If you’re using Avira Antivir Personal, you’ll no doubt know what I’m referring to—that incessant pop-up or nag screen that appears every time an update is done, urging you to upgrade to a paid version. I stumbled on this Techspot guide and thought I’d share it with you if you’re bent on getting rid of that nag screen. What’s great about this article is that it covers Windows XP Home and Professional, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Of course you could avoid those annoying nag screens by buying AntiVir Premium like what I did, but oh well…we have to make up our own minds. Have a good day!

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G: Gratitude, Gifts

“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy—because we will always want to have something else or something more.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Cicero

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” Eric Hoffer

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” Johannes A. Gaertner

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melodie Beattie

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was "thank you," that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart

Because of my Christian upbringing I was always taught to be thankful for all the things that God has bestowed upon us. I am glad for this, because I have found out that when the storms of life hit you at full force, gratitude might not be the first thing you think about, but trust me, it’s an absolute life-saver. Being thankful has helped me sail through those turbulent waters that come my way…and I am stronger because of it.

Yes, no doubt it’s hard to be grateful in this materialistic world that we live in—always wishing I had a bigger car, a bigger house, a nicer stereo, a newer Yamaha Clavinova (hee hee), more money, etc. I’ve learnt my lesson—not to give in to this, because God gives us just what is enough…and then some. Blessings are not tied only to material and worldly things. I am thankful for my health (especially my eyes!), my family and relatives, my friends, etc. I wake up each day and I say a humble thank you to the Lord for another day. I go to bed every night and I say the same thing again. A thankful heart is a happy heart.

I will always remember and treasure this little nugget of wisdom someone told me when I was a young boy: “I used to complain that I didn’t have any shoes to wear, until I saw a person who had no feet.”

This video called The Miniature Earth always has me choked up. Watch it, and be thankful, my fellow readers. God bless you all.

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” Anthony Robbins

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" William Ward

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” Babatunde Olatunji

“Everyone is gifted—but some people never open their package.” Unknown

For me my gift is music, particularly playing the piano. The best part I feel, is when I share this gift out with others. Whether it’s teaching the piano to students, or playing the piano at the hotel…’tis a joy. And there are also many other gifts that we all have…the gifts of kindness, gratitude, and compassion, to name a few. These gifts reside inside us—it’s up to each one of us to decide whether to allow them to come out from within our souls.

I’m also not going to deny not liking physical gifts. After all, I gave myself a birthday present not too long ago. However, the most wonderful gifts don’t require money to buy, and that’s why they are so special—a gift of friendship, a gift of love, a gift of caring…ah, it just warms my heart!

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F: Facebook, Friendships, Food

Ah yes, Facebook. The cyber opium social networking network—some people love it, others wouldn’t even touch it. I haven’t been on Facebook for very long, in fact I only signed up last year but I love it. I can understand why it has become the #1 social networking phenomenon—it has almost everything (text, photos, apps, quizzes, chats, groups, marketplace, etc.) integrated into one convenient center. You just decide how much and what you want to do with it. The wide range of options makes Facebook very customizable, but you’ve got to learn to be careful not to divulge stuff that might come back to haunt you later on (ah yes, heard the one about employers searching FB for information about their prospective staff?)

I use Facebook primarily to connect with my friends and to publicize my blog posts, whenever I write a new one. And the quizzes—well I won’t talk too much about them, because there are some absolutely stupid and banal ones there (imagine a quiz titled “How stupid are you?” and you get the picture) Still, it’s great when you have time to kill or you’re just about fed-up with computer work or games. The chat program is very rudimentary; I still prefer Windows Live Messenger. However, it’s convenient for a quick chat when your friends are logged in.

One thing I’m grateful to Facebook for is that recently I had the chance to reconnect with an old friend from my University of Arizona days. We haven’t been in touch for something like 28 years, and through FB I managed to find this friend and reconnect. It was wonderful, and I think this is something that FB excels in doing…thanks, Facebook!

Friendships and friends mean so much to me. I don’t have a lot of what I would call close friends. Just a few of them and with the exception of one (yes you, Boss!) all the rest are in the good US of A. I know, we can’t like hug or throw friendly punches at each other, but Windows Live Messenger more than makes up for it. To all my friends out there (and you know who you are) I love you all. Thank you for your friendship!

