:: Venting Insanity ::

:: Friday, June 04, 2004 ::

spyware sucks
Someone installed spyware on my laptop that causes the computer to think I'm pressing Shift, Ctrl, or Alt at various times, nullifying my pop-up blocker, and causing my computer to think I'm either typing in all caps or executing a command.

It is EXTREMELY annoying... and I meant that to be in caps.

I'm about >thisclose< to restoring the hard drive to when I first got it just to uninstall anything that might remotely be causing this problem.

I have tried Ad Aware, SpyBot Search & Destroy, and Norton Anti-Virus. I have run Disk Cleanup to get rid of temporary internet files. I have gone into the temporary files area of my hard drive and deleted all the cookies and other things that are there. I still can't rid of it. It's making my crazy!

If I find out where it came from, I am blocking that site and I will post it here for everyone else to block it, too, so you don't have to go through what I'm going through. Also... so the owner won't get any hits. I am very pissed off.

excitement at work
So, after a slow day of nothing important to do (we cleaned the building in preparation for the upcoming moving day), we see a cop car pull up in front of one of the apartment buildings across the street. Curious, we head outside 'to have a cigarette' (I don't even smoke) and figure out what was going on.

Several cop cars show up, first aid kits in hand, followed by EMTs and an ambulance. They left the stretcher outside the building because of the stairs (they had to bring in a backboard to transport the patient downstairs), and head inside. As we're sitting there, the stretcher starts rolling down the sidewalk and tips off the curb into the street. I ran across, stopping traffic, and DeAnne and I righted it for them. The EMT came back down at that point, and we told him what happened. He asked us to stay with it so it wouldn't happen again, and so that someone wouldn't walk off with it.

At this point, there was a traffic problem because it was the end of the day on a Friday and people were trying to get home. Walter came down and started directing traffic to try and help alleviate the problem because the road was too narrow with all the vehicles parked up and down both sides. Finally, someone blocked off the road at the corner to prevent any more problems.

It turned out that the woman they came for had collapsed and stopped breathing. No one's completely sure what happened, but she's a student at the school, so Barbara's going to find out this weekend and let us all know what's going on.

It's a shame because she had just graduated with her two year degree and was probably going to return for her four year.

update on the internship
So, it seems that I wouldn't get an extension, so to speak. I would take an incomplete at the end of the session, and then the grade would be changed once I finished up the 90 hours. I spoke with Patrice Newman and told her that I had missed a lot of valuable internship time because of the trip to Kansas City. She said that's the way the school would do it.

That's not too bad. I'm not graduating until December anyway, so an incomplete at this time wouldn't be a terrible thing. It's not messing up my schedule.

snapple "real fact" #266
Manhattan is the only borough in New York City that doesn't have a Main Street.

:: Thursday, June 03, 2004 ::

blah...
There's nothing for me to do today. I'm at a standstill point at my internship, and I have to wait on Jeff or Paul before I can do anymore there. They have nothing for me to do at work... and Barbara's not here at the moment to give me something to do.

I'M BORED!!!!

of course
I could always use this time to study for my Intro to CJ test that I have tonight... ^^;;

Maybe I'll do that.

snapple "real fact" #150
The first sport to be filmed was boxing in 1894.

:: Tuesday, June 01, 2004 ::

movie review
John S. and I saw Shrek 2 last night. It was hysterical!! I couldn't stop laughing.

Antonio Banderas is heard as the Zorro-wannabe Puss-in-Boots... Cameron Diaz and Mike Meyers return as Fiona and Shrek and Eddy Murphy is back as lovable Donkey. John Cleese and Julie Andrews play Fiona's parents.

With a cast like that, how can you go wrong?

I was laughing so hard through the whole movie. The jokes are great, the visual gags are wonderful, and there's even a cameo appearance by Joan Rivers... yes, as herself. ^_^ It was great!

I had a great time, and I'd even go see it a second time!

snapple "real fact" #23
The San Francisco cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

calverton
So, the same thing I got on the news for last year happened again this year. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen this year. Because of all the bad news surrounding Masonic organizations lately, it's quickly becoming a more impossible task to bring Suwassett back to life.

