Google+ Auto Awesome Can Kiss My Auto Ass

Beware: this is a rant.

I've been attempting to create an auto awesome video via Google+ Photos for half the night, with absolutely zero success. Unless, of course, my goal was to gradually transform into a bald,  screaming chimp, due to all of the hair pulling, with no prayer for uttering anything less than what might be found within a sailor's whore's thesaurus, while exercising the tiniest thread of restraint from bashing this phone into a google of pieces. In that case, I consider my level of success unprecedented.

After our family vacation, I told everyone to send their photos & videos my way, and promised I would do something special with all of them.

After THREE failed attempts, I am ready to lose my shit on Google. Here's the godforsaken problem:

1. You can only create auto awesome videos via an Android device, which I have, but this means I can't use a computer if, say, the app is a raging piece of garbage. 
2. You can't edit a video once you've saved it and exited the edit screen. 
3. The app crashes ridiculously often. When you dismiss the alert, you're taken OUT of the edit screen you were in, meaning your video is done whether you effing like it or not. 

FFFFF#$*%KKKKKKK.  

I hate you so much right now, Google. You owe me for HOURS of wasted time tonight. 

FIX YOUR PIECE OF SHIT APP. 

/rant

Best, Easiest FREE Way to Mass Forward Emails in Gmail

The Backstory

(Scroll to "Got Your Back" to get right to the solution).

Recently, I received the dreaded notification from Google that I'm approaching my 15GB storage limit.  I am the type of person that doesn't like to do any mass deleting of emails, because I'm afraid I'll accidentally delete a single important one.  I also reference old emails quite often, whether it's to reminisce or to retrieve a nice document I made years ago, that I'd like to reuse.  The bottom line is, I have no interest in sifting through emails for hours, trying to delete enough to buy me another month or two before my storage starts running out again.

So, I decided, "Why don't I just create a new Gmail account, and move all of my work-related emails from my previous job to it?"  I have a feeling that's a good 5-6GB worth of emails, and with it being so easy to switch between two accounts, I figured this was a great plan... until I attempted to actually move the old emails over to the new account.

Maybe there's a better solution out there than the one I found, but I most definitely could not find it.  I had a difficult enough time locating ANY solution, much less a good one.  It's a fairly simple process if you're looking to migrate ALL emails to the new account, but I needed to forward only certain labels and nested labels to the new account.

The most common answers I found were:

1. Amit Agarwal's Bulk Forward from Gmail Script - This solution wasn't quite as easy to find, but it's definitely scattered about the web, and popular enough.  It was the best solution before I found the one I'm about to tell you about.  In a nutshell, you specify what label you want emails forwarded from, and what email address you want them forwarded to, and run the script.  The problem is, Gmail imposes a 100/day sending limit, meaning it would've taken me something like 7.5 months to forward all the email I want to forward.  This definitely doesn't cut it.  I did try the script out, though, and it works perfectly for anyone that's interested!  You can find it, along with a tutorial, here: http://www.labnol.org/internet/auto-forward-gmail-messages/20665/.  
2. Create a Filter - First and foremost, be advised that this does NOT WORK.  It is a horrible suggestion that a surprising amount of people have made.  They state that you can create a filter (Gmail's search bar - click the down arrow - enter your criteria - click to filter messages - check the "Forward it" option).  Gmail even states at the bottom of the screen that old messages will not be forwarded.  They're not lying.  Clicking "Apply filter to existing X emails" does not "trick" Gmail into forwarding them.  If only it were that easy... 
3. POP3/IMAP - This is probably easiest for anyone looking to migrate ALL mail.  It's not particularly seamless if you want to preserve your labels (you can with IMAP, not POP), but all you have to do is set it up & it'll pull all of your emails into whatever 3rd party client you choose (Outlook, Thunderbird, Opera Mail, etc.).  Then, you can mass forward to your heart's desire.  

Then, as I was hopelessly searching for a better solution, I stumbled across Got Your Back.  It was a one-line suggestion, absolutely buried within the mile-long comments of a random webpage I can't even remember at this point.  So, for this reason, I'm writing about it here, to hopefully help spread the word!

