Romance and Malware/Adware Removal

Good morning and happy Saturday everyone. Looking forward to the Madrid Tennis Open Championships getting underway! The top four men are scheduled to head up the draw. (That would be: Rafa, Roger, Nole and Andy.) VERY interested to see how it will be seeded; who will be the last man standing, as well as how it might impact Roland Garros (a.k.a., the French Open Tennis Championships) later this month. (It’s all hubby’s fault. He opted for a FIOS package that included Tennis Channel. )

Thanks to those of you who stopped in this past Monday! Here is a photo of the loverly flowers hunny surprised me with AFTER we promised each other no gifts, just a card. He NEVER listens and I should know better.

So go figure. Last night before going to bed I drafted a post. (It’s been relegated to the future.) As you’ve already figured I got sidetracked after I started working on removing the annoying Snap.Do toolbar and its default landing page. My older son must have inadvertently downloaded it while installing software for his friend’s iPhone. It looks like this and is ANNOYING AS ALL GET OUT. Not that it gave much return for taking up space, and I’ve learned it HIJACKS your browser. Kept redirecting me to its advertisers,  with some links to my queries at least halfway down the page. (I happen to like my Google, Bing! and Yahoo! search engines, thank you very much.)

Okay, no biggie, right? All I have to do is go into the Control Panel and uninstall the program.

NOT!!!!

I let the 16-y/o take over. He said something about custom, Advanced Settings and who knows what else under Control Panel then wielded some digital magic.

Or so he thought.

Now I’m irritated. Off to Google, where I typed in how to disable snap.do (or something similar). Yay! for auto-complete, at least in this instance, , and for REAL search engines, where anyone can find answers to any topic s/he can imagine.

I wound up Malwaretips.com.

I immediately found Stelian Pilici‘s rockin’, totally free and highly detailed how-to article. He made it easy for me to get right to work. (All steps to do so for each browser are listed with lots of screen shots to guide you. Takes a few minutes, plus time to run the adware cleaner.)

I had to try a few times b/c I neglected to follow ALL the steps. I’m thinking running the AdwCleaner was the magic, but only after I’d taken the time to tweak BOTH the browsers I have enabled. That would be Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.) BTW, Stelian made sure to include a direct link to the AdwCleaner in the article I sighted.

What are the morals of this story?

1. As tempting as it seems to click ACCEPT when installing software off the net, read the terms and conditions (or at least scroll through them) first! Often there are boxes to un/check that can save you the trouble of having to remove items you don’t want later on. (On the bright side, I am now empowered with a tool to handle this sort of nonsense in the future.)

2. Don’t be afraid to look for an answer to your problem on the internet, especially if you’ve learned one or two things along the way. Be prudent before you click away, but at least read a how-to article. You might be surprised at how much you can handle on your own. (Techie stuff often appears more overwhelming and complicated than it is. BUT: Most of what I’ve learned has built on itself and/or can often be generalized to solve many problems.)

3. Save Malwaretips.com in your favorites! And don’t forget  to thank the guys, SHARE and/or even donate to help keep their VERY VALUABLE efforts going.

4. PC users in particular, run your malware and antispyware programs. Regularly! (Okay, I’m as guilty as the next person.) Dump cookies and run Disk Cleanup  And keep your anti-virus software up to date. (I’m seeing a short Part 2 to this article evolve here. Hope to have it written and up by next week.) I might actually be done!

Thanks, folks, and have a wonderful weekend!

Joanna

Did The Kids Figure This One Out on Their Own?

Or do they just “get” something the rest of us don’t?

Happy Thursday after Easter, friends!

I apologize for not getting this up last week. Impending Spring Break messes with timelines for school-related paperwork, which has to take priority. (I always wonder though: God-forbid something serious happened to the person doing the write-up a few days prior–i.e., an injury–doesn’t the paperwork NOT get in on time? Does life stop because of that? Just sayin’… )

Anyway, these thoughts were inspired by a conversation between me and my older guy a few weeks ago.

Most Friday mornings I drop my sixteen year-old son off at school. Our other regular passenger is his ‘girlfriend.’ I keep asking myself why I still put quotes around that word; they haven’t broken up once, and she’s been around three years (plus).

