Backing Up Is Hard To Do

I spent the last few days doing nothing but burning DVDs. It was really boring and frustrating. I had a stack of 50 DVDs which I started with. About 20 of the 50 didn’t work properly. I purchased a smaller stack of 20 and about 6 of those didn’t work properly.

I learned a valuable lesson. I should have been backing up my photos the entire time or at least I should have done it while I was in Melbourne.

Nonetheless, it is done now. I sent about 50 DVDs, a 40gb iPod I had been carrying around and my 160gb HD back to the US via FedEx. Sending it cost about as much purchasing a HD (and I sent it in a small FedEx box). I also dropped 1.6 kg off my baggage weight (closed circuit to Pete: all the airlines outside the US measure baggage in kilograms, so that is how I think now)

Assuming everything arrives undamaged, my friend Amy should be able to just copy the files from the 160gb drive I sent to the 500gb I gave her before I left on my trip. That, plus the DVDs and iPod, and the 160gb drive should give me redundant copies of every photo I’ve shot so far. I’ll feel much better once I know it has made the trip safely and doesn’t end up like the packages in Castaway.

This has been bothering me because my hard drive was full and it was limiting what I could do in terms of taking more photos. I had let this go to the point where I had to take care of it and take care of it now.

I appreciate all the feedback I got from everyone. Having burned 50 DVDs, there is no way I’m going to do that again, so I think the answer will be in redundnat external hard drives. I looked into some online services, but honestly, even at $0.15 per gig per month, S3 can get expensive when you are talking about hundreds of gigs and uploading and downloading all that data.

I think the next photo thing I need to do is get a copy of Photoshop C3 (I have C2 still) and Lightroom. I have never used Lightroom, but I’ve been hearing so many good things about it I’d like to give it a try.

I was talking to Scott Kurtz last night about photography. He is just starting to get into it. It is sort of daunting to start to take photos seriously. You guys have been able to literally see my progress as I’ve been traveling the past year. There is a lot to learn and if you try to absorb it all at once, it can be overwhelming.

Just as a break, and to show you the difference in my photography, next week I’m going to showcase photos I took on my previous travels. I had a 2 megapixel Kodak camera back in the late 90s. Going back to look at them, I can see the huge difference in quality.

I’m off to Brisbane the day after tomorrow and then on to Cairns. I think I’m going to to to Papua New Guinea from there so I can renew my tourist visa, and because it is a logical point to fly to Port Moresby from. From there I’ll fly back to Cairns or Darwin and work my way to Perth.

I have developed a very bad habit of staying in place when I’m in large cities. I spent far longer in Honolulu, Taipei, Tokyo, Kagoshima, Hong Kong, Melbourne and now Sydeny than I originally intended. I need to get out of that habit. I fear how long I’ll end up in Singapore….