Trojans, Spyware, Hackers, UGH

I have been working hard here lately to protect myself from these things and have been infected more than once. Somehow, someone has I guess "hacked" into my blog and has made some "changes". I have fixed these errors and taken some precautionary steps to keep it from happening again. My comments were affected, they are working again but I lost some of the old ones, I am working with Squawkbox to fix that also. Anyway, sorry for the inconvienience and THANK YOU to the many of you who have emailed to alert me of these little issues. I would like to recommend that you update your spyware and virus protection often, also keep an up to date back up floppy on your computer. I recommend Spybot, Ad-aware, AVG anti virus, spy bouncer, spy doctor, and spy blaster. Be advised that having more than one version of spy and adware protection is recommended as one will pick up things that the other will not.

You Can't Escape "Big Brother"

I was having a phone conversation yesterday with a buddy of mine, and I was asked this, "If Quix is so bad then why are there so many people still in it?, Why is it so successful?, and why dont they question the same things as you?..." he goes on to say " Sure its hard to make money and yes you lose alot, but why are so many doing it and loving it? There are so many people that we have met PERSONALLY in this business that are VERY intelligent and well educated people and they are all about Quixtar, Is is possible that you ARE bitter for not making it to at least Platinum?". Good stuff, and I have previously considered these points so I was ready for them when they came. Here is my opinion. I think its highly possible that some of those that are so "into" Quix whether they are successful or not, are in it for the companionship and sense of meaning that they never got before. I think others can afford to build this broke because their financial situation was able to afford the loss or bill if you want to put it that way, I think that if there are bitter people out there its because their upline said " Hey have faith in me and you will be Platinum by next year", and then when you dont make it, your mind has to blame SOMEBODY so its either blame yourself or blame them, neither of which I conciously did, and neither of which I today hold any blame for, in fact it had nothing to do with my seperation from Upline. As far as Quix being so bad, Its not, its great, Ive said that before, I like Quixtar and many of their products, I just cant afford most of them but they ARE great products and its a great company, my only prob with them is this. THEY TURN A BLIND EYE BIG TIME TO THE CRAP THATS GOING ON, thats it. Why are so many successful? Again I think they can afford to sustain a sinking ship until its up and running, I cannot. Why dont they see things the same way I do. Well ask any one of them and they will tell you " Ive been brain flushed". Common business sense goes out the window, Ive heard a tape that says to throw out your instincts, throw out your excuses etc. You all of the sudden are running your feelings by your upline for approval or disapproval and you are then taught the proper way to think, feel , and react. See heres what I think, Its all messed up and here is why, I think you can build this business faster, stronger, and better with NO UPLINE SUPPORT. However you have to learn certain things to do it and some one just has to teach you cause some it is not in any book or on any tape. So you get an upline like me, we go around doing our thing, no tools, no functions, no strings, building relationships LITERALLY okay? Great. But there is a LARGE chance that this new IBO is going to find out about "upline", "Tools", "Functions", etc, then what? How will they find out? Cause you can never escape "BIG BROTHER" thats right, Your upline has access to your downline through the computer and can call them to "welcome" them to the "group" ANY TIME THEY WANT, BAM, there goes your credibility cause Upline has such a way with words they will turn that person slowly away from you and into their wings, anyway, these are just my thoughts.
*Originally posted April 24, 2003 8:42am*

Answers from Bo (re visited)

This just in from Bo, more answers. This is an email we received this morning concerning the 70% rule, this question was posed and answered for Tim, thanks Tim for the question, here is your answer from Bo

Hi Guys,

As you are aware, the 70% rule is a part of the FTC decision that declared that Amway was not an illegal pyramid if they adhered to it as well as others...i.e.. buy-back rule, customer rule, etc. To have a rule and not discuss it, explain it, and emphasize its importance to distributors is worthless (especially when your entire existence hinged on their passage). I believe this is evident when your own hierarchy of "higher pins" are contradicting it in meetings around the country. I share that to attempt to draw a distinction between how we operate Passport and how another business I was involved in was operated. Remember, when products are overpriced to the average person in the marketplace retailing is usually an afterthought.

If you have ever heard our conference calls you will find that we bring this up repeatedly. I want a business that people can be proud of but also one in which rules are important. In fact, yesterday I informed someone that he would be better off looking for another opportunity because he was insistent on not retailing at all. Much of his views came as a result of another business where he was told not to retail. He agreed to look elsewhere because I was unwilling to "give" on this issue.

