"Why The Century Disc Became So Important To Me"

I was talking to a friend and my boss about an account we have been trying to land for the Century Disc. It's a pretty big account and it would be nice to have, though it won't make us or break us either way.  We were talking about this deal and other related business topics. As usual, I always come away with good information. So, he asks me, "besides the fact that you could make money selling the Century Disc, what really sold you on the product?"

Wow, that was a tough one. I had shared a little of my story with him and a couple of others at the office but never really delved into the "real reason" behind this concept and why I fell in love with this product. Until now.

Back in November of 1997, my only daughter was hit and killed by a car. She was crossing a busy road in NW Indiana where she lived. Apparently, from what I was told, was that she had new shoes on and one of them slipped off. She stopped to try to put her foot back into her shoe and she was gone. If I thought about it once, I thought about it a million times. I can only imagine that she must not have seen the car at the bottom of the hill.

I figure her point of perspective was such, that when she started to cross the road, she didn't see the car from where she was at. Either that, or she and her girlfriend (who barely made it across alive), must have believed that they could get across before the car came.

Either way, it's a mute point. She is gone and I miss her every single day. I do not grieve to the point that I can no longer function, I just have that 'something's missing' feeling everyday of my life now. I have to believe that she is in a better place.

Ever since that fateful day, I have tried to live my life in such a way that she would be proud of who I am as a person. I know that she would've been proud of me just because she was daddy's little girl. The point is, when something that horrific and that devastating comes into your life, you (or at least I did) consciously make a decision. My decision was to live life to the fullest and to be as honest and honorable as possible.

Some people turn to addictions because they can't find any other release to ease their pain of loss, feelings of guilt, anxiety, and all the other emotions felt when something tragic happens to us. It doesn't have to be the loss of a child, though personally, I don't think I can imagine anything in my life having been more painful than that.

So, I told him what I just told you. I lost my daughter in 1997 and I wish I had more pictures, more videos, more voice recordings, or anything that was a part of her when she was alive. Do I wish more than anything that I could just have her? Of course. Would I have traded places with her if it meant she got to live a long healthy life? In a heartbeat.

The point is, she is gone, this is my reality and I have to be the one to live with it. But, I do not have to live with a chip on my shoulder, run around grief-stricken or paralyzed, I just have to live in a manner that I, as a person and her father, can be proud of.

Does that mean I haven't made mistakes, lost money, borrowed money, gone in debt in hopes to make wealth, made big money, lost big money, offended someone, or have been offended by others. I am guilty of those and more, but I am also willing to man-up and claim responsibility for my mistakes. I just keep plugging away, working hard, and try to teach myself to work smarter in hopes of the American Dream. I believe we all just try to do the best that we can with what we have.

Getting back to my point. I was sold on the Century Discs due to the fact that I had lost some of the very few photos that I had of my daughter and most of all, I had lost the voice files that she, her two brothers, and I had made back around 1991 or 1992.  I had just installed a new sound card and wanted to test it. It was a Creative Labs Stereo Sound Card. I stuck a microphone into the back of the card and called the kids over to say something into the microphone. One by one they lined up to play. Little did I know how valuable her little voice on that computer would be. I backed it onto a floppy disc long before she died never knowing there would come that day in my lifetime that I would no longer get to hear her voice.

I had already been divorced and the kids came on one of their usual weekends. One Saturday, they all went off to the park without me. Later that month, I was given those photos from their day at the park as a gift. Nice gift, nice pics.

About five years later, my little Heather was gone, at the early age of only 12. She was born on June 3rd, 1985 and I was in Nevada trying to make a living when she was born. She was the only one of the three that I wasn't there for, when she was born.

That's the truth and here's the reasoning.
If I had known that any of this was going to happen, do you think I would have done things differently? Of course, I think just about anyone would've. It has changed me as a person, for the better. In other ways, it has given me more compassion for people in general. You never know where someone has been until you have walked in their shoes.

Now, I am one of those digital camera nuts. I take photos of everything. I had a Nissan Hard Body pickup truck that had a bed that was all rusted out. I took the bed off, custom painted the frame, shocks, springs, axle, and anything else that was under there when the bed came off. I later painted it silver and red, it was awesome.

