“All Time Is Now”

Volume 7:  Issue: 6 – November, 2009

Oh my! What a summer!  My husband had been out of work for approximately 5 months with no real encouraging news. When I told him, if it helps to relocate I do not have a problem with that. We had no family (ok, my parents are buried in Wisconsin, but that was by happenstance.) When he opened up the area to practically anywhere although focused more on the Midwest, so did the employment opportunities. Although it took another 2 months to finally get a job, he did and we moved to Nebraska.

I stayed behind while he looked for a house and packed up our house in Wisconsin. (Where does all the stuff come from? I swear! I think people ought to move at least every five years, just to keep the stuff from accumulating!) This was the longest we had ever lived in one place. Over 10 years! (I can hardly believe it was that long either!)

So, I have been incommunicado for a while. I have had to set limits for myself online as I’m trying to set up the house; which isn’t easy as there is still one more truck coming…

I think the dogs love their backyard. I think they will love it even more when we get a fence up. Since it is a corner lot they have lots of yard now.  Funny how things change with time – I remember when years ago my husband said he didn’t like corner lots.

This morning when I was reading my email, I came across one from the file storage place I use and went to my desktop to remove the shortcut icon. Well, the next thing I know, my firewall is asking if it’s okay to download a file, I’m telling it to block and the next thing you know I have a piece of malicious code installed in spite of my firewall! Talk about angry and no one to yell at!

That is the purpose of this entry – to inform you if you have been lucky enough to escape it thus far, what it is and what to do if you run across it.

It is called Cyber Security.  From  StopZilla:  It was identified October 9, 2009. Cyber Security uses highly aggressive marketing tactics such as system tray security alerts, pop-ups and bogus system scans containing false results. All of which are designed to entice the user to purchase the full version of Cyber Security. I just want to add these things will put files on your computer, and shortcuts you don’t authorize on your desktop.  Even the “Add/Remove” control panel wouldn’t get it off.

(Information from   2-Viruses.com )

Cyber Security is a rogue anti-spyware program and appears to be a clone of the highly popular System Security and Total Security. This parasite usually spreads by using browser hijackers to redirect the user to websites hosting fake online system scans and thus tricking him into downloading the program. While this method is by far the most common, rogues such as this have been known to infect the system by using downloader trojans. Cyber Security relies on misleading advertising to sell it’s so-called “licensed version” – this rogue is so convincing, that there is almost an equal number of queries asking for the “activation code” of Cyber Security, rather than its removal instructions. (Fortunately my firewall was able to stop the link to the page…I just kept getting a notice that either I wasn’t connected to the internet or that the site was unavailable.)

Once inside and active, Cyber Security will flood the user with popups and fake system notifications, supposedly to inform him of an infection or multiple infections present on the system. These claims are reinforced with fake system scans, which mark harmless files as threats, or names non-existent threats altogether. In order to remove these non-existent threats, the user is urged to purchase the “licensed version” of Cyber Security, which costs $59.95 – a price high even for decent security software.

Of all the tactics Cyber Security uses to get users to buy it’s full version, the most brazenly insolent has got to be a screen saver, which creates the illusion that Windows has crashed with a Blue Screen of Death, followed by a reboot and a message urging to purchase Cyber Security so as to protect the system. The Blue Screen contains the following message:

“***STOP: 0×000000D1 (0×00000000, 0xF73120AE, 0xC0000008, 0xC0000000)
A spyware application has been detected and Windows has been shut down to
prevent damage to your computer
SPYWARE.MONSTER.FX_WILD_0×00000000
If this is the first time you’ve seen this Stop error screen, restart your
computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check to make sure your antivirus software is properly installed. If this is a
new installation, ask your software manufacturer for any antivirus updates
you might need.
Windows detected unregistered version of %product% protection on your computer.
If problems continue, please activate your antivirus software to prevent computer
damage and data loss.
*** SRV.SYS – Address F73120AE base at C00000000, DateStamp 36b072a3
Beginning dump of physical memory…”

Cyber Security will also install a browser helper object (BHO), which hijacks the browser to display a screen claiming that the website the user has been browsing is unsafe, and that security software is recommended to continue.

