A Colourful New Keyboard

Mark gave me a keyboard to use. It was his old one that he no longer needs but it lights up the keys and you can change the colours. I am still getting used to typing on it. It takes a little bit more effort to press the keys. No more 'touch' typing for me ☺ But at least I can change all the colours if I want to (~_0) 

RIP Isis

My computer, Isis, is dead. Well it got stuck in a boot loop and when I tried to fix it she was stuck on the start up screen. I am so not happy :( My computer had been playing up for a while and Mark wanted to reinstall windows and he did say that my computer should be the next one to be upgraded.

Mark and I looked on ebay to find a replacement. Thankfully we managed to find one that was in my price range. We are just waiting to hear back from the seller to get the final total so I can pay for the computer and a copy of Windows 7.

I am just grateful that I have a netbook to use while I wait for my replacement. Hopefully it will arrive by the end of the week. Cross your fingers and toes for me.

I Bought A New Game For My Computer

I bought myself a new game for the computer yesterday. It's called Cradle of Rome. It's a puzzle game kind of like Bejeweled but you get to create the Roman Empire depending on how much stuff you collect during the game. You can play it online of Facebook or at BigFish games. I'm kind of hooked on it at the moment. At least I am giving my arm a rest from crocheting when I am l\playing this. Not that I have picked up a hook for a week or so (o_0) my arm has been a bit sore and I don't want to aggravate it.

I'm off to play some more before I need to start dinner ...

Not happy Jan

My computer has decided to have a 'red' screen of death. Both screens turned red and everything froze. I thought I would reboot to see if that would fix it. It did temporarily but happened again shortly afterwards. Now the darned thing wont boot up at all :(

I haven't visited any new websites so I don't think I picked up a virus. The only 'new' thing that happened was a java update.

I guess the only thing to do now is reinstall Windows 7. Not happy! I will lose all my latest emails :( that will teach me not to back up incredimail more often *sigh*

Btw in case you are wondering how I posted this I used my phone. Thank goodness that's reliable. I guess I use the netbook until my desktop is set up properly.

Day Trip To Hastings

Last week Mark, Angus & I went for a drive to Hastings (its about 80km [that's 50 miles] from our home) so that Mark could pick up a part for one of his laptops. Would you believe he has at least 4 of them? Don't ask it gets complicated but let's just say that he uses at least one of them for the ham radio. I told you that he's a ham radio operator didn't I? He has his foundation license.

 Hastings is on the Mornington Peninsula. It's really quite pretty there. Even though I took my camera we didn't really get out the car and take a bit of a tour. Which is a shame really because I wanted proof that I actually went there so I could do a blog post!

We did however get to see this HUGE thing. I'm not exactly sure if its a wind turbine for generating power like they do on a wind farm. I'm assuming it might be otherwise why else would you put it up? Angus took the photos for me. They're the only ones that were actually taken on our little trip.

It was a such a nice day to be out and about. I just hope that if we head that way again we get to spend some time looking around (and taking photos to share).

My Heart Broke A Little On Saturday

Be warned this is a relatively long post for me but I have a lot to write about on this particular topic. So please bear with me. 

You will not believe what has happened this past weekend. In fact I was so shocked on Saturday morning that it has taken me until today to even get my head around what happened. In fact I am sure that even you will be surprised and shocked when you read about it.  I've warned the boys that anything that happens in this house is fair game for a blog post. I don't think they believed me when I reminded them of this .. So here's what happened...

I woke up at around 6:40am Saturday morning when I heard Mark talking with Angus in the lounge/dining/computer room about how Angus had gone over the limit with his internet allowance.

We've got our home network set up via a Smoothwall (it's a computer that our internet connection gets plugged into that we access so we can get on the web, it's also a firewall that protects our home network). Smoothie lets us track how much bandwidth individual people use. It does other stuff too but I wont go into that its a bit complicated. Any way we have allowed 20GB per person each month. If the boys exceed their limit they need to negotiate with us to be given more. That basically means I make them a slave for a while and get some much needed (cleaning) jobs done & they get more data allowance.

What our bandwidth looks like so far for this month.
Click on the photo if you wish to see it better.