“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Uh oh, someone’s going to call me a piggy when I mention food. I remember one of the best advice I received from my dad as I was about to depart for the UK was this: “You eat to live, not live to eat.” In other words, don’t be a glutton. And if eating isn’t enjoyable, then why do it? The same goes with sex, I suppose…but oops I am getting side-tracked. Many people are envious of me because I can simply eat whatever I like and yet not put on weight. What can I say, I have a high metabolic rate, LOL. However, I don’t use that as an excuse to pig out—no no no. I’ve been more careful with my diet now that I’m close to hitting the big 5-0.

Speaking of which, I’m absolutely a breakfast person. I need my breakfast! It has been cereal for the past years but recently I converted to oats because of their ability to purge the bad cholesterol away from my body. Honestly I am not a fan of oats but hey, if it’s good for me I’ll eat it. I have regular meals (and leftovers yes) and I indulge in the occasional pizza and burger, though not always. And since I’m managing my boss’ food blog it is sometimes a wee bit overwhelming to look at all those glorious food pictures and become hungry and salivate—but fortunately I can stand it!

As a fitting conclusion to this subject of food, just take a look at this whopper of a burger from Burger King. Can you finish this monster in 7 minutes?

P/S Watch the video here.  The final comment from the guy who ate this makes this video well worth watching.

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D: Digital, Dell, Drums

I simply love digital stuff—whether it’s a computer, my camera (Canon PowerShot SX120IS, yup), my amazing Yamaha Clavinova, or even my wrist watch, and lest I forget, the humble CD. I was so glad when the compact disc came out in the 80’s because I listen to a lot of classical music, and it’s a sheer annoyance when the record warps, or I’m trying to find the third movement of a Mozart symphony on cassette tape (ah yes, remember that? And that unbearable hiss?) I’m just knocked out with the CD, where one can simply jump forward and backward to any track. And not only that, recordings are clean as a whistle (most of them anyway) without the annoying hiss.

I’ve mentioned enough of my Yamaha Clavinova digital piano in previous posts. Suffice to say, digital pianos beat acoustic pianos flat (excuse the pun) because of several things:

• No need for tuning and maintenance (yes your piano tuner will hate you for buying one) Just remember that it needs some electricity.
• The sounds are sampled from a concert grand piano costing more than my house, my car, and all my other worldly possessions combined.
• Recording can be done on the spot for burning to a CD or uploading to a blog, as I’ve done in My Music page.
• Lots of other sounds available, plus drum accompaniment, etc. A built-in metronome is included too.
• Large LCD display for viewing parameters.
• Now what I need is the kitchen sink.

All I can say is, live long and prosper, digital!

Truth be told, I’ve been contemplating getting a Dell laptop for the past year, and kept putting it off. Now it seems unavoidable that I get one, because I need it for teaching students advanced music theory when I’m out of the house. I’d originally planned on getting the Dell XPS M1530 but that has been discontinued and moreover it was a little on the pricey side. Now I’ve set my sights on the Studio 15 and it comes with Windows 7 to boot. And *snigger* next time when I spend a night or two at the E & O Hotel I can just bring this baby along—no more Internet withdrawal symptoms!

Yup, believe it or not, I was pretty good on the drums when I was a kid. My dad used to conduct a big band at home, and although I was intrigued by the piano and other instruments, it was the drummer that had me swinging along. When the rehearsal was over, everybody left with their instruments except for the drummer. Then it was my turn to groove. I hopped onboard, imagining myself playing with the other musicians, and pretty soon I was lost in my own world. My folks were amused and mom used to put on a record or two and I’d play in perfect time with the music. I remembered one of my favorites was Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman. I could play a wide variety of drum styles including the rumba, tango, fox-trot, bossanova, etc. Although my dad was pleased with my drumming talents he rightfully had my future in mind for me and steered me back to the piano. However, I’m still a pretty good drummer!

E: Eyes, E & O Hotel

Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like my eyes. They’re small, they have been giving me trouble since 5th grade and as a result I have been wearing glasses and contact lenses ever since. My vision remained quite stable during my 20’s and 30’s. However, it began to deteriorate after that—I was having a hard time seeing faraway objects. A checkup with my optometrist and ophthalmologist confirmed my fears—cataracts were developing in both my eyes (this was about 10 years ago).

