EMCYE!!!  Jeeeezus, God. I think that was perhaps, in a long long time, the first long-winded yet compelling WOW post I actually felt more and more inclined to thoroughly read through as I continued onward! I need a "report" button! And by report, I don’t mean snitch. More like a link to click and pass this brilliance on to the appropriate Powers That Be. I hope that gets selected as one of next week’s Reader Comments of the Week! So many constructive suggestions and provocative ideas, so little time to sort any USEFUL responses out of my A.D.D. brain!!!

…You eff-in’ GODDESS, you.

Jane, we/I appreciate how concerned you are about this. But as long as you (and Lily and Whoopi, who are understandably MIA) continue to post, there will be plenty to balance out the insensitive jerks who are inexplicably drawn to this website as of late. I’ve learned to let it go (as you have suggested to Lizzie), but unfortunately it does help to avoid the situation altogether by only going where there wouldn’t be heated controversy (usually in the political topics, OF COURSE). I can rationally argue my POV until the four horsemen come - as I always do regarding all the gay rights stuff - but sometimes I just figure out that you can’t persuade someone who truly does not WANT to listen. And I just try to stay the hell away from those types, lest I waste much of my precious no-longer-so-youthful energy.

Girls will be girls; nay, humans will be humans. 

…and now I have that "People are People" song by Depeche Mode stuck in my head!

It’s a company called ESET. I did a lot of research on what the best antivirus program was, and was surprised (yet not) to learn that was a brand I’d never heard of. This was a couple of years ago, so of course it’s entirely possible that it’s no longer the front-runner in virus protection. But I still swear by it.

I think the best example I can give is MySpace. As mentioned before, something about MySpace makes our computers more susceptible to infection. It’s partly due to the ads on the homepage, LOTS to do with people being gullible idiots who will click on any link that’s being posted by their friends, and also partly due to "profile trackers", which are little programs that users can install themselves when they hand-code their own profile (to customize). What many of those trackers do is technically harmless, but still intrusive - they install cookies onto the computers of each person who visits your profile and report back to you WHO has been accessing your profile. I don’t understand the appeal of this, but apparently there are plenty of obsessive narcissists who care that much about who is interested in them. So ANYWAY, turned out one of MY close friends had one of these installed on her profile, and I only discovered this when I went to her profile to leave a comment, and my ESET would just go NUTS! I’d get these pop-up warnings before it would even let the page finish loading, telling me that there’s a possible trojan being installed on my computer, asking if I would like to report, or continue.

I told my friend that she had something on her profile that was setting off my AV on high alert. She said "Wow, you must have a REALLY high-tech AV because it’s just a profile tracker that is designed to slip under most AV radars!"

Also, it takes up VERY little space on your computer - runs quietly in the background without slowing anything down, nor does it clog your machine up with needless "bloatware" (for which Norton is notorious). It can also co-exist peacefully with most anti-SPYWARE programs (although ESET now offers an AV package that includes spyware protection), such as the reputable SpySweeper by Webroot.

Anyway, here is the link to help give you an idea if it’s the AV for you:

http://www.eset.com/

If you already have an anti-spyware program installed on your machine, I recommend just their Nod32 AV. It’s cheaper and simpler and good for beginners. I recently upgraded to their whole Smart Security system and have no complaints thus far; still believe it to be safer to ALSO keep my SpySweeper (I would typically avoid those all-in-ones because some programs will catch things that others won’t.) But either way, I swear, it never ceases to amaze me how functional my computer STILL is thanks to ESET.

I recently went through a phase where I had to listen to her song "Stand Back" AT LEAST five times before moving on to the next song on my mp3 player…

Have you heard her semi-recent "Trouble in Shangri-La"? Surprisingly perfect album. I can’t say there’s  a song on there I dislike!

Ummm…how SURE are we that they HAVEN’T had work done? It’s not that I doubt them, it’s just…they look SOOOO good and considering their age…………

Yes I’m horrible, I realize this.

 All I’m sayin’ is that, these days, YA NEVER KNOW. Besides, does it really matter, anyway? As long as women who look good FEEL as good as they look on the inside, and/or they do it for THEMSELVES.

I personally didn’t mind the anti-gay trashing until it spilled over onto my GIRLFRIEND’S MYSPACE. Then again, I suppose that’s what I get for giving out the link to my profile. When will I ever learn to stop entrusting people with the benefit of my [uniquely-Sagittarius, delusionally-optimistic] Doubt? Ah well.

I will never, NEVER  stray from the Sandbox, though…

Hah. Shows you what I know - I hadn’t yet heard of these protests. Then again, I got my own sh!t to be worried about and see no reason to get caught up in something across the pond.

But I wish I was allowed to pick more than one answer; I’m SURE the protestors are blowing things out of proportion. That is, essentially, what protesting IS. Or has become, rather.