Mark had asked Angus what he had done online to have used up all of his bandwidth in such a short time. Of course Angus used the usual "I don't know" response. It's something the boys say often and its usually a cop out. They think by saying that it will get them out of trouble - it doesn't btw it only makes us more annoyed. You think they would have learned by now not to say it. Then he said he had been playing one of his shooting games online with friends. Call of Duty or something like that.

So Mark gets Angus to give him his laptop & he goes through the programs to see what on earth used up all of that bandwidth. The first surprise was a bit torrent (wiki) client was running. For those who don't know what that is it's where you can download programs, movies, music etc from other peoples computers. Basically its a file sharer. Problem is a lot of copyrighted stuff gets shared illegally through them and we do NOT condone that sort of thing on our network. BUSTED! Not only that Angus had illegal software on his machine! He lost all of them!

The next surprise was when Mark checked the netbook (which Angus uses for school work only) and found Skype on it. Angus quickly stated that the school had installed it this time and he only activated it the other day. Angus new that he wasn't allowed to have it. He was reminded a few weeks ago when he had been to his besties house and downloaded it there. It was uninstalled. Angus then installed Skype on his netbook a day or so after we had gotten Angus to get rid from his laptop.  BIG mistake!!
I mentioned in a post a while ago how Skype servers detect what type of internet connection you have and if you have a pretty good internet connection it uses your connection (and bandwidth) as a super-node. So it chews up your data allowance. When we found that out Skype was banned from our network.

The final surprise that is the most shocking of all. I cried when I heard it. Its something that I wont forgive or forget very easily. My 15 year old son had PORN on his computer. Yep PORN!! He had it hidden in folders on his laptop and on his memory sticks. He said that he got it from friends. He probably even downloaded it himself. I'm in two minds as to whether I should dob him in to the school or not as I have no idea if the kids involved swapped all this stuff whilst at school or at each others homes. He will most likely lose his job as an IT Captain if we do. 

I thought this child was still innocent. Still a good boy. Still following the beliefs that we had taught him. Choosing The Right. My heart died a little on Saturday morning. My baby has now LOST our TRUST.

Angus has now lost all internet privileges for the rest of this month. He has lost administration privileges on his computer. If he wants to have any new programs installed he needs to ASK Mark for permission. If Mark deems that the program is a legal copy then he might consider installing it for him.
Angus will also be subject to weekly and random searches of his laptop, netbook and memory sticks.

I am wondering if we have given him enough 'punishment' or if we should be a little bit harder on him. Angus knows he has to do as he's told pretty much straight away. He also knows that he WILL have to EARN my TRUST again. It will take a bit of convincing to get that back.

Wish Me Luck

I'm finally ditching XP and installing Windows 7. If you don't hear from me for a few days you know I messed up and Mark had to fix things (he said he would put Linux on my machine). 

Wish me luck! Cross your fingers and toes ... here goes nothing!

See you on the flip side!

It's HUGE!

I have a brand new monitor =)

Mark had organised this back in December and we had it on lay-by but with everything that has happened to us over the past few months with things needing to be replaces like the vacuum cleaner, Emi's new engine it got put on the back burner, Angus's glasses [which are still on lay-by]. I finally got around to collecting it today.

OMGosh it is HUGE! We have had to move stuff around a bit on the desk to fit it. Yes I use two monitors. [Its called dual head and you would be surprised at how many people think I have two computers running]. Yes I am a computer geek! Mark was trying to convince to have three monitors but I said no. Although we don't have a home for my old monitor ... not yet but I am sure Mark will find a good home for it in his shed.

If you wish to know how big the monitor is .. its a 23 inch wide-screen. I LOVE it! Although I have noticed one thing. Websites are NOT designed for wide-screens. There is far too much real estate going to waste. That being said however I am sure that if it was filled with stuff it would most likely be those annoying ads that we tend to ignore.

I am sure it wont take me too long to get used to it =)

Who's That Knocking At My Door?

It was the postman! YAY for the postie & YAY for the parcels that he delivers!! I hadn't told you about the things that I had ordered over the past few days. You gotta love ebay! Some of the parcels started arriving yesterday.

