A Word to the Wise: Backup

I have been using computers since 1985. I have lost my share of data. One of the hardest things is having some tech guy say to you, "You didn't have a backup?" Not having a backup of your stuff is like driving without car insurance. You may save some money, but if you get into an accident, you are on the non-stop hassle train to hell.

Think about all of the stuff on your computer. In my case, I have more than 6K songs and 5K photos. If I had a crash and no backup, I would be sick. The music can be replaced, but it would take a lot of time and money to replace it. The photos cannot be replaced. Without a backup of my photos, a crash would be like my house burning down.

Here is what I do. In the past, I have kept extra copies of my music and pictures folders on other hard drives on my computer. More recently, I purchased a 250 GB external firewire hard drive. Now my data exsts on my computer and another device unplugged from the computer. To be really safe, I should have the data on some form of media off site. I am working on that.

They say a word to the wise is sufficient. Please backup your data so when your computer fails you, and it will, you can pull out your trusty backup and turn a disaster into a minor inconvenience.

Don't just take my word for it. Click here to listen to Steven Thrasher's paniced phone call to Canon technical support about his laptop. This is hilarious.

Don't forget to backup your blog and your blog template. In the new Mac OS X Tiger, the web browser Safari has a web archive feature. It saves a page complete with the jpegs. I copied my entire blog in about 10 minutes. There are several ways to skin a cat though and everyone's situation and options are different. Just do it.

Now get to work, it’s Monday

Until the next time
John Strain

Here's to the Mom's

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mothers out there. I was blessed with a good mother. Not only did she give me a good start, she has been with me my entire life, encouraging me and providing support.

I told Barbara that for mother's day, she could cook anything she wanted. I would eat whatever. I thought she would be happy getting to pick what she cooked for a change. Hehehehehehe. Just a joke folks. We are going out to dinner today. I hope you are too.

Until the next time
John Strain

Powerful Moments

Life is punctuated with powerful moments. Some of the powerful moments in my life were:

Nature, seeing mountains for the first time and the ocean.
Hearing my son's first cry
Looking into Barbara's eyes on our wedding day
A doctor telling us our newborn son may die
Getting my first job and eventually a paycheck
My first kiss and I will stop there
When the Chiefs won the Super Bowl
When the Royals won the World Series
When I crossed the finish line in Boston
When the words, "I love you" were whispered in the dark

There have been many powerful moments in my life and if you think for a while, you could compile your own list of powerful moments.

These times have shaped us for better or worse. Not all of the powerful moments were good; some were painful and hard to bear.

We live for these moments. We work long and hard to create them. Sometimes they are more than we imagined and other times they fall short of our expectations.

We collect trinkets to remember these moments in the form of rings, diplomas, and medals. I am surrounded by these momentos as I sit here. I have several marathon medals hanging on a hook. Photos remind me of good times past.

Looking over my shoulder at these things is good if done in small doses. I smile and remember the joy of the challenge met or the obstacle overcome. The true prize is in my memory and my heart, but even these fade into obscurity. A life that stops collecting powerful moments is forced to mull the same ones over and over. The result is the old timer talking about the glory days.

The power is not in the trophy or the diploma. The power is in the "moment." There is no time better than that moment. Addictionologists tell us that the addict's best joy is right before he/she uses their substance of choice. The joy is in the anticipation. Reality rarely matches our mental image of that reality.

Think about the weekend, isn't Friday after work the best part? It is all ahead of us, and then the weekend unfolds without fanfare, pomp, or circumstance. What we felt on Friday was the best part; it was the anticipation.

What is the point? I am glad you asked the question. Powerful moments are what we live for. We talk about the past ones and long for future ones. Some happen on their own, but most require a few things from us. First, we must be able to dream. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen. Then we must work to make it happen. It will take time and it will be difficult, challenging, and costly. If it were not all of these things, the result would not be a powerful moment.

The active person will experience more of these times than the passive person. We must prime the pump, so to speak, with measured, steadfast, and consistent effort.

As long as you are living, why not live in such a way to create powerful moments?

Until the next time
John Strain

Birds and Squirrels

Last weekend I borrowed a camera from a friend of mine to take some pictures of all the wildlife in our yard. The weather was bad Saturday and when I did take photos, the lighting was not the best. Still, after three rolls of film, I got a few keeper photos.

Here is a sample:

You can see the rest of the photos, by following this link:

More Bird and Squirrel Photos

The squirrels need to go running with me in the morning to address their mounting weight problem. They are nearing a size that may compromise their safety. As it is now, they have to help each other climb trees by giving a "leg up."

I need to assuage my guilt about not reading and commenting on my blog roll folks. It seems to happen every so often. I suppose it is a facet of blogging. I will be back in the swing of things before long. For the time being, I have been having a hard time getting a post out each day - but I am not complaining.

It is my bedtime.

Until the next time
John Strain

Time to Upgrade

I have had my Power Mac G4 733 since September 2001. What with software and operating system updates, it has been getting long in the tooth. Thankfully, one can purchase processor upgrades. Today, arriving from Other World Computing in Illinois, will be the new processor 1.4 complete with preinstalled fan and heat sink. It is supposed to be plug and play so we will see about that. To help the new processor which is twice as fast as the one I am now running, I have added to my RAM. I am moving up from 640 mb to 1GB. Then to top things off, I am upgrading the video card. Muahahahahaha.

Last night, I installed the new Mac OS 10.4 code named Tiger. Grrrrroowwlllll. It has some great new features. Some of you XP folks should check it out and see what you are missing. Get out of the 80's. Anyway, I also got the new iLife package which made improvements to iPhoto with photo editing built-in. ILife is 5 applications in one: iTunes, Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie HD, and iDvd. Good stuff. One good thing about Macs is they keep making improvements in the hardware and software. My bank account can attest to this fact. I rationalize it by reminding myself it is cheaper than a crack habit.

I can't wait to see how fast things will work. My video rendering will certainly be helped and burning DVD's will take less time. I love to get under the hood of things and tinker. This evening will be fun. That is if the Wells Fargo Wagon comes in on time.

I wish I could order a new left hamstring and upgrade my leg.

Until the next time
John Strain