I made a spoof of the double rainbows video last night. Check it out:

This is a little off-topic from my normal posts but since it basically ruined what was supposed to be a Saturday of freelance work I thought I’d share.

I never get fooled online. EVER. Whether it’s a Facebook scam, Instant Messaging virus or those phony popup virus threats, I’ve always prided myself in being smart enough to see through the lies… until today.

My son had been online checking out some awesome lego sites. Later, I sat down at the computer planning to do a few hours of freelance work. There were a bunch of Windows Antivirus messages on the screen saying a threat had been detected and did I want to remove it. Now I did hesitate for a moment and wonder if they were legit. But let me tell you, these alerts were well done. They even had the Microsoft privacy message at the bottom of one of the screens, AND used the Microsoft shield as their icon in the tray and on their screens.

Here’s an example of what one of the screens looks like:

For one reason or another, my guard was down and I clicked to remove the supposed virus. It was all over - that tiny bit of interaction was all the program needed to install and start causing havoc. Within a few minutes my computer was seemingly completely infected with over 20 viruses and was also getting attacked every couple of minutes by “hackers”.

The solution? Buy the full version of “Antivirus XP 2010″ of course (yes they even use “XP” in the name!).

At this point I knew something was up (duh) and after seeing that the program wasn’t in my Program Files directory or in my list of programs in the Control Panel, I started searching for ways to get rid of it. I hate doing this because you never know if the person writing the solution is trying to help you or exploit the situation you are in and do even more harmful things to your computer. I get especially nervous when they ask you to start making registry edits which many of the solutions online did.

The following is what worked for me. It might work for you too:

1- Download Malwarebytes
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
Since I found a cnet download link I figured it was a legit piece of software. Some people in the forums said Antivirus XP was preventing them from downloading Malwarebytes. If this is the case you may have to download it to another computer and throw it on a USB drive so you can get it on your infected computer. Personally, I was able to download it fine using Firefox.

2- Install Malwarebytes
This is where it got tricky for me. I double clicked to install and nothing happened. Tried again — nothing. You guessed it, that sneaky Antivirus XP 2010 was actually BLOCKING my install. There were lots of theories online about whether it was blocking all exe installs or just Malwarebytes. Changing the file name didn’t work for me but changing the file name AND changing the file extension from exe to bat worked and I was able to install the program.

3- Run the program in Quick Scan mode.
When I first installed Malwarebytes I assumed I’d need to run a full scan of all my drives. 2 hours later the scan finished and nothing had been found. I was pretty frustrated. Some more Googling and I found one site where the guy specifically mentioned running the Quick Scan rather than Full Scan mode. I did that and sure enough, it found all the bad files and I was able to remove them.

After a required reboot, my system is up and running and I haven’t seen any sign of the bastard piece of software.

So there you have it, over four hours and a ruined Saturday later, I’m ready to start on my freelance work. Goody.

I decided at the last minute to enter Veer’s “Carved” pumpkin carving contest. They were giving extra points for using a typeface so I figured I’d use the font that haunts designers in their nightmares: Comic Sans.

This was my first attempt at typography in pumpkin carving and I’ve got to say, it is a lot harder than it looks. It came out pretty sloppy looking, but hey, it’s Comic Sans. Sloppy is what we’re going for right?

My kids got some of that old modeling clay they used to have in art class. I made a skull and then got carried away. Here is the finished product with some Photoshop lovin’ for extra spookiness.

For months now I’ve been hard at work on an illustrated version of The Lord of the Rings. It’s put my pen and ink skills to the test and has proven very challenging. The watercolor work alone has taken hours upon hours.  I’m also doing audio-book style voice overs for the narration.  Here is a sneak peak at one of the finished scenes.

The Fellowship is Born from jdawg on Vimeo.