Today was busy! My son and I made the trip to Yreka again to exchange the Play Station 2 at Walmart. They were so nice about it! They just checked the warranty by phoning in the serial number on the back of our broken Play Station. We bought it on Feb. 11, 2003 so the warranty allowed us to get an exchange. Now Aaron is back home happily playing his new game again.

My daughter had a virus on her computer! It was called "MusicSearch". She ran the AVG virus scanner as always and got a message saying the virus couldn't be removed... so I went in there (her bedroom) to fix it. I was shocked to discover she'd actually had 29 viruses in the last month! On one day alone it was 14 virus files! Compare that to my ONE virus that was healed by AVG without me even knowing about it. Anyhow, I did the research and discovered that MusicSearch is a trojan horse virus that can be difficult to remove. From DOS I could see the file but couldn't delete it. AVG couldn't delete it either. Finally I discovered a fix for it. The fix is to get a program called Anti-Trojan - you can download a trial version to use for 14 days. After finding out the virus file name from AVG, you can go to options on Anti-Trojan, click on 'process viewer' and then on 'start plugin'. Scroll to the bottom of the list, find the virus file name, and 'terminate'. I tried it thanks to Lauryn at The-Protagonist.Com... and it worked for me! Now my daughter's computer is virus-free again. ((I wonder how long that will last. I suggested she change her internet habits!))

I'm so happy to be home after that long drive. Once again I had to stop and sleep on the way home. Aaron didn't have much patience for this, but I did get enough rest to get us home safely. Now I'm listening to George Noory on Coast to Coast AM, my favorite talk radio show as anyone who reads my blog by the same name surely knows.

Well, back to work. I have a job to do tonight before I sleep.

I got up early to make sure my daughter got to her blood test. She's 13, so we tried something new. I let her walk there by herself from school (which is next-door to the clinic). The premise was that my daughter might take the experience better if she was trying to be mature and doing it on her own. So about 9:45 the nurse practitioner phoned me to say it wasn't working perfectly... but I talked to my daughter on the phone and encouraged her to just look the other way and relax and she'd be through it in no time. It worked! Later she said it didn't hurt so much after all.

After that I got back into my nice purple bed and went back to sleep. I didn't want to get out of those new sheets today!

My son's playstation two is already toasted. We got it less than 2 months ago so its still under warranty and we can get it replaced. As you can imagine this vital equipment failure caused a big stir in the house. He was playing a new game and suddenly it just quit working. Very annoying. I can identify - when my computers fail I go berserk and have to force myself to be calm and patient as I take the steps to repair them. Hmmm.. playstation 2 - 2 hundred bucks - 2 months. Hmmm.

Speaking of vital equipment failure, I sure feel sorry for the people in Baghdad whose electricity is out. We had a three day electricity failure last winter. It was awful. I'll bet those people are in major distress right now. I hope and pray the torment of the Iraqui people will be over soon.

My daughter says she had a great day despite the blood testing. She got third prize on her science fair project, and tonight at the open house got her report card with three A's - and she made honor roll for the first time. Her three A's were in reading, social studies and science. Plus she was happy that she'd done so well at getting along with people. I'm glad she considered that one of the best parts of her day. Tonight she attended the spaghetti dinner at her school and a basketball game, on her own. I'm glad to see her moving into the teenage years and getting more independent.

We just got home from a drive to Yreka. Aaron was with me this time. I paid for my business license for Klamath Design and got some other errands done, plus did some shopping at Walmart.

Finally I got a nice sheet/comforter set. It may not seem like a lot to many of you, but this is the kind of thing I make myself do without until the situation is desperate. I've been using a heavy sleeping bag that I bought 3 years ago (while I was between homes) for a bed spread all this time....However it has shredded and at this time is in such bad condition I was questioning the wisdom of ever washing it again as all the filling will come out. So it was time. I got a nice purple comforter and matching sheet set. Now I feel so much better whenever I look inside my bedroom.

I cannot believe I did this stupid thing. A message board I use has a webdesign forum where one of the regulars recommended a webhosting service that charges only two dollars each month. On a lark I decided I'd sign up for one of their hosting packages to see how it was. Well... after I signed up I got a nice welcome letter saying they're in Istanbul, Turkey! I started getting a queasy feeling about that. Now, I love Middle Eastern people but I happen to know we Americans are really unpopular in that area of the world right now (with good reason).

I went back to the site and checked it out more and saw that the order form wasn't even secure. That's when I was starting to panic. Plus when I uploaded my site the SSI didn't work... anyhow, it was all bad even though the people who own the service may be very sincere and good (I don't know). I decided to cancel the hosting service. They did get their first and only 2 dollar payment - but that's all. I feel sad that I don't feel comfortable doing business out of the country right now, but the lack of a secure server for the credit card processing was the final straw. So now I have no credit card number because I put a hold on it to protect my money - it was my only one... but I'll get a new number in a week or two. All my other site hosting contacts who I owe money to were very nice about it and don't mind me waiting to pay or paying by mail.

I guess I'll put that site at RTS Hosting instead. The lady who runs that has a super-cheap option... and she's very responsive to my emails which is really a good sign. Of course, the guy in Turkey was nice about that too. ::sigh::

Now I'm having a hard time getting these blogspot pages to display. This is utterly weird. The background graphic shows, the ad at the top shows... but all the text on the page is gone! I'm going to move to a hosting service this month... there's no better solution.

Last night I consulted the I-Ching for insight into my free-floating feelings of distress. Not just war distress, but in-general... distress. I realized I'm overextended with projects that are keeping me from the things I really want to do.

What I want to do: develop my creative side. develop my business.

What I don't want to do: advocacy and mailing lists.

