How similar I am to my dad

Over the past few months, I've had some time to think about my family.  Some actions that I've recently taken have reminded me how close that I really am to the way my dad always seemed to me growing up.  While I mostly lived on the weekend at his house with the weekdays being at my mom's, I certainly did learn quite a bit from him.  He taught me to be kind and the consider others' needs before mine.  He taught me to do a good job and always put my best foot forward at work.  He taught me to always take care of family first and always remember where you came from. 

He was actually kind enough to allow me to stay with him when I was a smart-mouthed 18 year old. Clearly I knew everything and didn't mind telling him how awesome I was.  Yes, he even allowed me to continue to breathe afterward.  Even when I left on terrible terms and acted like a complete jerk to him, he still cared enough to love me through it. He even waited patiently for me to come around and apologize.  No, he didn't do anything wrong and he said he never held a grudge the entire time.  He felt disappointed in the way I acted and he had every reason to. 

My dad is awesome, he has always been awesome and he will always be awesome. On this father's day, I salute him.

Eye Contact

It dawned on me the other day, as I was walking between the cube farm at work, that people just don't look at you anymore.  Most likely they will give a cursory glance your way or even look up at the last second to pacify their own guilt in not making eye contact sooner, hoping that you've done the same or looked away already.  My grandfather taught me that when you shake someones hand, you look them in the eye until the greeting is complete.  I wonder if I've held true to that teaching over the years?  I know I've caught myself not looking at someone when they are speaking to me.  Whether I'm being or corrected or praised, I need to pay attention to the individual speaking to me and give them the proper respect of eye contact.

Perhaps all we need sometimes is a firm handshake, a smile and eye contact to make someone feel like we're really listening? To that end, I will continue to work on my own eye contact.  Hopefully I won't come across as starring, but rather making a statement of attention and caring.

What do you think?

One tough cookie to crack

Last week I had a family member hit me up for some computer advice.  She said the computer was quite slow and really stopped working in a few areas.  Some sites simply would not come up.  Using Logmein.com (great free tool to help out in a pinch) to remote in, I started poking around.  I immediately saw an interesting icon at the bottom right that looked quite suspicious.  I proud it into view and asked our helpless victim what this app was because it appeared to be an anti-virus app, but was not one that I quickly recognized.  The app is called XP Pro Cleaner and is basically an app that reports that there is a virus on your PC and actually shows it "scanning".  Some quick Google searches showed that this app is all about getting the hapless user to put in their credit card and buy the full version.

Let me tell you that the windows update service disables along with any other antivirus software and at one point the service was gone completely.  At least I was able to get in and then back out via the internet, otherwise I'd be in trouble since they live several states away.

I won't bore you with the rest of what was next because there was a lot of trial and error, but basically I pulled resources from these web sites.  I did finally get Malware bytes installed and we were looking good.

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/xp-security-cleaner-pro-removal/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-xp-security-cleaner-pro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxn9zTUMbig

http://guides.yoosecurity.com/xp-security-cleaner-pro-how-to-remove/

http://www.anvisoft.com/resources/remove-xp-security-cleaner-pro-virus-uninstall-guide/

Once that was complete, I got Microsoft Security Essentials installed.  And then I moved onto the automatic update issue. 

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/299297-cannot-turn-on-automatic-updates/

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/cant-install-windows-updates-error-code-80248015/61f1309b-90f3-4c5f-bcc3-63440155577a

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2730071

This error came up as well "net start wuauserv the service name is invalid", more research revealed this script.

net stop bits 

net stop wuauserv 

regsvr32 /u wuaueng.dll /s

del /f /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\*.*

del /f /s /q %windir%\windowsupdate.log

regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s

net start bits

net start wuauserv

wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow

As of last Thursday we are up and running and work can be continued without reloading this PC.  Quite frankly, I wouldn't have spent this much time on one of my personal PCs, but was very glad to help.  

Moral of this story: Don't download software that you don't know from whence it came.  

Marriage

Today marks the 19th year of my marriage.  It certainly hasn't been all bells and whistles, but it has been amazing!  My wife is everything that God had intended for me to have.  She completes me.