Yep. 1/26/10: that used to be part of my older guy’s text signature. This year, that date fell on a Saturday. It wasn’t until AFTER I picked them up at The Olive Garden that I realized why they’d made dinner plans and just assumed someone would drop them off and pick them up. (Yeah, the mommy in me got a little cranky with them doing that, but I’d missed the bigger picture up front. I got over it soon enough. And I got on my kid’s case about getting her flowers. Won’t tell you he’s lazy, but he can be a bit lackadaisical when it comes to doing things.)

Back to Friday mornings. He was doing his hair for school—I swear he’s the daughter I never had when it comes to his appearance—and I happened to ask about a woman who is best friends with the girlfriend’s mother. (Names are made up.)

“How’s Melanie?”

“She’s good.”

“Did she and Henry get back together?”

“Yeah. They’re back and forth all the time. They fight over stupid stuff. They’re like teenagers.”

“Have you and Fiona ever have a fight?”

“Not really. Her mom and Melanie are envious of us. They want to know what our secret is.”

I laughed. “I’ll tell you the secret: control. You and Fiona don’t try to do that to each other. You let each other be.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

Funny. I’ve got a pair of teen sweethearts who inherently get that. (Hubby and I do okay in that department, but every now and again it creeps up. Then we deal and hopefully have learned something new about each other, eighteen years down the married line.)

I’ve watched these kids in action over the past three years. Like her mom who grew up the youngest of five and the only girl, Fiona’s friends are mostly boys, the same ones who are my son’s core group. (Doesn’t seem to phase him none, to his credit.) Her appearance matters but she’s no diva, which is nice.

She and my son spend a ton of time together, but neither cares if one does something without the other. And—thank God!—there’s NONE of the ridiculous, “You can’t talk to that girl” or vice versa. (I’d probably bean either or both if they did. Can’t stand that nonsense.)

We’ve spent vacation time with her family and she’s come away with us. Spend that much time with someone, s/he’s bound to get on one’s nerves. Not so with this girl. They’re a lot alike—even resemble each other a bit—in how overall easygoing each one is.

Got me thinking about how much control gets in the way of having ANY relationship, and not necessarily a romantic one.

When one lives and lets live, life is so much easier on both sides. I can be me without worrying about feeling judged. Disagreements are seen as differences of opinion and not as a personal affront (most of the time anyway). I can do what I need to do without worrying someone else is going to get bent out of shape. When that goes both ways with a spouse, parent, child or friend, I’m can pretty much guarantee a respectful, peaceful and mutually satisfying relationship where two-way interaction just flows naturally.

What are your thoughts on this? Any experiences come to mind that you’d care to share? If positive, what made them so? And if not, how did you deal?

My little home in the woods. Water to go on in about a week–that means we can actually start going again! I’m psyched!

Have a great day, all!

Joanna

Discipline V. Control (Part 4): An Opportunity to Learn

Happy Tuesday! To those of you who returning for more of this series, I do thank you. For those just tuning in, here are links to parts one, two and three–in case you want to catch up!

One more illustration on discipline, control and the idea of giving a kid the opportunity to learn, then I promise I’ll let this subject go—after one more post. (If y’all want to deal in it more, feel free to let me know in the comments, via email or on Facebook.)

This example is fresh in my mind, as it took place the week I was getting together this monster of a post, lol. My younger guy—the thirteen year-old I’m giving up for Lent—can be a little inflexible in his thinking and difficult to redirect once he has an idea in his head. I can also tell you, he’s typically not nice when he doesn’t get his way.

Like his mother, he likes order and visually pleasing spaces. One evening, he wanted to hang a curtain in the doorway between the laundry room and the semi-finished area of the basement where he hangs out to play video games. I hung the brackets for a rod there about 8:30PM and gave him an idea of how to thread the curtain onto a rod. (He got one from my bedroom closet about an hour later.)

I’d just sat down  to check email (circa 10PM) when he started calling for help with the curtain rod, which he didn’t know how to get onto the brackets. Long story short, he started throwing a typical fit when I told him I’d help him the next day. Rather than react—a.k.a. yell (and please don’t ask me where I get this stuff)—I told him he was putting me in the position of being a ‘bad parent’ if I went down to help him when he was behaving in such a manner. He blustered some more then all got quiet downstairs. Next thing I know, he came up, gave me a hug and said, “I figured it out.” (Maybe I’ll give him up for only part of Lent.)

See? This post is even shorter. (I think. ) Back to your experiences. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t?

Next time, I’ll take this one step further: regrouping and starting your day over after you’ve really lost it with your kids–probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do.

