I’ve finally got my hands on a Gmail invite and have set up my account (after a moment of panic after discovering Opera isn’t compatible). I was so excited you’d think I’d won the lottery or something. I was so disappointed I couldn’t get Caledonia as my username but it was already gone! Some ppl are so inconsiderate! I hated all the alternatives so settled for decemberchild - I just wanted something without having to put loads of numbers in!

Of course with two domains, I don’t really need another e-mail address but I like at least one web based one and I’m tired of Yahoo! Besides it’s cool!

Never mind, at least Firefox works with it and I don’t have to use that IE crap!

Yesterday, I decided it was time to give my PC a clean up and by that I mean checking for viruses, spyware, etc, mainly because I’ve been having problems with IE being hijacked. It isn’t a major problem since I use Opera anyway but there are times when you have to use IE to read a page properly.

I found 13 infected files and 12 assorted malware thingies.

I’ve been on the net for what? Five years? And I’ve never had experienced such an epidemic of it before. I have a good virus checker and a good firewall, yet these little blighters keep getting in. I thought it was just me until I read a thread over at TFN about it and it seems I’m not alone.

I’m doing my best to get ppl I know to stop using IE but it is falling on deaf ears, mainly because they prefer something they are “used to”. Sorry, but that is a lame excuse! How did you get used to IE in the first place? You used it!! I’ll admit that it took me ages to get used to Opera and I still don’t like the e-mail system but I wouldn’t be without it now. I even paid to get rid of the ads. I also have Firefox which I mainly use to check my sites but I much prefer Opera - I guess it just suits me better. However if push came to shove and Opera wasn’t available, you can bet I’d use Firefox long before I even considered going back to IE. I don’t even use OE anymore and am quite happy with Tbird.

I thought I’d achieved the impossible when I finally got my brother to listen to me and actually downloaded Opera. Unfortunately, his bank website only supports IE and he reverted back. I’m working on pushing Firefox but he isn’t convinced. Personally, I would be e-mailing the bank with a whole load of reasons why IE is unsafe to use and they either support other browsers or I take my business elsewhere.

Speaking of banks, I completely forgot to pay my Visa bill this month. Groan! Since last month’s deadline was 14 August - I thought I was safe. Nope, the deadline was 6 Sept and I remembered 10 mins after midnight on the 7 Sept. The back of the bill states that I may be charged £20 for non payment, fingers crossed they will notice that my payment is actually in the system and let me off. Yeah, right. I don’t suppose it will bother them that this is only the second time ever that I’ve forgotten and I always pay higher than the requested minimum fee. In fact I’m such a good customer that they increased my limit to £10,000 (Boy, what I could do with that if I wasn’t so sensible). They even called me a fortnight ago and asked if I was interested in a personal loan since I met their criteria? They soon changed their tune when they found out I wasn’t working though. Is it any wonder ppl get into such debt?

Student loans - we won’t even go there. Suffice to say, there is more chance of Mars being made fit for human civilisation that that loan being paid off. Do I care? Nope. Don’t even think about it!

So, why can’t banks have an e-mail reminder system? I pay more attention to e-mail than I do ordinary mail and if I had been sent a reminder, I would have paid it there and then. I don’t even pay attention to my paper statements since I do everything online - I just freak at the balance and then tuck it away somewhere. I can’t even find the most recent bill.

So it is their fault. Absolutely.

I got bored with the cute stuff so changed the layout (again!). Hey, I’m a Sagittarian and we get bored easily!

I decided to go with this picture of Victoria Pratt because I’m experimenting with some of her magazine shoots in PS. I’m really not that great with graphics and totally unfamiliar with PS but I’ve been following some tutorials on the net. I love the glossy look and it works really well on Victoria’s photos because she has such fabulous skin. I made two wallpapers - they are very simple but we all have to start somewhere. I’m not really keen on the whole grungy, cluttered look of some fan art anyway, so I’m just gonna do my own thing (ie make a mess :-)).

I’m in total PMS mode right now and feel like a big, bloated whale. Ugh! I suppose it wasn’t helped by the fact that I just stuffed myself full of chocolate and now feel sick. Bleugh!

I’m also really wiped because my neighbours had loud music blaring until 04:30 in the morning and then decided to start revving up the car engine afterwards. Honestly, they have lived next door for as long as I can remember and they have never caused us any trouble before. Why start now? They have two daughters, one of whom is away studying at Dundee University, and the younger one was doing a car mechanic course at college. It is the younger one who is causing all the trouble and I noticed her boyfriend has been hanging around the house lately. Honestly I would understand the situation better if she was acting like a typical teenager while her parents were away and she sudenly had the house to herself, but the thing is her parents are in the house the whole time! It’s starting to happen every week without fail and her father is supposed to be an invalid, yet you can hear them all yelling and thumping of each other. Once in a while is okay, but it really starts to piss you off every week.

Told ya I had PMS!