Failing with Distinction!

Ah, screwed up my driving big time today! Actually I thought I did OK, but met with a tough tester - an ex-traffic police, or so my instructor told me. Damn! Earned myself 50 (demerit) points... Beat that! Also never thought I'd be nervous, but I found my leg trembling during the test :S Perhaps that was what made the tester pick on all my mistakes... Ah well, I'll have another go at the test when I come back in dec...

Lemme now reflect on my mistakes... It's quite disputable if you ask me...

My Mistakes

8 Points:
"Not enough side clearance given to other road users"
for travelling too close to the cars parked on the side when driving in a 2 lane road with cars parked on both sides. How to compromise?!?!
"Cause other vehicles to slow down or take evasive action"
when changing lanes to do u-turn. Of course the other person got to slow down to give me space la!
"Proceed on Amber Light"
for not stopping when I was 10 cm behind the stop line travelling at 20km/hr when the light turned amber. The deceleration would inflate the airbags if I managed to stop behind the stop line!

6 Points:
"Fail to keep within lane"
K la, this one was my fault. I mounted the curb a day before, and staying clear of the curb this time, so crossed the center divide.

4 Points:
"Veering off course"
Got two ticks for this, both at bends... Can't remember the specific occassions though...
"Improper turning - into incorrect lane"
"Fail to confirm safety"
I'm clueless :S

2 Points:
"Fail to use appropriate gear"
"Improper turning - wide turn"
Compared with 50 points, this is small change ;)

Now try beating that without earning yourself an immidiate failure :P

An update on my anti-virus campaign... Realised the bloody virus was still residing on my computer after the reformatting the computer and installing McAfee. Each time I started the computer, a webpage, "http://www.thexxxmasters.com/" would open, and my internet would work for a while. Then after sometime, the virus would be triggered, and my anti-virus software would alert me of some viruses, which always happens to be the same... "mmxxxxmas2.exe", "avatarz.exe" & "goaway.exe". Thereafter, I would lose my internet connection. It was very irritating, lived with it for 2 whole days.

Today I finally decided to track down where the virus was being triggered, traced the location of the virus from the McAfee log to the location "C:\Documents and Settings\Gabriel Wu\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\" and deleted all the folders there, the files looked suspiciously related with the virus... Did not really help. The popup did not go away when I restarted the computer, and somehow the file always reappeared each time I restarted the computer.

Ran HiJackThis and deleted the following entries:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer,SearchURL = http://www.easysearch4you.com/sp2.php
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://www.easysearch4you.com/sp2.php
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://www.easysearch4you.com/sp2.php
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,ShellNext = http://www.nu2.nu/bbie/
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [System service69] C:\WINDOWS\etb\pokapoka69.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [System service65] C:\WINDOWS\etb\pokapoka65.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunServices: [Microsoft Mapped PC] mapppc.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Microsoft Mapped PC] mapppc.exe

And now the situation looks better. At least I seem to have sustained internet connection.