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Nasty virus

April 23rd, 2012 at 01:00 am

Not me, my computer. Last week I was supposed to work my usual 2 days in the office, 1 day at home, but because they were having some computer issues there, they directed me and other editor to head home early and work from home the rest of the week.

Which was cool, until, later that afternoon, I was doing research on a particular website and i suddenly got bumped out of the site. Then I started getting mutiple error messages with dire warnings, like "Warning: Extremely unstable." Everything I tried to do only seemed to make things worse, and then I was directed me to a website hawking virus repair, so I finally gave up. The virus actually wiped out ALL of my Word documents, Excel, Powerpoint, and oh yes, even My Computer and Control Panel. And IE. The only thing left was my Firefox. All I could see was a big white space where those programs used to be when I hit Start/All programs. I can't tell you how scared I was, since the last time I backed up was 2 years ago. No excuses for that.

So I called a friend who recommended a local computer repair place and I got it down to him right before he closed on Wednesday. I got it back Friday afternoon and he saved all my files, although they are now in different places and I haven't had time to rearrange stuff. I also had to recreate all of my IE settings and favorites, but that was small potaotes compared to what might have been.

He charged me $80, which I considered a bargain, plus I paid another $40 for 2012 Norton Anti-Virus. Umm, no, I'd let an old version expire without renewal. He said having had anti-virus software installed wouldn't necessarily have prevented the virus from infecting my computer, and he also said there isn't a virus program out there worth more than $50, so don't pay more than that, ever.

Another place I'd called had quoted me a price of between $150 and $200. At least I was able to pay wtih my Citi Thank You card, which I'm still trying to charge up to meet my spending goal.

So the virus really threw off my whole schedule, and I'm only now feeling back to normal. Instead of doing my publishing job Wed/Thurs/Fri/and part of Saturday, I ended up working a bit on Friday but also part if Saturday and all day today.

I was feeling anxious to try and get it all done by tonight, because I need tomorrow to do a variety of things, including grocery shopping, because then on Tuesday I'll be a poll worker all day long and won't have time to do anything else, and then it's back to the publishing job on Wednesday.

Yesterday, I took a bit of a break and a friend of mine picked me up and we headed north to attend an artist's opening reception at a gallery/frame shop. The artist happened to be my mother, and I hadn't told her we were coming, so she was surprised, especially so since she hadn't seen my friend for a good many years. We stayed and chatted with her and the gallery owner for a while, which i guess was a good thing becus no one else showed up while we were there. And R. ended up buying one of my mother's pieces for his niece and let me charge it to my Citi card while giving me cash for it. And the gallery owner got a cut on the sale with a commission, so 3 of us benefitted from R.'s one act. Oh yeah, and his niece gets a present!

On the way home, we stopped for a few slices of pizza.

We're getting some much needed rain today, but it sure is dark and dreary, and a bit raw. Feels like March.

I made some banana walnut bread today. Watched an interesting movie last night, Across the Universe. If you love Beatles music, this one's for you. It's kind of like a rock musical with a movie plot.

Not really looking forward to Tuesday, but I'm doing it for the money. It's a long day, 5:15 am to 8 pm, and you can't leave the building but you're still responsible for your own meals, except breakfast. Some people have a spouse who will bring them their lunch or dinner, but I'll have to figure out something to bring that doesn't require cooking (no stove). Just a sandwich or something.

1 Responses to “Nasty virus”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1335150673

    Ugh! That virus sure does sound like a nasty little bugger. I would really suggest you look into the website box . com. You can upload up to 5 GB of data for free. I use it to upload the documents I definitely do NOT want to lose ever.

    I've seen Across the Universe -- loved it. Smile

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