Life is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans

YAY!! It's Finally Come!!!

2010-04-14T00:10:00.000-04:00

The package I've been waiting for finally came. What a journey. The first one sent out got "lost". I don't know what Fed Ex did with it, ate it for all I know, and then an intern for the company put not only my box, but others, in the wrong place for Fed Ex pick-up so there was a further delay (hey, intern = free so what can you expect?) but I got it finally. Because of what was in this box I've decided to review all the products I planned on telling you about a little differently. I was just going to do a straight review on lip balms with an emphasis on SPF. Of course it not being summer yet, with my winter hermit habitat lifestyle, I wouldn't actually be able to tell you how they "worked" in the sun yet but I figured I could tell you if it felt like rubbing a candle on your lips and/or if it smelt and tasted like having Copportone in your mouth. I also have lip balms that don't have an SPF factor so it was just going to be, kind of separated into catagories. Anyway, because of how many products this company sent me I'm going to just share with you my experience with their products first and then go into my lip balm marathon (which actually works because I have a lip balm that a company is sending me that sounds like it'll be great and I'd hate to leave it out). I can't say much yet since I just got most everything I'll talk about but I can tell you I'm going to review products sent to me by the Yes To company first. I have a few I bought too so of course I'll add those in as well. Yes To is a great company with great customer service. They really care about their customers. That alone should put you half way to trying anything of theirs. I'll try to write tomorrow and at least go into what they've sent and what I already have that I'll be telling you honestly about.

Good night everyone.

Awesome Program for Enlarging Patterns

2010-03-18T22:35:00.000-04:00

I recently rediscovered string art. I may have talked about it earlier so I'm not going to go into details. One thing, though, considering this is a craft from the '70s and they're not making kits anymore, I started to buy books that had patterns in them. Naturally the patterns are too small to use and need to be enlarged. The way you're supposed to do it is to use 1" square graph paper and enlarge the pattern manually. I knew I was bound to mess that up so I went searching for something easier considering how far we are from the '70s. I FOUND IT!!! It's a program called Rapid Resizer. You can use it with patterns found on the internet but even better you can scan anything into your computer and resize it (hence a pattern in a book resized to the size specified in the book). I couldn't believe how easy this is to use. It even straightens your image if you scan it crooked. It has a 14 day trial and then costs $39.95 according to cnet. Even if you didn't want to pay for it you can resize a lot in 2 weeks. Anyway, here is where you can find it on cnet: Rapid Resizer

I hope you have fun with it; I am!

On a completely separate note. I'm still waiting to review lip balms and the Say Yes to Carrots products. Fed Ex says they delivered a package to my house on the 15th of March that I've been waiting for and they lie. When it gets here, the company is resending it, I'll get to it all.

The Joys of Life Continue

2010-03-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in writing everyone. I've been dealing with some serious personal issues. I think they're finally being worked out; my Neurologist has taken over my medication and has decided to try me on a patch. He's hoping eventually all I'll have to use is the patch. It's been a nightmare since my PCP wigged out on me. Hopefully next week when I start the patch I'll be more myself.

I promised a review of personal products but I've been waiting on a company. I'm not going to say what company because I'm going to write to them and I don't want any other issues altering opinions of their products. Hopefully I'll get to the review one way or another (maybe next week if I'm up to it).

I began revisiting an old art form from the '70's (String Art). I highly recommend it. I've missed doing it these past couple weeks but, again, crossing my fingers to get back to it. There's not a lot of things a disabled person can do and this one is great.

I'm going to go. My daughter's sick today and I was hurrying to get this in while she was sleeping.

Until next time......

Sorry for Silence

2010-02-20T02:37:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry for my silence but I'm still working out how to find a pain management doctor to help with my medicine thanks to the loser PCP. And he is a loser because he's wrong; he's made a mistake; he must know it by now and he still refuses to admit it. Things are looking up though because I got in touch with my Neurologist, who originally prescribed the medicine that has caused my FORMER PCP's head to spin off into space (my neurologist only stopped because he said he'd prefer that only 1 doctor prescribe those types of medicines) and he said as long as he was the only doctor to be doing that he'd take over writing those meds. I see him Monday. Here's hoping he didn't misunderstand me and think I only needed him for the original he used to prescribe instead of all three.

