I Solemnly Swear to Back Up My Work

One thing I learned this weekend is the necessity of always backing up your work. I was working on a 2500 word assessment task (in Power Point form) for my University course and I was nearly finished. Weeks' worth of research and writing had gone into this task. Just when I felt I was on the home stretch my cat jumped up onto my lap top, some how deleted several slides, and some how saved the deletions! Could any of you hear me scream? Argh!

Thankfully I always hand write my assignments first because it helps me map things out, make links to research, and correctly order each paragraph so my arguments flow. This mishap added about one more hour onto the assignment, but I could recover and submit it in time.

But what if I hadn't? Wow, I'd be a blathering mess by now, and I think my cat would be half way to the lost animal shelter where I found her (not really, I do love her dearly, and she only wanted to keep me company, although I did adopt her from a shelter. Perhaps that's why she was there in the first place? Thoughts for later...).

And so, I learned the cold, cruel lesson of always backing up your work. From now on, everthing I write will be saved in the following ways:

• I will save my document religiously
• I will email my document to myself every second or so time I save
• I will set up an email account specifically for my novel to keep track of research notes, drafts, ammendments etc (very important to keep track of changes in case I change my mind and want to change back)
• I will regulary print out my drafts/chapters so I have hardcopies

Does anyone else have any preservation techniques they would like to recommend?

The Old Lady

Observations of a Lonely Soul:

Her greatest fear was not death, as some may have thought of one so old. But rather, her greatest fear was that she would be forgotten. A widow for many years, she was a lonely soul with no one to check to see if she was still breathing each morning.

When the loneliness became too much she would stumble into shops with no real purpose other than the need to be noticed. Her favourite places were Real Estate Agencies - that eager brand of young men who will listen to your nattering longer than most in case you have a house to sell. Sometimes they will even come over and have tea and biscuits. They listen to her ramblings with a fixed smile on their face and, for a short space of time, she feels important.

At other times she leaves a trolley of groceries in a busy food court, asking an honest-looking individual to watch her trolley for a bit. That way, for an hour or so, she knows that there is someone out there waiting for her to return.

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