My hard drive died. It was a new computer, bought in last Aug. I never had computers died on me in such a short period. No matter how hard I had tried, that stubborn piece of iron kept its mouth shut tightly.
 
I searched online, it says data retrieve servers would cost 700 to 2000 US dollars. I am not willing to pay the even 700 dollars, neither to say, I don't want to give away all my secrets and passwords which were locked in that piece of iron. So I decided to let it go, damn... I would kowtow to it if I could have my files back.
 
Few days later, had a same model and new drive in hand, I gave it a last try... switched both electronic boards... trying to make a jump start, sadly, it still didn't work.
 
So, that's the end of the story. I lost tons of pictures which I had been working on and without backuped, I don't even dare to count how many of my pictures, recipes, files, had gone forever.
 
The moral I learned from this incident:
 
1. never trust anything, even a machine could cheat on you...
 
2. everything will gone eventually, sooner or later...
 
3. never back up, so you always will have opportunities to start fresh.

      
        I made a washout style Pop Art design from the original photo.
 
        
        The original photo.

                 
First night's dinner at Upstate NY... fish fries with a bowl of Jambalaya. It was... edible. Regretted.. I should ordered steak, I told myself.
 
Made a POP style design from the original photo, only the strongest colors can deliver my emotion towards this dish.