I've been waiting on a company who offered to send free samples to those who wanted to review them to write my reviews on certain personal/health & beauty products but unless I hear from them soon I'll have to leave them out. I can't keep you all waiting forever.

Sorry so short but it's 2:33am my time and I really should be trying to get some sleep.

Stay Away From This Doctor

2010-02-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

I have been seeing this docor in Massachusetts for more years than I care to remember. Giving it a guess I'd say it's been a good 10-15 years. On one appointment recently I asked if I should have gone to the hospital regarding an incident that happened to me. He not only repeatedly yelled at me; he told me only an idiot would go to a hospital for that or even think of going (there's more but it's too long to go into). The gyst of it is I was sobbing and he was an a**. I continued to see him figuring he was having a bad day but from then on my husband refused to let me go without him.

My next appointment I had the docotor had me do a tox screen.Okay, no problem; I take pain medication and I get that those that take it should use it and I have no problems with tox screens. The only thing he asked me was did I take my Tegretol (you can't get an accurate Tegretol level if you've just taken it) and did I take my other meds (he says he said that; I'm not too sure but for the benefit of the doubt lets believe him). On 5 February I get a call saying everything is ok but he wants me to come in for another blood test. Nothing to worry about; take my medicine as usual and I don't have to fast. Ok, went in on 8 February and took my blood test. On 16 February I get a message from who knows who in the office saying he will no longer write my prescriptions. When I questioned why, I was told I needed to talk to him so I made an appointment for the next day.

Now to the huge red sign I'm putting up to hopefully keep you from seeing him aand going through what I've been through. I get there and he comes into the examinig room and he won't talk to me about it. He calls me a liar because he says I said I told him I took all my meds 2 times and he doesn't trust me I didn't even see him the 2nd time...how do you lie to someone you don't even see?). I try to show him the bottle almost completely full of Percocet (which is the drug causing the problems) and he will not even look. I begged him to sit down and talk like a decent person would because this is all a misunderstanding and, with the examining door wide open and him in the hall, again he yells and calls me a liar; doesn't trust me; if it's a mistake or misunderstanding it's my problem and to go elsewhere. He also said was done talking to me and walked away. Whatever happened to patient confidentiallity? Nice to know everyone within hearing distance thinks I'm a drug dealing weasle! My Percocet is not taken every day so it never will show up for sure on a tox screen (unlike the Vicodin and the Tylenol IV that he knows showed up). Even a person with limited intelligence can see something messed up has happened here! Please, no matter what you hear, or how desperate you are...if you live in Massachusetts don't use Dr. Richard Weiner as your doctor.

String Art & the Future of Lip Balm Reviews

2010-02-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

What is string art? It's a leftover craft from the 70's that is not only fun but enables you to make beautiful pictures out of wood; felt (or such); nails and string. I toyed with it briefly in the 70's but being young I really didn't do too much with it. Now I'm having fun with it all over again. Once you have your board all set up (felt; velveteen or paint applied) you then hammer in the nails according to the pattern. Then it's just a matter of wrapping the string around the nails, again, according to the pattern. I have a few here at home waiting to be done (a 4"x6" Peacock; a 9"x 12"vase with flowers in it and a fairly large Santa head [I forget the size]). I have a few boats and a large peacock on the way plus a couple of pattern books. A friend gave me a pattern for Rudolph so I'm looking forward to that one too. I just finished my 4"x6" Parakeet (I still think it looks more like a parrot) and here it is:

Pretty soon I'm going to give my opinion on lip balms. I've always had a hard time finding ones I like so I'm hoping maybe this'll help someone. I'll have SPF ones with different degrees of SPF and ones without SPF. As much as I hate to talk bad about something there are a few that I'll have to mention just because I disliked them so much one way or another. Pretty much, though, I want to stay on the positive sides of things. It'll all be in my honest opinion so maybe you'll be different but at least it'll give you a place to start. Summer horror story regarding lips and balms some other time.

Eventually I will get to other products; I just can't buy a lot of things at once.

