“Protect yourself at all times!”

This always seems incredibly obvious, I’ve seen quite a few boxing (and now mixed-martial arts) contests where a fighter stops when they hear the bell only to get their own bell rung by their opponent who kept throwing punches (or kicks). It’s not enough to play by the rules — you have to be proactive about defending yourself.

Similarly, when people buy a computer, most folks think that if it works, it will work in perpetuity. Many people don’t think, “Gee, the hard drive where I keep all of my digital photos might fail!,” they simply expect things to work. Reliably.

Every geek who works with computers knows that consumer-grade computers (even Macs) are not guaranteed to last forever. In fact, every component comes with two numbers associated with it: the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and the MTTF (Mean Time To Failure).

That’s right: every component in your new computer has a “death date” associated with it.

So even the manufacturers know the components in a computer won’t last forever… and believe me, they scope their warranties accordingly.

That said, geeks like myself are always getting panicked phone calls (or IMs) from friends & family members who have computer problems. And the worst of the lot is when people lose all of their data when a hard drive fails.

Of course, many geeks preach the gospel of backing up your data, but many people feel they can’t afford to buy a backup hard drive. But believe me, it’s worth it. Your collection of MP3s you’ve had for the past five years… how hard would it be to get all of those songs back? How about those digital photos you’ve taken for the past few years?

Don’t ask yourself how much a backup system will cost. Instead, ask yourself how much your data is worth. You might be surprised at how important it is to you.

So why am I ranting about the need for backups?

Well, I have been using my Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0Ghz) for recording HDTV shows over-the-air, including Redskins games as well as all of my favorite network TV shows like “Lost”, “Heroes”, and “The Office”, and that machine’s boot drive (the drive that actually holds the operating system which is needed to start the computer) FAILED.

“He’s dead, Jim”

Even worse, while medicated up and sick as a dog (remember — I’ve had the flu twice and the machine died during my second bout with plague!), I tried to fix the computer and wound up tearing the connector off of one of the (proprietary?) SATA cables in my G5 that connects the hard drives to the computer. Oh, and for some mysterious reason, video stopped working. So I died the math and realized that the fastest way to get back online was to buy a refurbished Mac Mini from the Apple Store.

The good news was that I had invested in two 750GB Seagate FreeAgent Pro drives, as well as about 2.5 TB (that’s terabytes!) of Western Digital Caviar hard drives (even though the drive that died was a Western Digital Caviar SE16 ) in AZIO eSATA/USB cases. I kept all of my iTunes music, my MP3s, recorded TV shows, and so forth.

There is no way I’m going to lose this video clip of the Brunnell-to-Moss bomb that killed the Cowboys. No way.

When I upgraded to Mac OS X Leopard, I started formalizing a backup strategy. However, Time Machine lacks the ability to “plan” backups, so I used a combination of Time Machine (to back up my boot drive) and Backup (only available to .Mac, errr, MobileMe users). I would not consider Time Machine or Backup to be world-class solutions, but they gave me peace of mind, and when the system finally did give up the ghost, I was able to restore my G5’s environment on the Mac Mini via the Mac OS X Installer, which lets me say, “Hey, I have another computer that croaked… just copy over every thing from this backup and use that as the basis for this fresh new install on a different computer!”

So why did this come to mind today?

Today is “Restore Day” for all of my videos, photos, and music. I’ve been sitting here watching data copy over from backup drive to the new system, and given that I have multimedia I think is priceless — like photos and videos of family members who have passed away — I realize how lucky I am that I decided to invest in backup drives.

So take it from me, invest a little in an external hard drive, and even if you are just drag ‘n dropping copies every so often to back up the files that important to you, do it! If you have a Mac, then all the better: leverage Time Machine (or a Time Capsule) and back up your data. You will hate yourself if you lose everything, and believe me, I know I would be contemplating seppuku or self-immolation right now if I had lost all of my multimedia files!

There is always a lot of discussion about whether we should legalize drugs (specifically marijuana), but I take an idealistic libertarian view of drug use:

Legalize it.

I say this as someone who doesn’t smoke cigarettes, who drinks only on social occassions (yes, I still have those Corona beers that have been in my fridge for a year), who doesn’t even like taking Motrin for pain relief without my doctor’s blessing.

But that’s my decision.

Similarly, if someone wants to use drugs, a “sound-bite” of my position on it is that this a personal decision as long as the they do no harm to others.

However, when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, I find myself thinking that there are clear benefits for those who are willing to risk the side-effects and consequences of using performance enhancing drugs, and if a person chooses to go that route then why should they be stopped?