I had thicker glasses made. I wore contacts with a higher power, it reached a point where I was wearing contacts with the highest power available! And everybody knows that you can’t reverse cataract growth, it has to be surgically removed. I put it off until earlier this year, when a visit to Valerie (my optometrist—she’s great) became the straw that broke the camel’s back. My glasses were like bottles already and she said it was pointless to make new ones which would be even thicker—yuck!! She advised me to see my ophthalmologist saying that now would be the right time to have my cataracts removed. Guess what, this time I didn’t put it off. I went straight to see Mr. Lee, my ophthalmologist.

To cut a long story short (see my Eye to Eye posts for the details) I had the cataracts from both eyes removed in June and July of this year. And what bliss it was to be able to see well without those hideously thick glasses! Nonetheless I still had to wear reading glasses because my intense myopia had actually masked my long-sightedness. But reading glasses are fine with me. I just thank God when I wake up every morning that I’m able to see well without reaching for glasses. It has truly been a wonderful blessing for me this year.

Sir Noel Coward has stayed there. So has Douglas Fairbanks, Hermann Hesse, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin, and Joan Chen. I’m talking about the E & O Hotel, Penang’s Grand Old Dame. P/S I’ve stayed there too! I feel like I’ve known this hotel all my life. After all my parents were entertainers there for over 40 years, and I used to visit the hotel regularly when I was growing up. During my teenage years I would often take over playing the piano for my dad when he desired a break (but actually he wanted me to gain experience playing in front of an audience, thanks, Dad!) Of course the hotel has changed over the years. Its last refurbishment was in 1997 but due to the Asian financial crisis this had to be put on hold for a few years. The hotel finally reopened in 2001 and the refurbishment has really brought back the shine to this renowned establishment.

I started work at the “new” E & O in December 2004. I’ve been playing there ever since, on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s a wonderful job, I have a fantastic boss in Mike, and need I mention that the food is glorious (yes, Food Glorious Food!) The rooms are unlike rooms found in any other hotel. You just have to stay at the E & O Hotel to experience and bask in the ambience and glamour of this fine lady. And…I gotta cook up an excuse to ask the boss for another night’s stay again, hee hee!

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A: Arizona, America

I had originally intended to continue my music studies in the UK but as life would have it, circumstances changed and I found myself in this new continent (see this post) I remember those years fondly, 1981-1984. A new country, a new environment, new friends…if I could relive it I’d do it all over again (perhaps with a few changes here and there, *wink!*) Notwithstanding the countless nights I spent studying away at the library till 2 a.m. in the morning just to maintain my GPA, days of toil in the practice rooms with crappy pianos…and working at one of the staff restaurants in the Student Union—these experiences remain as priceless treasures in my memories.

Arizona is probably one of the sunniest places on Earth. Couple that with blue and smog-free skies, good native folks, and good food (burp!) it’s probably one of the nicest places to be in. Well perhaps not in the summertime though, lol.

B: Books, Birthdays, Blessings

I’ve loved books since I was young. Thanks to my parents, I had a steady stream of books flowing my way. There were comics, fairy tales, educational books, story books, encyclopedias, etc. I devoured them all. Later on it was Reader’s Digest, TIME, Newsweek, novels, etc. And when I became a computer geek with the launch of Windows 95 the flow of books became a torrent—especially with the For Dummies range of books—I loved those, they were so engrossing to read. I must have at least two dozen of them sitting in my bookshelves and cupboards.

The books I’ve read lately include:

• The Rules of Love by Richard Templar. 100 rules, each only two pages long, but what a wealth of information on this elusive and fickle subject!
• Got What It Takes? by Bill Boggs. “Successful people reveal how they made it to the top.” A very, very inspiring book to read—now let me find Donald Trump or Sir Richard Branson’s email address and telephone numbers.
• Reader’s Digest Select Editions 4 best selling books combined into one, at an unbeatable price.
• You: The Owner’s Manual by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. I must thank Joi Sigers for pointing me to this fascinating book in her wonderful blog. I was at a bookstore last night, and what do you know, this book was on sale—I couldn’t believe it, it was going for only $10! You: The Owner’s Manual and I quote: “challenges  your preconceived notions about how the human body works and ages, then takes you on a tour through all of the highways, back roads, and landmarks inside of you.”
• Oops, confession time. I haven’t read this one in a while, so I really have to get back to it. Yes, I’m talking about the Bible, the greatest book ever written—period.

