Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tuesday

I had my reservations about letting Michael download "songs" from Limewire a while back, today I found some stuff that made this far worse than I would have imagined. I mean, when I let him do the downloads, he spent the night doing that stuff - and then I found out the next day he stayed home from school to continue on.

THAT was bad enough. Today, I'm going through files on my computer trying to get rid of stuff - especially videos and pics - to speed the thing back up. I go into the account Michael used to download all these songs and found hundreds and hundreds of pornographic photos and videos. I have deleted all of that garbage - the porn stuff and left the music. However, I have now decided to delete ALL of it and that will be the end of it. If he loses all of his music - and porn - on that little electronic gadget of his, he'll have to somewhere else to download that shit as it will NEVER happen on my computer again.

I didn't even know you COULD download anything but music on Limewire. I have warned him about looking at porno shit on my computer before, he is also going to be banned from using this computer for at least a month, maybe two.

Really pissed me off, to say the least. I'm going to have to run my Avast software and make sure some trojan or other viral junk didn't sneak past it - as in, perhaps something downloaded before Avast got it into their system as something to stop from allowing it to go into your files on your computer. Limewire is notorious for files that are laden with viruses and executable files that allows a person full access to your computer while you are online.

I am on staycation, and though I had wild ideas of doing all kinds of projects, I have done very few so far. I'm feeling incredibly LAZY right now. I can't explain why - but the house is empty right now cepting' all the dogs of course and I just want to enjoy the peace and quiet. If I would just start doing something, I'm sure the energetic juices would kick and I would be in marathon mode instead of nothing mode. There is nothing around here that is in dire need, though, excepting to take apart the plumbing in the main bathroom sink and clean out whatever's clogging up the drain. My guess would be Mary's hair - the only thing I can think of with anyone having had been in here that would do such a thing.

As for now, I am thinking about going up to the hospital for a quick visit to see Ken and see what he looks like/how he's doing in person rather than the eternal phone updates and then posting it on Facebook for his friends.

I also want to get to a thing my favorite Australians sent to me in the mail (no, I haven't gotten to it yet, but today should be a good day to do so or tomorrow at the latest) - albeit, they are really the ONLY Australians I know! lol.

G'day
ben

6 comments:

Fin said...

To this day I don't understand why there is not a stay-away order in place for that kid.

You are very lucky your computer was not destroyed. If he downloaded copyrighted stuff, good luck when they come after you for the fines.

Some countries have imposed HUGE fines for downloading protected material. And God knows if the porn triggered warnings with Homeland Security or the FBI.

Hope you DO go to see Ken. I know he would be cheered up a lot.

BenB said...

Part 1
Well, I have no idea what kinds of stuff is being promulgated on LimeWire - whatever it is - the person that has the stuff being pumped out for others to download - if it were illegal - would be the one to get into trouble I would think. I had that thing up for about 24 hours and then removed the software from my computer.

Now - about Michael. You and I - obviously - don't always see eye to eye on this situation. I see signs of hope and I am not willing to give up yet. Anthony is a lost cause - at least for now. Someday perhaps he will wake up out of his coma of lies and thievery and see something different - there is always hope for anyone from my viewpoint.
Regardless, Anthony and Michael's cousin came over last night, ringing the doorbell. I went out there and greeted Mario - I think he's 16 years old. I think it unwise to treat them with anything but respect - other things could start happening to my property and I would have even more junk to deal with.

Mario was looking for Michael. Michael had left 10 minutes earlier for the black kid's house. Mario went back to the car - being driven by Anthony. Anthony does not have a driver's license but I have come to hear that he is driving around all over the place. I couldn't SEE Anthony in that car, but I made the assumption based on what I have already been hearing.
A few minutes later - less than 5 minutes - Michael comes back. I was surprised to see him back so soon since those 2 were looking for him. He stated that Anthony and Mario were going to do a "beer run".
Michael wanted no part of it and neither did the black kids. The pair had asked all of them to come help them in their endeavor.
A beer run is simply a run on a convenience store. Someone is in a car that is waiting outside, running, and someone else, or several someone elses go inside the store, grab cases of beer and simply run out the door with it, jumping into the car and taking off.
It's a rather frequent occurence.
I was pretty happy that Michael wasn't participating in this activity. Especially with pressure coming from his older brother to do so. This to me was a sign of hope - that perhaps he might just turn out okay after all is said and done.
I could testify here of doing FAR worse things in my teenaged years - and only by the grace of God have I made it to the place I am, intact, at 45 years old and in MUCH better condition than those of my friends from that era - many of whom are 6 feet under. I need only look at my own past to know that there is always hope. It's a matter of a person coming to terms with life, God and reality.
Although I detest pornography on it's face, I also remember looking at it in my teen years. I am NOT making excuses for it, and certainly around here there are definitely consequences for engaging in such. My focus with Michael is simply getting him to go to school every day, not having a place to come hang out if he decides to ditch, and getting through the school year with some decent grades. If I fail, at least I will have the conscience that I tried.

BenB said...

Part 2

There is always the possibility that I will yet ask Michael to leave again as well. He does things sometimes that make me not want him around here. Such as attempting to take the bike incident as you probably remember and his insolence towards me. When it comes to Michael, I just take it a day at a time, as I never know what's going to happen next. He may disappear and I may never see him again. What I do know is that their house goes through recurrent bouts of no running water, no electricity, etc etc etc. You know that as well from reading this junk for years now. He is forced to spend nights over there now, sleeping on the floor or on mattresses on the floor; noise going on all night long; frequent occurences of very little food being available; etc etc - you know the whole story, nothing has changed with them, nothing ever will as far as I'm concerned. The kids will eventually grow up. I figure Anthony eventually will end up in prison. I don't see anything else unless some miraculous event happens in his life. Michael - is a much less devious, evil person and has a very good nature about him - usually. He has begun to take very seriously my threats of consequences for actions that I deem inappropriate or beyond - but that doesn't stop him from testing from time to time.

Fin said...

Thing is, it looks from here like he has ZERO respect for you. You have banned him from the computer before, and here you go again. He knows your feelings and not only does he not give a damn about them, but he is oblivious to the legal consequences TO YOU of his behavior.

I DO give you credit for lots more patience than I ever had, and for lots of good intentions, but it always makes me sad to see the kids basically dump all over you. Or appear to.

Fin said...

Ref the beer runs. ALL convenience stores around here have good video surveillance for just this sort of thievery and they DO call the police for larcenies and frequently the kids are caught.

BenB said...

No doubting it appears that way - and possibly at least partially true - which is why the punishments become ever more severe as time continues. The final punishment would be banishment from this residence permanently, if it gets that far, just as I did with Anthony.

Yes, the convenience stores around here all have them too, hence my fairly secure belief that he will eventually be caught. I say that because if he's out there doing it once, he must have done it already several or many times with no intention of stopping.

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