Learning Through Words

I have had my BlackBerry 8330 for almost two years now. For the last couple of months, I have also had some maintenance issues with it. So, I did what many people do; I went to Google and searched for solutions. It took a while to find what I was looking for, so I’m sharing what I learned, so you BlackBerry 8330 people out there can perhaps get answers a bit more quickly than I did.

Please note: This might or might not work for your phone, so try these suggestions at your own risk.

The first issue I had was with my BlackBerry randomly restarting itself. I literally had all my mail icons and whatnot right where I wanted them one day, and then the next the phone was restarted back to factory settings. One thing I kept noticing prior to this happening was that my phone shut off randomly to have its security settings tested. If you notice that a similar situation is happening with your BlackBerry, my suggestion is to immediately back up all your contacts and other important information via the software that came with the BlackBerry when you purchased it.

It’s simple enough to restore the placement of various icons, but how do you get your e-mail settings working again? Well, this is how it worked for me:

• Click on the wrench that says, “Options”
• Select “Advanced Options”
• Scroll all the way to the bottom and select “Service Book”
• Select the option that says it resends your service books.

It’s important to keep your BlackBerry 8330 clean. I have a case for mine that I thought would keep it out of the elements, which it does for the most part, but dust always finds a way in - especially when it comes to the trackball. This brings me to my latest maintenance problem - keeping the trackball clean. When dust gets into the trackball and builds up, you’ll know, because your trackball won’t scroll correctly. For me, my trackball wouldn’t scroll down. It was literally stuck.

In such a situation, you have three options:

• Try to clean the trackball yourself.
• Buy a new trackball.
• Have a professional put a new trackball in.

I began by trying to clean the trackball myself, which I really don’t recommend, because it’s just too delicate. The trackball itself is pretty much just a little rubber ball with plastic backing. The backing contains teeny tiny magnetic screws. The whole thing is topped off by a metal circle, which is what you see surrounding the trackball on a  BlackBerry 8330. Some people pop off that top ring and blow air into the trackball, either with a strong breath or with canned air. Then, they just pop the ring back on, and the trackball might start working for them. Well, it didn’t for me, the screws and the plastic backing ended up falling off. Plus, something had gotten bent in the process, so none of it would go back together again.

So, it was onto option #2, which was to buy a new trackball. All you have to do is go to eBay and type in “Blackberry 8330 trackball”, and you’ll get lots of options. I bought one for less than $7.00, and that was with shipping included. The good part about it was obviously the price, but the bad part was having to wait. I found that I could type in phone numbers manually for calls, and receive calls as usual, but nothing else.  Had I chosen option #3, I still would have had to wait, but it would probably have been more expensive. However, when you do get the new trackball, make sure you’re very gentle with it as you put it in. Next, put the metal circle on top of it and make sure that everything securely clicks in place.

For more information on all things BlackBerry, visit CrackBerry.com. It’s definitely become my go-to site for finding fixes. I also like their free wallpapers.

I usually like to read historical biographies, but is this book really a departure from that? After all, To Save Russia: The Reincarnation of Nicholas II, by Donald Norsic, could be considered a biography of sorts. But really, it is one man’s spiritual journey, a topic that, along with the Romanovs, fascinates me.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Nicholas II and his family, I suggest you take a look at Frozen Tears. This is a website that contains fascinating documentaries on the Romanovs, as well as links to additional sites. Also, I suggest reading Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie.

Note: This book review contains some spoilers!

This book is, as its title indicates, about a man named Donald Norsic who has come to believe that he is the reincarnation of Nicholas II. At first thought, such a belief would be dismissed by many as being outlandish. The book begins with Norsic himself as an unbeliever. He’s just a normal person living in Chicago, working in advertising.

However, the nightmares he’s been having, along with his reaction to seeing the movie Doctor Zhivago, prompt him to consider digging deeper into what the root causes are. A friend suggests that he sees a hypnotist, and Norsic reluctantly agrees, although he thinks he can’t be easily hypnotized. After having some doubts about the first hypnotist he meets, Norsic meets another hypnotist, and attends one of his workshops. The results from that workshop intrigue the hypnotist, who convinces Norsic to do some past life regression sessions with him.

Some of the transcripts from the sessions are included in the first few chapters of the book. Although there is some discussion about Nicholas II’s personal life, most of the focus has to do with Nicholas II’s political life. I would have liked to have seen more transcripts about the former, rather than the latter. However, Norsic’s writing style is such that I didn’t lose interest (I’m not particularly interested in wars and the military). One thing that I learned in my college writing courses is that the first line of a literary piece has to be enough to hook the reader in. The first line of this book is, “They’ve come to kill me!”. If that doesn’t get a reader’s attention, I don’t know what does.

