“remember that it’s extremely hard to find true love in this world. if you find it, it’s worth fighting for.”

-Andy Chung

So, I’m on the phone with a technical rep from my domain name registrar…

Tech Rep: “I see your domain is expiring soon, would you like to renew your account sir?”

Me: “Well, if I can back up my past four years of blogging, I’d like to renew my domain.”

I thank the guy for giving me the details I needed to change my nameservers back to what they were (and have been for the past four years) so I can back up my website. After that I try again to login using ftp. That didn’t work. That was 8:30am this morning (8:30pm Sat in the States). Only 3 and 1/2 hours left before my site was gone for good. With no backups. That thought hurt.

Four years of blogging. I told myself. “Okay, I’m not writing anymore. Computers don’t have feelings. How can they be so cruel?” There was nothing else I could do. Couldn’t even visit my website anymore. Yes, I didn’t follow directions well when I changed nameservers before trying to back up. At that point and time I thought, “Let me sleep on it and maybe my friend Andy will save me.”

I’d been emailing Andy like crazy since yesterday and he said he would help me if I ran into friction (摩擦). Well, couldn’t ask for more at that point. Andy is the one that helped me set up my Wordpress installation. Woke up an hour and a half later. GOOGLE! I found the cached pages online. Started thinking, I could save all my pages one by one. But how far do the cached pages go back? I tried my site again. Bingo! I could get on again. But still couldn’t get in using ftp. That’s when I got news from my man Andy. He was laughing and said, “Hey, I’m in your cpanel account right now backing up your stuff. I’ll just go ahead and get it all done. Hopefully it’s all up in about 20-30 min.” I didn’t know I had a cpanel account. Thank goodness because there’s only an hour left until this sucker’s gone. Thank goodness for people that understand technology that I don’t. Thanks Andy for coming through. 摩擦不在了，终于松了一口气。

Lessons Learned: 1) Back up often because computers have no feelings 2) stay technical. stay up-to-date with technology

My friend Dave is an old college buddy, a cool dude and a world traveller. He’s traveled all over southern Europe and parts of northern Africa. Now he’s in South America taking in all he can. Life isn’t all about the money. Here’s his latest from Colombia.

Happy Holidays From South America

family, friends, countrymen…

Hello, how are things?

Cool?

I wanted to send a greeting while I had a quick minute on the internet.
Hope everything is going well back home and that your finding an
abundance of smiles on your face this holiday season.

Ive been traveling the past 3 months, starting in the South of Peru
and making my way all the way to Colombia…all by bus.
And due to the circumstances, Ive lost track of time, current event, and season. However, I didnt want to pass up the opportunity to say hello and hope everything is going well.

Im currently in Colombia in the valley of Cauca
Ive been traveling the past 7 days with a group of storytellers and a group of newfound friends who are part of a theater group.
Really talented clan of youths.
i have a new respect for juggling, stick twirling, monocycling, hackey sacking, and all other forms of art that involve corporal concentration.

We participated in a festival called Canciones Urgentes in the city of Sevilla.
Its been cool and a new learning experience…
Colombians have a rich culture in music and storytelling…
people around here can go hours and hours telling stories…some myths, some fables, etc. ive been on a diet of empanadas, colombian coffee, and chicken pastels everyday and having to walk up a mountain late at night to sleep in a nice wooden cabin with no water. The view in the morning has been excellent though, and its been kinda fun collecting water from the rain to drink and brush our teeth.

The event had different musical acts for 3 days as a way to collect new toys and funding for the impoverished kids of the city who wouldn´t have received anything for christmas.
We were the only theater group.
We were clowns for 3 days, red noses and all… Visiting nursing homes and foundations for special children and running around the streets animating the people of the pueblo. We had a show the would have culminated all our work but our time slot had been pushed back so much that we couldnt perforom in the end. It was a really nice story we were going to perform..

What else can I say… I have to catch a bus soon. Just some quick thoughts that I´ve put down throughout my travels:

You´ve got to live outside your comfort zone sometimes.

Eat slower. Walk slower.

Life is just a moment.

I can´t think of anything else with this loud music playing. Take care.
Love, dave

青春顾问 ★ youth counselors

The other day my friend 明亮 (Míng Liàng) came to me needing help wrapping a birthday gift for a girl he likes. It was funny when we came to my room with like 10 different kinds of wrapping paper. Aki and I helped him pick a design, wrap his gift and make a card too. He didn’t now what to write though. We gave him some advice and I told him when he thought of what he wanted to say to finish it later. His gift was very thoughtful. 20 of her favorite pens on her 20th birthday. Youth counselor. Again, the possibilities…

As long as we put our heart into what we do for others I think things should work out.