I was hoping that I would be able to end the year with a review in photos, but I didn’t get around to cataloging my images. Maybe I can do that this weekend?

This weekend, Mer and her Boyfriend Victor are visiting from Vancouver and they are out in the city.

Bev’s parents came over for dinner. Bev cooked filet mignon, with sauteed mushrooms, veggies.

While Bev was baking, I watched Journey to the Center of the Earth with her parents.

I have no clue where this post is going, but I felt compelled to post before the year ended. I feel a little behind because I still have quite a few video projects on my hard drive, and I’m behind in my cataloging of photos. I take so many photos, I’m not sure I can keep up with my backlog! My pictures folder alone takes up 1TB!

I’ve spent a few days working on Bev’s baking website. It seems like good timing because starting next year, she’ll be laid off from a job she has since college. I think if the word gets out, she could really pick this up. She seems to be a natural at baking and her cupcakes are divine! We’ll see where this takes her. I’m happy to be at her side supporting her creative endeavors.

On my creative front, I feel like I can really take my photography to the next level. As I look through my current portfolio, I feel like there are so many more photos that represent my best work. It isn’t until I rate them in Aperture that I can sort through them. I was going to do the 365 project, but changed my mind, I’m just way to busy. For me, I would want to put up something ultra creative each day. I just don’t have 2-3 hours a day to really do it right.

I got a little busy toward the end of the year with quite a few newborn sessions and one wedding. I made enough money to buy a Canon 5D Mark II, and enough to purchase another Drobo with 4TB for backup. I might sell my old one… I’m also looking forward to Macworld to see what they come up with…

A lot of people don’t realize how little time you get once you become a parent. I thought I was busy when it was just Bev and Me! However, I NO regrets being a Dad and I love every day that I have with him.

Ayden has been growing so fast. He four last teeth are growing in and I think they have been bugging him. He is growing to be a very active little boy who just loves trucks to death! Each day, I just look at him and go, wow… Where has my baby gone? Next thing I know, he’ll be talking in sentences and asking me questions about life!

This past TNC Xmas party was hosted at the Paul and Charlene’s. It was a fun party and we had some amazing food! Bev made Red Velvet cupcakes which seem to be everyone’s favorite. However, I really loved Charlene’s shrimp tempura rolls. Her sauce was amazing!

Who knows what 2009 will bring, but I’m optimistic. We have a lot to be thankful for this past 2008. It was a horrible time for the economy as the sub-prime mortgage crisis turned our stock market upside down. We are officially in a recession… It is hard to believe we were looking into buying a second home, but Bev’s job situation turned for the worse and we realized that we are very lucky to even have the house we have now.

I voted for the first time in my life (for Obama). I’m not a very political person, but I definitely did not get any good vibes from McCain and especially Palin. I would have to say that I was republican, thanks to Regan. But the both Bush administrations really left a bad taste in my mouth. I can’t complain, I didn’t vote last time. So I’m hopeful Obama can make a positive change.

It was probably a bad year in general for a lot of people, but there’s always peaks and valleys in life. It just sucks when we are in the valley because it is harder to see the brighter side of things. We’ll just have to ride this storm out… I’m optimistic things will get better.

I’ve been a little turned off from blogging since Eleven2 lost my wife’s site. I’ll just say it, Eleven2 sucks. I’ve been with them since 2006 and their support has dwindled over the years.

They claim that they keep a backup of your data, but when it came down to it, they don’t back up “databases” – check out this quote from their top 10 section of their website:

We back up.
We know. We know. You have a trigger happy finger on the delete key. It happens. We’ve thought long and hard about how we could help you prevent the loss of data, and our conclusion was simple: Develop an automated backup system that not only backs up your data on one server but two. With backup servers located in different areas, these backups are guaranteed to keep you online even in the danger of natural disasters.

Basically what happened is that I asked them to consolidate my different websites under their new VIP control panel so I don’t have to log into different control panels. After that request, Amaze Studios site and Bev’s site was down.

They got Amaze Studios back up, but Bev’s site was down for over two weeks! The support people would not respond to tickets on an average of two days. First they said it was moved to some other site in Texas and that they are working on it, Then they said the database had become corrupt? But when I asked them, don’t they have a copy of the old database before restoring it, and they said they didn’t move it and that out of 400 websites on that server 4 of them became corrupt.

I then started looking for new hosting companies and ended up choosing Fused Network. I called them and a guy named David was very helpful and said that he’ll move all my sites over for FREE! Not only that, their support is very responsive! Their cPanel was customized and very slick, and their FTP didn’t drop connections like Eleven2.

It was like night and day. On top of that, I’m saving over $150 a year!

Eleven2 used to be a great place to host, but after I dropped service, they refused to refund the remaining $148 or so that I paid in advance! Can you believe that? Even after they screwed up! The least they could have done is say, sorry, and gave my money back, then I wouldn’t have made such a stink.

In the end, I learned my lesson. Don’t trust what hosting companies say, back up your stuff. Eleven2 could have warned me and reminded me to backup before requesting something a procedure that resulted in a corrupt DB. We lost the whole year of blogs from when Bev was pregnant his first year of firsts, etc.

To this day, they still refuse to refund my money. If I recommended any of you to go to Eleven2, I would suggest looking for a new hosting company that is more reliable and has better service. Eleven2 simply sucks.