Okay, my new mantra of a request: if you like what you read here, would you kindly take a second and click the Facebook, Twitter or any of the share buttons below? (Any others you like that I may not be represented here works as well!) Reblogging is nice too, and helps get word out to others in cyberspace. By working together, we can each get our content and our names out to that many more people. Mega-thanks!

Have an awesome day,

Joanna

Make POSITIVE a Habit!

Good day, friends! Hope everyone enjoyed what, for many, was an extended weekend. I’m extra-blessed. Mine goes through Tuesday, so I’ll piggy-back off of Julie Hedlund’s post on gratitude and include being thankful for that as well! 

Always thankful for my good friend Diane Lang’s newsletters too. My inbox never lacks for positive energy when Diane’s name is attached to the email. Today she talked about making good thoughts a habit via the conscious practice of positive affirmations, so I figured I’d share them with all of you! 

        

According to Diane:

Positive affirmations are just one step into reaching your goals. It’s also a great start in the healing process. But remember, it’s just a start.

Positive thinking/affirmations don’t work alone, you need to put action into place by setting up short and long term goals with an action plan. You need to visualize your goals/dreams/recovery. You need to release fear so you can move forward and not procrastinate. You need to learn to say “NO,” so you don’t feel overwhelmed and stressed out.

What positive affirmations will do is change your thought patterns. The new patterns will become a habit. This will change your state of mind/perspective on life. This will also make you feel more optimistic and resilient. Being positive will be spread to all around you.

So, start each morning with some positive affirmations such as:

I’m Special.

I’m important.

I love and accept myself completely.

I’m in total health and wellness.

I’m wealthy. (This one is awesome, as riches can be seen in so many ways!)

I have a great job, love what I do and work with people I really like.

Each day offers great new opportunities.

Thank you, God, for the gift of another day. (My personal favorite way to wake up!)

Make sure to add Thanks/Gratitude into your daily rituals as well: I’m grateful for _______. (A phenomenally easy way to shift negative thinking and ‘start your day over’ should you need to do so at any given time of the day! ) 

Start today and say the positive affirmations at least twice a day. I say them morning and night along with gratitude. It starts my day off right and ends it on a positive note.

Have a great day!

Contact Diane via her website: www.dlcounseling.com or experience her live at one of the many workshops she conducts!

Here are some upcoming ones:

Thursday, February 23rd at 6:30pm – Positive Parent  Mt. Olive Adult School, N 973-691-0900 ext 7264

Monday February 27th at 6:30pm – New Year, New You – Starting the Year Off Right Mt. Olive Adult School, NJ 973-691-0900 ext 7264

Thursday, March 1st at 7pm – Dealing with Unemployed Stress New Caanan, CT- The CATS Group

Saturday, March 3rd at 10am – What kind of Smart Are You? Academy of the Holy Angels, NJ   201-768-7822 ext 211

Monday, March 5th at 7pm – Letting Go of Anger Parsippany Adult School, NJ  973-263-7180 ext 4342

Tuesday, March 6th at 7pm – Happiness – Living an Optimistic Lifestyle Morris Hills Adult School, NJ   973-664-2295

As always, friends, I thank you for stopping in and staying a while. I love comments, so please, take a minute and share: Which affirmations might you consider practicing on a regular basis?

Tune in Thursday for a meat-free recipe–just in time for the first Friday of Lent! And next week, I’ll finally get my DISCIPLINE VS. CONTROL series underway.

Finally, for those of you inclined to click one of the many buttons available, I’d like to ask a favor. I SOOOOO appreciate all the ‘likes.’ Might I ask you to take your very kind action just one more effective step further? Would you kindly help me harness the power of the great wide web community by clicking one of the SHARE buttons instead of (or in addition to) the LIKE  button? We can’t get word out to every single reader out there by ourselves, but together, we have the power to multiply the word exponentially. And feel free to comment and/or email me privately and let me know you did. I’d love to return the favor and/or pay it forward!   

 Again I thank you!

TTFN,

Joanna

O. M. Giants!

How they did it is beyond me. Amazing.

Photograph: Rob Carr/Getty Images

Shouldn’t Eli look a little more excited? Just sayin’.

Go Giants–unbelievable!!!

Thanks for indulging me,

Joanna

Just for Fun: Awesome Buys

Happy Thursday, friends!