Got Your Back

Got Your Back is an awesome, free, open source solution that allows for a pretty decent amount of customization.  It's basically just a backup/restore tool, but it's the details that set it apart, and make it such an ideal solution for someone like myself.  

You can download it here, and the instructions are located here.  If you're not terribly computer savvy, don't be discouraged too quickly... it's not as hard as it looks!  Plus, they have a helpful Google Groups community, located here, where you can ask questions.  

Here's How I Did It

NOTE - Their instructions are more to-the-point and brief, if you want to just get right down to it, and you're confident enough that you know what you're doing.  If you want to understand how/why I did things, read on!

I had a parent label - I'll name it Company - with 7 or 8 nested labels (sublabels, or child labels) - I'll call them Client1, Client2, Client3, etc. - that I wanted to migrate or mass forward to my new email account, which I'll call account2@gmail.com.  My primary account, we'll call account1@gmail.com.

So, after following the initial instructions to download the GYB .zip file and extract it to the C:/ drive, I began some testing to ensure I could trust this program. 

First, I went to Gmail's settings and turned off Conversation mode, so I could get the actual count of emails within each label, and compare them to what GYB was saying.  

Click the Gear icon, go to Settings and turn off Conversation View to see
the number of actual emails within a label/search.

Next, I went into the Client1 label, which I knew was a minimal amount of emails.  I noted there were 182.  

As per GYB's instructions, I opened a command prompt (Start - type CMD - hit enter - it'll bring up a black DOS-looking box).  First, they instruct you to change to the proper directory by typing the following: 

cd \gyb

That's cd-space-BACKslash-gyb then press enter to execute it.  Not so hard, right?  

Now that you're in the right directory, you can start executing commands and requests.  The first thing I wanted to do was have GYB tell me how many emails it sees/would backup in the Client1 label.  I did this by typing the following command: 

gyb --email account1@gmail.com --action count --search "label:Client1"

That's gyb-space-dash-dash-email-space-account1@gmail.com-space-dash-dash-action-space-count-space-dash-dash-search-space-quotation marks-label:Client1-quotation marks.  Then press enter to execute it. 

The first time you run any command, a window will pop up, asking you to give GYB access to your Gmail account.  Approve it, and go back to your command window, where it will now continue its count, and report its findings back to you.  For me, it matched perfectly... 182.  

So, I decided to do a test backup/restore.  To perform the backup, here's what I typed: 

gyb --email account1@gmail.com --action backup --search "label:Client1"

That's the exact same command as earlier, except the action is backup instead of count.  Got Your Back performed the backup within seconds, and confirmed it was finished.  So, now it's time to restore (aka, import) the emails to my new account (account2@gmail.com)!  Here's how I did it: 

gyb --email account2@gmail.com --action restore --local-folder GYB-GMail-Backup-account1@gmail.com

NOTE that the local-folder is the default folder backups are saved to. If you manually customized this, then you need to change the local-folder to whatever the correct path is.  Also, just like before, since this is the first time I wrote a command for account2@gmail.com, a window will pop up asking me to give Got Your Back access to that email account.  This is a one-time thing.  Approve it, and go back to the command window to see the automagical restore taking place!

Once it was finished restoring, I hopped over to account2@gmail.com, and sure enough, all 182 emails were not only there, both the parent Company label and the Client1 child label were created, with all the emails sitting in Client1's label.  I was thrilled... it worked!

I repeated this process for one or two more smaller client sublabels and had absolutely no problems whatsoever.  It imported exactly as many emails as expected, it created all the labels for me in the new account, and everything appeared to be running perfectly. 

Once I confirmed when a set of emails were successfully migrated over to account2@gmail.com, I would delete all of them from account1@gmail.com, thus creating a bit more storage space, label by label.  

Since I now trust Got Your Back completely, I am in the middle of backing up one of my biggest labels, with nearly 10,000 emails in it.  It's up to about 7,000, and counting!  I can't wait to delete all 10,000 emails from that label in account1@gmail.com, and see how much storage space I was able to clear out with that one label.  

With Gmail's great search capabilities, and GYB's ability to work with nearly every search term used in Gmail, this is by far the best solution for me, especially since I have no desire to delete a bunch of emails in order to make room.  

