I hope that everyone that has bought one of my books has enjoyed it.
Random babble. PB&J, yo.
Real Life
Vitriol: isecurity.exe #virus #malware
Okay, so I was just tooling around the Internet, not really clicking on anything, when this crazy isecurity.exe thing popped up.
Kaspersky flashed red a couple of times, then shut itself down, as did Peerblock. That’s when that isecurity tried to tell me that I had all kinds of viruses, malware, my files were being deleted, etc, etc.
It is a trick. This thing is just some spammer tool’s idea of an advertisement to buy their crappy ass product. Unfortunately, it installs itself in your appdata and won’t let you access any .exe files or your task manager (it tells you that there’s blasterworm.)
I freaked out for like 5 seconds–just frozen horror–then immediately switched off my WiFi. I restored my computer to an earlier restore point, and now it’s gone.
BTW, I personally had to hard shut down my laptop and let it come back up in Safe Mode. I’d already found the isecurity.exe crap, ran a search and found where it was, but since it was running it wouldn’t let me delete it or shut it down. But once I knew where it was located, I could come back in Safe Mode and find and delete it. Then I hit system restore and it was only afterward that I found out what exactly had hit me. Until then though, I was in a full-on panic and I really thought I was screwed. Like, for reals, man.
Whoever made this thing should be taken out, castrated, made to drink their own blood, then shot in the head. (Yeah, I know that’s pretty fiery talk, but my heart is still fluttering from the drop in adrenaline.)
My best advice: Keep your restore points fresh. Don’t buy anything from some weird program popping up. And if you’re one of the jerks making this stuff, stay the hell away from me because I’m VERY vindictive.
Helpful isecurity.exe removal link==> HERE <== Deets on how to get this thing gone if you’re past the point of using a system restore.
Fanfic: A dirty *dirty* little secret
Okay, so I totally read this==> Christie Gordon’s post “Should a Published Author Let On About Their Fanfiction” <== awhile back and it’s something I’ve wondered for a long time. It’s basically a question on whether a published author should admit to their fanfiction past or not.
On the one hand, you have your root fanbase of fanfic readers, which can really help you with your sales. On the other hand though, I would think you have to worry about litigation or what-not from the authors that are really not very fanfic friendly (hey JKR, LKH, AR, how ya ladies doing?)
HUMBOLDT, CA: my advice to all you colonists out there, ’cause people totally lie
So okay, though I come across as very sheltered and I tend to play that up, I have had a few adventurous escapades in my past. Not too adventurous, mind you, but just a little out there.
I thought I would offer some advice if you come to the decision to go to Humboldt. I’m not going to talk anything about share-cropping or farm maintenance or anything like that. Though you might find some helpful information if you know what you’re looking for. And big dogs make the best pets.
Where to live: Garberville is a pretty cool area. Redway was a bit rough, but still acceptable. Shelter Cove… was awful. And that’s what we’re going to focus on now.