Yay! This is post #197—three to go to my 200^th! Next goal: bring the number of followers into the triple digits! (Translation: if you like what you see here, please click one of the share buttons below. And, as always, thanks so much!

Life looks like it’s getting exciting around here; I’ll share more detailed news when the time is right! For today, because the post I had in mind grew a life of its own and won’t be ready until next week, I’m posting a simple and hopefully, fun topic—just in time for bargain hunters, flea market and garage sale junkies everywhere:

Share with us your most ridiculous surprise and/or awesome buy ever.

Mine: Backpacks I picked up for my sons at Five Below when they were about 10 and 8 years old: ful backpacks, with $49.99 price tags still attached. Had never heard of them but they looked sturdy enough—and for $5/piece? Sure, why not try it out?

Had I known then what we were getting, I probably would have bought six or more. My younger guy, now in 7^th grade, still uses his and it’s in awesome shape. The older one wishes he hadn’t let his friends mess with his. He’s had two or three different backpacks since his ful and still misses it.

(BTW, Five Below has great padded cases for almost every kind of portable electronic you can think of: sturdy, colorful and simple enough not to look tacky.)

Just thought I’d share that and looking to have some fun with your responses!

Have a great weekend, everyone! See you next week!

Joanna

Just Video Games or A Social Network?

Good day, everyone!

Since we talked about Christmas on Tuesday, let’s finish this week’s blog-set with one related to the same holiday. Then, we’ll put Christmas to rest—until after Thanksgiving (or maybe July ).

My 13-year-old son must have revised his 2011 Christmas list six times (and not for editing purposes, I can assure you.) Can’t tell you how many times I told him this particular holiday isn’t “mail order.” Kids, however, will be kids and this one was true to form.

He waxed and waned between a new gaming system (PS-3) and several other pricey game-related items (for X-box 360, which he has). He finally settled on the former as he handed over the final draft of his list.

       https://gustavus.edu/gts/Xbox_360

When hubby and I got to the gaming store and looked over the list, I noticed at least one-third of the PS-3 items he wanted he’d recently acquired for X-box, at the tune of $150-200. Seriously? After I asked the young guy behind the counter some questions why one system would be favorable over another, a judgment call was definitely in order. We picked up games and acc  essories for his X-Box 360 that were on his list as back-up, plus some other goodies Mom thought he could use: a robe, NY Giants’ hoodie—you know, essentials.

   http://us.playstation.com/ps3/

FYI: The big draw for PS-3 is said to be free online gaming, but Sony had been hacked earlier that year and was down for three months. X-box 360 requires X-box Points to play online and must be purchased separately, at the tune of roughly $8/month or $60/year, a significant savings if you’re willing to put the bigger cost up front. (BTW, video games are no longer an individual activity. Kids play online with each other, within the online framework of the gaming system they have. They invite each other to virtual “parties” or play football games against each other, work as teams on other games, etc.)

Most of my son’s friends have X-Box 360; the system, so far, seems to have the staying power of Windows XP. In other words, it’s been around and most likely will remain popular a while longer. (Dang! When did I learn all this stuff? I hated computers when they first arrived on the scene. Hubby bought me my first one, lol. )

Fast-forward to Christmas morning: To say I had a very disappointed child on my hands is an understatement. Folks, we had DRAMA, and all that talk about the real meaning of Christmas, expectations, mail order, etc wasn’t going anywhere. (Thank goodness our visit to church changed his mood, as did having Christmas at our house.)

Of course I questioned the choices hubby and I made as a different aspect of the potential problem hit me: Were we cutting our son off from the social network his games provide by not having gotten the new system? I decided to delve further by asking my son some questions. Turns out, only one friend got PS-3 and plays X-Box along with the other “core crowd” of gaming buddies. (Sounds like I’m not the only parent who thinks this way.)

I’m grateful to report things worked out. (Somehow they always do.) By evening, after the festivities wound down, my son came to me and said, “I feel like a fool about the way I acted this morning.” (And, he was glad he didn’t get the PS-3; the next day, he stood in line for at least thirty minutes and came home with an I-phone, which he bought with his Christmas money. He did need a new communication device). Even as I wrote this, he rethought his behavior and vocalized his feelings on having missed looking forward to opening gifts because of his attitude. I found it especially saddening on Christmas day to know how upset he was. Besides it being every kid’s favorite holiday, this same child pretty much decorated the house and did all the wrapping (save his and his brother’s presents; momma handled those). He brought the festive look to our home and saved me tons of work. But, if he learned something from the experience that will stick with him, then I suppose the rough start to the biggest day of the year was worth it.

