TheLeong.com

I got that title from Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I just wanted to write some stuff about my fun little experience with spyware and viruses galore.

I was looking around on the web for torrents and stuff (not like I would try to get illegal copies of software or movies or anything), and of course I hit one of those shady sites that opens a bunch of pop up windows and tries running all sorts of weird scripts. Well, one of them was pretty potent apparently, and my computer got all screwed up. It did all the standard tricks with Internet Explorer (yeah, yeah, maybe now I’ll finally switch to Firefox): changed my home and search pages, added about a million favorites, opened up dozens of popups whenever I opened the browser, etc. Windows also wasn’t safe, as it kept restarting explorer and wouldn’t let me open My Computer, Search, or even folders.

After trying to frantically use Ad-Aware, that didn’t really do much. I tried Spybot Search & Destroy, and that didn’t work too well either. I tried XoftSpy and Spyware Begone, which both seemed to find the problems, except you have to register and pay like $40 to have the problems actually removed. Thanks a lot assholes. I was actually so desperate this morning that I had my wallet out and was considering actually paying for one. But then, luckily, my cheapness prevailed and I did a few more searches. Turns out, Microsoft now has it’s own Spyware blocker, and I have to say this thing saved my life (well, my computer’s).

Yeah, so it’s still in Beta, but it really is awesome. Integrates into the shell nicely, does all sorts of stuff, and most importantly got rid of pretty much all the crap that was messing up my system. I was so happy. Oh, and here are the links, since I think everyone should give this a shot, especially if you have spyware messing up and clogging up your machine (PC).
Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

Trend Micro Free online virus Scan – caught all the worms and stuff

Computers just aren’t my thing today. My laptop’s hard drive or motherboard is going screwy, but at least I have the warranty on that still. That’s not too much of a concern.

My desktop, however, got some serious spyware or a worm or something, and I’ve been up for the last 3 hours trying to fix it. I would have been asleep by 2ish, but now it’s past 5AM. I’m trying to clean my computer but nothing’s working yet.

I seriously and genuinely hope that everyone out there who creates spyware, adware, viruses, and other crap like that will just catch on fire and burn. No one should have to put up with this. I’m pissed, I guess I’ll sleep for a few hours before class.

Finally getting around to writing a post, which for some reason I feel compelled to do, even though most people won’t be interested in reading this, haha.

As a bunch of you know, the last few weeks have been pretty busy. I think it’s midterm time, since I’ve had a bunch of tests. IUSTV is keeping me pretty busy also. We premiered a new show, called “On the Edge of Your Sport” last week. I haven’t been that involved with it, but it was really great to see a new show get on air. It reminded me a lot of some other new shows starting, especially the first taping. Although I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about not staying as involved with it next year as I am now, this really is a lot of fun. I feel guilty sometimes for spending hours upon hours at the IUSTV offices when I should be doing school work, but I guess this will look good on resumes, and gives me a lot of material for interviews. At least I’m doing a lot better on actually doing classwork than I did last spring or summer.

I’ve also been trying to find a decent internship for the summer. Ideally, I could find something paid, in Japan, and in the marketing or TV industry. I’m sure I can’t find something that is “ideally” perfect in all three of those, but I’ve got some leads so far. Haha, I’m going to apply for a job in Japan working for the FDA. Never thought I’d say I was considering working with anything remotely connected to agriculture, but who knows.

As far as next year goes, I’m leaning towards staying at IU the entire year. I talked to the B-school advisor last week, which was pretty much a huge waste of time, but oh well. My one question was whether or not I should graduate early or not to get a “International Business” major instead of just “International Studies,” and all the lady says is “well, that’s up to you.” Yeah, I know that. BUT I’d think an ADVISor would be able to ADVISE me on what to do. Anyway, I’m leaning towards having a really really easy next year, and work at IUSTV or something. Who knows. I also am 70% sure I’m going to stay at my current apartment, just because it’s great so far and I wouldn’t have to deal with finding a new place, moving, etc.

I can’t think of anything else to put here. I’ve been watching DVDs in my freetime (usually a few hours before I sleep), which I’m getting from Netflix. I’ve gotten through the first 3 seasons of Seinfeld, the first 4 of Frasier, and the first 1 and a half of Curb Your Enthusiasm in the past 2 months. I guess you can call that an accomplishment. Oh, and yes Frasier is an awesome show, even though most people are half and half about either liking it or thinking it’s too “high-brow.” Hoo-ah!

Yikes, I haven’t posted here in almost a week. Busy still….until Friday afternoon-ish. Spring break couldn’t come soon enough (I think I’m going to just go home for a few days then hang out in Indiana). Unless anyone wants to fund me to go to Japan, haha!

Oh man I need an internship this summer. Someone get me some connections.

This week has been nuts. Sunday night I was at the library til 6:30AM studying for my marketing analysis exam. I guess it was worth only getting 3 hours of sleep though, since I got a 104 on it. Monday night I crashed for about 5 hours in the evening, only to stay up until 6 again doing random stuff (including sending resumes and stuff to places like TokyoPop and Viz). Tuesday night I was doing IUSTV, Z302, and mktg analysis until around 3 or 4AM. Tonight (Wed), it’s 3AM and I’m still at the library, finished with about half of my marketing design work, have a team exam in Z302 at 11AM, and about a million and a half things I need to get done really soon. Tomorrow night will probably entail the least amount of library time all week, meaning I’ll *only* be here for like 3 or 4 hours.

I’d be able to get a few hours of sleep per night extra if I weren’t powering through the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD. Awesome show, btw. Oh and I got to watch an hour of the Kings (Kangs?) of Comedy last night.

When you have an exam the next day, and you haven’t studied a whole lot yet, there’s always that one phrase in the class syllabus that just makes your day.

“All examinations are open book and open notes.”

Sweet.