March 15, 2012

  • Dang Computer

    About 4 or 5 months ago, my computer started acting up.  It would boot up and about one or two minutes after I would login, it would completely freeze.  The only way out of it was to hold the power button until it would power off, wait a few seconds, then let it boot up again.  I would then scan the PC and nothing would come up.  Well, that's because it is a Dell and comes with MacAfee anti-virus, which I think sucks.  So I bought Norton after several weeks of this same issue, scanned the PC and it found some things and cleaned them up.  Then the problem started again.  Someone recommended Super Anti-Spyware.  Downloaded that and scanned the PC and it found a Trojan.  Cleaned that up and worked for a while, but still AGAIN started doing the same thing.  I finally broke down and called Geek Squad.  They used something called TDSS Killer and CC Cleaner and that seemed to find some other things and that seemed to work.  But that cost me about $249 and that was with a AAA discount.  Sheesh.  About a month later, same thing, but it was still under warranty with them, so I had them come out again and this time they left the TDSS Killer and CC Cleaner for me to use if it came up again. 

    Worked great for the past few months, but now it's started again.  And this morning it was bad - had to power it off four times.  And now the time is all screwed up on it, too - had to change the time back an hour.  What ticks me off is that I haven't downloaded ANYTHING recently - no pictures from anywhere, no upgrades, no nothing.  So why is it acting up again?  I'm scanning it yet again, even though it's usually set to scan on a regular basis.  I'm getting tired of this.  The scans better find something, because with three different anti-virus software apps and three different rootkits, it damn well had better find something.

    I just don't even get viruses on computers and other things that kill computers.  I get hackers who think they're somehow really "bitchin' " because they can hack into things, but what the hell is the point of viruses that just kill someone's computer??  If the person who creates it doesn't have their weird satisfaction of actually seeing someone else's computer lock up and become completely useless, what "thrill" does it give them?  What purpose does it serve?  I just don't get it.

    I don't want to have to deal with this all over again and I most certainly don't want to have to buy another computer when this one is not even two years old yet.

    Great - I just heard a rumble of thunder.  Which means it will be impossible to take Fazio out for a second walk before I leave for work.  I could try, but there is no way he will even try to go potty.  He will just panic instead.  Last night, I was almost asleep, when the wind kicked up a little and he thought it was thunder - EVEN THOUGH I put the Thunder Shirt on him 90 minutes before since the possibility of thunderstorms were forecast.  He was walking over my head on the pillow back and forth and I was NOT about to put up with that.  I immediately put him in the other bedroom and was able to sleep. 

    I'm hearing the thunder starting to rumble right now and I'm watching him lift his head up.  Let's see if the Thunder Shirt really makes any difference in his behavior.

    Last night was ALMOST a decent rehearsal.  We finally got the monitors up to a decent level so we could HEAR the music.  And somehow the LOO was playing most of the songs at the right tempo!  However, "Show Off" was still the Death March Of The Volga Boatmen.  Luckily, I'm not in that number.  We're all supposed to sing in that number, but there's enough people onstage singing - and I need to save my voice for my number - so I don't sing.  If I did, I would be too furious.  It's as if no one playing the music in that number has ever listened the song on the Broadway soundtrack to hear how the tempo should be.  If it were my song, you'd better believe I'd be speaking up.

    Okay, Fazio is now trembling badly, leaning up against my leg, because the thunder is getting louder.  So the Thunder Shirt doesn't seem to be doing that much.  I'm going to have to learn to ignore him and go about my business this morning.  And considering how many thunderstorms we get here, he'd better start getting used to me ignoring this behavior because I'm certainly not going to put up with it and I don't want to coddle him to encourage the behavior.

    Preview Night tonight.  Let's see what happens!