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So almost exactly 11 months after my last hard drive failure, it’s happened again.  And “sucks” would be an understatement.  Thankfully, after last time, I regularly back up this 1.5 Terabyte drive (which was roughly 90% full).  I back it up to a network server (Buffalo Terastation) which has reliably served me for 3+ years now.

Even with the backups, I don’t have everything I had 2 weeks ago.  It had so much on it that a full backup/sync took roughly 24 hours.  So my regular schedule was to backup photos every day, and everything besides movies on a 2 week basis.  The movies are gone, and that’s a shame.

Also, file server access is 8-30 times SLOWER than the USB drive.  So any work I need to do right now is PAINFUL!

Going forward, I’m still painfully waiting for Apple to release a new Mac Pro. eta is next January I hope. Once I have that, I’ll have 3TB of raid 10 storage internally, 1.5 TB of external USB storage backing up daily, and 1.2 TB of file server storage backing up probably weekly.  That’s 4 copies of everything I care about, and I’m looking into a 5th copy, stored somewhere I don’t live.

Until then, I’m probably going to have 2 USB drives along with the file server.  That should keep me from needing to use the file server directly.

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So everyone knows that you get a list of 5 that you can be with should the opportunity arise, even if you’re in a committed relationship.  There are only 2 rules though.  1.  You can not already know them.  2.  Your significant other is allowed 5 for themselves.  Fair is fair in fantasy land..

So given my list changes over time, I figure I should publish it, both for my own curiosity in seeing how it changes, but also just in case..

• Rachel McAdams / Wedding Crashers
• Natalie Portman / ooh so many roles.
• Evan Rachel Wood / Running with Scissors
• Anne Hathaway / Get Smart and The Devil Wears Prada
• Scarlett Johansson / Lost in Translation

I’ll amend over time, and probably add some runner’s up..  but for now this list started from here.

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I came back from Miami about a week ago from right now.  Well, more accurately, our flight was supposed to take off now, and was then delayed for 2+ hours thanks to a weather slowdown coming into EWR..  Regardless, that’s where my current struggle kicked it up a notch..

Miami was a work and fun trip.  I ended up attending roughly 12 parties between Tuesday and Sunday.  That was the fun part.  Work kicks in when I check the total photos in my WMC gallery, and discover 4700 is roughly the count..   In between my day job, and the parties I normally photograph in NYC, I am suddenly well below being caught up.

Sorry for my rant.   No posts for months, and this is how I say hi..

Until I’m caught up again..

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So 9 days later, I’m back at work again..  only to find the following waiting for me:

• 184 work emails which weren’t auto-deleted by my rules (there were 500+)
• 127 personal gmail messages (+ 103 spam)
• 1730 yahoo mail message which I’ll probably never read..
• “1000+” articles in Google Reader in the folder I keep up on..
• 27 new requests on Facebook

Ooh, and the stock market went to crap..

It’s going to be a long day..

Tags: Life by Peter
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When people ask me lately how I’m doing, “Crazy busy” has been my response often enough that I noticed..  I’m intending to imply my schedule has me busier than normal, but I’m not even sure what normal is.

One should think that if every day is “crazy”, then at some point that must average itself into being “normal”.  And conversely, if every day was slow, then eventually that should be considered “normal”.

Looking back at the past few months though, my life seems to swing between the busy and bored camps.  I typically go looking for things to do when I’m bored.  Many cannot be started immediately, and I end up queuing future activities.  Once they start to kick in, I’m too busy to initiate new tasks in the pipeline, and eventually it runs out, leaving me at the beginning of the cycle.

The length of the cycle can vary as well, from days to months..  The last time I can recall being anywhere near “slow” was back in November, though December is always a busy month.

All that being said.. I’m now “Normal” until further notice..

