http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2004/08.php .
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About a month ago, someone who was angry at me for being happy said, "You always think you have the best of everything -- the
best pets, the best cars, the best house, the best job." At the time, I was shocked and had no response, but I've thought about
it, and now I do. If you want only the best, make the best of whatever you've got.
I am writing this as a long-silent survivor of a very abusive childhood; as a survivor of a brutal beating about a decade ago;
as a person who has spent countless hours listening to other abuse survivors over the past few decades; and as a very recent
eyewitness to an ongoing, extremely abusive series of events. If you ever find yourself in a situation in which there is a clear
abuser and a clear victim, and you refuse to take the victim's side against the abuser, but instead claim that you can understand
and support both the victim and the abuser, then your lack of moral fiber will end up enabling the abuser's continuing
abuse, while multiplying the victim's pain. In my opinion, there are few forms of cowardice that are more despicable.
If you don't follow the advice of experts and switch from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla's
Firefox
browser, then at least follow PC Magazine's advice in their article,
Locking Down Internet Explorer.
With new security holes being discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser every few days, I have eagerly followed the
development of Mozilla's
Firefox
browser for more than a year, waiting for it to be "ready for prime-time." Firefox has won several awards, and is free, open-source,
and packed with many security and convenience features. The current version of Firefox is 0.9.3, so it is still considered a
preview of the upcoming release version 1.0, but it is close enough to being finalized that thousands of people have
already switched from MSIE to Firefox. There are Firefox versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and each
automatically imports your Internet Explorer Favorites, Internet Options, saved passwords, cookies, and other data.
Do yourself a favor and check out Firefox.
This morning, I wrote a very short piece called
Love and Praise.
Yesterday, with his permission, I posted a touching email message that I had received from a person who had identified himself as Fima Fimovich. Late last night, I did an online search for Fima Fimovich and discovered that he had used that same name -- and the same email address that he had used to correspond with me -- to post the exact same message on several other Web sites last month. That discovery suddenly made me feel that I had been wrong to allow him use my Web site to publicly plead his criminal case, so I deleted his email message from this site.
In the past 24 hours, more than 2,000 people visited this site, and many sent me wonderful email messages. My sincere
thanks to all of you. You're the reason I created this site, and it's always a pleasure to hear from you.
Thinking of downloading and installing the newly released, 80-270MB Windows XP SP2 upgrade? Find out why CNET and Fred Langa both say you should wait.
Regular readers of this Journal may recall all the trouble that one of my favorite cousins had a few months ago, when the CoolWebSearch browser hijacker/trojan completely took over her home computer. On that same topic, today, I received an email message from a person who identified himself as Fima Fimovich, telling me that a browser hijacker on his computer forced him to plead guilty to the crime of possession of child pornography. I do not know Fima Fimovich, and I have no way to verify if that is even the real name of the person who wrote to me, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy or validity of his statements, but his email message touched me, so with his permission, I have reprinted Fima Fimovich's email message (DELETED - see August 17 Journal entry).
Welcome,
LangaList newsletter readers! I hope you enjoy my site.
Take your time, and come back often -- there are hundreds of things to see here. And don't forget to register for my free
forums.
Here's what you can do
to help the survivors of Hurricane Charley.
The aftermath
of Hurricane Charley.
We dodged a huge bullet today. After creeping due north for several hours, on a path that would have ravaged most of
the Gulf Coast, and after strengthening to
Category 4 severity,
Hurricane Charley
veered slightly northeast early this afternoon, causing it to completely miss us. As of this writing, it is still a Category 4 hurricane, heading
toward Kissimmee (Disney World) and Orlando, in the middle of the state. Authorities have rescinded our area's evacuation orders,
and evacuated residents are already returning to their homes. I thank God that Hurricane Charley missed us, but I'm sorry that
our very good news turned out to be very bad news for others.
Darrell finished working on our dream house this afternoon, and we're very happy with his work. Now all I'll have to do is paint the whole house some time this coming Fall, and then we should be able to enjoy living in it for many years without any major problems.
Hurricane Charley is expected to arrive here tomorrow. Nearly 1 million people -- including tourists, those who live on the
coastal islands and mainland beaches, those who live in low-lying areas, and those who live in mobile homes -- have been ordered
to evacuate the area immediately, making this the area's largest evacuation in history. Hurricane Charley is expected to be the
worst storm to hit this area in the past 83 years. All of the highways heading east are jam-packed with cars, and the authorities
have asked that everyone avoid using their telephones, to keep the lines free for emergency calls. Our dream home is in a higher,
non-evacuation zone, so we'll be staying home during
the hurricane, which is expected to bring 6-10 inches of rain, winds of 70-135 miles per hour, and many tornadoes. It may be a
few days before I'll be able to post here again. Please pray for everyone in Charley's path.
Our good friend and professional handyman, Darrell, has been working on our dream house for the past few weeks, replacing the beam and posts that hold up the front porch, prepping and painting a ceiling, installing a bathroom light/fan, replacing several areas of roof beams, soffit, and fascia that had rotted because of the old, leaky roof, and doing several other jobs. He doesn't work cheap, but he's honest and he does great work. I really like the way he works on our house as though he's working on his own house, carefully rebuilding and repairing things as good or better than when they were new.
There are many, many advantages -- but also a few disadvantages -- to living on the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State. Several
days ago, while driving down the coast with my parents, we passed a woman who I would guess was in her mid-to-late
sixties, walking down the sidewalk away from us. She was wearing a long shirt whose tails hung down low behind her, but not low
enough to hide the fact that she wasn't wearing any pants, bathing suit, or underwear. Luckily, we passed her and she was out of
sight in a second. Unfortunately, the image of her is still burned into my brain.
Your private email messages may not be as private as you think. The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that it is legal for your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to read and copy your email messages for commercial gain.
If you're looking for a little humor, see how many of the following bits of wisdom apply to you:
You know you're a redneck if... and
You're a redneck if....
Some time during your life, you may be required to help someone that you dearly love in very difficult ways that will cause
them to hate you. Or maybe they will hate you after you protect someone else from their abusive behavior. Or maybe they will hate
you because they are suffering from a mental illness. If any of those things ever happen to you, all you can do is base your
decisions on the best information that you have at the time. Don't take the hatred into your heart; instead, reply to hatred
with love. Allow yourself to grieve for the loss of your relationship. Get moral and spiritual support from others who love you.
And pray for wisdom, patience, and strength.