Anyway, back to the hypnosis transcripts. Something that I found rather odd was the reluctance of Norsic, while under hypnosis, to give specific details. Ironically, just as I thought it, he made mention to the fact that his regressions weren’t standard. In fact, there are several other parts of the book that had me questioning things, but each time, he would acknowledge that readers might question this or that, and then back it up with some evidence.

Speaking of evidence, Norsic uses quite a lot of references, both metaphysical and historical, in this book, which will appeal to readers who have interests in one, or both, genres. However, as intriguing as this book is, and as logical as Norsic presents himself to be, I cannot help but feel that at some points he was attempting to fit some incongruous puzzle pieces together.

Examples:

• He says he looks like Nicholas II, and that he positions his hands in the same ways that Nicholas II did when posing for photos. Well, he gives a couple of examples of both these claims in the photo section at the end of the book. The photos that are in the book don’t particularly look like Nicholas II to me. However, the back cover photo, which is the same photo of him you’ll see on sites like 1st World Publishing does resemble like Nicholas II, but that could just be because of the beard, which can make many men, regardless of who they are, look similar to each other. I haven’t seen any other photos on the Internet of Norsic, who is now in his seventies, but I would like to for comparison purposes. As for the hand positions, many people pose with in such ways. If the hand positions of Nicholas II and Norsic
• Norsic had his handwriting professionally analyzed and compared to Nicholas II’s. The results? The handwriting samples were not similar. However, a detailed analysis in terms of personality revealed that they could be identical because in each trait that Nicholas II had shortcomings, Norsic did not. This would then indicate that Norsic had spiritually evolved. However, in my opinion, that could just be an assumption. I would like to have seen more examples from Nicholas II and Norsic compared.
• Towards the end of the book, Norsic makes reference to a book he wrote about two students in communist Russia, and how they fought to end the communist regime. Norsic believes that the book, written before the downfall of the Soviet Union (he does give proof of this) closely parallels how the Soviet Union actually fell. He believes that writing the book somehow influenced the events that happened afterward. Although he does give many examples, I found that still rather hard to believe.
• Norsic doesn’t believe that the family was murdered in Ipatiev House in July of 1918. Rather, he believes they were murdered outside of a train the following November. As part of his evidence, he sites a fake family theory (they, not the Romanovs being murdered in the house), and additional testimonies from people who claimed to have seen the family alive after July, 1918. Conspiracies abound, there just isn’t any concrete proof.

Sometimes, proof isn’t needed, and can’t be given, in metaphysical or spiritual situations. I searched for more information on Norsic, and didn’t find much beyond this book. He seems to be a private person without an Internet presence. Therefore, fame certainly couldn’t have been one of his motives for writing this book. Instead, he seems to have written this book as part of an awakening process for himself, and for others who are interested in reincarnation. I really liked how he ended the book, wherein he makes mention that, despite his findings, it’s time for him to continue on with the life he has now. So, is Donald Norsic the reincarnation of Nicholas II? I really don’t know. What I do know is that some books can lead to fascinating discussions amongst their readers, and this is definitely one of those books.

Closets have a tendency to get cluttered rather quickly. They’re the go-to place for storing things that you might not need now, but feel sure that you will at some point. Some people try to keep their closets clean, while others stuff everything in there, shut the door (if the closet has a door) and hope for the best. It’s better to take a day (or more, if your closet is so messy it’s ridiculous) and clean/organize everything that’s in there.

The whole closet-cleaning situation can be tricky, because some closets look visibly clean, but actually have a lot of old things in them that need to be gotten rid of to make more space. Regardless of what situation you find your closet in, here are some closet organization tips:

• Begin by literally taking eveything out of your closet so that you can start from scratch. This way, you can see all the space that’s available to you without clothes or other items blocking the view. Put all of your clothes and items in one place for the time being. It’s a good idea to keep everything in the same room as the closet if possible.
• Dust has a way of accumulating no matter what. Tackle that dust before you do anything else; your nose (and your clothes) will thank you for it later. You can use a clean sock or, my personal preference, a Swiffer. You might need to vaccum the closet floor, too.
• Now it’s time to start sorting through all the things you took out of your closet. Make piles according to clothing or item type. So, for example, make piles for shoes, t-shirts, sweaters, formal clothes, jackets, things like that.
• Check out the smaller items or accessories that you have, shoes included. If you don’t already have certain places built into the closet for those items, purchase some clear plastic totes, put the accessories in there by type (such as all belts in one tote, all hair accessories in another) and place the totes on the closet floor if possible, or on closet shelves.
• Sort through all of the clothes piles, one by one, and select what you want to keep from what you don’t. What you don’t want can be given to charity, but launder those clothes first. Be sure to get a trash bag and throw away any clothes that aren’t fit to be worn.
• Sometimes, accessories (not clothes) that you don’t want anymore, but are in great shape, can be given as gifts to people you know would like them.
• The remaining items that are in piles should be things that you know you want to wear or keep. Get all your clothes hangers together in one pile. That way, you can easily reach the hangers for each pile of clothes.
• Some people like to put off-season clothes away somewhere other than their closet until they’re needed, but I prefer to just keep everything in my closet no matter the season. To conserve space, you can get hangers that tier themselves to hang multiple clothing items. An example of this is the If things need to be ironed, this is the time to do that, too. Fold the clothing items that you’ll be putting on shelves - again, keep things organized by separating them according to type.
• Start putting your clothes back into the closet, being mindful of how you’ll find things easily - everyone has their own organization methods, regardless of how messy their closet has been before. It might take some relocating of various items to a dresser, but just take your time. Not only will your closet be cleaner, but if you make an effort to keep the closet relatively clean, it will be so much quicker and easier to find things.

