Back on the Air

I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming and I was taking steps to get ready for it. I knew it was coming. I just didn't know how quickly it would get here.

A little back story for those of you not in the know: I have two computers here in the studio. One is your basic run of the mill computer. It gets me on the internet, let's me read emails, has music and photos on it, and does what any home computer does. The other is in my work area and has never been connected to the internet (well, there was that one time to get it working when I first bought it.) But, it's not connected to the world wide web. It has all of my art work and music projects on it. It has all my financial information and important documents on it. It's safe from viruses and hackers out there in cyberspace. Like they say with a shark attack, the only sure way not to get attacked is to never go in the water.

My work computer has never been in the water.

Now, the other computer, the computer hooked to the internet, the one that lets me check emails and write blog posts, that one, well, that one felt like I just threw it into the middle of a great white shark feeding frenzy.

I woke up last Friday, ready to write my weekly "From the Vault" blog post to find that my internet computer had been attacked by a major virus. It was one of those viruses that disables every system on your computer and replaces it with a program telling you that you have tons of viruses and, if you'd only click "here", it would make it all better with the new program they want to install. I hate viruses like this. They prey on uninformed people and make them install even worse viruses on the computer. It was so bad that even trying to open something as simple as WordPad gave the the prompt "WordPad is infected with a virus and is trying to send your credit card information over the internet." I didn't even know WordPad HAD my credit card information! Like I said, I hate these things because I think of the poor uninformed grandmother in Florida who falls for crap like this.

But, I did find a way around the bug long enough to get online and do a quick check of my email. To add to the stress of the virus I had two emails from clients about work, one wondering where their new project was.

Not a fun way to start the morning.

Then, salvation showed up. The new laptop computer I ordered arrived half an hour later. I had ordered it two weeks ago because I knew the internet computer was on it's last legs. It's eight years old which, in computer terms, meant I was still driving around in a 1972 Gremlin while the rest of the world was cruising around in flying cars.

Monika had purchased a laptop a few months ago and I really loved it. Finally, after going over it again and again in my head, I finally broke down and bought one of my own. I figured an internet computer I could carry around with me couldn't be a bad thing.

Of course, getting a new computer and setting it up brings with it its own sets of stress. So, it wasn't a fun Friday. Dealing with computer issues is never fun and adding the stress of a bunch of client jobs I needed to get done just meant the next handful of days got away from me.

But, all seems better now. I reinstalled the operating system and have been reinstalling programs on the old internet computer so I can pass it on to a friend who's never owned a computer. I've been learning the new little quirks of Windows 7 on the new laptop after using Windows XP for the last ten years (a lot of the same but getting used to all the new buttons and new look is taking some time for a guy who hates change like me.)

And, I've been getting all of the client work done...slowly but surely.

Speaking of which, it's back to work for me. These kid's book pages aren't going to ink themselves.

But, at least I am back to the blog. Sorry I've been away so long.