Folks, I just had one of those absolutely horrible days.
- Woke up 30 minutes later than planned, so I couldn't flat-iron my ridiculous hair before I left.
- Got to work to discover that the Tam Tams I brought with me (matzah crackers) were inedible. Like, I opened the plastic packaging, and the crackers just REEKED of polystyrene. It was disgusting. All I had brought to eat besides the crackers was a dried fruit strip.
- While I was getting ready to leave the lab for a poster session, my computer slipped out of my bag (sitting on my chair) and fell to the floor. It would not boot (gray screen forever).
- Super rainy and windy on my way to the poster session.
- Stood for three hours explaining my poster to undergrads. Legs were killing me halfway through.
- Free lunch provided was a sandwich (two choices), a cookie, an apple, and our choice of soda. I could only eat the apple, and I grabbed some water from the bubbler in the hallway.
- Spent over $100 on a new external hard drive at Radio Shack. I was hoping the Apple Store could get my data out onto the hard drive, and I'd left my external at home.
- Extra rainy/windy back (almost got blown into traffic).
- Spent 20 minutes begging for a computer to borrow for my committee meeting.
- COMMITTEE MEETING which went ... I honestly can't tell, but it was not fun in any way, and I stood the whole time. Thank goodness I had my PowerPoint on my flash drive.
- Rushed out to the Apple store in the pouring rain and wind. Had to walk past news vans commemorating the anniversary of the bombings. Then had to walk past the firehouse, where two firefighters just died.
- Geniuses at Apple explained it was my hard drive, but that they don't do data recovery.
- Trekked all the way back to campus to a repair shop. My hard drive is nearly destroyed. They have to send it to a clean room for recovery. There's an 80% chance they can recover my data, and if they do, it'll cost between $600 and $900. Would this be a problem if I backed up my computer regularly? Of course not.
- Computer is old and creaky enough that a new hard drive will only give me another year before I'm looking at a new machine. Walked out with a new MacBook Air. Goodbye, money.
- Pouring rain on the way back.
- Was able to use my old external's Time Machine ... I last backed up 9 months ago.
- Legs. Are. Killing. Me.
The good news is that if my data isn't recoverable, most of my raw data is in emails (I email myself Excel files when I collect data on other computers). I also can use email and friendly, understanding contacts to recover a lot of important files, like my qualifying exam.
But if I just backed up my computer regularly (and weren't clumsy and careless), I wouldn't have to hope and hope and hope that I can pay $600-900 for my recovered data.
Also, maybe I just need to cheer up but UGH come on, new computer, why can't I do all the swipe things I want to?!
Anyway, that's where I've been today. </whine>
now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
