Ack-Comp woes!

My Ewido alerted me yesterday, that I had picked up a Trojan, so I ran through the hoops:
-Run Trend Micro House Call, Restart.
-Re-Run Ewido, Restart
-Run Windows Online Safety Beta Scanner, Restart
-Run Bit Defender
-Run MS Anti-Spy Beta
-Run Norton, (Which I am deciding has become immeasurably useless of late) Restart.
-Install and Run Zone Alarm, Restart.

After I did the first run with House Call, it picked up on the Trojan again and gave me a message that said it couldn't be cleaned. So I ran it again. The second time it found nothing. All subsequent anti Malware programs found nothing - BUT - my IE is still running...uhm "wrong?" and while I have no Mozilla installed on my computer, I keep getting a message everytime I try to start up IE that "it is not my default browser and would I like to to be?" I have been clicking, "Yes" but each tie I start it it tells me the same thing, so now I am thinking that there is something nefarious still lurking beneath the surface of the keyboard.

I am sorely tempted to dload XP SP2, however, I know it does not "work and play well" with othe machines, but the IT guy at Cascade keeps ranting about how I MUST have it because this Trojan crap wouldn't be happening if I had updated to SP 2.

And yet, I hear those confirming words inside my head, words from :

Michael Kellogg friendly neighborhood Foley Artist and IT guy-Extroardinaire
and
Bryan Seigfreid, Not-so-Local IT Guy Extraordinaire

their words ring inside my head like a siren -"Danger! Danger! Do NOT Load the SP2. Danger! Danger!"

And yet...in a tangled mess of Microsoft foolishness, some how my update - which is configured to only ALERT me of updates and NOT auto update, started an auto update while I was not looking - and you guessed it : it started to dload some xp SP2. I was unable to stop the Dload midway so I just jerked the line outta the wall and that put a stop to it. Funy thing is though...it didn't actually load XP SP2 proper, but only four of the Hotfixes?
Weirdness.
But this is the same time last year, that Windows update did the very same thing to me. It was last May, when Windows update by passed my settings to be alerted and not auto updated and managed to Dload the entire XP SP2 update. I thought at that time, "screw you Bill Gates! I am the one who decides when and what to update, not you." and I prompltly uninstalled XP SP2.
It was like a giant taloned creature (the long arm of Bill Gates?) reached in and dragged out a handful of my computers intrails, leaving a twitching lifeless cadaver in its place. That was a good long telephone call to India, let me tell you!

So I have no desire to repeat it.

But it irks me...aside from my current IE browser issues, that there are four XPSP2 hotfixes in there that I am not sure if I can safely extricate.

Such is Tuesday.

Must teach Art today.
Drive to Portland tomorow to take a friend to her workmans comp evaulation.
Thursday is edit the huge novel for the 7th grade english lit class.
Friday afternoon is drive back to Portland so Blake can go to a Camp Crew Reunion, and drive back home Saturday.

Love to Drive.

Hate to buy gas.

Learn the tune, everyone.

I think we're all going to be singing it sooner and louder than we think.
(Man! I wish my car would run on skim milk.)

A new Game

I was at a neighbors garage sale and they were selling some games. Since Scout is a "Pirata-phone" I decided to grab Sid Meier's : Pirates. Since Scout is away on a retreat at the beach, I thought to myself, "O goody! I will get it all installed and make sure it works and then when she comes home won't she be thrilled!" So I get the thing loading and am blindsided by the obvious: Serial Code.
Duh!
So my first, gut impulse is to email a friend of mine and Firaxis.
"Dude!", I write, "I know this is not your gig, but dang...what do I do now."
Of course... after sending the message I realise that I need to go hunt down my neighbor.
(This sends me into a Flashback-to one of those "Mysterium-Moments-where-Rich-and-Ryan -are-standing-in-my-room-listening-patiently-while-I-rant-about-"some dilemma"-and-they-both-calmly-answer-in-a-single-sentence-and-problems-are-suddenly-solved" kinds of moments, where I completely bypass common sense and make what is simple, convoluted.)

Anyway...
So I got the serial number and got the game loaded, (Dang it took almost as much time to load as Revelation!) and Kenz sits down to play it. She names her character...

"Captain Bellboy."

I have no idea where THAT came from!
But you know that, with a name like "Cap'n Bellboy" this adventurer ain't gonna get too far.

Chansons de les Viris

Ok, Scuttle-butt has it that this virus/set of viri take about 16 days to run it's/their course.
Tomorrow is day 16 for me, and sure enough I am starting to be able to hold my head up again.

I rarely get sick.
Maybe once a year...very light - medium grade cold, or even maybe once every-other-year, but its been years since I was THIS sick.

Honestly, about 10 days into it, I was sure I was never going to be healthy again.
I honestly thought, "this is it, from here on in, its the slow slide toward the grave for me."
I am waiting for death to come...like a friend.

But...

Well today is day 15 and the sun is out and I am SITTING UP!
Ain't THAT something!
I think I may live again to walk outside another day.

French for Raindear

Thank you to Raindear from The One Ring dot Net Chatroom, for correcting my French.
I wuld not get through tomorrows conversation without your help!

You are the best!
Thank you!

"Clariona"

The night before Easter

So MacKenz decides that she would like to be baptized on Easter.
Great!
This is how we ended up doing our kids: we let them decide if and when to be baptized, and so far it seems to have worked well for us.
Anyway, so the night before, she is assembling her "Baptism garb" because at this particular church they do total immerion, as one might find it in one of the 4 Gospels when Jesus went to John the Baptist and he dunked Him all the way under.
Though there are many other acceptable traditions around baptism, such as "sprinkling" etc...total immersion happens to be what we do.