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Ok, the title may not be in your dictionary, but given Jan 1 is coming up ever so quickly, Here’s the list of things I resolve to have done by then:

1. Go through all my monthly accounts (cable, phone, …) and make sure the options I want/don’t want are right.. Close any accounts I no longer need.
2. Solidify Backup strategy for computer data.. After the hard drive loss back in November, I need to ensure that backups are being created automatically. The panic of an impending drive failure, or potential loss of an unexpected failure are too expensive in time and stress levels.
3. Update resume. Working in a company that has recently laid folks off, and in an industry which lays people off without much more than a mathematical calculation, it’s always good to keep the resume up to date. Besides, I’d rather update it when I don’t need it, than in a crunch when I do.
4. Cleanup my gmail inbox.  It has about 800 now, and I’d like to have it under 50 (one page worth).  Archive or delete everything over 30 days old to start, and reduce the inbox to items I actually have to deal with.
5. Get refresh of this website finished and online
6. Go through and cleanup 2006 and 2007 picture archive

There’s always something I’m forgetting.. Perhaps one of my resolutions will be to take better notes..–> Remembered & added #4.–> Ditto for #5,6 

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In the interest of retiring old blogs, while having something for new readers to read while I’m otherwise busy, I’m going to repost those old words here for the new audience to enjoy..  The first one, Coffee, from Dec 5, 2006

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I’ve recently been futzing with the concept of this blog (the old one I’m retiring). I setup a little test blog on my mac at home, and tried to make mental notes during the day of things to write about. The test blog has lots of nifty features (it’s based on BT) but would require me to find a hosting provider, setup an account (and pay for said account) along with the configuration all before getting to the writing. So I’ve gone with Blogger for now. They’re free, I already have a gmail account so I don’t need to have yet another password, I can move my posts someday down the road when I’m a world famous writer, and I can have it NOW. Well, I had it two hours ago, and moved that first post from my test blog.

So now we come to the writing portion of our little experiment, and we’re going to need some coffee. By all accounts, I have a different history with coffee than most. You see, up until 9 or so months ago, my lifetime coffee consumption was 1 small Denny’s coffee (with 6 sugars) which I shared with a girl I was seeing back in college. So after rounding to the nearest whole number, (she had more than half), my total is none. And then S came into my life. She was a morning coffee drinker, in fact I was warned not to speak to her prior to her morning coffee, and the one (yes one) time I did resulted in a rainy day. I don’t remember the exact day, but sometime back in Feb of 2006, I started on this magical elixir and my reaction was severe. The first two weeks or so a single cup of home brew had me so high I seriously thought I was being tricked. “How can this be legal?” I asked.

The buzz lasted for a few weeks. I discovered Starbucks (it’s the first google result for coffee after all…), settled down to about 12 oz of office brewed Starbucks house blend served black each work day, and S has moved on to other flavors. At last word she was trying out tea..

Where am I going? ooh yeah, my brain. One of the results of drinking coffee, is that about 12 hrs later, the up turns into a down. BC (life Before Coffee) I’d have a hard time getting to sleep at a reasonable time, and a hard time getting up in the morning, but by all measures my brain worked at a fairly consistent level. AC (this should be obvious by now) things are more of a roller coaster in the brain department. I’m up in the morning, fairly constant in the afternoon, and start to fall off between 7-10pm.

And that leaves me at now.. Roughly 11pm, and I’m tired. The day was productive. Yet by now I’m motioning for my pillow. So starting tomorrow, I’ll have to start jotting down little caffeinated notes to myself.. On paper (or in blogger as unpublished posts), as mental notes just don’t work without mental facilities.

Good night.

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Followup:  I’ve since mostly given up coffee.  Or at least broken the habit.  I can now say that I appreciate the taste these days, but don’t need the level of caffeine that comes along with it.  If anything I’ll have a tactical amount to get just enough caffeine on days that require it.  On a Monday after a long crazy weekend, I might have an inch worth.  Quite literally.

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How old am I?

That’s a seemingly easy question to answer, but I disagree.. The world at large contends that our birth is the only standard for age. While our birth date is a serious factor in how long we’ve been around, and how much we’ve been afforded the time to accomplish, I’m pretty sure the correlation is much higher with when our parents had sex than how old we really are.

