2003 December [page 2]
Mike Allen of The Washington Post reported yesterday that during George’s visit to Iraq, he attended a Thanksgiving dinner with the troops. The published photo of him holding a turkey has been in literally every news magazine. However, this photo is a fraud. Bush’s camp has stooped so low as to use a prosthetic turkey to make their photos look better than they really are.
I’ve been annoyed with Bush’s usage of words behind him as he speaks but this new tactic takes the cake. Throughout his presidency, Bush has put up signs of “Mission Accomplished” or “Economic Recovery” behind him while speaking in a not-so-subtle attempt to burn these messages into the sub-conscious of the viewer. Now with the turkey blunder, isn’t it time to give it up?
President Dean wouldn’t do something like that…
I’m having trouble motivating myself to study for finals. It’s tough to come back from the lab after a whole day of work and then blow your evening reading up on Genetics. Oh well, I guess that’s how I’ll spend my weekend…studying. Maybe I just need some caffeine. Peace.
Booya. I snagged a copy of Z-Trip’s latest release (limited edition press of 5000 CDs). If you want one, you had better buy it fast!
W32.Spybot.Worm has mutated to a new form that affects AOL Instant Messenger. Users have reported that the virus takes over the chat window and will periodically post a hyperlink in the current IM window. From what I’ve heard the virus is difficult to remove and all it is known to do is annoy AOL IM users. If you get the virus, follow Symantec’s removal instructions. Note that the removal of the current version may differ slightly than what Symantec currently reports because the new form just appeared a couple of months ago. Security Forums also has updated removal instructions for getting rid of the AIM variant. If you can’t get your system running after infection, then reformatting is the only way to go. The virus doesn’t infect your boot partition so a quick format should work. If you still have problems, then use a low-level format as a last resort.
The virus is already spreading at UCLA. I’ve seen a couple of people with infected profiles. The virus is activated when you click on the link and Internet Explorer is open. I don’t believe Mozilla can be infected by just clicking on the link.
If you see a link in somebody’s profile to buddypicture.net, don’t click on it. That is a virus site. You can only get the virus if you are using Internet Explorer. There are some great updated removal instructions located on Feedster. Check it out if you got the virus. The current variants insert “Whoaaa…Look what I found, click here” or “I can’t believe I found” into your profile.
My Thanksgiving was great. I drove up to Mill Valley Tuesday night and chilled the next day at home. That night, I had dinner at Piatti, a quaint little Italian restaurant that overlooks the marshland. Olympic track star Michael Johnson was having dinner at Piatti that very night. It was cool to see him, but I left him alone. I figure, Michael already knows he’s the man. Me telling him so wouldn’t do much good, so why interrupt his meal? On Thursday, our family friends, Flavio and Jean, came to the house for dinner. Flavio made cheesecake, which was excellent. The parents made the traditional meal, which was great as usual. It included turkey, two cranberry dishes, five cup salad, sauerkraut, stuffing, and much more. Then on Friday, Courtney flew up from LAX. She went with me and the family to see Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Alegría. As always, the show was excellent. Cirque du Soleil is expensive but worth the price. Over the weekend, I tried to go to Union Square but there were so many people that the parking garages were full! I bought some chocolate at Ghirardelli and then headed home since the city was just plain crazy. On Sunday I drove down the 5 with Courtney and my friend Dani. The drive was hell. It took me eight hours instead of the usual six. A car broke down in one of the lanes which made traffic slow to a crawl. They had to merge the 5 down to one lane for a little bit. Magic Mountain was sluggish as usual. The drive put a bit of a damper on the week but all in all, a great vacation.