There are many self-defense mechanisms, which hamper the user’s efforts to get rid of Cyber Security. These include blocking anti-virus/anti-spyware programs from installing and/or running, disabling system restore, disabling Task Manager, changing browser options, and so on.

This program is a scam and should be treated as such: do NOT download or buy it and remove Cyber Security immediately upon detection. It is an extremely dangerous in that it additionally is a threat to your online security and privacy.
If you decide remove it manually, be extremely careful and know what you are doing. You can permanently damage your system if any mistakes are made in the process of removal because advanced spyware parasites are able to automatically repair themselves if not completely removed.  Manual removal is recommended for experienced users only, such as IT specialists or highly qualified system administrators.  (Nice huh?)

I hope this helps. It certainly made me angry enough to spit nails. Be Alert – We need more Lerts!

Keep smilin’.  May the Creator hold you in the palm of His hand and may you float as a feather upon the breath of the Creator.

“All Time is Now” 

Greetings!

June is nearly over, finally spring arrived in time for Summer in 4 days! June 21: Summer Solstice: 1:46 a.m. EDT – Longest Day of the Year!

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Full Moon and Names:

July 7; Full Buck Moon

Eye to the Sky:

June 2009

Venus reaches its greatest elongation and appears 46 degrees to the right of the rising Sun in the predawn sky on the 5th. The planet loses nearly half its brilliance this month, fading from -4.7 to a “merely brilliant” magnitude -4.2. It sidles close to Mars as the two cross into Aries and spend the month together in the east an hour before dawn. On the 19th, the pair, Earth’s two closest neighbors, hover beneath the crescent Moon. Saturn remains nicely up until midnight. On the 23rd, Pluto reaches opposition. After angling from Serpens through Ophiuchus during the past year, it has entered Sagittarius, its new home until the year 2025. Summer begins with the solstice on the 21st, at 1:46 A.M.

July 2009

In the predawn east, Venus in Taurus is just below Mars on the 1st; the Red Planet gets higher above Venus as the month progresses. Venus hovers near the waning crescent Moon on the 19th. In the more convenient evening hours, Jupiter rises just as Saturn is about to set, at around 10:30 P.M. at midmonth. The closest Moon of the year occurs on the 21st, as does the longest solar eclipse of the century, a 6.7-minute totality that sweeps over India during its monsoon season before traversing China and entering the Pacific at Shanghai. Earth reaches aphelion, its annual position farthest from the Sun, on the 3rd.

Special thanks to the Old Farmers Almanac!

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This ’N That

Well, a lot has been happening this month! The flurry of nest building and mating is being replaced by the whirlwind of feeding and teaching the young.  I’ve not been quite as ‘aware’ of the noise coming from the wetlands, I don’t know if that is because I’ve been talking to the dogs or what.

I’ve as well started a blog at http://yogiandbellasjourney.wordpress.com  It is an online journal of  Yogi and Bella settling in with us. I hope that I can at least post once a week.

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Links:

A F*re*e flash website: http://www.wix.com

Send a photo or audio postcard for no money to your friends: http://www.postcard.fm

Use your voice, email, instant messaging, or text messaging. No other memory tool makes it as easy to capture, retrieve, and share ideas and things you need to do—anywhere, anytime. https://www.reqall.com/

A website that I believe claims to have over 5,000 pages! Truly a wonderful site to relax and have a laugh or two, or three. (IMHO) http://www.zyra.org.uk/ I love the sense of humour!

Then here is a picture that I stumbled upon while at work..it struck me so funny, I nearly had an accident.

 I think that about wraps it up for this time. Until next time, keep smilin’!

May the Creator hold you in the palm of His hand and may you float as a feather upon the breath of the Creator.

The old drive in movie theatres are finding a new lease on life!  These wonderful icons of American history are making a come-back but wearing a different name. Church!

