round 2

I've been hit with the second computer failure this year, resulting in the loss of a lot of unsaved files, including 10 months worth of photographs, some of which I was hoping to have printed in the upcoming months. The hard drive is shot and I'll have to replace the computer itself, as well. The hard drive was under warranty, at least.

I hope I don't have a repeat of this scenario since I should have the lesson of backing up everything, all of the time, stamped into my brain. I got lazy about backing up my data and am paying for it. Don't be lazy about backing up your files.

So, in the meantime, I'm just doing small tasks on my wife's computer like checking email and updating here and there, but its going to be some time before I'm back with my own. On the upside, I'm going to bed a little earlier...

"I think maybe it’s time to stop, or more reasonably, curtail somewhat, state investment in the past — in a bunch of dead guys (and they are mostly guys, and mostly dead, when we look at opera halls) — and invest in our future. Take that money, that $14 million from the city, for example, let some of those palaces, ring cycles and temples close — forgo some of those $32M operas — and fund music and art in our schools. Support ongoing creativity in the arts, and not the ongoing glorification and rehashing of the work of those dead guys. Not that works of the past aren’t inspirational, important and relevant to future creativity — plenty of dead people’s work is endlessly inspiring — but funding for arts in schools has been cut to zero in many places. Maybe the balance and perspective has to be redressed and restored just a little."

That's one of my favorite parts of a recent blog post from David Byrne on arts funding.