Thought-filled Thursday

"They will perish, but You will endure;Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak, you will change them, And they will be changed."
Psalm 102:26 (NKJV)
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Is there any other Thursday? ha ha

Thoughts are running around in my head like a carousel. Up and down, up and down, round and round they go. Does anyone give a hoot? Maybe a select few care but have no idea how to get me out of this slump.

I’m thinking about my writing and just where I’m going with this ‘career’. So many times I want to throw in the towel, other times I want to move full steam ahead, times where I want to give and times where I want to take. It’s just life I guess.

I was thrown into thoughts this week with losing it all, my writing that is. When the thought of the computer crashing surfaced, I panicked. “Save my writing, Save my writing!” Instead of waiting patiently for someone else to save my writing, I immediately kicked myself in the butt and started emailing my writing files to myself. I figure, if it is in my mail, the computer crashes, it is protected no matter where I am in life. As long as google and yahoo stay in business, my writing is in a safe place. (Back up! Back up! Back up!)

Then I learned of free space on the net, like dropbox. com. A free way to save your work online. I have the patience of a clam. Do I have time to wait for my work to be put in there? Well, I don’t know. Do any of us know how much time we have for anything?

Now you might say, “Put it on a disk.” Well I think it IS on a disk. Think being the operative word. Where is the said disk? Do I have it in a safe place? It must be, because it’s playing hide and seek just like the grip pliers that I can’t seem to find. A disk can be broken, emails can’t be shattered with all your hard work.

I have my son sending himself emails too. He has written stories and I just don’t want it to go to cyber heaven when there might be a chance that what he wrote is awesome! I don’t want him to lose all his hard work, and yes, he works hard on those stories.

Now I need to get all my new pics in there too. I don’t want to lose them either, especially the new ones here that we’ve taken of the farm.

I fit in this picture somewhere. Not quite sure why it is so blurry and not zoomed in, giving me a clear picture of what all this means. Is my life, like the computer, about to crash? Can I nestle it safely somewhere in my heart and save it all? Will I be victorious, or a victim of circumstance?

Writing and life are a lot alike sometimes, we just never know how much time we have for anything.

Back Up and Save

I thought I’d tell you something vital to the writing world and maybe you already know this and maybe you do it so much you’re tired of hearing the advice. (Whoever actually TAKES advice when it is given so freely?)

The first bite is: When you’re writing and it is really flowing, you’re so proud of your work that you just keep on meandering through and the lights go out due to a power failure. Uh oh. Did you click save? What, you didn’t? Shame on you.

One time (and I only allowed it to happen once) I lost three pages of writing because I had forgotten to click save. I know I tell you to let it flow, keep writing, turn that internal editor off, but clicking save will keep the mule from kicking you in the butt. You will feel like a total jackass when you lose all your work and then slap your forehead (after rubbing it profusely until it burns.) Then the agony of guilt will set in. All for what? Because you didn’t click save?

Does it take more than a second? Maybe, if your eyes are bad. Will it cost you your flow? I don’t think so. At least if you’re clicking save all the time, you will have something to come back to read. If not, it’s gone and gone for good into the deep dark abyss.

Now the second tidbit of info is this: Back up your files! We’re in an age of depending on machines. We depend on the microwave to cook our food super fast. We expect our clothes dryer to dry our clothes. We want our cars to get us home. And we also hope that our computers are going to last forever. Sorry Mr. Gates, you haven’t made a perfect machine that lasts forever.

Nope if our computer crashes, we lose vital information. Sure the Internet will still be moving full steam ahead without us, but when our little perky computer one day fizzles out, all our work goes with it. At least every three months I make a back up of my writing. Only because I write so much and there is new stuff that the old disc won’t have on it should my trusty handy dandy computer plop right out of existence.

So what are we going to do as soon as you finish reading this? Make a back up file! And what are we going to do as we write our beloved stories? Click SAVE! But my friend, clicking save won’t help you if you haven’t backed up your files. So get to it. Make this machine the best tool you’ve owned. Make it work for you. Carpe diem, Seize the day.
Or better yet, Carpe Momento (Seize the Moment)!!!You’ll be grateful you did.