So anyway...she is assembling her garb, and she comes out all frustrated saying,

"Mom! I only have 2 pairs of shin guards and they don't match! AND...I can't find any other of my soccer clothes!"

I respond, "What's in your head, girl! You're not going to be defending a soccer ball from Pastor Tim in the Baptismal tank! You don't NEED the shin guards!"

I swear! This kid...the things that come into her head!

What kinda sickness IS this?

Basic cold last weekend.
Spent 3+ days with 102 fever.
Fever broke and now...?
What the heck is THIS?...
within two hours of the fever breaking, I have hives coming out all over me. Arms, legs, stomach, neck. And my head feels like a lead weight, and I can barely hear.

That was yesterday.
Today I seem to have more hives.

This has been a solid 7 day thang now.
Kinda weird.

Somebody pass the tub of Benedryl Creme?

Well, craziness ensues...

First order of business:

Welcome to the first (and possibly only) meeting of AAA. (Not AA.)
"Approval Addicts Anonymous."
*She rises from her seat and walks forward to address the group.*
"My name is Blog Biscuit and I am an Approval Addict."
*Group claps and says, "Hi blog Biscuit." She steps back down and takes her seat.*

This week proves to be crazy and yet with a special anal-retentive order assigned to the craziness - much like driving a chariot pulled by six horses all trying to go a different direction.

Monday - plan art curriculum for the rest of the school year so that it is easily taught by any one who walks in off the street and not necessarily me.

Tuesday - finish editing Stephen R. Lawhead's Taliesin for English Lit read aloud for the 7th graders. (400 pages to go.)

Wednesday - paint/shoot process art. Double check preparations for the lyst move on Saturday.

Thursday - Music day - Fiddle, Mandolin, Hammered Dulcimer, Irish Whistle practice day.

Friday - Fill-in work at local Mailbox/Shipping/Office Supply store here in town.

Saturday - Move Lysts, Procure and Pre-Prep Easter foods. Clean house and entertain mother-in-law.

Sunday-MacKenz is Baptised at Easter service. Commit Easter Hooplah.

Monday-work at Mailbox Store again.

Tuesday-Teach art in the A.M. Tuesday afternoon (Hears Moody Blues playing that song?) emotional melt down and subsequent collapse.

Wed, Thurs, Fri - prepare for Hammered Dulcimer Festival. (YAY!)
I get to shoot a montage of the whole event and process a gift CD for each member upon departure. I know this sounds like work, and for anybody else, it would be, except that I adore these people, and I adore sitting in front of my loverly computer processing images in Photo Shop. (None of that was said tongue-in-cheek either.)
I know.
I am sick.
One man's heaven is another man's hell I guess.

;o)

A Weird and Cryptic Question Answered.

Did you ever have a moment when there is something you have been thinking about, maybe for a while, and then somebody says something that sets the stage for you to follow through and do it, or say it? It feels like jumping off a cliff with 1000 IRS agents at your back. Its scary, you don'tn know where you are going to land, but you KNOW that it is now the right thing to do.

For about a week or two, there has been something uncomfortable tugging at my heart.
When such…inner promptings occur, it usually means that I should take note, because God is trying to draw my attention to either something good, or something that I need to let Him fix within me.

So I have been mulling and chewing on something, and the more I do, the more it bugs me.
Some people may be freaked out by the word I am about to share, but I know, because of My Friend's background, he will not be weirded out by such a word.

The word is confess.
The confession is mine, in the form of an apology to My Friend.

His oddly timed comment about what occurred to him and his departure from his "volunteer-job" – well, I don’t know about any of the particulars there, but I DO know about my own part before any of that happened.

I did write him a letter.
An inflamed and enraged letter calling him out on the carpet for what appeared to me to be negligent service at the time. I was hurt and dismayed because at the time, I was feeling pressured that the people that took my place needed to do things the way I would.

For that I was wrong and I apologise.

You would think that a sin of that magnitude against a brother would have sat ill with me for a lot longer, but I think that was Gods mercy on me; letting me get to the point where I could deal with the truth, before He forced me to be accountable for it.
But to be honest, it has really bugged me for the last two weeks solidly, and when My Friend suddenly made mention of his own experience after that fact, well, it seemed like I was being given a chance to make good.

Whether he even remembers any of that letter, I do not know. He may be made of tougher stuff, and such a flip-out may have rolled from him like water off a ducks back. For me, it bugs me that I did wrong and I need to be honest and accountable.

I am truly sorry.
And even more to his credit, he has only treated me with complete and utter grace despite my offense. How Godly an example is that?

I am thankful for for his extending such grace to me.

I am truly, and humbly sorry for my behaviour.

*Exhales*

Sounds Gallery created

I combined another site with this one, and have created a perpetual sample gallery, of various sound files. The Sounds Gallery link will reside in the sidebar.

You can access it at:
http://sound-collection.blogspot.com

Right now I might call your attention to some instructional materials there, for some standard jam tunes. There are midi and wav files for the ear-trained learner, as well as each tune's abc file and sheet music, for those who can read music.

There are some samples of some good friend of mine who play Hammered Dulcimer that you may want to check out if you have never heard it before, but the SOUNDS GALLLERY will not be dedicated to the Hammered Dulcimer alone.
You will eventually find all maner of bizarre things there.

Free to Bad Home : Updated

I am cutting the canvas, "Die Die Die, Hateful Thing" from it's frame.
It will have one of two fates:
-Unholy incense rising to above the juniper trees on the beir we shall call "Burn Pile."
-Fold it mercilssly and cram in an envelope and mail it to you. Contact me privately with shipping coordinates.

(I dunno, I wonder if that would then qualify as "Hate Mail?" I can't think of anyone I would want to do that to.)

****Addendum****

It's gone.
:oD

mih-