In Florida there is a Drive-In Christian Church and what a marvelous idea! The movie screen has been taken down, and the speakers are still there as is the concession stand. But what about fellowship and human connection? Well, just go to the concession stand either before or after church and get a cup of coffee or a doughnut and you’ll be able to put a name and face to the make and model!

Perhaps some purists think that there needs to be a building to congregate or qualify as a church. But I have to ask…how was worship “done” in times long ago?

Well, depending on how far back in history you wish to go…there is Stonehenge, the Roman plazas, and church by the seashore… But there are cars! What about the cars? Well, if you look back it probably wasn’t that strange to have the mode of transportation of the day nearby, whether it was oxen-cart, donkey or nowadays, automobiles…

If you really want to get in touch with the spiritual, what better way to do it than in the beautiful cathedrals of pine forests, old wooded clearings, sunny meadow, or even beside a beautiful brook. Those are the places that are sacred by the very fact that they were not made by human hands. It is their very nature to be sacred. So the next time you are out in nature, whether you are taking a stroll along a stream or in a National Park, please remember, you are walking in the largest cathedral there is; treat it with reverence and gratitude and you will find blessings flow to you unemcumbered by brick and mortar.

Have a blessed day.

This video was created for AARP and placed second. Powerful yet elegant in it’s simplicity.

“All Time is Now”

 Greetings!

Yes, Turtle Time is evolving yet again!  So what is going to be new?

My plans for Turtle Time:

• Regular Posting! (Yes, I know, it’s very scarey!)
• Shift of focus: More focus on more diverse topics.
• Reviews of products, etc. that I think are useful and/or interesting.
• More interactivity (web 2.0) such as polls, etc.

As always, your input and comments are invaluable in helping me know what you are interested in hearing/ reading about.

The format will change a bit…this blog has been around in one form or another for 7 years. (Really? )

So, without further ado….

Let’s take a look at the date for the next full moon and the name for this moon:

June 7, 2009: Full Strawberry Moon. 

As we cast our eyes to the skies here is what they can tell us:

June 2009

Venus reaches its greatest elongation and appears 46 degrees to the right of the rising Sun in the predawn sky on the 5th. The planet loses nearly half its brilliance this month, fading from -4.7 to a “merely brilliant” magnitude -4.2. It sidles close to Mars as the two cross into Aries and spend the month together in the east an hour before dawn. On the 19th, the pair, Earth’s two closest neighbors, hover beneath the crescent Moon. Saturn remains nicely up until midnight. On the 23rd, Pluto reaches opposition. After angling from Serpens through Ophiuchus during the past year, it has entered Sagittarius, its new home until the year 2025. Summer begins with the solstice on the 21st, at 1:46 A.M.

We are also in for a couple of eclipses during July!

July 7: Penumbral eclipse of the Moon. This eclipse will be fully visible from western and central parts of North America as well as Alaska and Hawaii. The Moon enters penumbra at 1:33 A.M. PDT and leaves penumbra at 3:44 A.M. PDT. The eclipse will be visible from the East Coast as the Moon sets.

July 21-22: Total eclipse of the Sun. This eclipse will not be visible from North America. However, a very small partial eclipse of the Sun will be visible from Hawaii on July 21 at around 5:49 P.M. HAST. (The total eclipse will be visible from India and China. The maximum duration of totality will be 6.7 minutes, making this the longest total eclipse that will occur in the 21st century.)

Special Thanks to The Old Farmers’ Almanac

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Wonderful flash movie…I hope you enjoy it. 

“All Time is Now”

Greetings!

My goodness, the time flies when you are busy digging out of the snow! I’m like a piece of toast….”turn me over, I’m done!” I am r-e-a-dy for Spring!

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. We took a much needed and long overdue vacation. We went to Utah and met some cyber friends and adopted two dogs from Best Friends in Kanab. Yogi and Bella (she was known to them as Della, but I had a mental block on that so she became Bella, because she is pretty.)

