OK, Back to Work... Sigh!

A week of freedom from work. I still woke up at the same time but instead of rushing out the door, I got to enjoy coffee and newspaper leisurely. So nice not to think about work for a week. Priceless... Hmmm, come to think of it, I did have to pay for this freedom with my vacation time so not free.

Aside from doing all the things that I don't usually have the time for, I met up with old buddies, had good dinners and even a night out on Thursday (NightLife at the California Academy of Science). I actually got time to shred like crazy and iron 8 pairs of pants and 10 shirts. I cleared away my desk and cleaned the crystals on the chandeliers. It was nice to complete all these things that were on my checklist for the longest time. The feeling of accomplishment was actually more relaxing than going away on a real vacation. REALLY!!

I wish that I have kick back weeks like this every week. But, in my world, it would mean UNEMPLOYMENT unless I win the lotto.

Tomorrow is Monday and I go back to the daily rush. Life is not perfect but I'll have the next vacation to look forward to.

Happy Monday!

A Little Something from the Past

Yahoo has been on the move to close down business units right and left. First it was Jumpcut and now Yahoo 360 Blog. I really don't use both services much but I do have both accounts -- just had to try them out - had to be with the time, you know. Very much like the dot-bomb days... Anyway, I had total of 2 blog entries on the Yahoo Blog and I had to archive them or they will be deleted forever. You know how sensitive I'm with lost memories. So, I want to capture them here.
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AUTHOR: sutsen
TITLE: Entry for May 25, 2006 - Graduation Tomorrow
DATE: 05/25/2006 23:35:55
STATUS: publish
BODY:

So, I'm finally graduating. I'll be in the hooding ceremony tomorrow. I have never imaged that I would be part of another graduation ceremony. When I attended my undergraduate ceremony 19 years ago, I thought that was it...

Not too sure how I feel about all of this. I went back to school because I wanted to challenge myself. So, now I did it. What did I prove? What's next? There is still so much to learn in the world. Law school? Medical school? I'll be the world's oldest intern!!!

A bartender license looks reachable. It may be fun too... I bet I'll be able to make some serious tips giving business advice while bartending.

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AUTHOR: sutsen
TITLE: Entry for May 18, 2006 -My First Blog
DATE: 05/18/2006 01:43:01
STATUS: publish
BODY:

I turned in my research paper yesterday. What a relief!! I can't believe it's done. I'm actually that close to the end of the tunnel!

I have carried the paper with me in my backpack and in my brain for the past 4 months. I thought it was going to be about 35 pages long. With every edit, the number of pages kept going up... it went up to 39 then 42... much longer than expected. I guessed I really got something to say.

I turned in my paper to Dr. Meeks two weeks ago. He suggested some changes and happily signed it off on 5/10. I took it to Dr. Castaldi on 5/12 hoping that he would just signed it - with eyes closed - please, please, please.

Of course, things never go the way I want it to go. Against all convention that 2nd reader really doesn't care about what you write, Dr. Castaldi wanted to read my paper first before he signs off. Urrrr... I almost threw up! What's up with that? What if he doesn't like my paper? What if he refuses to sign?

Dr. Castaldi emailed me Thursday night, "you left your sunglasses in my office." Gee... I guessed I saw darkness before me and I didn't need no stinky sunglasses as I walked away from his office....

My tummy didn't feel good for the next few days not knowing the fate of my paper... but I still had to work on the consumer behavior presentation and paper. I kept telling myself: need to concentrate on what is on hand... no time to worry about the unknown... do what needs to be done and worry later...

Good news came Sunday morning. Dr. Castaldi emailed, "it looks very good..." He wanted me to edit the conclusion a bit. Other than that, he was ready to sign off. I was so happy that my minor edit turned into a 5-hour writing session. It was done and, I was so done, yesterday at 5:15am!!!

As I took the signed research paper to the Business College, I felt a tremendous weight lifted. I haven't felt that way in a long time! This is almost it!!! Now, I just have to finish up the paper and prepare for the 10 chapter final for Consumer Behavior, go to graduation on 5/26 and my school life will be completely over. Wow!

As I left to go back to work yesterday, I called Mommy, Daddy and RK - I'm ready to celebrate! We met at Palomino for a pre-final-pre-graduation celebration!

Life is good

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Can't believe that I'm out of school for that long.... time flies whether you're having fun or not.

The Past Disappeared When You Don’t Backup

Yap, you guess it. I didn’t backup as often as I should have, and now part of my past that I relive through photos is gone forever.

I know I'm supposed to BACKUP. But, just one slip and I’m paying for being lazy. I should have backup more often but you may agree that it’s easier said than done. *sigh*

I still have my past before 2007 but I didn’t back up all 2007 through the present because I kept telling myself that I’ll get to it when I get a chance. Well, sometimes there is no luxury of waiting. Sometimes there is no second chance. So, just do it. Just do it when you think of it.

Lesson learned: DO NOT EVER trust any storage drives no matter how great they are. I got a brand new external drive to store my photos and it crashed after 2 months. My intent was to use it as the master storage unit for all my pictures and keep CD copies as backup. I wanted to centralize the picture filing for easy retrieval and I was paranoid that the PC/laptop drives were going to crash (how ironic). I moved everything into it -- a cool 500 GB space – but boldly erased the copies on my laptop, PC and cameras BEFORE I made duplicate sets. Augh! How foolish of me to think that was ok!! I can’t even blame my bad luck ducklings. The fault is all mine. :(

Luckily, I got some photos back via data recovery software and some of them are out there on websites, in emails and with others. I’m now in the process of rebuilding my past. I'll be able to recover some but a part of my past is gone without a trace. It's like it never existed.

BACKUP! BACKUP! and More BACKUP! People. You never want to be in my position. No money in the world can buy back time and memory. Capture them through pictures and videos and safeguard them for the future. They are priceless.