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.

Missing DuDu

Happy Birthday, Dudu! You would have been 13 today. You would have been called a senior dog but I bet you wouldn’t have looked like one.

Daddy and Mommy miss having you around. Your favorite apple tree is blooming now. We’re sad that you won't be here to pick your apples.

Are you with Max, Beau and Finnigan? Is Max still the inquisitive one? Is Beau still the distinguished one? Is Finnigan still the protective one? God, we miss you all.

A big WOOF-WOOF to you. HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A Little Victory for the Day

A TALKING JEEP WRANGLER. Little do I know that cars of nowadays are totally computerized. For the past 12 years, I have zipped up and down in my littler basic hardy bimmer and never have to pay attention to this kind of stuff. Then come along this little Jeep telling me what to do.

One chime here if I didn't do this; one blinking indicator light there if I did that. The instrument panel has about a dozen different colorful icons with dinging sounds. It's kind of hard to read them all when they light up at start up.

So I finally solved the ESP problem. Well, it wasn't a problem. The Jeep was just thinking hard. The service people finally had to re-flash the chip -- kind of like zapping the brain -- so everything is back to normal now, until...

CLICK! YOU'RE NOW LOCKED IN. I was tickled pink when I discovered that my Jeep automatically locks the doors when I start driving. How cool is that? I know it's nothing new but I never had it before. But there is always a downside with things being so automatic. You get used to it, then you get lost when it stops working. Yap, my Jeep decided that it didn't want to auto-lock the doors anymore all of a sudden. I just can't figure out what happened. I've done nothing. Why? Why? Why? Not that I miss it, but it WAS there.

INQUIRING MIND WANTS TO KNOW. I've been googling these couple of nights. I'm determined to find out what the heck is going on. I thought it may have to do with the chip re-flashing. If so, then it would have been a programming issue not a part failure (so I hope). After couple of nights of searching, I'm happy to learn that it's a program issue, and there are plenty of people out there with the same issue!

It was amazing to learn that owners can actually program their cars nowadays. Click here. Switch there. For example, I can reprogram the Jeep to auto-lock at 15mph and auto-unlock all doors or not all doors. I can even program it to shut up or not to beam light like a beacon. Wow!

I tried for couple of days following the programming sequences but there are couple of variations on the Internet. I tried them all but none seemed to work. Heck, I even tried my own combination of buttons and timing of button pushing. None to avail. The funny thing is you don't know if you're programming it to enable or disable the function because it's the same sequence for both! So, I would go through the sequence, then drive it to test it. It was quite amusing. Well, nothing worked.

Not giving up, I gave it another shot this afternoon. I picked this variation of the sequence: cycle the key from Lock to On 4 times and leave it at the Lock position at the end of the 4th cycle and click the power lock downward once. A wonderful chime came on, Voila! It worked this time.

What a great feeling of conquering! Small, insignificant but it made my day. :)

For Jeep Wrangler owners: check out the JK-Forum. Great place to learn about the talking Wrangler.

Now, I am ready to have serious fun!!

A Blissful Afternoon

Just Gorgeous! Today is one of those pretty days. Not a cloud in the sky and the sun shines warming, not blistering. It may be too hot inland but it's just perfect by the coast.

I put out the sun umbrella and dust off the patio furniture. I think this is the first time this year. It was either bad weather or no time to enjoy. I actually got both good weather and time today! Wow! What a pleasure to just being able to sit back and relax! Can't ask for more!

Well, maybe I can ask for more days like this.

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Still Going, Going...

I wonder if my poinsetta sets a record for everlasting. It's still a pretty red and green plant from Christmas. It sits atop of the file cabinet by the window in my office. I don't pay much attention to it except watering it every couple of days.

Perhaps poinsetta can last very long given a chance. Too many times, it just get ignored and neglected after the holidays. Don't they deserve a life after serving its purpose as holiday decoration? Now I feel guilty.

Not sure how much longer my poinsetta will last. I think sooner or later the red pigment will fade. Perhaps it's a lucky plant being at the right place at the right time. Or perhaps, this little plant wants to make a point.

Note to self: You don't know how far you can go if you don't try.

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