Yes, at 63 years old...okay, almost 64,
it's still possible to learn lessons.
BIG ONES!
COMPUTER-SIZED LESSONS!
It's funny how complacent we can become when we trust in something. In 22 years, I have never lost any of my writing, well, by mistake, but not by computer. So I've not worried about leaving my computer on and open with my material set to save every ten minutes. Know what the problem with that is? It doesn't always save. But I didn't know that.
I guess I could play stupid, but I've had plenty of folks tell me I should back up with more than the recovery program through Word, but not having had issues, I figured I was good to go.
I remember when we allowed our daughter to take some of the money from her college fund to buy a car. After all, she was going to school full time on the nursing program and working full time. So we figured she was pretty doggone responsible. She found a cute little Subaru Sports car for only $2000 (worth around 5) and she bought it from a Subaru mechanic. Primo condition. Unfortunately, because it was a sports car, the insurance was going to be astronomical, but she was a great driver, so we felt comfy with her only having PLPD. (for those of you not in a no fault state, that meant she'd only get a few hundred dollars with an accident even if it wasn't her fault. Soooooo....she did great. Drove carefully, did everything she was supposed to...until winter came along. We told her not to take the shortcut home because the road was really icy in the winter. But, being 20 years old, she figured she knew what she could handle and took the shortcut. Hit the ice, hit a hydrant, and totaled her car. A car she only got $400 for.
So, I guess it runs in the family. We have people tell us what we should do, but we figure it's never happened before, so why worry now? That complacency cost me two months work this weekend. I came in from church, and voila! Computer had shut down. Did not save my Word doc. Now, I've had this happen so many times before, but the program has always autosaved my work. Not this time, and believe it or not, I'd had the doc open on my computer for two months. Yes, it's set to save every ten minutes. It didn't. And I didn't realize it.
We all know what we SHOULD do, but we don't always go along.
So listen to this piece of advice for what it's worth:
Don't drive on icy shortcuts and don't trust the backup on your computer!
6 comments:
I hate that I admitted to such stupidity, but there you have it!
Hi Linda - Yeah, we tell people, hey, don't make the same mistake I made, but . . . I read somewhere that the only people who profit from the mistakes of others are biographers.
Joseph Max Lewis
I once saved an OLD manuscript file over the NEW one - instead of the other way around - and lost two chapters (and days) of work. My heart in my throat, I recreated the two chapters, but, hey, the magic just isn't quite there the second stale time around. Thanks for letting us learn from your flub: always, always, always back up that important story. Good post.
I do hate to admit to things that I should know better, way better, but if it helps one person, it's worth it. Thanks, guys. The good news is that the writing this time, I think is better. So maybe it happened for the best. A third of the way done. Have become a slave to the computer, but yes! I did manually backup and save last night to an external hard drive. Lesson rightfully learned!!!
Gee, I shouldn't have admitted this where the boss can see it, should I?
Great post and greater reminder for all of us. I save and email the manuscript to myself every evening and shut my computer off every night. Also backup to my external hard drive - but not often enough. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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