Virus,Bugs and other Swines

I'm back online after an horrendous weekend of Virus mayhem.
While typing away on my humble laptop I started to get messages from my firewall that some program I've never heard of wanted access to the internet.

Being a cautious computer user I denied access to the program.
It rebelled by opening up a browser window all by itself, regardless of my firewall trying to block it. It was quite sinister I had no control of my computer. I kept closing down the browser even disconnecting my wireless internet connection. I tried everything to regain control of my system. System restore was useless, my antivirus was compromised and my only solution was to reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows.

Before I did the later I removed said hard drive and ran a virus check on it from my desktop system. Yep it was a trojan, a backdoor bug that had been reeking havoc. I thought I had maxed out on online security and anti virus precautions.

It seems that no matter what you do, what precautions you take at great financial cost the inevitable happens.
The people who design these bugs are the real swines.
What a waste of a day and a half spent reloading everything back onto my system. Time I wanted to spend writing.

I have no idea how my system got infected I certainly have never been surfing mexico way!!!

In two weeks time my wife and I are flying over to florida celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. This whole swine flu thing has us a little anxious pending our travels but we are looking forward to our visit to the USA.
It will be the first time we have ever travelled together outside the UK!

A frightening experience.

Hope you and your wife have a great trip. Don't let this other virus scare you away.

Dmonedo,
that is scary. Viruses come in many forms.
I hope you have a happy wedding anniversary. On May 6th, my wife and I will celebrate our 48th. Can't believe we tolerated each other so long.

I don't think I've ever found a trojan on my computer, but I did see a used one lying in a Walmart parking lot about a week ago. It looked harmless enough, although quite nasty, and I can see how it might screw up a computer if it somehow got inside one.

Of the swine flu - Maybe Pam can check in on this one, but I saw on CNN that a man in Canada thinks he may have somehow given the flu to his pigs. Hmmmm. And Dick likes to talk about we southerners.

Did the Trojan drive inside the computer?

I used to have a horse named Trojan. If anyone asked his name, I would look at them with meaning, and say in an awe strcken voice, "Trojan." Since not many of them had ever heard of Virgil, they all thought I was demented and named my horse after a birth control devise. I had to go to the barn to laugh! I still get a smile out of that.

Love,
Betty

I used to know a man named Virgil Trojan, Betty. He had a horse named Publius and he used to ride him around Rome, Georgia every evening.

Funny how this kind of post gets sidetracked, isn't it?

Oh, E. Don,
If it was not for side tracks, nobody would get anywhere new. They would just go down the straight and narrow from beginning to end. Even I could be the designated driver for that road.

Love,
Betty

Beautiful, Betty!

E Don, I wonder how viruses ever got to be called trojans, anyway. You'd think it would be the other way around.

Ann

Dear Ann,
I think it the term must come from the sneaking way the Trojan Horse worked!

Love,
Betty

Think Betty was on to it Ann, with the horse theory. As in Trojan Horse. Seems the little critters hide away and then attack when you don't even know they're there.

E. Don, and Ann,
I had to look up Publius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Papers

What is in a name?

To me, a name is paramount for a character. Take Margaret, the chicken. I knew an old lady who was so chicken that she never learned to drive and always depended on other people to take here thither and yon. My character, Margaret, is all that the real Margaret ever hoped to be. She is fierce! She has no fear. She does have hopes and dreams that are beyond anything she can accomplish without Santa.

I am sure that other people know a Margaret that is just the opposite, but it is my story and I name the characters from my own humor.

I imagine that reasoning is why you find children with the name of ...

Love,
Betty

Betty, in the new book that Phil and I are working on, Sundown Two, the name of the President Elect is Margaret Ames. Her brother, before he was killed, used to call her Maggie.

The original name of the character was Katherine, but then I wanted to use Maggie, so I renamed her.

I think she will be a fighter, and the name Maggie will be very fitting for her.

I like that. Maggie is the name of my heroine in And Adam was a Gardener, but my Maggie is a Magdalyn, rather than a Margaret.

Ann

My wife had a sister name Mary Magdaline. We lost her to cancer in 1999, and it was in her honor that I wrote the poem "Light The Candles," which is also a tribute to the Relay For Life Cancer drive.

No wonder the name is so important to you, Don.

Betty, Isn't it fun to create characters like Margaret?

Ann

Don, I am cut to the quick to find that you think I would say something about Southerners that isn't nice. By the way, have you heard the one about the man and wife in Georgia getting a divorce?

I know some of you have read the poem LIGHT THE CANDLES on other message boards, as I try to post it about this time every year.

For those who haven't seen it, or if have read it before and you'd just like to take a few minutes to reflect and maybe bring up a few of your own old memories, I just posted in the POETRY section here.

Would that divorce be anything like this, Dick?

_________________________

I'm My Own Grandpa


Lyrics: Dwight Latham, Moe Jaffe
Music: Dwight Latham, Moe Jaffe

Played by Jerry Garcia with David Grisman

Oh, many, many years ago
When I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as can be
This widow had a grown-up daughter
Who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life
For my daughter was my mother
'Cause she was my father's wife
To complicate the matter
Though it really brought me joy
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy

This little baby then became
A brother-in-law to Dad
And so became my uncle
Though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle
Then that also made him brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter
WHo of course is my step-mother

Chorus
I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
Oh, I'm my own grandpa

My father's wife then had a son
Who kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild
For he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue
Because although she is my wife
She's my grandmother too

Now if my wife is my grandmother
Then I'm her grandchild
And every time I think of it
It nearly drives me wild
For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandma
I am my own grandpa

Thank you Don, that song I heard some time ago and always wondered about it's origin.

On the subject of poems here is one I made earlier:

Yes, Don, that would be the one.

Sounds a little like the war of the roses, dmondeo!

So, are you tryingto tell us that you are your own forefather, Dick?