Don, I’m truly touched,  man. See you on tour! Click the ad to see the write-up.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, co-authored by Tony Chung

Links

• Official link to CCM Magazine ad: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
• Amazon.ca link (needs updating): A Million Miles In A Thousand Years
• Official book site: A Million Miles on Tour

While this could be true, even though my computer’s built-in SD card reader claimed to support the SDHC format, I encountered similar problems.

In this post I talk about a couple of free and commercial tools that helped me recover lost space when my card reader mysteriously stopped supporting my SDHC card, and recover lost photos from corrupt Compact Flash cards.

HTC TyTN II and 1GB Micro-SDHC card

My HTC TyTN II came with a 1GB Micro-SD card, formatted to 512MB capacity and filled with programs I’d never use. Fortunately for me this card came with a standard SD sized sleeve. I put the microSD card into the SD sleeve, put the SD sleeve into my Toshiba M400 laptop, and ran the Toshiba SD format utility. Bingo! 1GB space. Just like that.

Toshiba M400 problems

Later I purchased a couple of 8GB MicroSDHC cards from an eBay seller. My M400 laptop wouldn’t recognize them until I upgraded the card slot driver. This worked well, and I copied files between  my laptop and my phone memory card to my heart’s content. At least, until the laptop stopped recognizing the SDHC card again.

Apparently, a Windows XP update killed my laptop’s support for high-capacity SD cards. When I reformatted my Micro-SDHC card I found that 8GB was reduced to 113KB of usable space.

Calling all Google

A quick search for “lost SDHC memory card” lead me to the Philippines Asus EEE user group discussion forum, which led me to download the Panasonic free SD formatting tool. In the blink of an eye, the 113KB became 8GB once again.

Panasonic free SD Formatter tool

Of course, this only formatted the card back to the proper capacity. However, there are other utilities that would have recovered data as well.

Problems with Compact Flash too

Just so you Compact Flash aficionados don’t get too cocky, I’ll let you in on a problem we had with my dad’s Nikon D300 camera’s 4GB Compact Flash card. After a really important birthday party, we tried to copy the files using a multi-card reader, but the files wouldn’t load. Somehow the data on the card must have gotten corrupted while still in the camera.

More searches found the DataRescue PhotoRescue commercial recovery tool. It was inexpensive, and besides, the birthday pictures were so important, money was no object. This little bit of magic not only recovered the lost files, but repaired the corrupt data and returned the card to full working shape. I’ll bet this utility also works with SDHC cards.

Datarescue Photorescue commercial recovery tool

Calling all memory card geeks

Have you ever had problems like these with any of your memory cards? What did you do to solve them? I invite you to leave comments about other tools that helped you get your photos, music, and other important data back. I’m interested in hearing what worked for you.

Kristen tells the story of the communal chamber pot

I should be thankful that we live in an age with running water, and proper waste removal. While on our tour of Fort Erie, the guide told us one of the reasons the Fort smelled so bad back in the day, was because they shared a communal chamber pot between the 200-plus soldiers and other residents. My mistake. I thought it was the laundry tub.

Posted via email from tonychung’s posterous

I’ve been pretty fortunate to have unusual weather every time I’ve visited Ontario in the last 20 years. The residents claim the province is unbearably hot and humid, but I’ve never experienced this at all. I’ve always managed to find a good cross-breeze wherever we were. And air conditioning always helps, but honestly, I’ve rarely used it.

There was one incident years ago when I visited Toronto in March. When we arrived the sky was clear. The next day I awoke to a foot an a half of snow on the ground, and went shopping for a pair of boots that morning. But that was a rare experience that taught me to only visit in the summer or autumn.

All this great weather gives me reason to sing, and so I recorded a quick worship set that lasts about 10 minutes. Of course, it took several hours to edit on Roxio VideoWave, because the program kept crashing at the most inopportune moments (also, it does strange things with moving video titles.) Lift your hands and worship with me, to the video below.