For years we had only had purebred dogs. When I saw DogTown on PBS I looked them up on the web. I found Yogi and was able to sponsor him. I am convinced that Bella was there specifically for us. She had just come to Best Friends about the day before we arrived in Utah. We both fell immediately in love with her. Yes, Yogi has some problems, but we just have to work a little harder to help him get over them.  If you are considering bringing in a four legged family member into your home, please consider adoption. The animals at your local shelter are hoping to beat the clock and waiting for their forever home. Please always remember, it is Teach and Train, not punish and blame.

Full Moon: March 10: Full Worm Moon. At the time of this spring Moon, the ground begins to soften and earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of robins. This is also known as the Sap Moon, as it marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins.

Watching the Skies in March: 2009:

Saturn comes closest to Earth on the 8th. In Leo at magnitude 0.7, Saturn produces its faintest opposition since 1997, with its rings nearly edgewise. Venus starts March like a lion at a brilliant magnitude -4.8 but ends the month like a lamb, losing half its brightness and vanishing into the sunset. It passes far north of the Sun in its conjunction on the 27th, and it can be glimpsed on the 25th and 26th as both a very low evening star after sunset and a low morning star before sunrise. Also, in the morning sky, Jupiter is near the crescent Moon on the 22nd. Spring begins with the vernal equinox on the 20th at 7:44 A.M.

Watching the Skies in April 2009:

Saturn is now up by nightfall and out nearly all night, in Leo. It meets the Moon on the 6th. Mercury has its best showing of the year from the 10th to the 30th, but it is seven times brighter at the start of this period, at magnitude -1.5, than at the end, at magnitude 0.7. It is best seen 40 minutes after sunset, about 12 degrees above the western horizon. Look for a good conjunction of Venus and the Moon on the 22nd, with dim orange Mars below them and Jupiter well to the upper right. On the 26th, Mercury hovers below the crescent Moon. In the predawn sky, Venus, in Pisces, emerges and brightens, while Jupiter, in Capricornus, gets higher each morning.

That’s all for now, until later, keep smilin’!

May the Creator hold you in the palm of His hand and may you float as a feather upon the Breath of the Creator.

“All Time Is Now”

Volume 7, Issue 1

Greetings!

Happy New Year and Happy Chinese New Year: the Year of the Ox!

I hope that your holidays went well! I always experience such a ‘let down’ afterward…actually though, I think it’s just the crash after a sugar ‘high’.

I personally just returned from a much needed 10 day vacation. And joy! of Joys! We are getting two new four-legged members to our family! I am so excited!

Those of you in the US, if you have watched National Geographic, there is a show titled, “Dogtown”. The show highlights a large no-kill animal shelter in Utah. A wonderful place! Which is where we visted in January!

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Just a couple of things that might be of interest to you:

From the Old Farmer’s Almanac: Full moon:February 9; called the Full Snow Moon; and 57 days until Spring! (I don’t know about you but I am ready for Spring!) It’s was frigid here last weekend! Anything below zero degrees is extraneous in my opinion!

January 26, 2009: Chinese New Year: the Lunar year of the Ox!

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As for some interesting links:

Convert your proper English into chat speak of a 12-year-old with this chat-speak generator:
http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html

 Reverse Speech is said to reveal the truth that people believe, regardless of what they are saying:

http://www.thehiddenlanguage.com/pages/proveit.htm

Another really wonderful resource that I personally like and use:

reQall:  http://www.reqall.com/

The following is from their website: reQall is the best memory tool you may ever have, connecting all the ways you communicate in one easy-to-use reminder system. Use it on the web (no software to install!) or download it into youriPhone or BlackBerry smartphone.

Check out how reQall integrate with the technologies you’re already using, from cell phone to web browser, and instant messaging to news feeds. By integrating voice input, speech-to-text transcription, automatic organization and multi-platform reminders, re!all goes beyond typical to-do and reminder applications.

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To read more about the Chinese New Year:  http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html

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That’s all for this time…keep smilin’! May the Creator hold you in the palm of His hand and May you float as a feather upon the Breath of the Creator.