So how do we measure age?

As we go through life, there are aspects we’re good at, while others not so much. School doesn’t give just one grade, we have one per class, surmised from many individual assignments. So lets break this down into a few categories..

Financial age:

“55+”

Granted, I spent a few years out of college working very hard on my career. I don’t have anything to fall back on, so failing here just isn’t an option for me. One could argue that I’ve overdone it a bit, and I won’t disagree. I will say though, that I no longer worry about this. I have what I need, both now and for the future options my life may lead me to.

Bilogicial age:

“Your biological age is 26 to 29! If this is lower than your real age, then well done! If not, take up regular exercise, improve your diet and get your cholesterol levels checked.”

I’m fine with that. I could always eat a little better, though my occasional bacon benders are likely a permanent fixture. A bit more exercise would be nice as well.. I have no complaints.

What age do you act?

“You Are 27 Years Old”

Not completely sure I agree with that test, it was too short. eeh..

How old do you look?

I can’t find a web quiz for this one (obviously) but I did perform a bit of a survey the day before my last birthday. The consensus, with very little deviation from the mean, was 23.

When you’re having fun, how old are the people you’re with? (aka, how old is your spirit)

The happiest regular events that I attend are considered EDM (Electronic Dance Music) parties/raves/clubs. I don’t go to XYZ club just to go because it’s Friday or Saturday. I’ll go to a specific club because of the type of music being played and more specifically the DJ that night. I’m also just as likely to go out on a Tuesday as a Friday. But I digress…

While at a club, I tend to end up hanging out with the 18-22 year old raver types. I don’t know what it is about everyone else, but I’m more than happy to stay out and dancing till 6, 7 or 8am, and the folks usually left with me (who aren’t scary!) are typically in that range..

Conclusion

Looks like I’m somewhere between 18-22, 23, 27, 26-29, and 55+. Quite the range, and I didn’t even cover my sex life age! We’ll have to save the bisexual twins bit for another day.

Ooh yeah, my birth certificate says I’m 31..

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I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something about the switch to winter fashion that catches my eye. When the weather goes below 40, the new winter coats come out, and everyone seems to “bundle up”..

Winter clothes tend to hide a bit more than their summer brethren, so perhaps a fall body looks extra slim in winter coverings..

The solid dark colors look good on most..

Covering a lot up is a win for many

And those rosy cheeks, wrapped in colorful scarves, warms my day.

Welcome oh cold weather beauty, your knee high leather boots can kick my ass any day..

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We go through our daily lives putting any number of things into our bodies, caffeine and sugar being somewhat dominant for me lately.

As a result, I’ve noticed 2 things..

• Caffeine reduces my patience..  I’m naturally a bit quick to start off with, and additional caffeine only serves to lower the response time limit before I move on with other people.  I consider this a poor response on my part, and the first step in fixing it is to acknowledge the problem.
• Sugar wears off quickly..  I’ve had upwards of 3 twenty ounce cokes in a day. That’s 750 calories, or about 45 teaspoons worth of sugar.  And the trick seems to be, once I have the first soda (either in the morning or with lunch) I need to have additional sodas to keep from falling off as the day wears on.  This is more about the sugar than the caffeine in those sodas.

So, in light of both of those things, I’m cutting back..  hopefully off, but there’s workplace performance to account for, and I have to get my job done above all other desires..

Day 1..  Made it to 4pm without either soda or coffee, but caved in light of excessive yawning.  One soda total for the day (not counting the tonics mixed with my vodkas later that evening)

Day 2..  It’s nearly 4, and I’m again yawning more than I’d like..  I’ve made exception today to have milk as alternative.  It’s arguably better for you than soda, while still having lactose (milk sugar) to give me a little bit of help.  Bonus points for vitamins and protein, and it’s skim so my fat intake isn’t increasing.  Plus, it’s free thanks to all those coffee drinkers in the office.

I’ll let you know how it continues..  hopefully I don’t develop a half gallon a day milk habit.

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