C. S. Lewis once said,

"Experience is that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God, do you learn."

And I've learned a few things over the past few days. Actually I love learning - it's one of the few things that make us human but sometimes, like Lewis, I realize that learning by asking questions or observing would have been a lot easier than learning by experience.

For instance, no one bothered to tell me that it's about 100 times easier to get a computer virus with broadband than it is with dial up. I know enough about computers that I should have thought about that and taken some precautions. I didn't and basic Windows Security and the ancient virus program that had not been updated in who knows how long let something in.

Actually it was several somethings but one really bad one. The first clue was the computer slowing down to a crawl. Next windows started disappearing or popping up out of the blue. Finally, a small red box popped up in the lower right of the screen telling me that my computer was infected with a virus and directing me to a certain website to fix the problem.

If I weren't so naturally skeptical and suspicious, I might have done just that. But something caught my eye. The warning pop up did not come from Windows or the virus program I use. Furthermore, the website this thing was trying to direct me to was not anything I'd ever heard of before. So I went and bought a new, trustworthy virus protection and removal package and have spent the past couple of days installing, scanning, cleaning and quarantining.

The computer's back in working order now with no viruses present and only a couple of minor but annoying problems left from the episode.

In addition, I learned that the malicious little pop up wasn't even a virus - it was a non-replicating Trojan that only told me I had a virus so I would go to it's website and pay good money to get a fake virus removal program to remove the malware that it put on my computer in the first place. Slick. And Evil. Why can't they track these people down and lock them up?

I did some reading too during the hours of automated file scanning and stuff and I also learned that growing Bonsai trees is just a little more involved than I had hoped.

At least I learned this the easy way.