Our server stopped working properly last week. It didn't recognise that there were two hard drives in it. I can tell you that we were bitterly disappointed because all stuff was stored on it. We didn't lose it all, well we didn't lose much at all really because I am lucky enough to have a 1 TB hard drive on my computer and everything was saved there. I hadn't deleted anything that we had transferred to the server.

Anyway, I bought, get this a 2 TB hard drive from ebay last week. It was even cheaper than the 1TB I bought for my computer! Mark started setting up the server again yesterday afternoon. Last night I began to transfer things over to it. Although it is giving me the pips because my computer keeps freezing after a while & I need to restart.

We also had a smoothwall running but we stopped using it due to the fact that it can slow our connection speed. Not only that we were hosting my incredimail website from home & since the server crashed my site was down (and it still currently is down - sorry) Thankfully all of my IMF files are over in my yahoo group for people to snag from there. Only problem with that is there are no previews.

So with our smoothwall (smoothie for short) not in use we no longer had a computer to cache all the sites that we all frequently visited. Which of course meant that our bandwidth usage increased. With this in mind Mark & I decided that it was a good idea to reset smoothie but there was a problem. The CD ROM died. Ebay to the rescue again. I bought one to replace the broken one.

I swear I am honestly getting tired of buying things that keep breaking down. I should just be grateful that I have the funds to do this and that I don't break the budget every week!

Ok, [insert brain freeze] here from getting side-tracked!

Also bought on ebay this past week was an Android Tablet for Brodie. He paid with it with his own money but since I am his 'finance manager' for want of a better term I bought it through my account. Since he isn't very reliable with money (& the fact he is under age) his pay gets placed into my bank account and I keep very detailed records of how his money is spent. Just in case Centrelink ever want to know where his money goes.

Brodie's tablet arrived yesterday and he is over the moon with it. Especially since he has broken his toughbook! Even though his laptop is a toughbook it is NOT Brodie-proof! The inverter has gone kaput so I've had to order a new one for him. Something else from ebay! It's coming from the US so it might a be a while before it gets here.

So you can see that I love my postie for bringing me all of these wonderful things. I'm just hoping that nothing else breaks. Ooops I've probably jinxed myself now.

**using those particular words for the title had me singing the Men At Work song Who Can It Be Now as I typed. I loved that song as a teen :)

One More Day To Go

It's definitely been a killer not having a decent internet connection until after 11pm each night. I've stayed offline as much as possible so that Brodie has the most access at the moment. He becomes extremely unbearable at times when he isn't able to 'talk' with his friends on facebook. Its just easier to let him have his computer time than to cause any problems by saying get OFF the computer!
Thank goodness I only have to wait another 24 hours before everything resets for another month.

I have been making good use of my time away from the computer by watching some shows I had recorded and doing some more knitting. I'm about half way through making another Santa. Not too sure what I will do with this one yet, perhaps post it to my Spirit Sister. I was thinking about all the people who have seen my photos of the other Santa & Mrs Claus that I shared on facebook. A few of them wanted to buy one but I have no idea how much to charge for them if I do sell them. To be honest I would just be happy with the cost of the wool & the filling. I'll have to think about it because I'm not sure if I want to commit to making a lot of them as there have been about 6 requests so far which is an awful lot of knitting & sewing. I don't know. What do you think?

Just In Case I Disappear .. .. ..

Someone hacked into our wireless access on our home network :(

We have a rather generous download allowance of 50 gig per month for peak times and 50 gig for off-peak. I've been checking it regularly over the past few weeks because I knew that with the boys being on school holidays this week & next week we would use a fair chunk of it while they were home.
So last week when I noticed that we only had about 6 gig left I went into our ISP's shop & paid for an extra block of 10gig for our peak times. That was on Wednesday afternoon. I thought cool, that would give us 16 gig until our account resets on the 26th. That should be MORE than enough to cover us.