Short today. My small string art Peacock is calling me and I have to check and see when the Olympics start. Unfortunately I forget his name but God Bless the family of the luger (is that right? Luger..well you know what I mean). It's not worth risking the lives of these athletes just so we, as an audience, are more thrilled and entertained. Lets keep them safe above all else.

Okay, Back to Internet Security 2010

2010-02-12T14:02:00.000-05:00

This is going to be long. I've included every picture I could find to try to make this easier to remove. Internet Security 2010 (IS2010) was on a computer in my house and this is how I removed it.

First I should make clear what exactly IS2010 is.

Internet Security 2010 is an anti-spyware program. It's installed by using malware. Once Internet Security is on your computer it’ll start automatically when you open Windows. It then scans your computer and makes you think that you have a huge amount of infections. It says that it won’t remove anything until you buy the program (Internet Security 2010). These infections are fake! They’re only trying to trick you into believing that you're infected so that you’ll buy the program. DO NOT buy this program! The screenshots you'll see are:

Depending on what you do on your computer IS2010 will send out fake alert messages to try to convince you your computer is infected. Some of these are:

Security Warning!
Worm.Win32.NetSky detected on your machine.

Application cannot be executed. The file is infected. Please activate your antivirus software.

Windows can`t play the folowing media formats: AVI;WMV;AVS;FLV;MKV;MOV;3GP;MP4;MPG;MPEG;MP3;AAC;WAV;WMA;CDA;FLAC;M4A;MID. Update your video and sound codec to resolve this issue.

All these are created for the sole purpose of scaring you into buying their “program”. You are not infected with anything but Internet Security 2010 in this instance.

1.) First thing you should do is print out these instructions because you may have to close down every window while fixing this.

2.) You then need to download a file called rkill from here rkill What this does is stop IS2010 from running. While IS2010 is running you can not remove it. Save rkill to wherever you will know where it is. Some people save to Desktop I prefer the Downloads file.

3.) After you have downloaded rkill double click to start it running. If IS2010 blocks it from running just keep trying repeatedly while rkill is opening. This will trick IS2010 into letting it open. Once the black box closes after running you can continue.

NOTE: If you get a message that rkill is an infection ignore it. It’s just IS2010 up to its dirty tricks. This is NOT an infection. This is the beginning of the death call of IS2010 and it knows it. If you’re having trouble getting rkill to run another way to try is to leave the warning up and try again to run rkill. It will eventually open. It’s just a matter of tricking IS2010.

DO NOT start your computer back up after running rkill. This will just cause IS2010 to begin to run again.

4.) Now download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from here MBAM and again save it to where you prefer and close all windows and programs running (DO NOT shut your computer down).

5.) Now you need to double click on the MBAM icon (mbam-setup.exe) to open the program. It will begin installing on your computer.

6.) When the installation starts, keep following the prompts to continue with the installation. Don’t make any changes to the default settings and when the program is done installing and is on the last screen, make sure you uncheck both of the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware check boxes. Then click on the Finish button. If Malwarebytes' prompts you to reboot, DO NOT do so!

NOTE: If you receive a code 2 error while installing Malwarebytes's, please press the OK buttons. The code 2 error will look similar to this:

Don't panic, this is expected and will be fixed. What has happened is IS2010 has detected another tool to kill it and has disabled it by removing the exe file needed to run MBAM.

7.) Since this file is now gone a replacement needs to be downloaded. You can download it from here. Once it’s downloaded save it in the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder. When you download it it won’t have the correct name for use. DO NOT change it. If you do IS2010 will once again interfere with it. You should write it down though because you will need to know it’s name.

8.) Now go to the C:\program files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\ folder and double-click on the file you downloaded in step 7.

MBAM will start and you’ll be at the main program screen as shown below.

9.) Make sure you update the program. Click on the Update tab, and then on the new screen click on the Check for Updates button. MBAM is now checking for new updates and will download and install them if needed. When the update is done, you’ll get a message stating either that you already have the latest updates or that they have been updated. Either way, click the OK button to continue.

10.) Now click on the Scanner tab and make sure that the Perform full scan option is selected. Then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Internet Security 2010 related files.

