In an effort to sell houses, a Kansas City Realtor is providing a free gun with every house that it sold. That’s right, if you buy a house, you will receive a coupon for a free gun.

I guess given the price of a gun verses the cost of a house, the Realtor is probably coming out ahead. After all, if you are considering moving into a questionable neighborhood, having a gun might persuade you to do so. Plus, if it gets known that the residents of the neighborhood carry guns, crime might go down.

What happened to the good old days when home buyers were given free toaster ovens?

I got hit with a virus over the holidays. It is called “Internet Security 2010”. Unlike the Norton and McAffey products, this is a hoax which will take control of your PC.

While pretending to be an anti virus product, it pops virus warnings and does a fake virus scan of your machine. After it does the scan, it wants $49.95 to get the full version of the product which it claims will rid your machine of the viruses that it found.

In all actuality, it doesn’t remove any viruses other than the fake ones that you never had in the first place. But, until you pay your $49.95, it will lock you out of your “Task Manager”, the “Run” function and your “Desk Top” manager.

Removing this product is extreme difficult. While I did it manually, it took me several days to complete. There are programs that will do it for you but you will have to purchase them. I was fortunate in finding a program that restored my Task Manager for me and the Run function. From there, I was able to shut down and delete the offending modules.

This virus starts as a screen pop asking if you want to be scanned for viruses. If you answer “yes”, it will load and hold you hostage. If you answer “no”, it will load and hold you hostage. I should have pulled the plug on the PC with out responding to the pop up but I wasn’t paying attention.

Unfortunately, we live in a Microsoft world.

When I left for Christmas, there were two small cardboard boxes on the desk in my office at work.  Inside of each box was a small cordless telephone.  When I returned this week, I noticed that one of the boxes was missing.

Now understand, who ever took the box left the contents on my desk.   They just took the box.  I assume that someone needed a small box for a Christmas present.

And, there is not really any great monetary loss,  but I am now stuck with a phone without a box.  Plus, the phones were demo units from a vendor.  So I guess that I will just have to give them the phone back as is.

Maybe I can just put the contents in a paper bag and give it back to the vendor.

Right now, there is a big debate as to what we are going to call this year. Should it be 20 10 or 2010? The 20 10 folks point out that their version uses one less syllable than 2010. Plus, they claim that it follows with tradition. The 2010 folks point out that it sounds warmer and less mechanical.

Why not take it one step further and just call the year “10”. After all, “10” has that ring of perfection to it. Plus it is one less syllable shorter that 20 10.

I hope debates like these are not indicative of the decade to come.

A New York woman was injured in a bar the other night when a 150 pound moose head fell on her. She is suing but it is a wonder that it didn’t kill her.

I imagine that it made for an interesting insurance claim.

Journal 5/23/00

I was praying when I saw a wooden duck (Donald Duck). It was a profile. The profile turned and faced me. Then, it turned into the cartoon duck and went into a full rage. No noise, just the motions. I asked why he was so mad but I did not get a reply. Next I saw an alien all dressed in white lying on a bed next to a large electronic machine. The alien was wearing a long white robe and had a round globe on its head. Its hands were more like brown pincher’s. Its face was green and very irregular. It sat up and turned towards me.

San Francisco is reporting that hundreds of Sea Lions have disappeared from the bay. The population which is normally around 1,500 is now down to about 150.

Scientist are at a loss as to their sudden disappearance. But, then again, scientists are at a loss as to why there were so many Sea Lions in the first place. Some are speculating that the same schools of fish that attracted the Sea Lions to the bay have now moved out to sea and taken the Sea Lions with them.

Of course, when all of the dolphins disappeared in the science fiction series “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, it was because the earth was going to be destroyed to make room for an intergalactic through way.

Maybe the Sea Lions know something that we don’t.