Oh boy was I WRONG about that! I checked our account on Wednesday night to make sure that the allowance had increased, which it had, but I was almost floored by what I saw. I can check out how much we've used because our ISP lists what we used each day. As I said I was almost floored. Somehow from 10am that morning until about 4pm that afternoon almost 6 gig was used! I don't know how that was possible because there was hardly anyone home during the day. In fact three out of the four of us weren't even home for the most part & Mark was asleep for part of the time and when he was awake he wasn't online.

Anyway, Mark phoned our ISP the next day & queried it. I was hoping it was an error on their end but it wasn't. Mark has now put extra security on the wireless access with a super-duper password that hopefully no one will be able to crack. Since he's done this our downloads have slowed dramatically. I guess that means this 'hacking' has been going on for a while now.

Just so you know, if I disappear before our account resets on Sunday, its because we are on dial-up speeds and I'm having problems waiting for pages to load.

Toughbook Video

Brodie's New ToughBook

Brodie is awfully harsh with his laptop. We are constantly getting things replaced because he's broken them. I can't recall exactly how many things we have had to replace but I do know that we've replaced the hard drive twice already. Last time we purchased a solid state hard drive. With luck he wont ever break this one.

We bought the toughbook off ebay (well Brodie did it is his money). The seller was super fast with delivery & the communication was great (letting us know when it was dispatched & that payment was received etc). The toughbook came with a few bits & pieces like a new battery (well I think it was new) & a copy of XP-pro (not that B will use that much he prefers Linux).

The best thing about the tough book is that we could run it over with the car & it would still work. If liquids got spilled on it that it would continue to work. Its dust proof as well so all the psoriasis flakes shouldn't make a difference to how it functions.

A Little Peeved

I'm just a bit peeved at the moment. I probably shouldn't be but I am. You see I was expecting a Brodie free weekend with him attending a Stake Young Men's Camp with all the Young Men from Church attending. I thought that he was looking forward to going & having loads of fun with everyone there. He knows quite a lot of the kids from when he's gone on other camps with them.

Brodie informed me a short time ago, when I asked him if he had finished packing, that he was NOT going. He couldn't even give me a valid reason as to why he doesn't want to attend. I've got this feeling that he really should go but I don't want to push him and make him do it. I know that there is a real possibility that it could backfire big time and he would lash out at us.

I went and spoke with Mark telling him of Brodie's decision & what I had said to Brodie about his not going. I fully expected Brodie to say that he would rather attend camp when I told him his options. His options were A) to attend the YM camp or B) complete reading his English novel and complete the 3 pages of tasks that he has had ALL holidays (5 weeks so far) to do by Tuesday morning.

Now what kid would honestly choose to do the work?? It seems that Brodie would.
Oh and the other thing that I thought would change his mind .. NO laptop until all of the English work is done!! I told him that the laptop would go into my room until the work is complete.

I guess I made some sort of incentive to get the work done. Brodie is now out of the bedroom (where he has been hibernating since his laptop got fixed) he is OFF the laptop and is actually answering the questions for his assignment. Although he is getting distracted by the TV & the news. At least he is getting the work done & he really only has 1 week left to finish it. School goes back on Feb 1st.

TGIF - or not

It's Friday already. Where has the week gone?? I don't feel like I have done much at all this week. Let's see what did happen this week .. .. ..

Tuesday I took Angus to Jindi so that he could go to camp. I also got my haircut that afternoon. It feels so much lighter than it did before and yay my fringe is shorter I can now see again lol.
Wednesday, what did I do. Mark and I started cleaning up the lounge room & doing a major de clutter. It's looking much better now. Oh and I had to make an extra trip up to the High School because Brodie forgot his medication. At least I think I did that on Wednesday but I'm not 100% sure of that. I did a little bit of grocery shopping.

Yesterday I did a little more shopping. Not much mind you as I am quickly running out of money as I gave Mark some money for an external hard drive that Michele had offered to sell us. It was a bargain buy but it truly has left us rather short this week. I know I should've said no but it's too late to worry about that now.I just hope that there is enough petrol in the car to go up to Jindi later today to get Angus as I don't have much money for fuel at the moment. I'm thinking we might not be going to Church for that very reason.

In about half an hour my visiting teachers will be here so I'd better get off this thing and make sure the place is tidy enough for visitors. I don't want them to think we're slobs!

