Mishmash Musings

I haven’t been around much this week because it’s Finals Week. I’ve only got two classes right now, but both finals are comprehensive and cover textbooks that are 500+ pages long. I kept up with the reading during the semester, so a lot of stuff has already sunk in. But still… it’s a bit daunting to have to go over everything again and try to digest the important stuff while disregarding the rest.

On the bright side, there are just three more days left in the semester and then I get about a month off. Sweet!

Did you hear about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi being attacked by a man at a political rally yesterday? According to the NY Times, Berlusconi was signing autographs at the end of the rally when the attacker, a man with a “history of mental problems” smashed him in the face with a statuette. This left the 72-year-old Berlusconi with a fractured nose, bloody face, and two broken teeth.

This incident is just wrong. I don’t know what Berlusconi’s politics are, and I don’t care. No leader of a free country deserves to be viciously attacked like this. I was outraged when Bush had shoes thrown at him, and I’m outraged to hear about Berlusconi. WTF is wrong with people???

I’m having massive computer problems today. I ran a virus scan this morning that uncovered a trojan. I couldn’t remove it, however, because it was attached to a critical program that was white-listed by AVG. I kept searching around and found that Microsoft Security Essentials would handle the problem, so I downloaded that, ran it, and cleaned out the original trojan, plus two more that Microsoft found but AVG missed.

Then after the trojans were cleared out, I suddenly had memory leak problems, with one of my service host processes running at 99 percent even with no apps open. I had to look that one up online, but none of the proposed solutions worked. The only option left was to start backing stuff up and reinstall Windoze from scratch.

Now I’m trying to get my system back to the way it was pre-trojan time. What a great way to spend a Friday night…NOT.

Seriously, who would want to go outside when the weather is like this? There’s snow falling, snow on the ground, traffic is basically at a standstill…. No thank you! I’d rather just stay inside the warm house, do some work at my computer, order a pizza for dinner, and then sit back and enjoy the Blackhawks game on TV later. Thank goodness for telecommuting jobs and online classes!

I’ve been watching the news off and on during the day, and there have been lots of accidents on the roads and on the highways. Multi-car pileups, cross country moving trucks spilling their contents all over the place, jackknifed semis… it’s pretty bad. And it’s still early December! What’s gonna happen when the real snow starts to fall?

I wish I could just hibernate all winter long. Wake me when spring comes back!

Ok, I know I said I wouldn’t go to the malls during this holiday season (I do all my shopping online), but my cousin begged me to help her pick out some things. So we headed over on her lunch break today. While we were there, someone got busted trying to steal a wallet from Macy’s! This guy had taken the wallet off the display and stuffed it in his pocket, but there was a tag inside that tripped off the wireless security systems. As soon as the alarm went off, he tried to make a run for it, but he was headed into the mall instead of out towards the parking lot. Big mistake. He was busted by mall security about 100 yards out of the store.

Well, that was about as exciting a Christmas shopping adventure as I can remember. I’m definitely sticking to the online experience from now on!

My 20-year high school reunion is going to be here before I know it. I’m not sure if I’m going to attend, but I want to be ready just in case. That means I need to get myself into tiptop shape before the big event (I still have more than a year, so I should be able to achieve my goals). For instance, I want to drop 5 pounds and lose this distinct paunch that’s starting to develop around my middle.

I also need to do something about my skin. It seems that my acne is finally under control thanks to my Clindamycin and Differin prescriptions, but I still have to do something about my wrinkles. I’m getting lines around my mouth and eyes that are making me look about 5 years older than I am. I wouldn’t mind investing in a good wrinkle cream to smooth out my face a little bit.

Even if I don’t go to my real high school reunion, a few of my old friends that I keep in email/Facebook contact with are thinking of having our own small reunion. We all live in different parts of the country and haven’t seen each other in person since graduation, so it would be similar to the real reunion — just without all the angst and people we don’t like!

Either way, I want to look my best. This should serve as a good incentive to stay in shape and take care of myself!

I was at a friend’s house earlier today, and saw that she had a fireplace on wheels! It could be rolled to any room in the house to provide supplemental heat or simply beautify the space. I had never seen one of these Amish fireplaces before, but I was a bit intrigued. They would certainly be better than a regular space heater, and apparently are just as cheap to operate.

What do you think? Yay or nay to this kind of thing?

I’ve been jogging every day since early summer — so about six months now. Things were going well at first, but I seem to be regressing lately! I don’t know why, but for the past six weeks or so, my runs have been harder and harder to finish. I’m doing the same route and distance, so I can’t figure out what the problem is. Could the colder weather be having an effect on me? I wear Under Armour gear and make sure to warm my muscles up with a brisk one-mile walk before running, so that shouldn’t be affecting me too much.

In the summer, I got to the point where I could jog 2 miles at a fairly decent pace without getting too winded. But now jogging even one mile takes nearly everything I’ve got.

Anyone know what the deal could be?