Our business compendium places the burden of honesty on the Independent Associate. The compendium explains that it is their responsibility to keep records and not reorder if this requirement is not met. Monitoring and enforcement are obviously difficult but important. Before the end of this year we will be conducting a "customer survey" of Passport Independent Associates for audit purposes. Even though this is not required by law it is crucial to us as we want people to continually understand the importance of this issue.

I was asked recently if I felt as though some of the things I say today contradict statements I made in a previous business regarding retailing, etc. Of course I do. Having never been involved in this industry before, many people including me, only know what they are told by people that they are told to trust. A "pin" (including a diamond pin) does not necessarily garner you any additional knowledge. In fact, I would suggest that it only serves to reinforce the information you have been taught. Having left that business and decided to launch Passport I learned that many rules that I was taught to overlook, are in fact, critical to the safety of the company, but more importantly, are important for the well-being and protection of that company's distributors. I say that to tell you that I do not take these rules lightly.

I hope this is helpful. If I can be of further assistance please let me know.

Sincerely,
Bo

*This was originally posted Aug 26, 2003 8:48am

Quixtar News

While fishing around random Blogs, I happend on one I have visited before. You may have happend there yourself its the Quixtar and Beyond site. Anyway here is what I read about Quixtars numbers.

"Alticor will do about $6.2 billion in revenue this year. Quixtar will provide over $1 billion of that but Amway China will do over double that. Wow!

Also heard some interesting facts about Quixtar too. Of the 50 new Diamonds this past year 28 were ethnic minorities. The average age of a Quixtar IBO is now less than 33 and the average age of a new Quixtar IBO is less than 29. I love it that we are getting younger and more diverse as it makes things so much more vibrant."

In Other News About Quixtar
At another blog, I know you have heard of its the Quixtar Business Analysis Blog I read about "Tolsom". Its a new skin care line for Men. Evidently Billy Florence, Fred Harteis, and Orrin Woodward just LOVE IT! They each wrote little comments on how great it made their skin feel and how hesitant they were at first to use it. So I guess they are really working hard to keep their "noses clean".

Bo Short Speaks to Non Believer

Here are your answers Non Believer, and thank you for submitting them, This is making for a good read for us all and a learning experience for us all, I have enjoyed this a great deal.

*I hope the following responses are helpful. Call me if I can help.

Sincerely, Bo*

Name: Non-Believer

Dear Bo,

1) Why are you monitoring another one of your potential 'multi-million
dollar businesses' on web sites like this? Your business should speak for
itself and there shouldn't be a need for you to pay attention to what
outsiders say...unless you have some guilty feelings about scamming the next
generation of MLM'ers. Once you get back from that vacation in the Bahama's,
that realization has to cross your mind at some point.

*Part of me does not even want to justify your comments with a response
because of the personal attack with which they seem to represent. However,
there is another part of me that says maybe you were burned along with
millions of others.

I am not monitoring anything. In fact, I do not know what message boards
these posts are from. I have been asked by someone who had a bad experience
in another mlm if I would answer some questions for them. I agreed. I am
generally not a fan of message boards because people can make accusations
and say cruel things while hiding behind a fictitious name. I do understand
however, that this is how it sometimes works.

I believe that the discussion about this industry is important even if
people are not involved with Passport. If you are sincerely interested in
getting answers you are always free to contact me directly. You might find
the discussion is more open than you think.

To address your insinuation about feeling guilty I would offer a different
point of view. You were not privy to the meetings with the company and the
distributor hierarchy that I was involved in during my last year in that
business. You do not know the things that I learned after 10 years of
working 6-7 nights per week in pursuit of something that I believed was
"good". You might have been the type of person that researched the Internet
early on in your business (assuming you were involved); I was not. In fact,
I did not even go to a critical site until the year 2001. Without going into
detail here let me say, after learning about the extent of what I believe is
truly wrong in that business I resigned my income and business.