Quick Notes

• The boys father has been phoning regularly on Sunday afternoons (well two Sundays in a row) the boys have really liked having the chance to talk with him. He often cuts the phone call short which kind of annoys me but as Mark pointed out he is at least contacting them. He's right so I shouldn't complain.
• School is going great for Angus. He's loving his new teacher/principal & the new Arts/Science teacher
• The car is still being naughty. The head gasket has a leak (well we are hoping that that's all it is) and hopefully we will be able to have it repaired. Mark & our neighbour will be doing this so that should save us quite a bit of money
• I'd love to go to applique but with the car like this I don't want to push my luck and have something else go wrong with the car being so far away from home. I don't mind the school run and all but that's about as far as I wish to travel at this stage.
  I guess I should get my act together and do some sewing anyway. I've not really done much since before Christmas. Maybe tomorrow ... .. . or not . .. ...
  
• Mark got me a new monitor for my birthday, which is next week, it's a 17" flat screen. I cannot believe how much difference it's made to the layout of things. It's wonderful! I can see all my IM stats properly and they look even better!! I LOVE IT!!
  
• Speaking of birthdays it's my girl (my great-niece) Lee-Anne's 17th tomorrow!!! I cannot believe how quickly time has gone. I remember the firs time I saw her as a 3 month old. She was adorable then and still is!
  

A Testing Time!!

Today it was just the boys and I at church. Mark was really sore and didn't feel up to going. The little dude was in such a mood that he didn't want to go to his primary class but that was a too bad because I had no intention of leaving early I needed to stay. I needed to be with the sisters and to get that spiritual top up that I knew I needed.

I tell you I am not happy with the big fella though. He can be so reverent when passing out the sacrament that it's almost like he is a different child but afterwards during Sunday school it was another story. He was so loud, obnoxious and he was talking about things that were just NOT appropriate at church or anywhere else for that matter. One of the Bishopric left our Sunday school class and had to talk to him. He was right outside the chapel where my class is held. When class was over I quickly & quietly went and told him that he was awfully loud and that I did not appreciate being in my lesson only to hear his voice booming over the teachers. He apologised but he still wasn't as quiet as he could be.

Then tonight during scriptures he gets up from the table, said something to Mark. I can't even remember what he said to him either. But he said he was running away. I thought he was just after some attention because any attention is better than none at all right? I said to him come on lets just finish reading scriptures and we can talk afterwards. He went off to his room anyway and packed his backpack. I tried to explain to him that it isn't a good idea to leave especially since he needs to take his meds on a regular basis and that if he didn't he would end up having seizures. He went outside and since we only had a couple of verses left we completed reading the scriptures. However on his way out he said you may as well call the police. It was like he was daring me to phone them. By the time I got outside to check on the big fella he was gone!! I had a look down the street and didn't see him. I got in the car and checked a few places where I thought he might go. I came back and checked with a neighbour and they said they saw him walking towards the shops. I get back into the car and continue looking for him this time taking the little dude with me because it was dark and I can't see a thing when I am driving at night. Well I can but I can't see as well as I would like!! We couldn't find him!! I was beginning to wonder if I did the right thing in just looking for him and not contacting the police. The little dude and I came home and I was looking for the phone number for the police station when the big fella walked through the door like nothing had happened. He said you came looking for me but didn't see me. It was dark and there are plenty of shadows for him to hide in!

I honestly still don't know what to do with this boy!! He is sorely testing me and I am failing miserably where he is concerned! I have fasted and prayed and I still am not any closer in know what I can do to make sure he does the right thing.

We have an appointment with GCAMHS in the morning. It was meant to be just for the big fella but I need to tell Cate that the big fella has been suspended from school, she doesn't know about this suspension for pushing the teacher. And I will have to tell her about tonight's escapade.

I know that life isn't meant to be easy but I didn't think it was meant to be this difficult either. I know that Heavenly Father wouldn't make me endure something that I couldn't handle but I honestly don't know if I can cope much longer.

Sorry to drop this all onto you but I need to share. I also need to let you know that Lesley (RS President) spoke to the Bishop for me about getting a referral for a Church Psychologist. She said that the Bishop is working on it. I do hope that we are able to arrange a meeting with him or her soon.