Case in point, let’s look at Major League Baseball. McGwire. Sosa. Bonds. All three made their franchises a bit wealthier because, as they performed better on the field, the team owners benefitted from increased gate attendance and media exposure.

Even with all of the controversy surrounding him, Bonds’ quest to set the home run record and team loyalty combined to cause fans show up in droves to see the Giants play.

Of course, there’s always Roger Clemens, but I’ll wait to comment on him until he gets his day in court.. well, one of them.

And this is not a problem that is unique to Major League Baseball — every major sports league, including international bodies have had to deal with it. And the consequences affect not only the person who is “cheating”, but their teammates. When Marion Jones was found guilty of using steroids by the IOC, they not only stripped her of all of her medals from her Olympic wins, the IOC may also strip her teammates on the 1600m and 400m relays of their medals as well.

Of course, not everyone gets punished.

Shawne Merriman, a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers was almost named the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year despite being suspended by the NFL for steroid use.

If an actor, like Sylvester Stallone, uses steroids or human growth hormone to improve their physique to boost box office revenue, there are no professional consequences. Arnold Schwarzenegger never had to relinquish his Mr. Olympia title because of steroid use, but of course they were legal at the time (1967). The millions he’s made as an actor thanks to his initial successes as a body builder are the direct result of his steroid use. It’s a bit hard to tell aspiring athletes to “just say no” when they see steroid users being successful not only in sports, but in movies and politics!

So here’s my (perhaps oversimplified) way of thinking.

There is no prohibition on software developers hammering Red Bull and coffee to meet a deadline.

There are no rules preventing models from using drugs to maintain a “certain size” to remain employed on the runways of Milan and Paris.

There are no rules governing how an actor “bulks up” or loses weight for a role. And if you’ve ever been to a casting call, you know that no one cares why you look the way you do, only that you fit the look they are looking for.

And we’re even seeing students taking ADHD drugs to improve their test scores.

So if it is okay for everyone else in society to be trusted to make a decision about their health versus the short-term gains afforded by using “performance enhancing” drugs, why shouldn’t we allow our athletes, who already operate at an incredibly high level, whose bodies are tuned to the point of near-perfection, take advantage of whatever tools are available to them?

This is not about leveling the playing field within the game. To me, it’s about allowing athletes to make decisions about their own bodies knowing the possible rewards and consequences.

Fried Chicken

…and while I’ve never been a big Jessica Biel fan, I found myself drowning in a sea of Jessica Biel movies thanks to DirecTV:

“The Illusionist“


“Blade 3: Trinity“


“Next“

One of my friends jokingly asked me if my nose was still cold and wet.

I think a better question to ask me when I’m sick is, “Do you have a taste for fried chicken and does Jessica Biel make your loins all tingly?”

And the answer is “Yes… and YES!”

OR…

According to this article at RedHerring.com:

1. 47% of the British males surveyed would give up sex for six months for a 50″ plasma television.
2. Just over a 33% of the women surveyed would give up sex for six months for a 50″ plasma television.
3. A quarter of the people surveyed (male and female) would quit smoking for six months for a 50″ plasma television.
4. “Roughly” a quarter of the people surveyed (male and female) would stop eating chocolate for six months for a 50″ plasma television.

Let’s break it down…

This means that, according to the survey results, and using the desire for a 50″ plasma television as the baseline…

So ladies, I’ve got a bag of M&M’s and I’m ordering a 52″ LCD TV. Who wants some?

(Damn you, Linus!)

Being a bachelor who lives by himself, this means that I’m going to be self-medicating.

That is, if I had some medicine.

The problem with not getting sick on a regular (annual?) basis is that I never have a stockpile of drugs that have not expired.

Sore throat? Whoops, the Chloraseptic went south sometime in 10/2006.

Theraflu? Well, this feels like a cold, but if it had been the flu, too bad… That expired 8/2005.

Sudafed? Expired 7/2006.

All I’ve got is a tube of Airborne and some Emergen-C my friend Sarah dropped off. She’s like Mother Teresa, but hotter.

(She also watched an episode of “Arrested Development” I DVR’d — the one where Justine Bateman plays a hooker. That’s one of my favorites. Almost as good as the episodes with Charlize Theron as the retarded Brit. Priceless.)

So… in the spirit of trying to keep a stiff upper lip and fighting off the plague by eating and resting, I’m curious:

What could suck more than having a house full of expired meds? I’m sure creative minds can dream up torments worse than this…