CRASH!!!

Just when you think you're 'all that' and pretty darn savvy about the ghouls that await the moment to attack your computer, one sneaks past the protection you've armed yourself with. It absolutely takes it down to ground zero. My nemesis is called the YoYo virus, which really, is malware. It's called 'YoYo' because of the signal you get when you do a full reboot. Or try to. Once the boot starts up, you can't get past DOS. That's the black screen you see when your computer is coming back to life. The O's in YoYo are really the number 8 laying sideways. Cute name for such a treacherous thing as a virus.

Anyway, you know the scenario. You've worked on a project for a couple of hours. Not backing it up because your still pretty much in the middle of it, and something goes wrong. Like a total freeze. Nothing moves, not even the cursor. What to do except hit the little reset button. And it's in that very second you know you've blown it. "Why, oh WHY didn't I just back up my slave-intensive work??" Too late. It's gone. Down the drain.

See, the worst part about this YoYo thingy is that you have no choice but to totally scrub your hard drive. I mean scrub it like you would your bathtub if mama-in-law was coming to stay for a week! Totally spotless as newly installed. In some cases, that can be good. Nothing like a clean start. But you know as well as I do, we never back up everything we're supposed to. C'mon now, don't make it worse by lying, you know you don't.

After trying everything short of standing on my head, hoping I could get in DOS and find a way to move all my hard work to another drive, I had to face it. As I hung my head and a tear rolled down, I pressed that fatal, 'yes' as the computer asked "are you double-dog sure you want to lose everything?" The only saving grace was the fact I was headed to the gym to work off all the mental anguish I'd just needlessly put myself through. Gotta say, that was one tough workout! My husband, Randy, kept saying, "gee whiz, what's up with the adrenaline rush??"

So now, I sit here this morning hardly able to move my arms, but with new hope on the arrival. Once we accept a fact, it seems easier to deal with, doesn't it? And that's what I've done. After re-installing all the programs and starting anew with my project, I think I'm going to have a very good day.

One more thing, please, please, please....REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR WORK EVERY 30 MINUTES! You never know what's lurking behind these wired walls just waiting to suck up your sanity! And even if you do fall victim to losing all your effort, don't be too hard on yourself. Life is more than what's on this screen.

Always~
Cha