I hope this helps even just one person that was in the same position as I have been for the past couple of weeks.  Don't hesitate to comment or contact me if I can help!

Create Storage Space in Gmail Without Deleting Anything!

This past several months, I've been battling with reaching my 15GB storage limit with Gmail.  I, however, have no desire to sift through a million emails and find ones that are "delete-worthy."  I reference old emails too often to start trying to get rid of them in order to create more space.  

I received my first notification a couple of months ago, and Googled all the strategies I could find on how to clear out some space.  I cleaned out the Trash, and some files within Google Drive, I cleaned out the obvious garbage in Gmail and emptied the Trash, and basically followed a lot of the generic solutions I found across several reputable sites.  

While it was enough to get me by (and stop the obnoxious, "You're running low on storage space. Try freeing up space or purchase additional storage" message in Gmail), it didn't last very long, and a couple of weeks ago, I found myself right back at square one.  

So, I came up with my own solution to create a separate, new Gmail account, and migrate a ton of emails from my primary account over to it.  I like this idea, because I can use the 2nd account solely for storage, and occasional referencing.  I decided to move a ton of old work emails over to it, but if I wanted to, I could move all emails with photo & video attachments, or all emails to/from a certain person, etc.  Anything I desire!

It was the perfect solution.... but I ran into a huge snag.  Gmail doesn't offer ANY options for bulk forwarding or migration of specific emails.  I couldn't believe it.  Long story short, I searched and searched, and finally found a perfect solution that allows me to back up ONLY the emails I want, and restore them in the new account.  Read my "Best, Easiest, FREE Way to Mass Forward Emails in Gmail" article to learn more about that program and process!

Toilets: It's Time for Change

It's the age old battles with men vs. women... the Battle of Toilet Seat Downs, the Whyistheflooryellow Inquisition, and the unforgettable War of Ohnoshesatinpiss Runforyourlife.  Many men have lost a limb over these things, and many women have experienced rage and fury beyond what she ever imagined she was capable of.  And all for what?

Flush toilets date all the way back to the 26th century BC.  The ones we use today date back more to the early 1900's but still... nothing has really changed at all since 1980, and the basic design hasn't changed since the early 1900's.  That is a problem.

Here's where I think we solve the battle... Recognition that toilets were not made for men.  Not for peeing anyway.  If you understand the anatomy, you'd understand that peeing, for a guy, isn't as simple as point, shoot & aim.  It's actually more unpredictable than that... the "stream" is different every time (just like it is for women).  So women have to try to understand that it's not that he's necessarily being a lazy pig when he pees.  If he's going to be a lazy pig, it's going to be when he fails or refuses to clean up after himself when he's done.

My big frustration is that men refuse to just SIT DOWN.  It comes down to one of two things... their idiotic notion that it somehow threatens their manhood (in the privacy of a bathroom where no one can see them), OR the notion that it's less convenient to have to take another 5 seconds to sit down, and then stand up.  Sitting down would solve everything.

But they won't do it.  Most men are too lazy to lift the toilet seat & put it back down, much less actually sit down & stand back up (ugh what a nightmare!).  It makes no sense, but whatever.  We still love them in spite of their horrible bathroom behavior.

So back to my solution... toilets weren't made for men.  What we need is something that attaches to modern toilets, that can be easily installed, and that is intended only for use by men.  I'm thinking some kind of awesome funnel/hose design that attaches to the side of the toilet, "stretches" & is hand held when in use, and is reattached to the side of the toilet when not in use.  Something that keeps clean & is easy to clean...

Something that is made for men, and that can attach to existing toilets would revolutionize in-home toilets, and would make for much happier men & women!  So there it is... now someone needs to go out & invent it.  Kthxbai.

Day 5: Good News All Around!

The last bit of news I received from Jay was that he managed to recover almost 5 GB, and it was trying to pull down the "broken" files.  525 of them.  He's managed to recover a tremendous amount of files, and I only ended up losing a fraction of them, so I'm thrilled about that!  My only last hope now is that the "lost" files are ones I didn't care about or need anyway :)  Did I mention he's a god!

On another note, I've just been offered an opportunity to join the Meeting Play team, which is an incredible opportunity.  Meeting Play is pretty much a separate part of the company I work with, and it's growing like a weed.  We're looking at having to begin hiring on a bunch of people to support it.