11.) MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This can take some time. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.

12.) When the scan is finished a message box will appear (see the image below).

Click on the OK button to continue and close the message box.

13.) You’re now back at the main Scanner screen. Now you should click on the Show Results button.

14) A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown (see below).

Note: The infections on your computer may be different than what you see below.

NOTE: Click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it does need to reboot, let it to do it. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.

15.) Once MBAM has removed the malware, it'll open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log if you want to and then close the window.

16.) You can now exit MBAM.

17.) Since, this infection deletes certain MalwareBytes' files, and we had to work around this, if you want to continue using MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware (and I recommend you do) you should uninstall and then install it again from here MBAM so that all the files are correct.

Your computer should now be free of the Internet Security 2010 program.

Thanks to bleepingcomputer.com for the photos.

I Was Going to Talk About Internet Security 2010 but........

2010-02-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

I just found out that Phil Harris from the Cornelia Maria on Deadliest Catch has passed away. Nothing else for today. God bless you Phil and your family too. May you rest in peace, oh hell, never mind that, go give them hell in that great big crab catching space in the sky!!

Free Programs for the Health and Fun of Your PC

2010-02-09T14:22:00.003-05:00

Today I decided to give the names of some free programs that are either useful for the health of your PC or just fun to have on your PC. God willing I'll do this right.

The first is for spyware. What I use, and has been recommended by people who know better than I, is SUPERAntiSpyware. You can download it here It's a great Antispyware program; and it's NOT a trial version.

The second is for malware. For that I recommend Malwarebytes' (or MBAM). You can download that here You can upgrade to a full version if you want but the free version is more than enough for what you need.

The third is a free Anti-Virus program. This one is called avast! and can be found here . This is the one that I have on one of the computers in my home and it's worked fine. There is another but I HAVEN'T TRIED IT. That one would be Antivir and can be found here . Like I said, I haven't tried Antivir but both Antivir and avast! come recommended by people who are smarter than I am when it comes to computers so feel free to choose whichever one works best for you. Just be sure to only have one AV program on your computer. More than one and the program won't work correctly.

Now for a media player. The absolute best one I've found is VideoLAN. I forgot the abbreviation for it and since I'm not sure I'm just going to stick with the whole name (maybe VLC or something like that). Anyway, I've used it for years and there's yet to be a media file I haven't been able to watch. It's SO much better than Windows Media Player! You can download it here.

One that I found fun is the YouTube Downloader. You can download almost any video on YouTube (it used to be every video but some now have something embedded in them to block it but I believe the developers are working on it). Anyway, that can be found here.

Another great tool is the Any Video Converter. You can add subtitles; convert avi to mp4 etc, and who knows whatelse (those are the only two things I've done). That's found here.

That's it for today. My daughter's almost home and this took longer than I thought. I tested each link when I added it so they should work. Here's hoping it helps someone.

A Very Simple Windows Vista Trick

2010-02-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry for my delay; I've been sick. It'll be a rare day when I write on the weekend but I just haven't felt up to it with being sick the rest of the time.

My simple trick today is just that...simple. I know it works for Vista and I don't think it works for XP but after that I don't know. Instead of highlighting and copying and pasting you can do it in, what I think is a simpler fashion. You still have to highlight but then, instead of clicking and copying and pasteing you highlight; press CTRL + C to copy and CTRL + V to paste wherever you want it (just as if you were doing it the "regular" way). I like it because it prevents wear and tear on my "mouse" buttons. Told you, simple, probably useless to most, but I didn't know before so now I'm sharing.

I think maybe next time I'm going to touch on free programs each for Spyware; Malware and Anti-Virus (AV). With so many free programs out there it's hard to know which ones to trust and which ones not to. Maybe this will help in your decision.

