Spam (continued...)
I bought Norton Internet Security the other day, and I've been running it on my computer. It seems to have made a huge difference in that now I'm only seeing very few spam messages with the rest going into a spam folder that Norton created. The only problem so far seems to be that Norton tends to call things spam that aren't really spam, so I'm trying to "train" the program, but it continues to catch the same messages even after I inform it to NOT catch those types of messages.

One of the big problems I've found so far, and this is a warning to anyone that ends up buying this program, is that the firewall it creates is so conclusive that it shuts out everything, and it's almost impossible to stop it. An example is that I play Star Wars Galaxies, an online game. But when I try to sign onto the game, Norton warns me that my computer is trying to access the internet and then asks me if I should. I say yes, contact the internet. Then the screen goes into the welcoming messages for the game, and then there are further accesses to the internet through that process where Norton throws a fit and doesn't let it through, but then I'm stuck in the welcoming screens (unable to get out at all without rebooting my computer) so there's no way to tell Norton "Hey, stupid program, say yes here!" The only way I've been able to work around this is to just turn off firewall, not exactly the greatest way to do it, but Norton's "help" says that I should click "yes" in a window that never actually shows up on the screen. Grrr.

Anyway, my further battles with spam....

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The Cold Season
This is probably the one reason why I hate winter so much. I always get sick. It's never failed. This last weekend was horrible. I had to go into school yesterday to start Dr. Kuersten's class, and it was quite obvious I was really sick. Last night, I felt like I was fighting a battle for life. Today, still sick, but nowhere near as bad as it was, so I'll definitely be going to class today (mainly because I was sick during the last one).

I never really got sick in California before.

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Spam
I've discussed this before, but this is getting ridiculous. I really don't know what to do about it. I get so much of it that my regular email is completely useless. No one wants to spend four hours going through spam just to find one email that was actually sent by a friend. If I don't check my email one day, I'm doomed for hours the next because of so much spam mail.

My isp has filters that I've escalated to the highest level. But that doesn't seem to make a difference. I have my email program going through trying to knock out spam with keywords I enter, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'm getting really close to just discontinuing email for good and using the internet to browse web sites only.

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Faith in other people
I know it's probably just me, but I'm starting to think about this a lot. In my younger days, I used to have a philosophy that if you went ahead and did good things to and for other people, that you could assist in creating and fostering good people. But as years have gone by, I feel there are fewer and fewer good people, even to the point where I don't believe good people exist anymore.

I hear people tell me that there are good people, but then when I observe these "good" people, I observe people who are acting in their own best interests. Or they point at some rarity who seems to have to represent all of good because everyone else around that individual is a piece of crap.

I guess I'm starting to believe my faith in other people is dwindling fast. Or maybe it's gone. I'm not really sure.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
I bought this DVD some time ago, and after getting really bored with my reading, I decided to watch the movie. Big mistake. This movie sucked. Horribly. I like Sean Connery, but what the hell was he thinking? The plot was just dopey, and the action just seemed there because it was expected to be there. Oh well.

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I need to stop taking classes
Let's just say that I'm really hating the reading for my classes this semester. I really thought my History and Memory class was going to be a lot more interesting. I'm finding the reading to be really boring and somewhat irrelevant to anything I really care about. Yet, on Tuesday, I have to go to class and pretend that I actually care.

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Not exactly sure how this happens
I was convinced that I was going to dedicate Friday to sending in as many of my short stories, poetry and query letters to agents as possible. Somehow, I ended up accomplishing nothing. Not just with my writing, but in anything. Somehow, I managed to sit around the apartment most of the day and do absolutely nothing.

How does that happen?

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Received my PDA today
I received it about ten minutes ago. It was delivered by UPS. I'm charging it now, and in about 4 hours, I'll test it and see what it does.

One thing I found kind of dubious was that I paid for 2nd day delivery. They sent it UPS ground. It's only a difference of ten bucks, but little things like that get on my nerves.