But, we did go, and we still had a good time. It was good to see Deidre again and talk with her. Honestly, I've missed hanging around her.

I miss a lot of things with Rainbow. I just wish the people around here that are involved weren't being such pains in the ass about stuff. Grand Family is this weekend. Charsie suggested I stop by, since it isn't that far from home. Of course, I did make a commitment to SIFE that I would work the booth at the Sea Fair for a while.

I'll have to see how my day pans out. I might do Rainbow in the morning with Calverton and then Grand Family, and then SIFE and the Sea Fair in the afternoon. Since Grand Family's in Riverhead, it would make sense to stop there in the morning after Calverton instead of going all the way down to Patchogue and then all the way back up to Riverhead again.

holiday weekend
So, Sunday saw us at Nana and Auntie Lyn's place. I brought my laptop with me so I could show them the pictures from Kansas City. I'll be uploading those and the Regionals when I actually think about it...

Anyway, Dad grilled some hotdogs and hamburgers for us for dinner... and we had all sorts of salads and stuff. Food was good.

Auntie Lyn was watching the Indy 500 all day. It had been rain delayed for a bit, and then there were a lot of crashes throughout. As I watched it go on, I was kind of hoping Kanaan would win (doesn't he look a bit like Vin Diesel?), but he came in second.

And there was the typical tension that happens every time the group of us gets together. {{sigh}}

interesting thoughts
After Calverton, Dad and I stopped at Aunt Nancy's to drop some stuff off for them. Nancy mentioned that Grandma is going out to California later this summer and was thinking of taking Kelly and Betsy. The only problem is... Betsy is suddenly not allowed to go. So, Nancy suggested I go.

Now, I was never extremely close with Grandma and Dad's side of the family. The only people I really got along with were Nancy, Tommy, and my cousins, and that was because we were closer in age, I guess. Then again, I never really did grandmother/granddaughter type things with Grandma like I did with Nana.

Then again, now that Nana seems to have this thing about reverting me to six years old all the time, and that I can enjoy more mature activities, I think Grandma's pretty cool with taking me places. The problem with that is that I still don't feel like she likes me very much, a feeling that's rooted back in the way she would always just leave me with Tommy and Nancy all the time instead of spending time with me when I was over there. I played with the neighbor's kids more than I spent time with my grandparents.

So, the idea of me spending a week in California with her and Richard doesn't exactly sit too well with me. Richard's not bad... I wouldn't go out of my way to spend a heck of a lot of time with him, but we get along and talk more than I talk with Grandma.

I guess, in a way, I feel slighted. I see how Grandma is with the rest of my cousins, and I'm a bit jealous that I never got that when I was a kid... when it was important for me to get that kind of attention. It's almost like I was the unwanted grandchild on that side.

Of course, the smothering attention I get from the other side way overcompensates for that in some strange manner. It was fun when I was kid, but now I feel pressured when I'm there. If only I could take some of the attention I get from my mom's side of the family and filter it through my dad's side, there would be a happy balance, and I wouldn't be so damn confused and upset whenever I'm at a family function.

good news!
Estelle and Johnny got a new place recently. Her father finally served them with an official 72 hour notice, so they were forced to go as soon as they could. Her mom got them a truck and helped them move in. They were extremely lucky in getting the place they got, and it seems like a really nice place from what she says.

I'm going over tonight to hang out for a bit.

Anyway, I really think that was the final straw between Estelle and her dad. It all started with the Christening and quickly escalated from there. He's really batting a thousand with both his daughters now, forcing Ally to move in with Shelly and switch to Pat-Med when she doesn't want to and could easily stay in Longwood by moving in with her mom instead... and then doing this to Estelle. I really hope he doesn't expect them to take care of him when he's old... because I don't think they will.

