Tuesday, December 14, 2010

YIKES!!!.........and Whew!!!

     Hello! If you usually come to visit my blog early in the morning (Eastern Standard time) you probably were surprised this morning not to see a new post. Well, there's a reason for that...and it started yesterday! I had an incident....Well, more than an incident, with my computer. And it's been a wild ride!!!
   The header photo is my new screen saver. It was sorely needed after the lack of calm I've had over the last 24 hours. The only thing good about the last 24 hours is that I had crocheting to keep me company. In fact I finished the black scarf, and I have a rich purple chenille scarf almost half way done too!!
      That ought to tell you how much time I've had on my hands!...What happened was that my girlfriend came by and we went online to look for a simple enamel turkey roasting pan...stupid pan!! LOL We were having a hard time finding one, so we clicked on "images" to look around and see if anyone had them anywhere.
     Hooray! We saw one.....we clicked on it. But at the same time the image of the roasting pan came up, an updater for the computer popped up too. We just clicked on it so it would go ahead and update and get out of our way........................................LITTLE DID WE KNOW...it was not a legitimate updater at all!!!!
     Anyway, we found the roasting pan, and she left......Then I was on Etsy looking in one of the shops at the cutest little baby onesie when........WARNING!!!! Your computer has been compromised!!!! You have 38 viruses in your computer!!!!!......WHOA!!! I had never seen anything like that before!! Next thing I know, all kinds of things starting popping up on the screen!! I had no control!
    I called my girlfriend. She came flying over to see what was going on. That's when she realized she couldn't do anything with the computer!! The program would not let her!!...She eventually was able to run a search for the viruses. She had to override the program that was running in order to find out what was going on. I found out that I had NO viruses. It was SPYWARE!!
     But because she couldn't uninstall it, she took my computer home and worked on it, with her techie husband's help. She called a few hours later and said: "Done!" It's out! And you didn't have any viruses. It was a spyware fake alert....Then she brought it back.
    I went online for a little while and everything was fine.Then I noticed some icons that didn't make sense...I called her again. She came over and tried to remove them......Couldn't! She had to take my computer AGAIN!!! UGH! This time it had to be completely overhauled and a new program runner installed. {That's the way I describe it...not being a techie myself! :-)}
   So, I have my baby back now....with a completely new look in places. It's going to take me a few days to get the hang of where everything is. I feel like I went on vacation, came back, and had to move into a completely new house!!! You know, that feeling of: "Where is this thing that used to be over there?" and "How does that work?! I never had one of those before!"..............Did I already say UGH!!!?
   Hopefully in a few days everything will be familiar. I know what won't be happening! I won't be looking for any more turkey roasting pans!!! LOL....Or any other kind of image that's not in my own mirror here at home!!!
{This is one of the first poems I could find, so it's going to have to do for today! ^_^ I'm tired....Need a nap!!}

 Balance

You teeter totter, in the middle,
Lean a little, OOPS! You're off!
Now you know that you're not balanced,
and you hope the ground is soft.

It's not easy to achieve,
and once you have it, to maintain.
In almost every part of life
our balance is so hard to gain.

You have to balance your emotions,
how you eat, and how you spend.
And when you're balancing your checkbook,
try to keep a level grin.

Staying somewhere in the middle
takes a conscious, careful touch,
because it doesn't take a lot
to go from balanced to 'too much'!

So try to keep a balanced eye,
 a balanced plate, and balanced life.
Keep your feelings all in check,
and minimize the stress and strife.

And don't compare your sense of balance
 to your neighbor's...you're alone.
Because your neighbor's also trying
to get some balance of his own!

8 comments:

  1. Yikes indeed! Lucky you, no virus, just one ugly spyware. I do not understand the mind of a hacker.. Your girlfriend is so nice for doing all that! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mariann, She sure is!!! I don't know what I would have done without her!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12/14/2010

    Wow, How scary is that. I am glad that you were able to get it all fixed. I had one pop up and do the same thing and I kept on saying no. Then I researched it and found out that it was a fake scan to scare you and when you signed up for it, they would take your money but you didn't get anything for it. I had to go into my programs to stop it from popping up. I am not a techy, I know a few things. I call on my sister-in-law when I need a techy. Great scarf, love the purple.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peg, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one this has happened to! It's strangely comforting that some of you were duped just like me!! LOL Thanks for sharing it with me...And thanks for the nice words about the scarf too! :-]

    ReplyDelete
  5. You really DID have a very bad day yesterday!!! Wow! How easy something like that can happen. I'm suspicious of everything these days! I'm glad it's taken care of and I'm glad you had a techy to help you! I would have wiped out my entire computer and started over! I'm just not patient!!
    I love the chenile scarf!! Great color!

    ReplyDelete
  6. CinLynn, I did! I did have a bad day!! :-( Very emotional too...to have to change everything I was finally comfortable with, but Oh Well...Onward and upward!... *Looking at every single thing along the way!!! LOL* And thanks about the scarf! It's not the easiest yarn to work with, but soooooo pretty and sooooooo soft!

    ReplyDelete
  7. wow! that must have been stressful! Glad you are back up and running! The scarf looks good! Is that chenille yarn?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cathy, Yes it certainly was!!! I was thankful to have the scarves to take my mind off it for a while...and naps of course! LOL And yes...Chenille yarn! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Wait!! Click the "Join This Site" button, and leave me a comment! I'd love to get your thoughts! ^_^