whew!

Today has been a VERY tiresome day. Let me tell you about it and I'll try not to bore you too much! It all started with my insane computer. It's been acting funny since this weekend and I was starting to realize that it's been infected with some sort of virus. That assumption was verified when I woke up this morning. I went to my computer to check the weather...my morning obsession...and I found my screen black with some crazy warning flashing about viruses and not being protected. I have McAfee which I later found out is basically completely worthless as well as Norton and the others that you believe to protect you. They are good, but not as good as some of these hackers. Anyway, I freaked and just shut the thing down not knowing really what else to do since I had to go to work. On my way to work, I called dad and he said I should have disconnected the Internet cord from the computer so it could not get worse. Why didn't I think of that? So, I turned around and drove back to the house (even though I was more than halfway there) to unhook and unplug. Since I am somewhat smart about these things, I made it a point to back up all my files and pictures onto a backup hard drive just in case. Anyway, I made it to work this morning with 3 minutes to spare on the first day back with 20 preschoolers waiting! Not a great start to the morning. And of course, my precious preschoolers did not disappoint and were as wild as they know how to be! Welcome back!!! After work, I came home and pretended that I could fix my own computer for about an hour or more before I gave in, unplugged the whole darn thing, drove it to Collierville, and dropped it off with the "experts" at Patton Computers. Turns out this fun virus I have has been very common in the past week and is disguising itself as an Anti spyware 2009 program. It just took it upon itself to hang out on my computer and scan nonstop. It would ask me to download this and that and try a virus scan for free. It started getting desperate by telling me that I was highly infected and MUST scan now with their program. Thank God I didn't or I might have lost everything. Anyway, as it turns out, there is a very good chance that this awful thing came about from my ex-good friend Limewire. Limewire will now be permanently deleted from my computer, but there was a time I used it frequently. These programs allow you to download "free" music but really it is a share program. You are sharing the file from someone else's computer and others are getting files from yours. I never thought about other people having access to my files and system just by using a music program, but now it makes sense. That's really not smart or safe. I recommend that if you are using programs like Limewire to stop or be very careful because you are at risk. I will start using iTunes only and would much rather pay the small fee for my downloads than the large fee for fixing the computer when it gets hacked. Like the guy at Patton's said, "Didn't your momma ever tell you, nothing in life is free?"