Closet Organization Resources

If you have no idea where to purchase affordable items for closet organizing, here are some helpful links:

• Bed Bath & Beyond (Online and in stores)
• Space Savers (Online Only)
• Linens ‘n Things (Online Only)
• Kmart (Online and in stores)
• Target (Online and in stores)

With the new year comes a lot of new computer threats. Sure, most people have protection against computer threats such as viruses and spyware or malware, but those who design those programs can find uncomfortably tech-saavy ways to navigate around the situation. I have two computers, a Sony Vaio All-in-One computer, and an HP Pavilion laptop.

Although I have used paid anti-virus/spyware subsciptions, they conflicted with my firewall settings to the point where I just wanted something that covered the basics, and preferably was free. So, on both my laptop and computer, I have the free versions of SuperAntiSpyware and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, both of which I highly recommend.

So, how did I end up getting AntiVirus Soft? When I logged onto my laptop yesterday, I had a pop-up that asked me to update the latest version of Adobe Reader. I wasn’t really paying attention and just clicked, “OK”. Big mistake. AntiVirus soft was in the download files. I’m not extremely tech-saavy, so I have decided to just avoid downloading anything telling me to update Adobe Reader until I literally can’t read PDFs anymore. In which case, I will go directly to the Adobe website and download the reader there.

Common Characteristics of AntiVirus Soft

• I was barraged with fake spyware and anti-virus scanning programs. The main thing to keep in mind about this program is that it’s fake - you don’t really have viruses and spyware that the program tells you. It just does that in an attempt to get you to buy the software, which it keeps asking you to do.
• It changed the homepage on both of my browsers (Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox), to a landing page asking me to purchase AntiVirus Soft.
• It blocked me from running my anti-spyware programs, downloading anything, opening files…you name it, the malware blocked it. However, it didn’t stop me from shutting down my computer.

How I Got Rid of AntiVirus Soft

First of all, I headed over to Google and found out that this was a brand new threat, so there wasn’t much out there on it. I found that many of the search results are from people who are blogging as affiliates about their spyware software, and so you might click on a link only to be directed to an affiliate download link. Or, they might direct you to the right anti-spyware software, but the link directs you to shareware sites. These sites can require open connections, which can allow computer hackers to upload keystroke (it records everything you type, which poses a threat for passwords).

I’m not an affiliate for any of these products I’m mentioning - I get all of my antispyware/anti-virus software from Download.com, not the shareware sites that some of these sites are promoting. It took me the entire day to find the right solution. So, I thought I would try to help those of you who have found yourself in this predicament by saving you some time.

Of course, what I did might not work for every kind of computer. The blog that I found to be the most helpful was Malware Removal Tips. There’s an ongoing discussion over there, so in addition to what I learned, you can probably get more information for your specific situation. Keep in mind, that if you’re able to use System Restore, then you can probably restore your computer back to before the AntiVirus Soft ever happened. However, my laptop is older and didn’t allow this to happen. So if that’s your problem to, please read on.

1) Restart your computer in Safe Mode with Networking. It can’t just be safe mode, because then the Internet won’t work. I’m running Windows XP on the laptop that got the AntiVirus Soft Malware, so just pressing “F8″ to restart it didn’t work. If this happens to you, you can check out directions on how to restart your computer at Bleeping Computer. Make sure that you’re logged into whatever user account (if more than one person uses the same computer) you were on at the time the AntiVirus Soft Malware first occurred.

2) Once you’re in the right mode, if you have Internet Explorer, you’re going to need to adjust the connection settings. If you don’t have Internet Explorer, then you can skip this step. By the way, I’m basing some of these directions on the Malware Removal Tips blog that I mentioned earlier.