The difference is, I now backup and store all of my critical data and personal photos on the Century Discs. They are scratch-resistant, reliable, have very low block error rates, are printable, I can write on them with a marker so they don't get mixed up with the other discs and I know, that I believe without a shadow of a doubt, that they will work several years from now.

I took the pictures of my Hot Wheels collection and stored the photos on the Century Disc. This way, when my son gets settled in his new career and buys a house I will give him my Hot Wheels collection for the next generation to enjoy. I have about 1,000 (pre-2000 a.d.) in their original cases. I collected an entire room of them. In fact, I had what we used to call the Hot Wheels room. It was my home office. I had wall-length shelves filled with stuff. The little toot-toot and rev em up toy, a Hot Wheels skateboard, an umbrella, coloring books and crayons, just about anything Hot Wheels and I would buy it.

Just one of the HW boards in my old office

If you have a family, if you parents are still alive, whether you are happily married or not, take lots of photos and store them on Century Discs. The Century Disc also has an Ultra Hard Coating, we call it Scratch-Resistant Surface (SRS) technology. Just like the Blu-ray discs' hard coating.

I have literally taken a brand new razor blade to the recording surface of a Century Disc DVD, recorded our video commercials onto it and it still plays to this day, without a glitch.

With all the news about the flooding in the Midwest, Tornados, Major Fires on the West Coast, and other disasters around the World, not just the U.S., it just makes sense to protect your valuable lifetime memories with a disc you can depend on. 

There were people on the news (in shock of course) talking about their lost family photos, herilooms, and other items that were important to them. Not to mention a total loss of everything in many cases.

The sad truth is, even though the insurance company will pay for the damages to the property, the only insurance that could have saved their family photos would have been if they were digital and they either uploaded somewhere where they could download them and reprint them later, or if they had them on these Century Discs, saved in a hard case so they could have taken them with them when they evacuated.

If you have family movies or videos, your wedding videos on video cassette tape and have been meaning to have them transferred to a DVD, GET IT DONE. Don't wait until the last minute and just assume nothing with happen. Anything can happen and obviously it does, when you least expect it. It's best not to leave things like that in the attic either, they could warp rather quickly in the heat when it gets too warm in summer.

If you don't have the time, who does anymore? Ask a family member, a retired mom or dad, or even an Aunt or Uncle to help you scan and save your family memories to the Century Disc. They work just like an ordinary CD or DVD but last longer, are scratch-resistant, and you print on them too.

The real 24-karat gold layer protects the real Silver (AG) layer. Most discs are silver because silver has better reflectivity with the laser in your reader/burner. Silver has proven to be more compatible with ordinary CD or DVD drives. The Ultra Hard Coat (SRS technology) protects the recorded surface from dust, scratches, fingerprint smudges, and other damaging elements which can easily render a disc useless. Not the Century Disc.

You can go to the company that originally did your wedding video (which is always a nice thing to do; 1) if they are still in business and 2) if they did a good job for you, and ask them if they can transfer your wedding and other videos onto the Century Disc for you?

Even if they are just a little bit more expensive than some other service, remember "you get what you pay for." If you want to keep your home movies, wedding video, and other family photos for any length of time, you should GET IT DONE and get it done right the first time. Use the Century Disc today.

Whatever company you use, ask that company if they use or even know about the brand new (released late 2007) Century Disc. Ask for it by name because the Century Disc is absolutely the most cost-effective Archival Gold disc on the market today. You don't have to think about whether you need a label, if it has a scratch-resistant surface, etc. This is the disc. Every option you could possibly want on one disc is on the Century Disc. We like to say "All Options Are Included and Failure Is Not An Option."

The Century Disc uses a patented Super AZO dye and has all the bells and whistles you need to save your critical data and lifetime memories for a lifetime. Any other disc that thinks it compares, doesn't. These are made by Mitsubishi (MKM), a brand you can trust, using the newest equipment and most advanced technology available today.

In this "disposable society" we tend to forget that just one picture captures that one moment in time and that will never happen exactly like that, ever again.

Burn Once, Store Forever with the Century Disc.