In the near future I planned on touching upon lip sunscreen. Last summer my lips got severely burned with a lipbalm that had an SPF of 15 so I began researching higher SPF's. I decided to try one called LipCotz that had an SPF of 45. The company was so kind to send me a sample since, to me, it's fairly expensive (I found a website with free shipping but you have to buy two at $9.00 each). While the price is comparable to other "stores" I didn't want to pay $18.00 on something I may hate the texture of so I've been waiting for the sample. The first didn't arrive and when I wrote asking if it had been sent I was told yes but they would resend. So far no sample. If it doesn't come pretty soon I am going to buy two and, even though I can't review the SPF factor now, I can at least tell you if it feels chalky; waxy or smooth. Later in the summer we'll find out together the SPF effectiveness because, one way or another, if it feels good on my lips, this is the one I'm trying. I can tell you customer service is great though.

That brings me to a fight on the horizon for me. We have something called a FlexExpress card. For those that don't know, what that is is in every paycheck a certain amount is taken out of your check before taxes (you determine how much you want on the card and that in turn determines how much is taken out of each check) and then that amount is put on the card. You then use the card like a credit card to purchase eligable items (band-aids; first-aid kits; OTC medicines; prescription (including co-pays); co-pays for doctors and many other things). One of the things you CAN buy with it is a high SPF (30+) sunscreen; one of the things you CAN'T buy is a lipbalm. Since LipCotz isn't technically a lipbalm but could be construed as such it will be denied but on the other hand it's technically a sunscreen for your lips with an SPF of 45 so it should be covered. Now, if I buy it I have to fight to get it covered by the card. Does it ever end?

I think today I'll give you a brief warning. If you have a mortgage with Citimortgage...WATCH OUT!!! I have never dealt with a more incompitant; unprofessional group of weasles in my life. If they tell you the sky is blue and the grass is green please, I beg of you, continously keep checking to make sure they haven't switched them on you. My opinion based on my experiences.

Well, that's it for today. My daughter is waiting patiently for me to be done so I can check and make sure her homework is done. Until next time...
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Do You Have a Computer That's a Brick or Has the BSOD Got You?

2010-02-02T15:19:00.000-05:00

I found a great website that helps people who aren't computer geniuses get their computers up and running. The people I've dealt with there are patient and understanding. They know you may not be the smartest person when it comes to computers *hand's raised* but they never make you feel that way. They don't charge anything but you can donate money through PayPal if you want to. A major thing though, is to not do anything to your computer unless they ask you to. If you don't know what you're doing you could make matters worse (how can things get worse if you're looking at the BSOD you ask...yes they can; something that may have taken them 4 steps to fix may now take 400 because you didn't want to bother anyone or wait for someone to get to you so you tried to fix your computer by following instructions in someone else's thread). I'm not going to guarantee they can fix every computer; sometimes a brick is a brick, but why not give it a shot before you give up or spend hundreds of dollars fixing your own personal brick.

I had a computer that encountered the BSOD. I gave up and then I saw a post there that gave me hope. A wonderful person at this website helped me and now the computer is up and running. The only thing mainly requested of you is patience. They do this on a volunteer basis and there's more "sick" computers than people who walk you through fixing them. I'm not going to go into "rules and regulations"; if you're interested you can go there and read yourself. Don't be frightened off by R & R, nothing major. If you're looking at the BSOD give them a shot; they're great.

I recommend you go here for safe; free (unless you choose to donate); friendly and knowledgeable help with any problems your computer's having (not just a dead computer).

This is my first attempt at putting a link in so hopefully I got it right. I tested it when I made the link and it worked then so I assume I did it correctly and you can now go there. I should mention that not only do they help you with a disabled/malfunctioning computer there's a lot of information there, as well as tutorials and even just forums to chat in. You can even be a volunteer yourself (you have to be taught by them) if you're interested (you don't have to be a computer whiz to start with; they'll teach anyone).

That took up more time and room than I expected. I am going to touch on other things that I've discovered that aren't computer related in the future but it just seems like those involving computers have been on my mind lately so thus they are on here now.

Here's something I found very interesting. How incompetent does a doctor have to be to write a prescription for a medicine that doesn't exist? I had some prescriptions that were picked up at the doctor's office late Friday afternoon by someone else. Saturday one of them was brought to the pharmacy and the pharmacist said he never heard of the medicine. Thinking that maybe it was a new medicine I called the doctor and he said to just throw it away; he didn't know why he wrote it.

