Hero to Zero in One Afternoon!

The day started off quite well. Got to work and Kylie and I cleaned out the back storeroom so that it could be converted into a gym area. Before that though, I was considered a hero for just doing common sense stuff. Yesterday, I was phoned regarding one of the PC's running slow. I gave them two instructions; first reboot it; Second, run the anti-virus software. I got to work this morning, and the PC was still running slow. I asked about them running the Anti-Virus ... Nope. What's Anti-Virus? Okay, I checked the PC, and it had Ad-Aware on it, but no anti-virus software. I downloaded a free copy of AVG. I ran Ad-Aware first, and was able to remove ten surf tracking programs. I then ran AVG ... after two hours, it had found 3685 infected pieces of software. Most consisted of the Netsky worm (a Q and a B type of Netsky) and another worm (which only made up two of the worms infecting the machine). There was also an instance of Back.Orrifice, a trojan made by Cult of the Dead Cow. Well, I removed all of these from the machine. I looked like a friggin' hero. I also installed a copy of ZoneAlarm (which is free for personal use, or Charitable organisations). I was getting my praises sung everywhere. Though to be prefectly honest, I was wondering why I hadn't installed these things before. The bosses PC has a copy of Norton Anti-virus on it, so I ran that to make sure it was okay. It was. On Kylie's PC I installed AVG as well. It was clear too. The worms hadn't spread. Then came a big fight. One of the girls I work with (I won't mention names), who seems to fight with everyone, decided to make a racist comment. Up until now I had avoided a fight with her. Stupidly, rather than letting it slide, I decided to defend the person in question. (The actual comment regarded a politicians wife - where the girl in question claimed the politicians wife was a mail order bride. People in Australia will actually be familiar with this, as another politician was forced to resign over making the exact same comment.) Anyway, the politicians wife was born in Malaysia. A lot of people (including the girl today) think she is Phillippina. Well, my mistake. Unfortunately, I hate racism no matter where or who it comes from. I guess it's a little like a red rag to a bull with me! So off I went defending the politicians wife. Somehow the arguement got twisted along the way. It went from me defending the lady in question (whom I think is a brilliant lady. You might have to meet her to fully appreciate how intelligent this lady is), to somehow me defending ANYONE who comes to Australia. I might quickly add, the girl I was arguing with is an Aboriginal (this is important). She was first of all attacking white people for coming and taking their land etc. Okay, I agreed with her. The aboriginal people have a good reason to be p***ed off with what has happened. Especially with their treatment at the hands of white Australia. Yes, I think the Government should apologise to them! Next, she then started having a go at all the Asians who have come here. She was claiming the white people PAY them to come here and give them aboriginal land etc. She claims it's the aboriginal money they are giving these people. She was claiming that ALL Asians are given AUD$10,000 to come here. I pointed out that I know a LOT of asians who have migrated here, and NONE of them were ever paid to come here! I actually gave some examples, like my friend John, who came here from India. When he left India, because of the law at the time, he was not able to leave with more than the equivalent of AUD$8 in his pocket. Once here, he had no other menas of support other than his family, and he had to get a job almost immediately. The girl in question claimed that was only one example, and that it didn't prove her wrong. I siad it did, as she'd said ALL of them get AUD$10,000. I only needed one example to prove her point wrong. She then claimed that my point wasn't valid. She tried to make out that it was hearsay from a friend of a friend of a friend. I said, "No! It was MY FRIEND! I KNEW HIM." Well, then she started having a go at the refugees! Saying they shouldn't be allowed into the country. I tried getting her to place herself in the shoes of a refugee. Explaining, a lot of them flee their countries, because if they didn't they'd get killed! She didn't think that was a valid excuse to flee a country. I told her, if someone invaded Australia tomorrow, and you could either stay and have them kill you, or get on a boat to New Zealand what would you do? She said she'd stay and go bush and no one would ever be able to find her! (Talk about missing the point). Anyway, the arguement went on and on! She refused to conceed and she also claimed I'd presented no evidence for my arguement (in spite of me naming more people and stories of people I know who never received a cent from the Government to come out here!) Well ... told you it was a mistake to argue with her! I broke my rule of not arguing with idiots, because idiots cannot follow logic! Oh well. She was actually nice to me for the rest of the day. (Might have been because earlier I'd cleaned up the mens locker room, when she'd been asked to do it. She'd basically refused.) Anyway, it was nice that after such a heated arguement, she didn't seem to hold any malice towards me. Not to my face anyway. :-) Well, worse (for me) was to follow. After installing all the anti-virus software and firewalls etc, I then found I couldn't get two of the computers to see each other! This was a major tragedy, as I needed them to see each other as one prints to the printer through the other one. DARN! I spent the entire afternoon, trying to fix it! I even turned the firewalls off ... still no satisfaction! I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what MS has in it which does that! I had a similar problem at home, where my computers could see each other one day ... then the next they couldn't! The weird thing is, another computer on the network can see and access both of them without any problems what-so-ever! It's so confusing. I'd never have this problem with Linux or Unix! I went through both computers making sure they were set up exactly the same as the computer that can see them both! Nothing had changed in their network configuration! They are all set up the same! Bloody confusing! I even stayed back fifteen minutes trying to fix it (but the phone wouldn't stop ringing ... so I decided to leave). After such a good start to the day, I ended up a ZERO! DARN!!!! Funny how I always try to explain to them that I'm not a PC person. I'm a Network Engineer ... firewalls, YES, routers, YES, Switches, YES, hubs, YES ... Microsoft Windows, huh?!!! That's right! I'm NOT a PC Support person ... I just seem to be constantly caught up being one! [If anyone has ANY clues why that stupid thing happens with windows, please tell me how to fix it!] On the way home I had to stop off at the shops for my mother. It was drizzling a little (like it had been all day) when I entered the shopping mall! When I left though, it was coming down in buckets, so I had to run to the car and got soaked! On the way home, it stopped raining! Darn! Is God telling me something? Anyway, I'm still rather confused as to what to bloody do with my life! I spent some of the day discussing the prospects of my own business with the boss, and one of the bosses friends (who is an ex-police officer, and always trying to convince me to do a Cert IV in training and work place assessment through his business. He's a very nice guy). Monday, I have the meeting to discuss starting my own Network Engineering company ... but I''m still in two minds. The call of the UK is still very strong in me, as well as my need for constant travel! I need a new place to be ... but I don't want to leave my family again when they rely on me so much ... so damn confused! Yeah I know ... it's one of those situations where I have to make a decision! No one can decide for me. I just have no friggin' clue what I want to do! Only thing I know for sure, is I need a friggin' change! I'm so friggin' tired of it all! I don't think there is a wrong decision to be made here ... either way I think I will make it ... but I feel like I am going stir crazy in Perth. Where to go? ... what to do!?!? So damn confused! Either way ... which ever path I chose, it's going to be a big risk ... I only have so much money left, and whatever decision I make will cost me everything I have ... failure is not an option! It's do or die! Blah!