Mercury Retro Still Pursuing Me Up Computer Creek?

Mercury Retrograde (or something) hasn't quite finished with me yet!

There I was, yesterday, thinking I was all ready to go, clean machine at the ready, Norton 360, like a big butch bouncer at the gates warding off nasty viruses and malware...."Yipee-ki-yay moth......" well ya know!

Then I tried to use my astrology software.

Didn't work, hung up before displaying the chart with data I'd input. Error message. Decided to uninstall and re-install again in case something hadn't quite "taken". Couldn't find the file to uninstall - not in usual place. Installed again anyway. This time when I tried to use it the software wouldn't bring up the atlas. Husband couldn't help in this case, though he tried. I then recalled, from somewhere in the far recesses of memory, that since I bought the cd for my astro software in 2006 there had been an update, to which I'd been entitled as part of the original purchase price. I'd accessed this via download, maybe 2 or 3 years ago. I still have my customer code number etc, so contacting the firm should solve matters.

Decided to contact the astro software firm this morning. First contact phone number I found online was no longer in use, a further search brought up a different number which worked. The lady who answered, after checking my customer number quickly offered to send me a link to a download for the updated version. She said it would cover the two old installations I have sitting useless on my machine. It didn't, but it seems to work. However, it looks completely different from the version I had. Hmm.....can't remember how I'd managed to keep the old look of the interface. Not to worry, maybe this is a second update of the original I've never had before.

Other minor snags arose too. I'm not too keen to have those ghost files from my old Windows installation, but they're probably safe enough. Norton found 2 viruses and a trojan on a full system scan, so the ghosts are clean enough, just cluttering up the works. A go around with C.Cleaner doesn't seem to have removed them.

My e-mail program was a licence paid-for version but can't find anybody - any human -to offer information on how to re-access the paid-for version. Screw it! I'll just use my internet provider's clunky e-mail program for a while.

Had enough for now. Back tomorrow, I hope.

Up Computer Creek Without a Paddle (aka Mercury Retrograde?)

As noted in the previous post and comments, I have serious desktop computer issues at present. Issues caused by a particularly virulent strain of malware called "Security Check". There's no way to get into my programs, even using nifty backdoor routes advised by experts. Even rescue discs which involve booting into a different mini-operating system based on Linux fail. It's as though the malware trashed and removed the very guts of my computer.

Ah well - onward and sideways! Attaching my keyboard and mouse to the laptop has enabled me to be a bit less buttery-fingered. I might even carry on blogging, though not quite as frequently.

Mercury Retrograde.....yes! Diane, who commented the other day mentioned it. I hadn't been thinking along those lines myself, but now the matter has raised its tricky head...well...According to most astrologers Mercury Retro periods of around 3 weeks duration are times when our thinking can more easily become muddled, causing the kinds of problems we'd normally quite easily avoid. Also, some astrologers advise, among other things, that it's preferable not to buy electronic devices (computers included) when Mercury appears to be in retrograde motion.

Mercury stations today, 12 March, will appear stand still then back-track until early April. See details on a calendar at Powerful Light.com

I'm not planning to be obsessive about Mercury Retro, but Diane's comment did tend to stop me in my tracks when I was considering ordering an online snip-of-a-deal - new desktop PC with Windows7 installed.

According to astrologers the dates of Mercury's stations are possibly the worst of the lot for general "iffiness". Discretion being the better part of valor, I've decided to wait until after 12 March, at least, before ordering a computer. In a practical, non-astro sense anyway, it will allow time to try to re-format my computer myself or, if impossible, consult our local computer store for their techie's opinion on likely costs, whether the infected computer can be healed, or if it's a hopeless case. Armed with that information, by mid- or late-week I'll feel confident enough to order a new machine, if that's what seems to be the appropriate course. A new machine will have at least year's warranty, so all will not be lost, whatever the outcome of possible foolhardiness.

Light research threw up some articles whose authors present a rather different viewpoint about Mercury Retro periods from the standard textbook view. Here are links to a couple of them, for any passing reader who finds themself feeling hamstrung or hemmed-in by Mercury Retrograde.

http://garystamper.blogspot.com/2011/04/myth-of-mercury-retrograde.html

http://practicalastrology.prettyfedup.com/articles2.htm

Area 51-and-a-Half

Once again my desktop PC has been invaded by some very nasty malware. I cannot even access the internet from it - all programs either wiped or hidden. I have a couple of drafts stored on Blogger - one follows, another to be posted Monday (I hope). After that - well I might be gone for quite some time. I have a horrible feeling my desktop is "compromised". These invasions are happening too frequently to be simply by chance. I have suspicions in several directions. May have to invest in Windows 7 and/or new machine. Windows XP, which I use, is a ten-year old operating system not up to fighting today's geeky cyber criminals.

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Area 51 and a Half

Sun is still travelling through dreamy zodiac sign Pisces and the sign's ruler, foggy, nebulous Neptune has just begun its long transit of the sign - an area in which it feels most "at home"....Neptune in Pisces has a distinct Area 51 feel to it, I reckon. It's the right time to feature a few strange photographs from my husband's collection of vintage "found photographs" at Lost Gallery (link in sidebar) and Flickr. He calls the section from which I borrowed these "Area 51 and a half". Clicking on the photographs should link to their Flickr location. After downloading the chosen few into Blogger draft I noticed that, with a little re-arrangement and a few added captions (different from any added by husband or his Flickr friends) the pictures could tell a story ~~~

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin......

Renowned physicist of the 1950s, Dr Serge Andropov had a secret laboratory where his experiments in 7-Dimensional Travel were proving more successful than he had dared to hope.



A willing volunteers, seeking a bit of fame, and a few dollars pocket money followed his instructions. "Walk towards the light!"




A few reporters had gathered, and were quite ready to snigger at another of the Doc's failed experiments, when.....



The young woman disappeared and almost instantaneously began to re-appear, but in a different setting.....





The doctor fiddled with his controls and the scene changed again.....



and again



But then......



What had gone wrong? And where was Dr. Andropov?



The good doctor was never seen again - except, perhaps, in the 7th Dimension.