So I did it - I deleted almost all my mailing lists except the ones I own and the ones that concern my business or creative interests. I kept only a couple small activism lists (I can't go 100% inactive but for now this is much better!). I also left a message at Fight CPS And Win (my main activism site) that I will no longer be available for consultations. I've got a list of mailing lists people can sign onto for help and support.

So.. now I'm free of that! YAY. Hopefully I'll have no good reason to go back to it though since I've lived here in Siskiyou County the CPS agent has been harassing me and threatening my family. Apparently he's fascinated by my activism. Well I have this to say to him: If you don't like freedom of speech, MOVE TO IRAQ buddy. I lived nearly ten years in the SF Bay Area with no CPS referrals and then FIVE false or totally trivial accusations have been hurled at me by CPS agents in this county in a mere three years. Just an example of why this agency needs to have its wings clipped.

Sorry for the diatribe. You see why I'm editor of Parent News - this is one subject that really turns on my writing, and THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD. I truly believe that and I'm proud to be an activist and a writer.

I'm having trouble getting the archives to work on the blogspot site and can't get my pages linked up any time soon... so if you want to see something that doesn't work on this new site please go back to the old site for that.

I heard from my oldest daughter - she's doing just fine... working and all. My oldest son is still a mystery.

I've had problems uploading my blog into my ISP FTP space so I'm moving this blog and a few others to blogspot... so now there's an ad at the top. Oh well... If I ever get hosting for my www.lindajomartin.com website I'll move them there.

I just worked most of the night doing a web maintenance job. It felt good to work so many hours... but I still didn't get it all done. I've got one more page to create, and a flash movie (a simple one). Problem is I realized I've forgotten how to use flash because its been so long since I did it. I can't justify retraining myself on my client's time so I'm going to go through the tutorial again tomorrow, then do her movie. Maybe someday I'll learn this well enough that I won't have to constantly look at the help files.

I think my youngest daughter is getting interested in making graphics so I'm planning on putting a good paint program on her computer. She's also recently discovered AOL (yes I know, how awful..) where she enjoys message boards and a few new IM friends.

I keep telling her about how dangerous predators on the internet are. I put the news article about the Michigan girl on our hallway wall so she'd read it (and she did).. the girl was traisping around Northern California with an aging ex-convict murderer! Fortunately he didn't murder her and she was found a few days ago - in Lassen County, I think... and that's very close to where we live.

Someone noticed him because he had a nice newish white truck that he'd spray-painted black!... it looked like a cheap paint job and who would do that to a nearly new vehicle anyhow?

The war in Iraq has really got me down these days. I was listening to a radio talk show earlier about stress caused by addiction to watching tv war coverage. Strangely - I was listening to this because I realized I was so stressed out I couldn't see straight anymore (thus trying to revise a novel or work on a website was useless) so I went to my bedroom and lay down for a stress break.. that's when Keith (who is addicted to talk radio) put on this radio show that was describing exactly what I was going through!

::Sigh:: War is hell.

This week I discovered a few sites about labrynths. It all started when I was looking at a photograph on the Coast to Coast AM website that shows a fairy. Of course the kids and I were discussing which of us believes its a real fairy... when I noticed the link to the Whispering Grove website. Now I'm hooked. I want a labrynth! I found one site that lists locations of labrynths all over the USA and there's actually one not far from us... just north-east of Weed at the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden. We went there a few times a few years ago but I never noticed a labrynth. Maybe it wasn't there then.

It seems like weeks since I've heard from my oldest daughter and much longer since I've heard from my oldest son. Is it just me or are others having trouble keeping in touch with their adult children? I missed so much of my daughters' childhoods. Being separated from them is the real tragedy of my life. It doesn't get much better just because we're all older, and I don't understand why my children aren't answering my emails. My son's computer has been unstable but still, something doesn't seem right. Maybe part of this is my distress over the war affecting my peace of mind in all areas of life.

I've been working on my new business, Klamath Design, part-time. I'm about to start advertising and making this a regular full-time business. I know there's enough business out there and I've worked hard to make my webdesigns better during the last year. The main reason why I'm keeping this Linda's Life site as-is --- is because I love that Cassat painting. :) Redesigning this page is real low on my list of prioritites.

This last month I worked on a short story for my local writers club and it turned out better than I expected. 1900 words. It is like a fantasy (paranormal?) folk-tale of the miners and Karuks here in the Klamath River Valley 150 years ago... fun to write and read. I read it to the writers club last Wednesday and they liked it!! I'm apparently the only fiction writer there but they put up with me.

Last week Dr. Matthew Johnson of Grant's Pass was on the Coast to Coast AM radio talk show with George Noory. Dr. Johnson is the psychologist who was walking throught the woods near Oregon Caves on July 1, 2000 with his family - and had a bigfoot sighting. You can read all about it on his website: Sasquatch Site. We went to Oregon Caves on my son's birthday that year, exactly one month to the day from the time Dr. Johnson had his sighting... but didn't take a walk in the woods. That's only about 50 miles from where I live.

Guess I'd better get back to work. I've been working at night again lately so I can get more done without distractions from the family.

A study says: Neanderthals, humans didn't mix

Hold the press... this article says there's no evidence. Not that it couldn't have happened.. but that we just don't know whether any of my ancestors were Neanderthal.

There is no convincing evidence, says Richard G. Klein of Stanford University, that Neanderthals and modern humans ever mixed in substantial numbers, which means that when the Neanderthals died out, so did their genes.

NO it doesn't mean that. Just because there's no evidence doesn't mean that they definitely died out taking their genes with them. All it really means is that we just don't know. People should be careful not to read too much into a lack of evidence.

I have no idea why this means so much to me.