It seems life has a way of maintaining the balance… I have a new puppy.

Is it cruel to forgo the mourning period? Well, if I didn’t take the puppy the owner was going to put them on the street – and trust me, in Jakarta that’d be a bad thing. He’s probably some kind of Terrier, jet black, pees everywhere, and only about 4 weeks old. I’ll post an image of him as soon as I get around to taking one.

Another high point – I managed to save all of my data from last week’s external hard drive crash. All of my photos are safe – I’ve learned my lesson and will be burning everything to dual layer dvds for archive sake. Triple copy things, people – preferably one of them on an optical disk that can be stored somewhere other than your home.

My broadband is all hooked up – hence the more regular posting – I’m sure many of you take fast, cheap, and reliable internet for granted – but know that somewhere out there are people like me who are ecstatic with 128kbs for $200. 😉

One more week and we’ll be in Bali for three weeks! I’ve found a house for $15 / day. I’m not even kidding. I’ve done the whole 5 star, posh Nusa Dua thing. I’ve done the drunken, sunburned Kuta thing. Now it’s time for a house in the rice fields outside of Ubud. In my hiatus from the Web, I hope to truly focus on my photography and come back with enough fresh material to wade through for 3 months. After Bali it’ll be a week in Singapore for some modern relaxation (and visa renewal).

In preparation for Bali, I’ve been posed by the problem of not wanting to cart around my laptop – it’s just not worth the hassle, weight, or worry. I’ve checked around and there seem to be enough photo/computer stores around Ubud that it shouldn’t be a problem. My dilema was in the fact that I was unsure of how to continually wipe the images from my camera’s card so that I may keep taking photos. I have many friends who’ve been on trips with their digital cameras – only to either fill up their cards or be forced to switch to a ridiculously low resolution for space saving. Their vacation photos were ruined because of such a small detail.

Then the solution hit me – my music player! I have a 40GB iRiver (iPod’s competitor) that can act as an external hard drive as well as a media player – meaning all I have to do is download the images from any computer and upload them to the player. No need for anything bulkier. I’ll be able to save thousands of images in the three weeks without the need for a laptop or finding a CD burner! Technology is sublime.

And, in closing, I highly recommend supporting this effort by signing your name on the list – www.live8live.com in the efforts to help world poverty.