• Open Internet Explorer and click on the upper right hand side of the browser, where it says “Tools”. You’ll probably notice that initially you don’t have any Internet.
• Select “Internet Options” and select the “Connections” tab at the top.
• Go to “LAN Settings” and uncheck the box that says “Use a Poxy Server for Your LAN”, and click “OK”.
• Refresh your browser, and you should see that you have an Internet connection again.

3) One suggestion by the Malware Removal Tips blog was to then go download HijackThis to clear various AntiVirus Soft registries. There’s the risk of deleting important registries this way, so be sure to go that blog for specific examples.

4) Various sites tell you to download various kinds of antisypware software, but I have found that Spybot Search & Destroy works the best for this.

• So, download the installer, but first, according to Malware Removal Tips, rename it winlogon.exe or iexplore.exe (I chose the winlogon one). I’m not sure why the installer needs to be renamed, but I did it anyway.
• Make sure that the Spybot Search and Destroy is fully updated, and then run a full system scan.
• Once the scan is done, make sure all the spyware/malware that has been found has a check in the corresponding checkbox, and remove each one - some of which might require the computer to restart, which you’ll have to do anyway.

5) The computer will need to be restarted in Normal Mode. If your computer doesn’t restart with the Nomal Mode Selection automatically provided when pressing “F8″, then try what I did, which is to go to Start>run>type in msconfig>and make sure “Use Original BOOT.INI” is selected. Click “OK”, and then continue to restart as usual.

6) When you’ve restarted the computer in Normal Mode (again, logged into whatever user account you were on at the time the AntiVirus Soft run Spybot again to do a full computer scan. When I did this, I caught a couple of additional Antivirus Soft malware files that were present in Normal Mode but not the Safe Mode.

7) Restart the computer again and, hopefully, your computer will be free from Antivirus Soft malware

I love having plants, but I don’t like having to remember to water them. So, when Aqua Globes™ came out on the market a couple of years ago, it was inevitable that I got a couple. I have since gotten around six of them (I purchased them in packages of two). They can be purchased in packages of four on the Aqua Globes™ official website.

Prices

The prices, like with many new products, started out being rather expensive. However, their prices are pretty reasonable now, especially if you get them at a local store to avoid shipping costs (places like Bed Bath & Beyond and Target usually have them).To find out who has the best prices, I suggest first checking the official websites of your local stores, since sometimes they can let you know if they have them in stock at your local store. Regardless, if you do a mock checkout process (meaning you add the Aqua Globes™ to your shopping cart and update the cart without putting in any pay information or shipping information, the tax is usually added in to let you know how much you’d be paying at that particular store. Go to each store website and do the same process, writing down your results as you go.

If none of your local stores sell Aqua Globes™ then it’s time to check out what’s available online. In addition to their official website, there are also places like Amazon and eBay that sometimes sell them. However, be aware that lots of different vendors sell them on those sites, so the prices will vary even more. You might think that a package of Aqua Globes™ selling for only a couple of dollars is a good value, but make sure that you take the shipping amount into consideration too, since that can really heighten the overall price.

Functionality

At first, I was confused as to how to get the water into the globe. A regular stream of faucet water didn’t do it. Instead, only the smallest stream (like the stream right before the faucet is turned off completely, works for me. The instructions told me to put a hole in the soil of your houseplant’s pot with a pencil or something of that nature, but I found that doing the pre-made hole thing resulted in the globe tipping over the pot. Instead, I pressed it into the pot, so that the soil would give it more support. I notice now from watching the video that they have at the Aqua Globes™ official website that they suggest pressing the globe into the pot as well. They are also offering a smaller version of the globe now for small potted plants. However, I still prefer using my larger globes and just leaning the globe ever so gently against the window, since I keep my plants on windowsills.

Speaking of being gentle, for being blown glass Aqua Globes™ are strong, but still, their spouts can be broken if they are jammed into the soil or something like that. One thing that infomercials on these globes talk about is how plants will flourish, which is true. I have a couple of plants that have tripled their size since using these globes. However, I have yet to see any of my globes last more than a week without being refilled.

You might notice that when you take the globe out of the pot there will be soil obstructing the spout part. A suggestion would be to take a toothpick and just loosen the dirt until it falls out. Another thing to keep on the lookout for is algae, since that can have a tendency to grow on the inside of the globe. For that, I suggest gently pouring some baking soda into a dry Aqua Globes™ via a funnel and letting it sit for a little while before washing it out with hot water.

Pros:

• Attractive design
• No windowsill moisture stains from over watering
• Plants thrive via this watering method
• Price is affordable

Cons:

• Only last a week at most for many kinds of plants
• Algae can grow inside them
• Can be messy to clean dirt and algae out of

Bottom line, as long as you remember to check your globes every few days and refill as necessary, yes, Aqua Globes™ really work.