With all due respect, I am less concerned with your view of me and very
concerned about how a 6-year-old little girl and a wife I love dearly view
me. My wife knows what happened. Her views are the ones that are important
to me. If I had continued to take the money after what I learned I would
have felt a tremendous amount of guilt. That is why I chose to resign. I do
not want that kind of money. If you are asking if I feel bad about standing
on a stage and telling people something that I believed to be true, only to
find out it was not.you bet. I could not rationalize continuing in something
that I learned was, in my opinion, improper to say the least.*

2) Have you ever tried to contact some of you old Amway downlines to tell
them that you lied to them about the 2-5 year Amway plan? (We have it on
tape so don't even try to skip out on this one). Or did you 'really' feel
like you were telling them the truth? What is the Passport time scale? Can
you get rich selling prostate formula?

*As I read your questions I wonder if you are sincerely looking for an answer
or you simply want to be confrontational. I do not know. Of course I
communicated with the group I had worked in about what I found. I think it
is important to point out that I went diamond in 4.5 years. Unfortunately,
this only reinforced my belief that this was real. I bought into the
rhetoric that one's lack of success was due to their lack of effort. I know
with total confidence today that this is untrue, however, it does not change
the fact that I believed it, and promoted it at the time.

Regarding Passport, we do not have a time frame. I believe that would be
improper and contradict what we say we do. Regarding our Prostate Formula
product, I do not know. People have built multi-million dollar companies
selling paper clips.*

3) How much money did you make from those $6 Amway tapes, videos, and
function tickets? How does that profit compare to the money you made from
the actual retailing of Amway products? Can you scan a some copies of your
tax statements from 1996 -2002 to help verify this? (I am not sure of the
exact years but I think you get what I am trying to say).

*I will be happy to answer this. The system that I was involved with paid the
average diamond about $1.65 per tape. With that, you paid your emeralds
about .95 per tape.who in turn paid their directs about .25-.30 per tape. I
was never a large diamond. I had about 200-250 people attending functions on
average as a diamond. Two-thirds of my tapes came from 2 groups that were
represented by emeralds. The others were directs. Therefore, in 2/3 of my
business I netted approximately .70 per tape. Functions varied, but I
believe it would be safe to say that a diamond probably was paid about
$20-$25 per IBO in attendance at a large convention. Out of that, emeralds
received $7-$14 per IBO. This varied tremendously depending on the
organization you were attached to. Much of my income came through speaking.

The real question might be; what happens to the remainder of the money since
it only costs approximately .25 to copy a tape ($1.65 + .25 = $1.90; $6-
$1.90 = $4.10)?

I have never claimed to make money from the retailing of products. In fact,
I believe that one of the great disservices that was put on people was the
teaching that "we do not sell products." I understand that the company says
otherwise, but my experiences in my line of sponsorship were just that. I
believed what I was taught. Therefore, in 11 years I think that I personally
had one recurring customer.my in-laws.

I would also point out that, in my opinion, diamonds generate 50%-90% of
their income from the training business. Obviously the more tenure one has,
the larger the group, the higher the percentage.*

4) Your association with the American Leadership Foundation is public
knowledge now. I noticed that the late Strom Thurman and Trent Lott are
prominent members of this group. Do you agree with some of their views? Do
you believe that if Strom Thurman was elected President when he was openly
supporting his segregationist views, that "things would have been
different".? (Trent Lott made a similiar statement during the 100 year
birthday celebration for Strom Thurman. It eventually led to his resignation
as the Senate majority leader).

*It has been public knowledge since 1996 when it was launched. I am very
proud of its mission. I have had the opportunity to speak to thousands of
young people in high schools and colleges about leadership.

Regarding the two senators you mentioned; of course I agree with some of
their views. If you were to be completely fair you would note that there are
senators from the opposite side of the political aisle on my Adivsory Board
also. I agree with some of their views as well.

However, I believe what you are really asking is do I agree with the earlier
segregationist views of the late Senator Strom Thurmond. Of course not. If
you knew him as I did you would realize that he did not even see many issues
the way he did decades earlier. Probably by the time you and I are 100 (we
should be so lucky) we may have shifted views about issues in our life as
well. I think that many of one's views are shaped because of their
environment. I would suggest that your personal views about me may be wrong
but I can certainly understand the basis on which you might have shaped
them.

Regarding the comments by Senator Lott. I know him and know that all he was
trying to do was to make a 100-year-old man feel good. Should he have chosen
his words differently.obviously he should have. However, his only intention
was to pay respect to someone that may be your grandfather's age. There were
many factors involved in this "blowing up" as it did. Most of them were
politically motivated. I was up here in Washington when it happened. I know
how it was used for political gain.

