mass-market software engineers and comp manufacturers anyway.

Chris said...

Interestingly enough, Waylan, AVG is by Grisoft, s.r.o., a good ole Czech co. I personally don't bother at all with anti-virus software. I have filtering on my email account (& you do, too, Waylan) that gets rid of any bugs or spam. I've *never* had a virus get through. Since 99% of the viruses are worms transmitted via email, I'm pretty safe. The only other protection-oriented software that I use is ZoneAlarm, a firewall. It's probably redundant, since my pc & my hunny's are connected to the net via a router (which has a built-in firewall). I guess it's a left-over habit of when I had direct connex isp service with a fixed ip.

That's my set up. I've *never* had a problem.

Chris said...

By the way, my email filtering is provided by my web host where my domain (ywamlatvia.com) & email accounts are hosted.

fart blossom said...

Dood.

I didn't know anyone responded to my comments on here. I expected it would let me know in email but it didn't. *haw*

Yeah, I recommed AV software. You never know. It is a pain though. As an update, I think the day after I posted my last comment Norton went FUBAR and wouldn't let me check my email. It's history.

I have caught one virus since that time but it was all my fault. Downloading some junk for a game I occasionally play. I whacked it quick enough with avast. I'm fairly sure Norton would have been toast after 5 minutes of that virus being on my box.

anywho....