HUH?!?!

Me time is over. Like I said, I didn't want to take up so much room/time with the website information but I did previously warn you about Verbal Diarrhea.

In parting I do want to say that almost everything I recommend or put on here as information will be something I personally know about. It won't be a situation where this one told that one, and that one told someone, and then someone told me, so I thought it sounded good so I let you know. It may be something someone told me or something I read but in most cases it won't be on here unless I tried it personally. Make sense? I was going to just have "information" on here that I had first hand knowledge of but I started to think that I may come across something that sounds interesting and/or helpful but I'm not in a situation to do it or try it. If that happens I will make it quite clear that I haven't tried or done whatever it is. If you don't see any "disclaimer" I've tried it.

Also, I'm going to try to recommend instead of rip apart. In other words....instead of saying something is crap I'm going to try and say something else is good. That may not happen all the time but I'll try.

Hope everyone has a good night. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

If You're Search Engine is Being Misdirected

2010-01-29T12:33:00.001-05:00

This is what most may think is a useless bit of information but for those who aren't computer savvy, like myself, I think it could be helpful.
A lot of people are having trouble with their search engine being misdirected. It's an obnoxious event. If you're having trouble getting it fixed, or you're working to get it fixed, or it still does it no matter how many times you try to fix it, you can still browse without being misdirected. Give this a try...
First, I know it'll work with Firefox; maybe even IE, I just don't use IE so I don't know. When I had this problem what I did was use Google as my search engine. When I found a topic I wanted to investigate more, instead of clicking on the link, I clicked on cache and when the page opened I then clicked on current page. From there you can click on any link on the page and you won't get misdirected (you don't have to click on current page I just like to; if you just click on cache you can still click on links with no problems). Even though my search engine no longer goes here, there or anywhere, I've gotten in the habit of doing this and, as of yet (fingers crossed), I haven't gotten that page that looks like it's an actual "My Computer" page from Windows telling me I have 101 viruses.
Yes, a simple thing to do but if it helps one person to browse I consider the time I spent typing it out worth it. I do hope someone benefits from it. You never realize how much you search until you can't any more.

Now, onto something else. Have you ever been lied to; know you're being lied to, but don't know how to call the person out on it? I now find myself in that position. It's driving me nuts. Especially since I've already caught this person in the past lying about the same thing and I made it plainly clear that it wasn't what they were lying about that made me mad; it was the lying itself. How hard is it to be honest?! Especially in that circumstance. I so do not want to stoop to searching to find evidence to call this person out on this matter but for their own health I'm afraid I'm going to have to. How fun that's going to be. *said with sarcasm*

Well, since I seem to be heading for a case of serious Verbal Diarrhea I'm going to end on that note (I was going to abbreviate Verbal Diarrhea but then realized that abbreviating it down to the initials would be VD so I guess I'm going to have to figure out a different abbreviation :-). I hope someone finds my simple browser tip useful. I'm going to try to add different hints/tips/ideas/thoughts to every blog. I've been told I'm a fountain of useless information. Let's see if that's right :-)

One Giant Leap Forward

2010-01-28T16:19:00.000-05:00

I never in my life thought I'd have a blog. What is it they say? You can't teach a dog new tricks? Well, I may not be taught yet but I'm trying. Trying, with baby steps, to join the rest of the world.
As this is my first ever blog I'm going to start with a warning. I have a tendency to find myself having that most dreaded of diseases...verbal diarrhea. I'll try to keep it to a minimum.
Some of the things I hope to talk about in the future, besides the obvious events of my life, are some of my favorite downloads; my favorite all time computer based website; how I've done this; how I've done that...well you get the idea.
For today...has anyone seen Avatar? I so didn't want to see this movie. I thought it would be horrible but it turned out to be nothing like I thought it would be. I expected a computer based movie and got aliens. As long as a movie is upfront about being an alien movie from the start I'll give it a shot but I hate it when you go through a whole movie and the twist at the end is "aliens did it". Blah!!
Well, that's it for today. I was going to write more but someone just interrupted me and I lost all train of thought (jeez! interrupted again! I can't even end this!). I hate rudeness!