Blowing away 10 years of photos in 2 seconds or less

I was trying to format a free drive on an external.. trouble was, I got mixed up in the 8 drive letters and formatted the wrong drive.. Formatted my whole external where I keep and process most of my photos.. AAAARRRRGHH.. I do have a backup with me and one at the cabin.. BUT.. I haven't shot a ton this summer and I hadn't backed up the last several months. I had one set of pictures that I really felt were worth saving at any cost. Trouble is when you go to recover, you don't get to pic and choose.. you get what the program gives you.. and I didn't have enough room any where to recover 140Gig - even though what I really needed was just 10 gig off that drive.. SOOOO I had to take it in.. I told the people they were photos, that they should look for specific extensions (Photoshop PSD&XMP, Nikon Raw NEF and JPG)- told them I was able to recover without a problem using Photo Rec - but I just ran out of room.. well 10 days later and 3 programs on their part, I get the drive back.. and they didn't use a photo recovery program.. the SOB's... they used a general program.. in fairness, I was luckily able to retrieve the photos I was most concerned about (after renaming TIF files to NEF, but no PSDs, which I will live with. But it really disheartens me, because I know they could have been recovered better, but these idiots wouldn't listen to me, even after they told me they were having problems with their recovery programs and I told them what I had been successful with.. it was a freaking free program to boot! I should have been more assertive.. and I should have let them put the data on another external, instead of letting them copy back to the original drive after recovery and let me keep the formatted drive in tact so that I could try to recover on my own again..(in the time they had the drive I was able to order another external) So I realize I am at fault more than they are.. and I am thankful to have the pictures that I do.. but my lesson has been learned (luckily without being burned too bad except in the money department) I will be much more diligent in my backups.. this is a good opportunity to initiate the Lightroom DAM (digital asset manager) that I have been holding off on for the last 3 years.. so here goes nothing.. Chris comes in tomorrow.. Puppies got groomed today and I need to take Christmas photos - I can't believe Christmas is a week away.. It all seems to go by in 2 seconds or less...(picture on the left is taken on N.Boulevard in Tampa - Nikon D300, 70-200f2.8 @70mm f13 with a 13 sec exposure.

Facebook, Twitter, Texting and Blogs - Oh My!

I'm baaaack!

For a middle aged woman I feel I am in tune with some of the world, completely out of tune with other parts and totally deaf for even more of the world. I am pretty geeky so the world of computers, the internet etc does not intimidate me. But I just can't get my head around Facebook and Twitter. Maybe because I don't maintain a large social network or even a very good business network, I find these two applications annoying. As I understand it 20 somethings see text and FB/Twitter as the way to communicate. Email and phone calls are something you do with your parents and business communication. (I am getting better at texting, though I am still pretty slow). Also I am not a huge "follower". Don't get me wrong.. I have an RSS reader full of blogs, so I do follow.. but I don't hang on every post or feel the need or want to keep up with someone via twitter, whether I know them or not.. I guess a lot of "commercial" posters keep their followers on twitter via giveaways etc.. I am not that hard up for a free t-shirt.. I can go to the thrift store for that!

I do see the appeal of FB and Twitter for businesses.. so social network, I am not into them. Professional network..you betcha.. I definitely understand that media side of the apps.

What I have a really hard time with FB and Twitter is the inane status updates and millions (okay hundreds) of pictures of the FB profiler themselves. But I have been reminded that it is called FB for a reason. It all seems very narcissistic to me. "Look at Me Look at Me" - to 200-700 of my closes friends.. eeuuuw... but that seems to be the 20 something's social modus operandi. I just value my privacy a bit more than that. I know I know.. I am writing a blog.. but you don't see my birth date, my face very much and I don't tag my pictures for google to index.. so there is a decent amount of anonymity this way while still sharing with the friends and family that care to read the posts I put up.

So I will be posting a bit more on here.. I will have a link on FB for the blog so any one of my few social network friends who get bored can come cruise if they want..
During the last year we got a new puppy, "lost" a future daughter in law through a break up, and gained a son-in-law. Mattie, Cap'n Steve and the cats are all doing well. So we will get caught back up over the next few weeks.

Christmas at the Cabin

We really had our Christmas back at Thanksgiving when the kids came to visit at the cabin. It was so wonderful to have them there.. so today I post some of the pictures. I shot some portraits because my candids are always so poor...We were so happy to meet Letisia, Chris' fiance and welcome her to our small family. Abbey and Chris were in great spirits and we thoroughly enjoyed having them both together.. they are Steve's blessings and I am so fortunate to get to come along for the ride.. great kids...

If you build it... they will come....

It's going to be a nice Thanksgiving here at the cabin.. well actually it may be more Christmas than Thanksgiving.. Both Chris and Abbey are coming.. It has been years since they have both been here (in Ga.) together..and Chris is bringing a new member to our small family.. a fiance! We are looking forward to meeting her and getting to know her. The weather here this time of year is not nearly as nice as SoCal.. and we actually look a bit dreary with no leaves on the trees.. but I hope to rectify that a bit in the cabin. We are all stocked up on wood as the darn cabin stays pretty cool this time of year without a nice fire going. Abbey hasn't been here since 2000.. though she did come for a wonderful visit a couple of years ago to the Florida home. Wish Abbey could get her friend Heather to join us.. think of her as part of the family too.. but anyway - excited.. imagine they will be camping out in the guest quarters. We put in a wonderful gas stove up there that really heats up the place toasty warm.. plus it is well insulated.. much more comfortable than the cabin.. which is one reason we built it, so we could live there in the winter if we needed or wanted to.. Seeing the kids will be such a nice diversion from all of the politics and financial meltdown.. this has all left me rather disheartened...