One more notice: He recently played on a friend’s PS-3 and decided he didn’t like it after all. Then he started talking about what he wants for Christmas 2012. (That’s when the hand went up—I was, after all, watching the NY Giants’ Wild Card game and was in no position to consider the next holiday season, lol.)

So what are your takes on this subject? Have you ever had to make that call that you know would so disappoint someone? What did you do? How did the situation turn out?

Have a wonderful weekend–it’s an extended one for us–and ttys! Go Giants (and Packers)!

Joanna

Wrapping Up the Christmas/Holiday Season 2011-12

As I put away the decorations and slowly return my home to it’s normal state of being, I ask you this:

Is there a gift you received from which you know you’ll get major mileage? Does it have special significance?

I did:

Hubby got me this incredible necklace–totally my taste.

The crazy part? Read this:

“A heart-shaped locket fell into her lap. Tiny, glittering silver-black marquasite encrusted it, surrounding an oval amethyst on an intricate silver chain.”

My hero gave this to his heroine in No Matter Why. Hubby never read the book yet I end up with this necklace that is so ridiculously close to the one I wrote about it’s scary. AND it’s an estate piece. My heroine’s was an antique–go figure.

Your turn–what was your favorite gift or memory this past holiday season?

See you later this week,

Joanna

On the Second Day of Christmas–We Shared 2011′s Memorable Moments

Merry second day of Christmas, friends. Unless you’re out with the 12/26 shopping crowds, I’m thinking the commercial peace of Christmas starts about now. (Though I’m a tad tempted to hit Kohl’s–mom-in-law gave me her Kohl’s cash since she has no intention of using it. )

My house is in relative order after Christmas dinner here—only my mom, hubby’s mom and hubby’s friend joined us; some of my son’s friends later shared dessert. Everyone is asleep—shh!—and I’m now enjoying a very quiet moment alone with my laptop, looking around at the seasonal décor and loving it.

I also started thinking about that special gift that stood out from the others and why. Hubby gave me a gorgeous antique sterling silver necklace with an amethyst pendant—perfect for my taste. My younger son’s greatest gift started immediately after Thanksgiving and continued through Christmas Eve: that 13-year-old pretty much decorated the house and handled all the wrapping as awesomely as any Macy’s employee (and for no charge, either ). He also had a hard time with some of the choices hubby and I made regarding his gifts but seems to be taking some very mature steps toward the positive—another blessing that can’t be ensconced in paper and bows.

My older son couldn’t wait to give me his gift. (He made it in woodshop at school and seems to have a nice little knack for the craft.) He was sure I’d love it b/c (1) it’s handcrafted; (2) he altered the original design to put his spin on it; (3) I’d pick up on the theme and the ‘love’ that went into it. Not sure he realized it also symbolizes the most important intangible to me: peace in my world that comes from peace in my spirit.

   

As per memorable moments, my 8-year-old nephew gets the honors. We spent Christmas Eve at my brother’s along with twenty or so other guests. Long story short, we were among the last to leave, circa 10PM. My nephew started fretting about ‘missing Santa’ if the house didn’t clear so he and his siblings could get to bed. (In other words as he sort of said, to  my brother’s chagrin: “Take your coats, gloves, gifts and go–now.”)

So there it is. Your turn: what will you remember best about this year?

Here’s to a day of enjoying the peace (or at least a few dedicated moments). Expanding on the slowing-down theme a bit, I’ll be joining my very dear, freshly pubbed author-friend Calisa Rhose this Wednesday (12/28–debut day for her debut novel HOME) at her Chit Chat page for a virtual cup of coffee and discussing why no one seems to be able to just sit down and chat over one anymore.

TTYL,

Joanna

Making Sure to Take a Minute to…

thank all of you who take the time to ‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ my blog. Makes me feel so good to know people are being touched by what I put out there. You all rock and I am truly grateful. May all of you be blessed.

Special thanks too, for all of you who follow me in the Twitterverse (@JoannaAislinn)–y’all make it fun there!

Have a great weekend! Hope you get all your holiday preparations in order. The big days are around the corner, folks! Don’t worry, it will all fall into place–it always seems to!

With much affection,

Joanna