How would life be if someone who was a segregationist became president? I
would never want to find out. It would be a sad day in America.*

This was originally posted August 26, 2003 1:49pm

Links of Interest

Here are some random findings while drowning in the internet...all were found through Google search...I dug through the pages that most never venture, however some may have seen or read these before. Check em out if you like.

Lawsuits Quixtar has filed
This was funny cause of misspelled words
Washington Post Article Upline didnt tell me about
Forbes article upline didnt mention
Consumer Affairs

Florence : Quixtar Business Incentives Wins Golden Reel Award

Billy Florence on Quixtar Golden reel win. “We congratulate Quixtar on this impressive national achievement of winning Golden reel award for the “Quixtar Business Incentives� video tapes. The video and the business incentives are big winners for IBOs and Quixtar,� Florence continues. Billy Florence is vice president of IBOAI, Independent Business Owners Association (IBOAI).

Quixtar Background: With the launch of Quixtar Inc. on Sept. 1, 1999, a new business model was created called I-commerce, representing the convergence of the Internet, the Individual, a full-service Infrastructure, and a proven Independent business ownership plan. I-commerce rewards IBOs for sales to those they register at www.Quixtar.com as new IBOs, Members, or Clients.

Since 1999, IBOs have generated more than $4 billion in sales for Quixtar plus more than $300 million for Partner Stores, earning well in excess of $1 billion in bonuses and incentives. Sales for fiscal 2004, which ended Aug. 31, 2004, will be reported later this fall

Im such a bad influence

I recently spoke with an IBO in depth. I was told that the reason I had not heard from them in a while was that they were told that my recent business practices were less than sound. Further into the conversation they sited events at 2 functions, they are as follows. We were at a VERY nice and EXPENSIVE hotel. SEVERAL upline and downline of us decided to have dinner in the resteraunt at hotel. Well we all ordered and there again were drinks served, I had one, Hubby had 2 beers, Upline ordered a bottle of wine which was shared all over the table and others ordered their drinks, I only know of ONE PERSONALLY SPONSORED IBO in my downline ( QBLOG's Wife) who did not drink. Anyway no one was drunk by any means just some were a little lighter on their feet than others. We headed off for the evenings events and afterwards went to our rooms and went to bed. End of Story. At another function on a Saturday evening after all the days events, we along with 2 people from our DIRECT upline and 2 people from our DIRECT downline, went out in search of food at 2:30am, as thats what time we finally got finished with Upline gatherings etc. We finally happend upon a sports bar that was soon to close, so we ordered quick and waited for our food, in the mean time the guys had a beer, and the girls had a mixed drink. We ate, we drank, we ordered another round of drinks for the road and hailed a cab. Got back to our hotel and went to our rooms to catch a few hours sleep for the next days activities. End of story. Well we got chewed a new one from upline after that saying that it was unprofessional, we should never encourage such activities, and we were setting a bad example. This is coming from upline who also drank those nights, who ALWAYS drank when they visited our home to show plans ( both before and afterwards ) Who had my sponsor in their home for a weekend and got COMPLETELY drunk each night. I mean come on, we went to an "after party" with our upline at one function and we sat and drank beer with our upline Diamonds, Platinums, Silvers, Emeralds etc and they were SLOSHED by the end of the night. We went to another and did the same exept no one got drunk. I can honestly say that we personally NEVER EVER had more than 2 drinks at any function in one sitting NEVER. We also were, by the way, following uplines lead, we figure well if they order we will, if they dont we wont. Well not only did they always order but they always consumed more than us, yet we were branded the bad influence. GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK MAN!!!! Anyone else ever had a run in with this situation???
*Originally posted April 15, 2003 1:06PM*