It's Girl's Weekend here at the Cabin - Woo Hoo!

Geeking For Good

Well I have been spending some time lately doing volunteer work for a local animal rescue group.. Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. I called to donate some things to their tent sale and got to speaking to Penny, one of their volunteers, and she said something about they didn't have any computer help at the moment, and I said I could help out.. and so I have been. I helped put together a newsletter for them as they had not put one out in a year.. The group has suffered the death of one of their co-founders, the death of another member, and the woman who normally prepares their newsletter was caring for a terminally ill parent and trying to get married... so it was a pleasure to be able to step in and help them. I have donated to them before.. but I knew I couldn't foster any dogs and not really any cats, so I never contacted them... Anyway.. come to find out during this last year they also let their Internet domain expire thus rendering them out in "no man's land" with their website.. So I set them back up and offered to redesign so that we could incorporate some of the latest coding techniques for search engine optimization. Also developing the site to help bring in donations.. Anyway - the bones of the new site are in place and now I just need the embellishments... I think everyone is pleased and I have offered to continue to be their webmaster and anything else I can do for them, computer wise. Which works out well for me because I can do the computer work from the winter home. I am looking forward to volunteering with them and hopefully help them recruit some more volunteers to help with some of the things that need to be done. In fact, the Volunteer Page of the website is high on my list of "to dos"..along with some internet exposure.

I have done my share of volunteering.. My favorite was doing therapy dog work with the corgis through the Happy Tails group in Atlanta. I did that for several years until we moved up to the cabin. I really really enjoyed that.. I found I really liked going into Assisted Living facilities with the animals. It is so hard when you get older and you have lived with animals all of your life and you can't have them anymore. I became friends with several residents and especially looked forward to the monthly visits with them. I try and remind Cap'n Steve that I will come visit him with the animals when he needs to have assisted care... he doesn't laugh...I can't understand why..

Lost and Found Part Deux

What do you do when a beloved animal dies
(our sweet Miss Lass)
that has a special place in your heart?

If you haven't read part one, you might want to catch up with it before continuing.

It's been just over a month now since Lass died. We still have heavy hearts, the tears still well up pretty easily, but we all are moving along.

After I hastily sent an email to Lass' original owner, I received an unexpected thoughtful reply, within hours. Yes, he was the one that gave Lass over to rescue. He said he did it to try and save a 6 year relationship with his girlfriend who within a year of giving up Lass, he married, and not too long after that divorced. He said he thought of Lass often. He had two other Border Collies, in fact one was Lass' mate and the other was her puppy. LASS HAD A PUPPY ... sort of a huge aaaaawwwwww moment for us. He said he loved her dearly and it broke his heart to give her away. He wrote that he contacted BC rescue to make sure Lass was okay and that he would take her back, but they told him she was in a loving home. His note showed how much guilt he had for giving her up. He kept Lass' mate and her puppy until they both passed away as old dogs. His note brings tears to my eyes as I reread it now. He offered to talk to me about Lass and I took him up on it, but via email. I emailed him two times right after receiving his email. One email was about the struggles we had with Lass, and the other was about the joy she brought to us. I haven't heard from Lass' original owner since his only email. I can only suppose that I stirred up some emotions that he did not want to remember. I can respect that. I was so excited to hear from him and see that he was a caring person.

I guess there are several morals to this story. The first biggie is: Don't ever give up an animal that you love for another human being. I learned that in the demise of my first marriage, which involved my corgis, and my parents to an extent.

Giving up an animal, whether to rescue, or a friend or a family member is a difficult decision. When you are looking at what is THE BEST situation for that animal, trust yourself that you are doing the right thing. It is interesting that 3 people close in our lives have recently given up their dogs because of their living situations. The dogs were all loved, but all three of these people knew that the dogs could have even better homes, homes that could give them the time and attention that they needed. It was a difficult decision for all, and I respect them for making the hard choices.

When giving up an animal, do you tell the recipients about the problems you are having with the dog? I wonder... I don't know the answer to that question. I do think that Lass' optimum home would probably have been where she was the only dog and that someone was home most all of the time. If we had known that she might have had a history of "issues with other dogs" (and we still don't know her history) - we wouldn't have taken her.. but we didn't know.. I believe when you take a rescue, you have a good chance of getting a dog with "issues"... just be prepared to make the commitment to the animal and work as hard as you can. If I could say one thing about doing dog rescue, it would be make sure you have a lot of time to spend with the dog. Preferably that you don't work outside of the home. Dogs with issues need a lot of time, love and attention. But it was so worth it... We can't imagine never having had Lass. I am glad we were able to adjust our lives to hopefully better hers.

I am currently doing some volunteer work for a local rescue group. I am offering my computer skills and I am in heaven. I call it Geeking for Good.. but anyway - one of my tasks is to update/redesign the website. They have a quote on there that I love.. Saving one pet won't change the world, but surely the world will change for that one pet. When I am done with the redesign of the site - I will link to it from the blog.