sam_gamgee | randomness

Wasn't going to watch the Oscars, but ended up doing so anyway. And LotR swept the awards. Woo hoo! (Part of the reason will be explained below.) The Kodak theatre is part of the Hollywood & Highland complex that's attached to the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, which is where

nakedwesley and I were staying when we went out to L.A. last week. And we got to see the actual statuttes.

Must get this off my chest - The Jazz Singer WAS NOT the first sound movie. Movies had been using sound since the beginning. It was just that prior to The Jazz Singer, the industry didn't have the capability to do dialogue well (and for years afterwards, it was still a struggle with the mics and such). So The Jazz Singer WAS the first TALKING movie, but NOT the first SOUND movie.

So about a month or two ago, I downloaded something (not sure what exactly, but pro'ly something for mp3s) and it brought some crap with it. I went through and thought I uninstalled all of it and since it went away, I didn't think much of it. Then some of the stuff (namely, a couple of really annoying toolbars in Explorer) came back unexpectedly. So I spent an hour or so yesterday on the phone with John, my mom's new husband who works with computers, trying to get it all sorted out. After removing and then reinstalling programs, downloading anti-spywear, and doing some other stuff to try to fix it. The toolbars finally went away, so we were like, "Yay, it's fixed."

But it wasn't. They showed back up today. So my dad was on for about 2-2.5 hours or so trying to figure out how to fix it himself and ended up downloading this thing called 'Secure Explorer' which is supposed to block pop-ups, spyware, and active x. So I guess we'll see what happens. (And this is why I was watching the Oscars. I was waiting for my dad to get off because after being on for about an hour, he was like, "Okay, I'm done" and then decided to stay on and try to fix it.)

I feel guitly about this happening. Although, as my friend Michelle pointed out, it's not like I knew that it was going to happen.