Vitamins, Supplements, PILLS PILLS PILLS

I was noticing just HOW MANY supplements that Quixtar/Nutrilite has to offer. With so many available, what do you take??? And how can you afford to take them all? Are they all, if used together, really such a good thing for you? If you read the ingredients you will notice that many of them have some of the same agents in them, so if you take DoubleX and a couple of others, are you overdosing on something? If DoubleX is so great, why take all the others? If Triple Mushroom is so good, Why the echinacea? I mean how many supplements is too many? And shouldnt you be a bit concerned about radio active urine? When taking the DoubleX I dont have to turn on the light in the middle of night when I get up to go, my pee lights up the room!!! If you are not on DoubleX and your urine gets real concentrated like that, the doctors get concerned. Interesting thought that a friend brought up, is there any chance that you are eliminating some of those supplements through your urine and thats the reason its so bright, and I mean like are you eliminating the EXCESS supplements? Dont get me wrong people, I have taken DoubleX and its great, I will never pay for it again however, I just have a stockpile of it for now because it was an easy item to rack up on for PV. I was told to do this and then just sell it, well I could have sold it but not at cost, not even IBO cost!!! Im all for supplements and I take a few myself, but if you go through the Nutrilite catalog and look at how many supplements DIFFERENT supplements with DIFFERENT uses there are that are recommended for daily use, You would be taking AT LEAST 50 pills a day. Who wants to do that?????
* Originally Posted April 18, 2003 8:44am *

The Archives

For the next few weeks along with new posts, I will also be re-posting some things from the Archives. I realize not all people care to sift through page after page of Archives, so I am gonna do it and find topics that still seem relevant, or that I feel might be interesting to go over again. These "old posts" will be listed as new posts, We will see what kind of feedback I get from this and if its bad then I will stop, but I dont think it will be. Incidently these "old posts" will all state the original post date at the bottom. This will remove them from the "old" Archives List and they will list as current or recently archived.

Just Over Broke

Author: Bob Osgoodby

You probably get hundreds of emails a week promising great
riches. "Financial Freedom", "Earn Money While You Sleep", "Be
Your Own Boss", "Create Your Own Destiny", "Escape Your Dead End
Job", "Be Able to Watch Your Kids Grow Up While Making Money",
"Work at Home", are all common headlines. Are these statements
true? (sounds like Quixtar Upline Promises huh?)

First, let's have a reality check. Today over 90 percent of
start-up businesses on the Internet fail within the first year.
The majority of these fail in a few short months. Why?

The answer to this is simplistic. Many people are conned into a
program that cannot succeed without selling the same program to
other people. This is a typical example of a pyramid, and when
you run out of suckers to sell the program to, you are out of
business.

Others jump into a program without finding out the particulars
first. Envelope stuffing is a perfect example. You are promised
one dollar for every envelope you stuff. With visions of "sugar
plums dancing in your head", you figure you could do hundreds a
day. Let's face it - machines can stuff thousands an hour. Why
would someone pay you a dollar apiece? They won't - it's a con -
pure and simple.

Some might stumble on a legitimate venture - yes there are some
out there. But they followed the "Earn Money While You Sleep"
routine. They believe if they follow some simple directions,
they will be "rolling in dough" without having to do any work.
When the postman isn't filling their mailbox with $20 bills,
they lose heart and quit.

Others might buy some "obsolete government reports" on a CD and
believe the "rap" that they can sell each one for $15 a pop.
They get a free email account, a free web site, and are in
business with just the cost of the CD. That business might last
a week.

The ones I get a kick out of are where they "front load" you
with merchandise. You could have thousands invested before you
realize you have been taken. Most of the people trying to sell
this deal, are only trying to recover the money someone else
conned them out of, and hope you will be gullible enough to let
them fleece your pockets. Anybody want to buy a "water filter"?
I know someone with a garage full.

With the exception of a naïve minority, people are "savvy"
enough to avoid the majority of these scams. So, if you want to
get into business on the Net, use some common sense and do some
"due diligence" investigation before jumping in with both feet .

Do some people make money on the Net? Sure - but guess what?
They work for it. Some may tell you that JOB is a dirty word and
stands for "Just Over Broke". Working for yourself is hard work
if you want to succeed. You must run your "Home Business" with
the same discipline you would use in any other.

You must advertise, advertise, advertise - if people don't know
you're there, how do you expect them to find you to do business?
Be prepared to work 60 to 70 hours a week or more if it is a
full time venture.

But how about those who need the financial security of their
job, while trying to develop their online business - can they
hope to succeed? Yes! But they have to put in their effort in
the evenings and on weekends. They have to approach it with the
same attitude as someone doing it full time.

There are a lot of good opportunities "just ripe for the
picking" out there. If you avoid the obvious scams, and do some
"due diligence" investigation, you will find one. If the first
few don't work for you, don't lose heart. Be sure you give it
enough time and effort before giving up. If you are sure it
won't, "cut your losses" and move on to something else. It may
take some time to find a "fit", but when you do, it will be
worth your time and effort.

