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Sorry I haven't been online for the past month and a half or so. As a few of you know, I recently moved into a new house. Moving day can be fun! sweatdrop I had some electrical problems at my new place that prevented me from getting online as soon as I would have liked. But I recently got an electrician in to fix them. So I'm back!

I got back on Gaia to find that very little has changed. Many of my friends are hardly online (probably because of midterms), botting is still rampant, MCs are still deflating like mad, and most of my investments are no more valuable than they were a few months ago. The item I'm questing has deflated so much I can almost afford it if I sell off my investments now. Deflation may be good for questors. But it's bad for people like me who make their Gaian fortunes by riding economic waves.

One of my New Year's Resolutions last year was to read more. Since my Gamecube died during the move, I've taken to reading again during my time away from Gaia. Several years ago I started reading "Clan of the Cave Bear", by Jean M. Auel. I've started reading it two or three times but never got around to finishing it. So I started again earlier this year. But after a few chapters, I found that it still doesn't hold my interest. So I quit. Instead, I read The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. What a gripping book. I blew through the whole novel in just a few days. I won't spoil any of the story here, but I can certainly see why it's so controversial.

My most recent books are a three-part series by C.S. Lewis, titled "A Space Trilogy". I I'm still reading the third book, so I won't spoil any of it here until I've finished.

Since I haven't been able to fish the last few months, I've taken up to buying fish. I am now buying fish from Durem and Gambino. If anyone out there has any to sell, PM me! The more you sell, the more per fish I pay! I pay close to MP if you offer a lot! heart

I'm also throwing up a new video. And it's not SSBM! I got a time of 2:16.887 in the Waluigi Pinball stage in Mario Kart DS, and I recorded it on video and uploaded it here. The video is really blurry, but it was the best I could get after several takes. I've seen some pretty good quality MKDS videos on YouTube, so I know it must be possible to get better quality. Any tips to improve the video quality would be greatly appreciated.

In other news, an irl friend of mine called me last weekend and asked me to remove a "virus" from his computer. When I got over to his house, I saw that he was running Windows XP SP1, a disabled copy of Norton Antivirus, had no security updates from Microsoft in 4 years, had a disabled firewall, and had a high-speed internet connection. Needless to say, instead of futily attempting to repair it on the spot, I offered to take the machine under my wing for a few days so I could completely disinfect it.

The first thing I did was turn off System Restore. With an infection of this magnitude, I imagined all of his restore points were infected, too, so I deleted them to eliminate the possability of them re-infecting his machine again. Next, I downloaded and installed SP3. Since his web browser was infected with some sort of redirector that led to a warez site whenever I tried to run Windows Update, I had to use my system to download it so I could transfer it to his infected machine using a flash drive. After installing SP3, I used my clean system to download AVG Free Antivirus. I removed his old antivirus program (having more than one antivirus program on the same system can cause all sorts of weird problems) and installed it on the infected computer, enabled it's firewall and connected it to the internet just long enough to update it, and then used it to remove most of the gunk. My next step was to install SpyHunter3. I used this anti-spyware utility to detect more infection. Since SpyHunter unfortunately won't remove the threats it detects unless you pay, I had to hunt down each individual infected file it detected and manually delete it (including infected registry entries - yikes!). Someone on the internet I know recommended SUPERAntiSpyware to help disinfect the system. I ran it and removed more junk. Great utility btw. Finally, I ran HiJackThis. It's an anti-redirecting utility. Most of the threats it detects are false positives, so I needed an expert on the program to help me separate the good from the bad so I could delete the bad. I had to repeat the process of running these four programs several times to get out all the infection. EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'm going to install ZoneAlarm Firewall next time I go to his house. It's a great free firewall program.

After I was sure his system was squeaky clean, I connected to the internet again and updated the rest of the security patches that Microsoft had released since SP3, of which there were around 25, iirc. Next, I installed Mozilla Firefox 3 along with Adblock Plus for Firefox. If you don't know why I installed these two programs, you need to get out of 1999 and download and install them NOW. razz I took the liberty of creating bookmarks for web sites I knew he used frequently. EDIT 2: He was also using a trial version of MS Office. So instead of paying to get the full version, I also installed OpenOffice.org for him. It has 99% of the features of MS Office, and it's free.

Everything I ran after this was maintenance. I ran a disk cleanup to get rid of some uneeded files (not much). I re-enabled System Restore and created a new Restore Point. Now, if he has any problems in the future, he can return his system to the pristine state it is now in using System Restore. And last, I defragmented his badly fragmented hard drive.

Some of the viruses and keyloggers I removed are known to steal things like passwords, usernames, bank account numbers, and credit card numbers, and then send that information to hackers over the internet. I left him with clear instructions to change his password on every website he goes to. I instructed him to call his bank and credit card companies and have his personal information for those changed to help keep those accounts safe. I told him he needs to keep a close eye on his banking and credit history and activity over the next few years. Scary stuff! gonk

All told, I removed close to 200 infections over a period of five days.

Gaia's Halloween event concluded on Halloween yesterday. Last year I spent mad amounts of time in shops making three complete Grab Bag sets in hopes that they'd be worth something this year. Of course with all the aforementioned economic deflation, they aren't. >_> I didn't bother collecting any this year. Besides, there was a glitch early on that prevented users from getting the items even once they did collect enough candy, so that did it for me. I did spend some time getting the event-related items (hence the Dark Elf skin I'm now wearing). That event took long enough I only did it on my main account and not my mule.

Stay tuned for more news! mrgreen