I left some musical space at the end for you to respond to the Holy Spirit in prayer and thanksgiving from your own heart. After all, He wants to hear what’s on your mind. I’m just here to help provide some “atmosphere”.

God bless!

An edited post via email from tonychung’s posterous

Changes is a great place to get back your bottle and can deposit. If you like, you can choose to receive Save-On More points instead of cash, which they will in turn donate to charity. They also give points when you return packaging from manufacturers who participate in their voluntary return program. I’ve made a fortune returning laser printer toner cartridges through the years.

My eye caught a sign plastered to the middle of the door, at the level of my nose, advising customers that they would not accept any bags with ants in them.

Bags with ants are not accepted at Changes Recycling

I was at first shocked, because in B.C. the correct protocol when returning recyclables is to be sure to rinse them first. Did customers really need to be told to look out for ants?

Apparently so, I was told, when I casually interviewed the staff after I regained my composure. Before they posted the notice, they received between ten to twenty bags that contained ants in an average day. After they posted the notice, they receive about a dozen bags containing ants within a week.

What do you think about this? Is Changes Recycling to blame for their “no ants” policy? Or have people become lazy, with a selfish lack of regard for our service providers?

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Pretty exciting stuff. Send me a private message if you have time to meet for coffee.

I prayed for my friends that God would provide for them a suitable help-meet who would offer to water their camels. That picture stuck with me, and now I can’t get the idea out of my head. I shared my prayer with Caleb, who in turn brought the topic up when we went out for coffee with his friends. After explaining the idea to this group of young married couples,  Caleb has taken off on the idea and I’m finding comments in his friends’ Facebook sites and everything. This is going viral!

Caleb explains to my sons how he lives in two trailers at once

Watering camels, historically speaking

The type of family relationship we’ve developed almost instinctively can be summed up in a story from Genesis 24, when Abraham pledged his chief of staff to return to his home land to find a wife for his son, Isaac. The servant, identified as Eliezer of Damascus in the Amplified translation, went on his quest back to the old country accompanied by other servants and several camels carrying treasures for the as yet unknown bride-to-be and her family.

Elizer was a God-fearing man, and like me, also found himself praying along his journey. Although he was concerned about finding success on his mission, his prayer anchored in a trust that Abraham had already prayed for the Angel of the Lord to prepare the way before him. He rested his entourage at a place where the women of the land drew water for the evening. I imagine there would have been several young women at that time of the day who would have made for a suitable wife for Isaac. But Eliezer was sure that God had already prepared the heart of one woman in response to his quest.

He set out a fleece before the Lord, that when he asked a girl for a drink of water, that not only would she give him a drink, but also provide water for the entourages camels. Anyone who has ever seen a camel drink knows that camels drink a LOT of water. It is no small feat to draw water time and again to fill one camel let alone the number accompanying the servants at that time.

But one woman did respond to the quest: Rebekah, described as “very beautiful and attractive, chaste and modest, and unmarried”. It just so happened to be Abraham’s niece. Eliezer asked Rebekah for a drink from her pail. She willingly gave it to him. Then she offered to draw water for the camels until they were full. Praise the Lord—This was the one!

Watering camels in the new millenium

How does this scene apply to the current day? Today’s world revolves around celebrity worship. Advertising directs us from the age of our youth to focus on superficial expression: appearance, economic or social status, and unfair comparisons. Mind games run rampant: “Does he like me?” “Does she think I’m cool?” Media teach our kids to idolize the “object of our affection” by placing him or her on a pedestal. Characters in movies research their “intended” by questioning friends of friends rather than asking direct questions while building a relationship.

When I met the woman who became my wife, I had made a pact with myself that the woman I marry would not be the one who met my needs the best, but the one whom I could best serve. This proved itself naturally, where my common actions met her needs, and hers mine. In addition to the natural communcation, which I call the “mechanics of conversation”, we were both willing to adapt to each other and go with the flow, much like jazz musicians who have never played together listen to what each other is doing and find ways to respond to what they hear.

