It's Always Something

This is my Battlefield 3 server graphics image:

The following is a review I wrote at CNET's Download.com chronicling my recent troubles with computer viruses:

I got a "PC Performance & Stability Analysis Report" virus a couple of days ago. It was extremely troublesome in that most desktop icons were hidden and start -> all programs showed empty. Had some help from Malwarebytes, but Combofix got me going.

Although Combofix was able to restore about 90% of my desktop startup icons, Quicken was still missing and my desktop background was black. It makes me wonder what else might be missing that I don't know about yet.

I've had viruses on three computers in the last month rendering them unusable. Malwarebytes worked on the first two, but this one was a tougher nut to crack. The first two instances I had to download the Malwarebytes on another computer via USB storage and open it as administrator (right click) to get it to run. Then had to do an update.

Combofix appears to be a powerful program as it cracked this 3rd tougher virus that Malwarebytes didn't fix completely. Someone claims Combofix is a virus (maybe a competitor). I hope they're wrong or lying, because I'm tired of this.

Labels: Computer, virus

Over the last few weeks our dog has been limping (keeping weight off her left front foot). The odd thing is it has happened off and on. She'll limp for half a day and then she'll be fine for a few days. Originally, the vet thought she had been stung by something. It doesn't seem like that can be the problem, so she's at the vet now again.

My motorcycle had been difficult to start after sitting for a couple of weeks so I bought a battery charger about 6 months ago. While charging the battery with it the acid inside would bubble. Queries on the internet revealed very little explanation although some said it was OK and some said it was bad. Also, the charger would never indicate the battery was charged even after charging it for over a day. The battery did work after a charge again for a few months, but it would eventually die again. I decided to get a new battery. I went to Advance Auto Parts and bought a battery for a little over $50. The funny thing was the battery came with two small containers with sulphuric acid. I had to put the acid in the battery myself! Getting the acid in the six small holes was a messy job and it was difficult to tell how much had been put in since it was clear like water. However, I did get it done. The instructions said I should charge the battery with the holes open which I did. The acid was bubbling when it was charging. The charger indicated a full charge after about 6 hours. I plugged the holes and we'll see if it works.

Over the past 2 months, prior to November 2nd, it has rained twice. This includes the notoriously rainy month of September. This has wreaked havoc on the lawn with huge brown patches of junky grass, not the beloved in these parts, St. Augustine.

Well, we couldn't take it anymore and had the sprinkler repair man come out on October 29th to fix the delapidated system. Our initial estimate was about $400. It turned out the line was cut at some point so they had to rewire the system which raised the estimate about $225. They also couldn't get to it until November 2nd. Well it actually rained while they were fixing it and it has rained ever since.

It rained so much (a torrential downpour about 4 a.m.) the roof started leaking in the same valley we had repaired in the spring.

Oh, the joy of homeownership!
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I just uploaded the following video to Youtube:

Over the past year and a half the typical problems have cropped up, but they usually spread themselves out enough as to not overwhelm.

The last 2 weeks have been atypical because things (problems & issues) have kept coming at a furious pace. It's hard to know where to begin.

1. About 2 weeks ago I received notification from my landlord, who paid about $265K for the condo conversion I'm living in and renting for less than $1,200 a month, was trying to do a short sale. The landlord believed I could buy it for $75K! They gave me the name of a realtor who sent me the financials for the complex, which is 62 pages long and indicates that a large percentage of the owners are not making the monthly maintenance payments.
2. About 2 weeks ago my girlfriend's mother suffered a serious injury and had to fly out of town to care for her; she has a return flight scheduled for November 7th. A couple of days ago I found out her pool pump motor stopped working so I'm trying to arrange to get it repaired.
3. Work has had a couple of issues lately. I set up a meeting (invest) with the state attorney to present one of my cases which occurred 3 days ago. Three victims were supposed to show up, but none did. The meeting went O.K. The ASA said he would "fast track" the case since the statute of limitations was running out. I had presented the case to the AUSA, but got no response from them so this was another avenue.
4. My boss wants to interview someone out of town who obviously doesn't want to be interviewed. After she wouldn't return my calls we've been going back and forth in e-mails. This is still not resolved.
5. My oldest son and I are trying to buy a house and get it titled in his name so he can get the $8K tax credit which expires November 30th. We were the high bidder on a bank owned property close to the university he's attending. This whole episode has been very time-consuming and distracting. The realtor set us up with a mortgage broker whose fees were extremely high. I posed this to a realty blogs' readership and they responded that I was getting ripped off. So I thought I could loan my son the money through Virgin money. Well it turns out they aren't doing these loans anymore. Virgin's website indicates that they are still providing this service, they just haven't updated it! So I tried to go through another bank which said I couldn't qualify for FHA financing because my son has no credit. Me being a co-signer with an 800 score doesn't seem to matter! We also couldn't do a conventional 20% down loan because of the same "no credit" issue. So I figured I could go through an attorney and set up the cash purchase of the house with my son paying me off (like Virgin). We presented this to the realtor and she said the bank wouldn't make repairs to the house (roof and A/C) unless it was financed through FHA. So I'm back to the original broker (ripoff) fees because he's the only one who can seem to pull this off. So now I have to provide him all my personal information and more and fill out a UCR of 48 pages. This needs to be to him by tomorrow morning if we're going to make the November 30th deadline. I hate buying a house!
6. If all the above wasn't enough on Saturday, 2 days ago, I received a call from my ex-wife. She said she had bad news. Uh oh, don't like the sound of that (sinking feeling in stomach). It turns out our son was in jail on a felony charge. So I drove 2 hours to where he lives (low oil light lit up in the beemer shortly after I left!) and did my own mini-investigation before attempting to get him bailed out. He missed the deadline (arrest was too late) for the initial appearance so he had to spend one night there. I was not allowed to attend the initial appearance which was held in the jail (they do this on a Sunday surprisingly). Stopped at Autozone to buy a quart of oil (put 1/2 in and it brought level up a to halfway). While I was eating lunch I was received a couple of requests for collect calls from the jail which I had to ignore because I can't take collect calls on the cell phone. I rushed to the jail after gobbling down the lunch. It turns out his bail was $4K. I went to the clerk and they don't take credit or debit cards for bail, but they would take money orders and they pointed me in the direction of Amscot. Amscot told me they don't take debit cards for money orders, but they believed Wal-mart did. Went to Wal-mart and it turns out they do take debit cards, but mine was declined (maybe $4K was too much?). So my only option was the bail bondsman who was a nice guy, but made me fill out a bunch of paperwork and pay him $400 with my credit card after the debit card was declined (ex-wife later confirmed that an alert had gone out on my account). Thereafter I sat in the jail lobby for about 5 hours waiting for him to processed. We went to pick up his vehicle, which thankfully hadn't been impounded (something good for a change!).

That's all I can think of right now, but it seems like there's been more. Oh yeah, I bought a T.V. a couple of weeks ago but the remote doesn't work now (it did work the first day). Need to get back to working on that mortgage paperwork, arranging the pool repair, setting up the interview, etc. I took the day off (requested from my boss last night which he approved). It will be nice when I'm retired so there's more time and fewer things to deal with (less than 11 months to go!).

This blog will serve as a venting avenue, because it seems there is always some problem or issue that needs to be delt with.

Right now my drains are backing up (bathroom sink and bathtub). I figured getting my hair cut really short would prevent this, but I'm getting the problem again. I just poured the last ounces of "Drain Power" in the bathtub drain. It hasn't worked very well in the past. We'll see how it does this time. I've used a baking soda and vinegar fix a few times which clears it up for about a month, but it alway clogs up again.