Oh and to top it off I had to re-install windows it wouldn't start up for Mark while I was at church and he tried to repair it before I got home without success. But YAY it's working now I just have to put everything back on it. I am so glad that I backed up some stuff. Too bad I didn't back ALL

Computer Troubles

My goodness .. I thought formatting my computer and reinstalling XP would be easy but NO!!!! Hassle after hassle!! Last night nothing went right and we gave it up as a bad joke. This morning Mark and I ended up driving into Pakenham to a computer wholesaler there and bought an 80 Gig hard drive to replace the 40 I had. Thankfully everything went okay once we got home and put it in its box. I would've screamed if it didn't!! Woohoo 80 Gig to fill up with PSP tubes, filters and graphics!! Yay! A PSPers dream!!

Slowly but surely we're getting things back on Isis! Most of it can wait until tomorrow. Tonight we're concentrating on recovering stuff that was on my other hard drive that went kaput shortly after we moved into our new place. Mark found this neat program and right now we're transferring all the music I had onto a separate drive for storage. I would hate to have lost ALL of the stuff I had.

I am so glad that I had backed up a lot of stuff onto disc, not all of it but a lot of it, and I wont have to download everything again.

OMGosh What A Week!

What an awfully long week this has been. We've finally finished cleaning up the old place yesterday and I am so thankful that I had help from some of the Relief Society Sisters on Friday morning. We were able to clean a lot of the place. Mainly things like washing walls and cupboards. Mark & I did the rest of the place between us and went back yesterday afternoon to shampoo the carpet. I think Dennis & Sandra were impressed as to how clean the place was when we were finished.
Although we haven't completely finished unpacking we've done A LOT and only have a few boxes left to unpack. I think we can relax a bit now at least for a day or so.

In regards to the precious post I made about the dial-up. Thank goodness we only had to put up with that for a day or two. I don't think I can ever live without my ADSL. I've been so spoiled with it that I don't EVER want to go back to anything slower every again!!

On Thursday we finally receive a letter from the psychologist that we took the big fella to for his assessment. Thank goodness to came because I was going to phone her and find out what was going on. Well I did phone actually but there was no answer at the clinic. I guess that was just as well because the assessment report arrived that very same day. It has some recommendations which we will follow up on. I just hope now that we can get more help from the people who didn't believe me before!!
We have an appointment tomorrow for the big fella with GCAMHS. I'm going to take a copy of the assessment report and they can have a look at it. Now they HAVE to believe me!!! Let's hope that they can help!!

Back On Dial-Up & Our Move!

We're back on dial-up!! ARGHHHHH It seems that our ISP and the telephone company cannot get our ADSL working just yet. Well our ISP said that it takes about a week for Telstra to 'flick' the switch to get our phone line enabled. I don't know if I can live with dial-up again after having adsl for 8 months!! It's a huge step backwards!! Oh Man I HATE Dial-Up!!!!

Well we've moved in although we still haven't unpacked every single box yet but we're getting there and our new place is certainly looking like home. It is so nice to have ALL my stuff out of storage and to have it in one place again!
I truly think we were blessed on Saturday. The weather was just glorious for moving furniture. There was NO rain in sight and the sun smiled on us all day! It was truly amazing especially since the weather was just horrid on Sunday. It poured with rain and we had a very loud thunderstorm. I think Heavenly Father was really looking after us this weekend!!

I do know one thing I've never felt so sore and tired as I have these past few days. My feet feel like I have walked a thousand miles. I can't wait for when we've unpacked the last box and put the last thing away and say we've truly finished.

I tell ya the little dude has been such a huge help with moving and unpacking. He's done far more work than his big brother has. I cannot get over how lazy the big fella is!

I checked out the mileage for our school run this morning. The bus stop for the big fella is 7.2 km from home (a whole 5 km closer) the little fellas school is 16 km from home (7 km further than we used to be) and the whole round trip is 36.2 km from home-bus stop-primary school-home which is only 3 km extra to what we were doing before we moved. So its no real difference really.