There were no fireworks, no sparks, no love at first sight—just a natural growing together as our hearts worked toward becoming one in marriage. And that’s when the magic happened, which brought forth the whole shebang.

A willingness to water camels is a form of service that represents what is really going on inside the person’s heart. I am using camels as a metaphor for what a person finds important: their passions, their heart, their interests, talents, and hobbies. When partners recognize and nurture each others’ camels their relationship grows and matures in a healthy, natural way.

This desire shouldn’t end after marriage, but should grow and mature as old camels grow and mature. New camels will replace old camels. Every additional stage in the relationship could bring new camels that also require watering and support. If you follow Isaac and Rebekah’s story through the next couple of generations, you’ll see that Isaac anda Rebekah stopped watering each others’ camels when they played favourites with their twins, which caused a rift between husband and wife, and between brothers. Isaac’s son Jacob (Israel) eventually married both of Rebekah’s nieces, Leah and Rachel.

The camels that Rebekah watered to build the initial relationship eventually died off, leaving shallow husks of a relationship that brought pain and suffering to their children and grandchildren. Fortunately God fit all of this selfish mess into His plan and worked the same heart that willingly fed a strangers camels into the a man who generously fed his family even though they betrayed him.

Water my friend’s camels too

If you’re really daring, please visit Caleb’s blog, The Almost Weekly Report and leave a comment that says that you are excited for the work he’s doing at Ocean View Church in Port Alice and that you prayed for him to find a wife who is willing to water his camels, and he willing to water hers.

Almost Weekly Report: that about sums it up

In my next few posts I plan to expand on this idea in the hopes of eventually writing a book out out of it. I will provide links to different resources on marriage and family relationships that I have found especially helpful.

What are your thoughts about watering camels in relationships? Am I way off the mark, or do you think there could be something here?

This comic strip applies to so many areas of my life right now, and I’m sure you will find the concept familiar to you as well. Navigating change well is all a matter of managing relationships.

The Other Coast ~ June 30 2009 - Click to read more from Comics.com

There’s so much more I could talk about, but a picture says a thousand words. What do you think?

tonychung.ca blog design circa 2007 to 2009

It’s already June. I haven’t redesigned this site yet. At the time of writing it still uses the original theme I installed back in 2007. At the same time, I have also developed ideas for several blog entries that I believe many will find helpful to reconcile issues of life, faith, and vocation. I’ve started 26 draft posts and have a handwritten journal for two more. I love being an ideation machine, but I’m finding that it’s difficult to write about the importance of building relationships when I’m out building relationships.

Over the May long weekend (16-18 this year) I went away to a men’s retreat, and returned with a resolve to improve my relationships with my friends and family, most significantly with my sons. This new focus on enriching the depth of my relationships makes it difficult to apply myself to any tasks outside of my daytime work. While I am passionate about publishing my thoughts to share with you, I’m finding that the cost of sharing revelation is greater than the income it generates.

I’ll be completing these draft posts over time, so bear with me. Right now there is too much life to live to be able to dedicate any time to this blog. Besides, shouldn’t YOU also be out there living your life anyway? What are you doing reading blog posts while the sun’s shining?

…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). ~ John 10:10b AMP

Have a great summer. You may or may not see me online during this time. All the blessed!

Chung Family on Mother's Day

My thoughts on my wife’s thought:

• Lord, help us to see you in the centre of all the chaos.
• Readers, we’ll see you on the other side.

Invitation to Open Worship Night

One of the ways to keep God in the centre of our thoughts is to spend time in prayer, praise and worship. Our church is hosting an Open Worship Night on June 13. The link opens the event details on Facebook. Here’s a poster you can download.

Poster for Open Worship Night at Northside Church

Hope to see you there!