Jerry Conner: June 2023

20230622

SUT lake is looking good in the rainy season.

Driving practice often starts at SUT Lake (Suranaree University of Technology). This lake probably has a real name, but I'm not the one to find it today.

20230610

Afternoon thunderstorms

This is my second rainy season here. I don't remember it being quite this hot last year, but that's irrelevant. A sauna is a sauna regardless of a few degrees temperature differential. Thank Dog for the thunderstorms that bring us some brief respite.

20230616-1532

If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.

I thought I could be the Six Million Dollar Man, and I sort of was for about 15 years. But in the end my body said, "No artificial parts allowed in here."

If you're considering a dental implant, research peri-implantitis before spending thousands of dollars. A significant percentage of dental implants fail over time, something that the dental industry might not have recognized ten years ago, but they know about it now...

20230619

Biggest snail yet...

With the rainy season underway, the snails are climbing up walls after rain sets. Saw my biggest one yet the other night. I don't see how it can stuff its entire body inside its shell, but I guess it does.

20230617

A different kind of frog: อึ่งอ่าง / Banded Bullfrog

Sighted my first banded bullfrog the other night near our front gate. I've seen it twice so far. I have not yet heard it croak, but I hope to so I can compare it with the sound of bullfrogs back home.

20230618

Data backups: Two locations or you are not properly backed up.

It seems that Mister Perfect (me) has violated procedures and must now pay the price. The thing about computer backups is that if you don't have your data backed up in two locations, then you are not properly backed up. I know that. I knew that. And yet, I left a lot of important data backed up solely on my 1.5 TB Seagate FreeAgent external drive.

Then came the day when I couldn't see my network drive. I came down to my very hot office and found my external drive spinning and spinning, and extremely hot. I powered it down and let it cool off. Since that day, every time I powered it on, it would click 11 times and then shut down. I wasn't too worried. "Probably the read head," I thought, as I prepared it for shipment to CR Data Recovery in Bangkok.

But that was not the case. The verdict was: Not Recoverable. It makes me wonder how hot that drive got for how long before I found it. Did it get hot enough to damage the platters somehow? And it got me started thinking about what was lost.

Off the top of my head, I have lost the following:

Photos

Whenever Google Photos and OneDrive maxed out of space, I moved all the photos to my FreeAgent. It was years and years worth of photos.

Documents

The one I miss the most already was a folder named Literature. Monetary value was exactly zero, but the sentimental value was great.

A modest little story called The Angel of the Tower. As a short story, it was average at best, but it truly captured my time at San Jose State University.
~~A tale about a "string girl" and the end of a romantic relationship. I quite liked this one, and I'm my own worst critic.~~
20230818 Update: Totally recovered. Thank you, WayBack Machine.

Music

Good-quality digital versions of all my record albums.

I believe I still have all the albums, so this is not the end of the world.

Of course. a lot more was lost than what's listed above. In 2021, I completed a voluntary Swedish Death Cleaning (döstädning) of my physical objects. Now, by violating proper backup procedures, I have involuntarily completed Swedish Death Cleaning of my digital objects. So be it. I guess I'll be ready when the time comes. But until that day arrives, you can be sure that I will keep my important data properly backed up in two separate locations.

20230609

Old Man German. Sauerkraut obtained. Trifecta achieved.

Remember how I was looking for sauerkraut to go along with the German pickles and beets? Of course, I found it. Did you imagine for one second that OCD Jerry would simply give up? Oh, no. I couldn't let down the good people on the north shore of Bodensee. Let the probiotics begin.

20230609

Sunset after the rain.

Please disregard the antennas, gates, and bright construction lights. This housing estate remains a work in progress. Despite those things, it was a beautiful sunset after the afternoon and evening rains.

20230608

It seems I am ignorant of Japanese tuner culture...

I was going to post this as an example of English that's funny because it doesn't make sense. But the joke was on me. My failure to understand was due to my ignorance of the JUN Turbo Setup Kit designed for use with a GReddy turbo.

Vehicles here have stickers--lots of stickers--that go into deep technical detail. The first order of business when I bought my Yamaha Exciter motorcycle was to remove a bunch of them. I am very much in the minority on this.