I never set out to be an observer of snails and slugs...

It just happened. I mean, you take the wildlife you get. And here in นครราชสีมา / Nakhon Ratchasima, we get snails, slugs, and toad frogs in abundance. Of course, that's a buffet for snakes, so we've got those too.

"I'm not a slug.
I'm just a piece of poop."
(Do you believe me?)

20230702    

After someone crosses over, you see things...

A month or so after my dear mother crossed over, she appeared to us one day as a beautiful red cardinal. There we were sitting in the car, and there was the cardinal, right near the car, not afraid of us in the least. We spent several minutes together. Then finally she flew away.

Things like that happen after someone passes away. In my most recent case, a family member's mom passed away. I attended her funeral, dressed in black like Mr. Johnny Cash.

That evening, the most beautiful full moon I've ever seen in Thailand lit up the sky. I wasn't surprised. Like I said before, after someone crosses over, you see things.

20230702

The Man in Black

I readily admit that I'm just a pretender compared to the real Man in Black, Mr. Johnny Cash. Still, I wear those black clothes for the funerals. People keep passing on. Always have done. Always will, I suppose, including me and you one day...

All the more reason to live life to the fullest each and every day. Despite no direct communication between myself and those who have crossed over, I am confident that is exactly what they would encourage us to do.

20230702

พิมาย / Phimai abides...

One can never visit พิมาย / Phimai too often. It's still there, and they're still doing their own thing like they have been for the last however many thousands of years. Need some rain up there, though. 

ลำจักราช / Lam Chakkarat, a tributary of แม่น้ำมูล / the Mun River that is used for the annual boat races, is lower than I've ever seen it, not that I've seen it all that many times. Still, it could do with a lot more water, especially with the boat races coming up in November. That gives us four months to get more water in there. Should be okay... สาธุ

Disclaimer: It's possible that rather than being a tributary of แม่น้ำมูล / the Mun River, ลำจักราช / Lam Chakkarat might be an irrigation outlet from แม่น้ำมูล / the Mun River to farming areas. I would have to check the direction of flow in order to know for sure. Maybe next trip...

ลำจักราช / Lam Chakkarat

ปราสาทหินพิมาย / Phimai Historical Park

Amateur archeologist Jerry saw this as an ancient Khmer monument to the rising sun, which comes up directly behind this monument. Wrong as usual, of course. But I still go there at sunrise because there is a nice lady selling early morning treats. And it's near the clock tower. I'm sure we all agree that one must always visit the clock tower in every town in Thailand.

• Tim's Thailand
• Lonely Planet
• Thailandee
  

So many of these items are good.

Maybe order some of each?

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.