Author: Sean

I have some nice shots of Father's Day in Jersey that I need to post, but they are stuck on the wtb's camera. In the meantime, here's an archival shot of the day our parents met. Our moms and pops are wonderful people, but you can still see the abject terror in our eyes. Thank Santa for breakfast-Guinness.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I was test driving backup software in response to my friend Rachelle's tragic data loss. I finally settled on an application, Handy Backup, $39. It's the only one I could find that dealt correctly with using FTP as a backup destination. I highly recommend getting all your important files consolidated to one place and setting up a backup system. It's not as hard as you would think.

Things you Need to Remotely Backup

• A machine that is always on or on a lot that has all the files you want to backup
• A server account that accepts FTP. Many ISPs already provide this. I get mine from Dreamhost with the bill for seantconrad.com

How To Set-up The Backup

• Install Handy Backup
• Create a task for every type of backup you want to do. I have three: "Sean's Pics", "Sean's MP3s", and "WTB's Pics".
• Set the task to run periodically.

When you run it for the first time, the backup must run until completion to create the initial database of files. Subsequent backups run much quicker. I have my machine set to run them every night at 4AM.

It's the piece of mind that this system gives me, letting me know that if the East River washes my stuff away, my photos, particularly this one, are safely stored some place else. So now it is safe.

Related: The Marathon Man drinking game.

Today's image is borrowed from the University of Texas in Austin and is a map of central Africa, circa 1885. It's the setting for my current post in my Reading section, Alan Moorehead's "The White Nile." (See that link for more description on the book.)

The book has given me a strong desire to trudge across Africa exactly where the Equator girdles the continent, despite various warlords and skull crunching hyenas. Thanks to Mt. Kilimanjaro there is everything to see from snow to desert, with all the in between. I think you need to get a gazillion shots and spend a poodles ransom, but it's still something I'd like to do in the next few years. The odds that I can make it a honeymoon…1,000,000,000 to 1. That means there is a chance.

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I used to be a voracious reader, but have fallen off a bit in the last few months due to work, the Internet, and Tivo. Currently, I'm trying to get back to it. I hate dog-eared pages and I can seldom find a bookmark, so I like to play a little memory game and try and remember the page I was on from reading to reading. It is fun, but I must say I'm really bad at it unless I was on page 47.

There is huge proliferation of "social networking" sites these days: MySpace, Facebook, Linked In, Stumble, Wis.dm. First, let me clarify one thing: "social networking" = "trying to get laid." That's what we called it back in the days of Spark.com, Friendster, Nerve, and Parachat (all of which work, btw). That's why these sites are for 22-28 year olds, because so many people pair off after that.

Now, possibly because I am old, I find these sites insufferable. It's a lot small talk and terrible graphics. To compensate, I've created my own social networking site. It's called SeanZone and you should check it out. We've got billions of users already.

Also, if you are suffering from Internet-overload you can set your homepage to my news site.

I've done well for myself when I can have an early supper with three lovely dames.

My Aunt Nancy, a professor of medical archivism at Johns Hopkins, visited NYC just for the day. Luckily Ildi and I were able to sneak in a visit with her and her niece Kate before her return train.

Nancy is not only awesome, but a fellow crossword enthusiast. We dined at the Viceroy in Chelsea, a place I highly recommend for sunny days. Nancy confessed to using this blog as a way to keep tabs on distributed relatives, so I am charged with keeping up these sorts of things. Nancy is very well. She's just finished a laborious round of grant applications, moving the Johns Hopkins medical archives for the umpteenth time, acquiring her very own condo, and numerous recent Will Shortz's.

Today's pic was submitted by Alex as a revisitation to one of my favorite posts, Of Him and Me. It's the granddaddy, ulmitate, Mickey's "seven with one swat", mice kill–three with one SNAP! Coworker Catherine is suffering from an infestation in her apartment so I posted this shot to give her hope.

I guess they are blind as well now.

I've not been carrying a camera so instead of getting a pictured of a half inside out latex glove on the sidewalk (dirty), today you get a Google Image search shot of Kate's Paperie in Soho. Walking into Kate's, a visitor was overwhelmed with color and texture of their over 40,000 papers. It was even impressive to a non-crafty person like myself. All of this description is useless to any of you though, because the place is gone. It's probably going to be replaced with an American Apparel, the store that has turned employee-exploitive pseudo-p0rn into a globilization nightmare. Please don't shop there.

Not super interesting, but I did stand up a girl named Jill at Kate's once because she didn't believe in evolution. Being single was not more fun than now, but it did create more blog fodder.

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Also on my shoulders this morning…cleaning lady guilt. The wtb (yes I blame her) talked me into hiring a cleaning lady and this morning was her first visit. The second she picked up the broom, I thought about how I PAY to go to the gym and now I PAY someone to sweep my floor. Couldn't I eliminate both and just clean the damn place myself? It's a vicious battle inside me between my laziness and cheapness, each vile combatant pooping guilt into my brain.

Wilma, the hard working woman who is sweeping my floors, likes coffee with Half-n-Half or tea with cinnamon sticks. Tonight, I will be buying Half-n-Half and cinnamon sticks. By her fifth visit, I expect to be getting up at 6AM to cook her a full breakfast, all to assuage my blue-collar guilt.

Still, it will be nice to have a clean tub. I hope she does the mirrors, too. I get a little crazy with the flossing.

Long after last night's second to last Sopranos ended, it occurred to me that Phil Leotardo was sleeping with a women whose father could be his twin. That's icky. That also shows the unbelievable depth, breadth, and innovation of David Chase's character development. I'm simultaneously sad about the end but so freakin' excited for the next episode that I want to curb myself.

Tonight, over some tappas at Toro in Dumbo rose a blue moon. It's a second blue moon in a calendar month and actually no big deal. What is a really big deal is awesome chorizo and outdoor seating at Toro.

My Citysearch review:

Nestled under the Brooklyn Bridge on the corner of Dumbo, the place has very friendly service and great tapas. A friend and I enjoyed the outdoor seating last night with a view of the bridge and the enormous line of tourists waiting to get into Grimald's. We went more for the "span" than the "asian." I'd recommend the chorizo plate and beer to anyone as part of a Bridge excursion.

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I need a new camera.

Blog remainders from this week:

• Number of screws I drove using two drills to mount my AC last night: 25
• Number of people who have announced their canidacy for president that I would personally like to see as president: 0
• Celebrity who really surprised me by not being a complete moron on Bill Maher's show: Ben Aflec
• Emails in my Inbox that currently need a reply: 14
• Pieces of back up software I've tested since I read my friend Rachelle lost some of her photos: 4
• Things in the Internet/Tech space that have not impressed me: Google Maps Street View, Facebook's Open Source Platform announcement, people who engage in the Microsoft v. Apple debate
• Things that have: Superdeluxe.com, the Microsoft Table, Google Gears, and Hugh MacLeod's work for Microsoft
• And finally, a tidbit that makes me happy. My Internet company has been expanding into Europe with varied success. We are doing particularly bad in Italy. We've found some market research that indicates that the problem is that Internet use is just very low in Italy. This makes me so happy. I've been to Italy and the thought of wasting one second in that country being online make me spit out my Montepulciano. Italy is just cooler than where you are now, especially if you are on MySpace.