I love birthdays, especially my own This year’s was great—read all about it in my earlier posts:

• BBQ Bonanza
• Canon PowerShot SX120IS
• A wonderful weekend escapade

I don’t bat an eyelid about the growing old routine. In fact I just completed a comprehensive quiz at realage and found that I am actually 5 years younger than my calendar age—woot! So let me have another slice of my birthday cake, preferably blueberry cheese.

I have a funny ritual that I do every every morning I wake up: I flex all my ten fingers and toes, and I thank God for another day ahead, and that I have all my five senses fired up and ready to go. When I hit the sack at night, I thank the Lord again for another blessed day, and drift off to sleep. Want happiness in your life? Always count your blessings. 

C: Coffee, Chocolate, Computers

My three vices and they both happen to begin with the letter C. Yes I am a coffee addict, but a very well-controlled one (or a very predictable one, take your pick) I need a mug of caffeine in the morning (very important, or else I’d end up with a splitting headache) and then another in the afternoon. I used to drink coffee with sugar way back in the 80’s (I know it’s disgusting, Miss Miller, do bear with me) but these days I take just a pinch of sugar in my java. Honestly if I didn’t have at least a cup of coffee a day, I’d go weak in the knees and dissolve into a pile of filthy-stained denims. What’s more—unlike some people that I envy, I can’t consume any java after 7 pm or so. Unless I want to remain awake the whole night.

Chocolate makes me happy. I like it in any form, whether it’s the usual dark chocolate bar (my favorite), chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake (the E & O Hotel always has nice black forest cake, yummy), etc. And baloney about chocolate giving you acne and all that rubbish—I just make sure I drink plenty of water after I finish this heavenly snack. Moreover, dark chocolate contains flavonoids (an antioxidant), which…

…can help maintain a healthy heart and good circulation, and reduce blood clotting that could lead to heart attack and stroke. Flavonoids help the body by neutralizing potentially cell-damaging substances known as oxygen-free radicals, which are a normal by-product of metabolism (taken from this heart disease website)

The same website also states that every 100g of dark chocolate contains approximately 500 calories. There’s a possibility of gaining weight here if one goes overboard on the chocolate ship, but since I never seem to gain much weight, I can  brush that one aside—muahaha!

The first computer I ever bought was an Apple IIe clone way back in 1986. Then there was this humongous desktop beast, a 486DX with 4MB of RAM running Windows 3.1. I went through a succession of computers after that, “graduating” with each introduction of a new OS. I used to have a friend who would bail me out whenever my computers went on the fritz…I’d be calling him practically every week (the operating systems at that time were unstable, you know) That is, until one fateful day when he blurted out to me very plainly, “You can’t expect me to come straightaway every time you’ve got computer troubles…” or something to that effect. I was taken aback at first, maybe a little hurt. Then something inside me figured that it might be high time to learn the ins and outs of the PC, which is what I did. I bought books and computer magazines, and learned the ropes…and the rest is history (such a modest guy am I)

I’ve been servicing, repairing, and building Intel-based computers for years now and needless to say I’m pretty good at it (Miss Modesty has gone off again). I’m waiting eagerly for the release of Windows 7 just round the corner…this may prove to be another excuse to upgrade that small 80GB hard disk of mine. We shall see!

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It has been a most unusual week. I installed two apps on my computer, namely:

• Avira’s AntiVir Premium ($13 USD) a great antivirus app, only spoilt by its ugly scanning interface (yes, I know—I should get a life, thank you, Miss Miller) It has saved my skin more than once though.
• Microsoft Security Essentials—Final version (free) is just the opposite of the above app. It has a simple interface (and also a nice-looking scanning bar—take that, Avira!!) However, after installing and uninstalling and reinstalling this for 2 or 3 times, I said goodbye to it, deleted the installer and booted it completely out of my system. Reasons below.

So why did I ditch Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE)? Because it’s buggy, that’s why (and shame on the big M since this is touted as a Final version). After installing it, my floppy disk drive would activate periodically, even though I excluded it from the MSE scanner settings. Uninstalled MSE, and no more phantom access in my floppy drive. I change my mind and said oh what the heck, let’s give it another try. The same weirdness happens again—now this is definitely MSE’s fault.