Or, at least, they will... but extremely reluctantly.

internship fun
So, WordPress seems to be the way to go for this website I'm setting up for them. I worked with the NetAdmin, Paul, today on getting the PHP and MySQL installed on their server. Hopefully, Paul will have the directory up and ready to go for me to upload the files and start testing it soon. I had hoped it would be up by the end of the day, but Sgt Kreigh said probably not. So, I headed home early with the hope they'll call me in again later this week. Just not Friday... I need to work Friday.

Now, I need to do some serious WordPress research. I'm used to Blogger, but this WordPress seems really nice. I've been considering switching my blog over to something new for a while now, and this might be my eventual switch-to system.

I finally got to talk to Investigator Magi (Majee? not quite sure there...) about the background check and security interview. We'll be getting my badge and everything set up at that point, I suppose. He asked me to bring in a bunch of stuff for him. I can't wait to get the badge... it'll make things so much easier for when I come in.

There's also this other guy there that keeps calling me Jennifer. ^^;; Of course, I can't really point fingers because I've met so many people there that I don't remember their names either. Heh... I'm trying, though.

snapple "real fact" #333
Long Island is the largest island in the Continental U.S.

:: Monday, May 31, 2004 ::

movie review
John S. and I saw Troy the other day. Not counting the total drool fest that was when the almost full frontal nudity scenes of Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom hit the screen, it was a good movie.

I'm not a big fan of Eric Bana, but the others around him did an excellent job. Sean Bean played Odysseus, Brad Pitt was Achilles, Eric Bana was Hector, and Orlando Bloom was Paris. He looked cute with curls... *_*

Okay, I'm back. I think I saw the movie more for the gratuitous fanservice than anything else, to be honest. And there was a lot of it. Achilles is quite the ladies man, apparently, so there's plenty of Brad Pitt butt shots to go around.

Now, if you're a bit mythology buff, this interpretation might not be your cup of tea. However, the fighting and sheer entertainment value of the film was quite good. I did enjoy myself... and would have even without the fanservice. ^^;;

snapple "real fact" #297
David Rice Atchison was President of the United States for only one day.

:: Sunday, May 30, 2004 ::

home at last
We had more delays on the way home. Talk about crazy. We were supposed to be back in Islip by a quarter after 5 and didn't get in until ten after 7. It was foggy and rainy back here on the East Coast, which was causing delays all over the place.

I'm just glad to be back in familiar territory.

sleepy...
I was too sleepy to go in for my internship on Thursday. I just needed some time to recover from the traveling. I did go to work yesterday, though... and I had the Memorial Day flag placing at Calverton. More on that later.

extension please
I think I'm going to need an extension on my internship. With everything that was happening, I have a feeling I'm not going to finish my 90 hours in time for June 30^th. I'll have to talk to Patrice Newman next week when I'm back at school. She's one of the S.I.F.E. Business Advisory Board members for us, so I'm sure she'll understand. Either that, or I have to talk to the Lieutenant when I go in on Tuesday and see if I can do some catch up hours on the weekends.

I certainly hope so, anyway... either the make up or the extension. I'll take either at this point.

work work work
We also have nothing to do at work. It stinks. They actually sent us home. I stayed up in the library and learned the new system, ran a few errands, and went home early on Friday. While it's cool to be able to go home early, it stinks because I don't get paid for it.

I need the money... big time. I will be getting a raise when I go back for work study again in July. We just have to be careful not to use up all my hours too quickly.

rainbow news
Anyway, I went to the Calverton Memorial Day flag placing today. We go every year, but I wasn't sure if it was going to happen this year because of what happened back in March. South Side Lodge lost its charter. As a result, Suwassett Assembly lost its sponsor. Right now, Grand Assembly is helping us out in that respect, but we're going to have to find a sponsor and a place to meet.

I wish them luck. I'd like to help, but, everytime I try, I get pushed out of the way and told to stay out of it. There's only so many times I'm going to offer my help and get told no before I stop trying. If they don't want my help, then I'm not going to give it. I've got enough on my plate with school, SGA, and S.I.F.E.. I'll concentrate on that now.

snapple "real facts" #356
You exhale air at 15 m.p.h.