2 May 2004 ... Random Ramblings

I have been hyper-aware of threats to my computers lately. Due to my little problems with SO's computer... he has no antivirus software, and got several viruses via the evil file sharing programs (Kazza, LimeWire, etc.), and it took me two tries to remove an active virus from his system.

And since he still has no antivirus, I've removed him from the house network. And I've been paranoidly running my own antivirus every couple days.

I think I've simply realized how important all the stuff is on my computers. And since I've not backed up any of my data in years, if something bad happened, there is the potiential for tragedy.

This is my birthday month. (Hey, why celebrate just a week, when you can celebrate a whole month!) (ha) And I think I've decided to spend a bit of money at the electronics store... I'll get some Antivirus for SO's computer and some decent CD burning software so I can start making backups of my precious files.

And I am currently downloading some privacy software. I am fairly interested in how many adware/ spyware/ malware programs it will find. If the stuff installs correctly, that is. heh, I'll keep you updated...

I am just finishing up the third of three free classes I am taking. It was my goal for April to finish at least one of my classes, and here I am, practically done with all of them. yay me.

My goal for May is going to be to do a drawing every day. I've noticed that my notebook has been almost 100% text... no drawings, no doodles, no squiggles, even. So, I want to draw more.

The word "Layoffs" has finally appeared at the job. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long: we've been deadly slow all this year, and apparently there's nothing big on the horizon.

I can't imagine that they would let me go, but the idea has gotten me thinking. About moving on... Moving to a new state (Oregon), finding a new day job, exploring new territory.

I have been going through Project Gutenberg for the second time. I browse by Author, starting at A... and the first time it took me almost a year to get to Z! I downloaded approximately 100 books in that time.

Project G is continually adding books, so I've been downloading some new ones. As well, I'm getting books that I missed on my first run. I've gone through authors A to D, and so far I've picked up 25 more books...

Including the Bible, which is quite the download at 4342kb! In comparison, Alice in Wonderland is a measley 154k, The Wind in the Willows is 354k, Little Women is 1018k, and War and Peace is comparable at 3206k.

Much reading to do...

I've not seen our stray cat, Nosey Snowboots for two days now. I hope he's okay.