Product Comparisons

While visiting over at the QBlogsite I read a recent post about how Qblog's wife prefers the Artistry skin care line offered exclusively through Quixtar. I too was addicted to the products in that line, but I was finally able to find other products at retail stores, cheaper and just as good if not better. If you too were "addicted" to a particular product offered exclusively through Quixtar or any other MLM and have found a comparable product in a retail store, please comment with it....Some love SA8, some love Nutrilite products and some love Artistry, Do you know of products that are just as good cheaper? Let us know!!!!!

It's not just football

It's NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL

G.Robert Blakey
is a Professor of Law at Notre Dame, My husbands Grandfather studied Law at Notre Dame and also played football for them in the early 30's. We are diehard fans and yesterdays game was just a reminder of why!!!

The Blakey Report

I found this report ( which is not new to most ) but I figured I better post a link to it here, so as to be sure that it is made available to people who may not have read this before. If you are involved in, or considering involvement with MLM you should read this report. I previously posted this report its in Junes Archives.

G. Robert Blakey Report

Incidently I found this link at this site:
Amway/Alticore/Quixtar Sucks!

You can find more information relating at theQblog Site

The Rat Race

My kids have mice, they love them, they have their cage in the living room for all who come visit to see. These mice spend HOURS on their wheel just running, running running...We had to buy a new cage in fact because the first one we got interrupted us constantly with the constant sound of the wheel spinning...You see this go on day after day after day, for over a year now, same mice, same wheel. Mice are supposed to be somewhat smart, and able to figure things out, yet they get on that wheel knowing it goes no where...Are they exercising? Is it fun? What result are they looking to get? Quixtar speaks of the "rat race" alot, and really when you think about it, Quixtar itself is a rat race of sorts...You go out there day after day night after night spinning on that wheel of circles ( showing the plan ) granted the results change and the outcome is different each time...but its the same thing over and over and over, and as far as "I" can see, your not going to ever be able to get off that wheel....Well unless of course you get involved in the Tools business, but then again, isnt that just another wheel? I will say it again, I dont have the gift of words that other bloggers have, and sometimes making my point confuses everyone ( including me LOL ) But if you see where I am going with this...let me know what you think

Lets get Political....

I want to take this space to do a little poll regarding Florida and its current and past Hurricane/Mother Nature problems....I am a Fox News Junkie and saw something last night that interested me. Do you think that its appropriate for our tax dollars to continue to be spent on rebuilding Florida in the areas that continue to be ravaged by Mother Nature? Clearly funding needs to be available to dislocated families thats a given...however...does it make sense to continue to rebuild only to have to do it again and again and again???? Now...If we do not give our tax dollars ( I made that sound like we have a choice huh LOL ) to rebuild..what does that do to Florida's economy? Where do those families relocate to? I realize lots of problems could arise if we do not continue to rebuild...but rebuilding itself raises some issues....I guess I am on the fence myself about this, but with Ivan fast approaching in the wake of Frances and you know the one before blah blah blah, one has to wonder, is it worth it? Let me know what you think....

Weird

I got an email from "Administrator@quixtar.com" it was addressed to myself and all that were in my downline.....simply saying that they were testing the email program, and it had a personal message ( Misspelling my name ) saying that the pictures of my kids were nice or something like that....I havent sent out pics of my kids in a while, recently sent out a preschool photo of ONE of my kids but not to anyone in my Q family....weird

UP YOURS

Hey Up Yours (@aol.com)

Havent heard from you in a few days.....you still out there????

By chance or what?????

Here is something fishy that I have discussed at length with other bloggers and some online friends....Everytime I get involved in the AmQuix tangle, I get TONS of spam mail, and tons of mail containing virus's, and my computer seems to crash alot and other weird happenings....Well, Today my computer took a trip to a family members house whom incidently is a computer wiz....So now I should be plenty protected and ready to face whatever else is sent to me through this information highway....In a matter of 1 hour after setting my computer back up, I had 3 emails that contained the same Bagel virus, all detected, all reported, and all deleted. Again, I NEVER experience these things while away from my blog or before my blog...Things that make you go Hmmmm. My point here is this...If you are new to the AMQuix blog scene, be sure to have back up restore disks ( current ones ) be sure to have UP TO DATE virus protection, and make sure that your email is safe guarded also...