I've been asked to come to the February 5 - 8 meeting for Worley in Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX to be trained, and see if it's something I might want to do. I was hesitant at first, because I've traveled on business a lot before, and it gets very old after a while.  It's definitely got is perks though.... being paid to travel can certainly be fun, too :)  I guess it just depends on where you're traveling to, and how often you're traveling.

Although I do have to give my former boss, Art, some credit... back in the day, when we were traveling so much on business, he did always try to take at least one afternoon to sight see or do something entertaining.  We had a lot of fun on a few of our trips, but nevertheless, it ran its course after a while.  Plus, the idiotic gossip back at the workplace just got to be unbearable anymore.  That place was full of miserable gossips, with their Queen at the helm.  Art always said it was fueled by jealousy, which I think is just as idiotic.  It really was so much like high school.  Everyone was always so cut-throat and out for themselves.  It was just the culture there.  Thank god those days are behind me.  My life is SO much better now that I work with an entire team of such intelligent, talented, driven, and kind people. I couldn't ask for a better dream team!

Anyway, we apparently just landed our first white label enterprise account... Pepsi.  This is huge.  Really, really huge for us.  We trusted Joe from the beginning, and this just goes to show exactly why.  He is so ambitious, and he's a genius... he is destined for success, and we're so honored to be a part of the team from the ground floor.  He's also such a great guy to work for in general.  I really, really love my job.  

So, after Dallas, if I decide it's something I want to continue doing, I'll basically have the opportunity to choose several meetings / places I'd like to be included in (to travel to & work at). It sounds like an awesome opportunity!!  So I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this leads.

With that said, I suppose today I'm grateful for options, opportunities, and anticipating the future!  Life is good :)

Day 4 - HOORAY!!!

So far, so good with the hard drive!  Jeff's genius brother was able to extract the ONE crucial file that I couldn't recover from losing.  I couldn't be happier about that :)  So, we're off to a good start.

The last thing I heard was that he was going to try extracting the rest via brute force, and basically just let it do its thing until it dies.  I'm not sure if he was able to recover additional My Documents data (that was my 2nd primary need... the remainder of my work files), so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.  If I had my way, I'd at least get the rest of the My Documents data - all of it.  Not just work related.

It goes without saying that I've lost my music, photos and video library, which crushes me, really.  I had some great stuff in there.  Some of it was at least backed up on my external hdd... maybe I'll get lucky and discover that the majority of it was backed up :)

I can always recover my movies & music... that won't be a problem.  Just time consuming.  The good thing is that Jeff has a LOT of the same movies & music that I did, so probably half of what I want is already on his hdd.  The photos?  I am not sure.  I know I emailed myself a lot of my photos, to ensure I would never lose them, but I'm not sure I emailed everything.  I'll lose some here & there in the process, but I still consider myself SO lucky that I didn't lose the most important things.

Anyway... Yesterday, I wished to blog about good news today.  And I am.  So for that, I am grateful :)

Day...3? God help me....

Well, that didn't take long.  I got 2 days into 365 Days of Gratitude before failing to write (lol).  In my defense, it's because I had no PC to blog with.  My hard drive died on me.  And I could just about die because of it... my whole life is on that PC.  And of course it was one of those things where I kept thinking "I really should do a backup."  Yeah.... too little, too late.  Can we say cloud storage anyone?  You better believe I'm already signed up for Dropbox... .

So, Jeff's brother is taking a look at it tonight.  I hope beyond hope he can recover the data.  At least SOME of it, anyway.  There are several things on that HDD that will be very difficult to reproduce.  I can recover from this, but it won't be easy. I will be devastated if I can't get some of that data back :(

And these are the exact types of days 365 Days of Gratitude is good for.  The bad days.  The days where it's really difficult to find something to be grateful for.  I REALLY hope I have something to be super grateful for after Jeff's brother looks at my hard drive :)

So for today, I"m going to say I'm grateful to even have someone to hand my hard drive over to.  I wouldn't trust it more in anyone else's hands.  If there is a way to recover that data, Jay will manage to do it.  He's a PC guru.

Fingers crossed!  I hope I have something really, really good to write about tomorrow :)