jwaneeta

I was in the midst of a big old meme post yesterday, and while fetching links for Ten Celebrities I Don't Find All That Attractive, I picked up that racka-fracka ABI bug. Wow, that's one nasty little piece of adware. I've got Norton and AdAware and firewalls for days, but they got me good.

It's been 48 hours of Spysweep downloads, Webroot scans, purgings and patches (and btw, thanks for nothing, Symantec), but things seem to be settling down. I'm only getting one or two popups an hour, as opposed to a dozen layering up faster than I could close them. I found some good tips at various boards, and as much as it costs me to say it, Microsoft's latest adware-killing DL seems to have taken care of the stubborn offscourings. Filthy! I hope Aurora, abetterinternet, and everyone associated with them may burst.

Attended my first Quaker meeting today (well, technically my second: I accompanied a friend to a meeting in San Diego several years ago). The meeting's held in a coffee house called Common Grounds. It's a small group, and they "gather in silence," which is the traditional form of Quaker worship.

After an hour the silent period ended and we were joined by the county prosecutor, who'd been invited to talk about his Restoration programs for criminals and victims of crime. Interesting man: he started as an FBI agent, and after becoming a prosecutor practiced for a while in the south, where he became involved in alternate means of addressing recidivism. He's introducing programs locally to help victims cope with the aftermath of crime, and other programs to keep released cons (especially those with addictions and mental illness) from cycling back into prison.

ETA: On second thought I should mention this. One of the prosecutor's ideas for helping victims involves trained volunteers who will clean up crime scenes so the victim or the victim's family doesn't have to. Taking up and disposing of bloodstained carpeting, etc. It's a compassionate and humane idea, and I'm ashamed to say I never even thought about that aspect of crime before.

After the meeting broke up, I chatted a bit with a couple of attendees, and we spoke about the Quaker classic A Testimony of Devotion, and the similarities between Catholic and Quaker mysticism (as regards contemplative prayer they're identical, at any rate).

I liked it, and them, and I'm planning to go back next week.

What with all the malware drama I sorta lost interest in my Unattractive Celebs post, but I will say this: Ashton Kutchner, ack. Also: Batman Begins is well worth seeing. Seriously.