Not only that, when I tried to update MSE’s definition files, the update would stall halfway through. And now my Internet was acting up! Windows Update also stalled—mein gott, what’s happening? Called my ISP and they said no, there were no anomalies in the cosmos, no breaks or tears in the Internet zone. I decide to give it a day or two and see whether it’d clear up by itself. Of course it’s like asking cancer to go find another body.

Day 3 and I am definitely getting very annoyed. MSE and Windows Update both stall, some Internet websites have to be reloaded two or three times, including Google’s homepage. Now there is the likelihood I have a Klingon Bird of Prey in my system, invisibly cloaked. And that dang MSE is still accessing my floppy drive every now and then—UGH UGH! OK, I am blasting it out of orbit. I go to Vista’s Programs and Features, locate MSE and then say an eloquent farewell to it (well actually I told it to get lost and gave it one swift kick in the tush). Rebooted my computer for good measure, Windows Update activated itself and—it went straight through without stalling! Not only that, all my favorite websites load, and all sections report that things are back to normal.

So how ironic is this, eh? Microsoft’s own MSE screwing up Windows Update—and I thought I had a mean trojan or something in my ship (oops, sorry—system) I scoured some sites for MSE and found that I wasn’t alone; many other users were having trouble with it but I was the only one with the phantom activation of my floppy drive. It was also interesting to hear many people saying that the beta version of MSE was better than the Final one.

My advice—don’t install MSE for now, until they clear up all the bugs.

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I’ve written about Avira’s free AntiVir Personal here and its Premium Security Suite 9 here. Since my subscription to the latter was ending, I decided to revert back to the free Personal antivirus. For some reason or other, it kept flagging my blog with having a flashframe trojan, which seems more like an FP (False Positive). So out of frustration, I decided to download and install the big brother, AntiVir Premium. The neat thing about this is that Avira gives you 30 days to try it out. And guess what? No more false positives!

Here are the main features of Avira AntiVir Premium, as detailed in their website:

• AntiVir: stops all types of viruses
• Anti Adware/AntiSpyware: eliminates ad/spyware
• Anti Rootkit: protects against hidden rootkit threats
• Quick Removal: eliminate viruses per mouse click 
• Netbook Support: for laptops with low resolution
• Anti Phishing: proactive protection against phishing
• Enhanced AntiSpyware NEW!
• Anti Drive-by: prevents against downloading viruses
• Rescue System: create a bootable rescue CD
• Email Scanner: enhanced email protection
• Web Guard: protection against malicious websites Optimized

Avira have set up shop here in Malaysia, so I went and bought it from one of the local computer stores. A 13-month license cost me around $13 USD which is quite reasonable. All I had to do when I got home was to enter in the activation code and voila, my 30-day trial became a full version.

Aside from its great detection rate and good scanning speeds, I have only one gripe about this product and it’s the progress bar in the scanning window. In my opinion this is probably the ugliest progress bar I have ever seen in a 2009 product, bar none:

Yes, Miss Miller, I am nitpicking, but I do wish they could implement a more up-to-date progress bar instead of that blue ghastly thing. Even the free Microsoft Security Essentials has a nicer-looking progress bar (and some of us geeks just love to stare while it’s scanning)

I joined the Avira Forums and wrote about it in this thread. One of the moderators replied, and I quote:

This is an aesthetic issue, not even a functional one. Also, please take in account that the more prettier a GUI is, the more resources it consumes. This could lead to a speed penalty and this is a much more important aspect.

Well hello, an updated progress bar consumes more system resources? How much more? And how come other programs can do it? The same moderator later on says, and I quote:

Taking in account that you are the only one that requested such a change, I don’t think this will be made.

I’m the “only one?” Hmmm—I’m no programmer, but I have a feeling that implementing a nicer and more modern-looking progress bar wouldn’t be difficult and the amount of system resources taken by this would be negligible. And to know that this fine product comes from Germany (the home of BMW, Mercedes Benz, Steinway, etc.) jeez, they could at least spruce it up!

Ok, rant over. I’ll still use Avira AntiVir Premium for now, since it’s a great antivirus. I’ll also try not to look at the scanning window (but no promises there).

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