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Lost My Chance to Teach
I got a call from KVCC this evening. One of the teachers for an intro course into political science had to cancel teaching his class, so I was called and asked if I could teach it. Unfortunately, the class starts at 6pm on Tuesday, and my class on Tuesday doesn't get out until 5:50pm, so there'd be no way in the world I could make it to KVCC in that amount of time.

What a bummer.

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Bought a PDA Today
I've been thinking about this for some time now. I went to the computer center on campus a million times and looked at the different models they had. I was torn between an HP1945 (they only sell the 1940 at the computing center) and the Dell Axim X3i. Finally, I decided to go with the Dell, but I ended up buying it from their website because it ended up being $40 cheaper than the "special" rate the university seems to get.

I think this is kind of cool, actually. It has a wireless card, so I can access the internet on it like a regular computer, and I can also write small articles on it so I can transfer them to my computer at home. One of the problems I've always had was being able to find a piece of paper to write down an article idea while having lunch and reading the newspaper. A laptop, even though small, was just too large to lug around all of the time.

The downside (aside from the $350 price) is that it won't ship out until the 13th. But I am looking forward to it.

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The Western Herald - Music industry plays 'shell game' with consumers
My latest article in the Western Herald. Published today.

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Another semester has begun
Maybe it's just me, but I'm really getting tired of school. The semester just started today, and I already feel that I want to leave. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing wrong right now. But it just seems like I've been in school way too long, and I've been realizing more and more lately that I really don't feel I'm even in the right field anymore. I really don't think I'm going to be able to do anything that will benefit political science in the long run, unless they are interested in someone who plans to destroy political science as we know it by taking us all in a direction I don't think the discipline really wants to go.

My realization over the break is that I am a writer, not a political scientist. I have really been wasting my time for so many years lately.

I am working for Dr. Kuersten again this semester. I pretty much have everything already taken care of for her class tomorrow. I went ahead and did everything I could think of to make her day go smoothly (at least with this class) so there won't be any necessity for anything else to have to be done. I really hated doing stuff at the last minute last semester because of being uncertain of what needed to be done next. At least this semester I have a pretty good idea of what is supposed to be done.

I think this semester I'm going to find myself a girlfriend. I don't know where. Probably won't be from school. That's never happened for me as they are either way too young (unlike most guys, I'm not after some young 19 year old) or already involved in other relationships or just not interested in any type of relationship. Part of the problem for me is I don't think like other guys, and that sort of puts me into a category where I really can't compete. (one of my side projects this semester is a small film I'm going to work on with some of the members of the Forensics team where I'm part of a reality dating show where all the women are competing to avoid dating me) Either way, I think six years getting over the last relationship is really enough time. It's been so long since I've last dated that I forget which partner is supposed to wear the clown suit.

I've also started writing a few more plays. My intention was to finish The Ameriad, my latest novel, but for some reason I found myself focusing instead on a play I had the idea for some months back called The War Room. Most of my successful plays in the past have been two or three person plays (or one person monologues), but this is the first time I've started writing a 7 person play.

I also found a creative writing contest during a visit to the English Department when I was picking up a key for the lecture hall today. I intend to enter a short story I wrote recently called "Simple Girl." I really wish I could just sit down and finish the Ameriad, as this would be my 12th completed novel. It is so hard to find time to write these days, although I did manage to scratch out another article which will probably be printed in the Herald in a few days (if not tomorrow).

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Innocent Kids Use Jar Jar Dolls As Masturbation Toys!

I don't know an easier way to say this, but you have to read this. I don't know what I fear more: the fact that this problem exists, or the fact that there is a group that is gathered to stop it.

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Just having one of those days
I was at Best Buy today with my car, and I went into the store for awhile. I came back out, and that's when I discovered I had left my lights on. So, as it started to snow hard, I realized my car's battery was now dead. So, it took 2 hours to finally get a tow truck to come out and jumpstart me as no one I asked appeared all that interested in helping out anyone asking for a jump.

So, I wasted forty bucks I don't really have to get my car moving again. And the worst thing is: this isn't the first time I've done this with this car.

What a crappy day.

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