Comments on: Be prepared, plan ahead and buy lots of batteries

By: Freelance Writing Jobs - The Internet’s #1 Freelance Writer Community » Blog Archive » Stuff Happens, It’s Best to Be Prepared

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:34:57 +0000

[...] stuff. It also got me to thinking, what happens if it is stolen? I know I talked about the importance of backing up before, but last night’s dream was so real, I thought I’d mention it again. Here are a [...]

By: Amy Derby

Amy Derby — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:30:26 +0000

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to read here lately, so I’m playing catch-up. But this post really struck home with me, because on the 24th we had a huge storm with tornado warnings, power outages, etc. My first thought when the storm hit was “I don’t have time for this,” rather than, “Gee, I’d better log off of here and get someplace safe.” Luckily, everything cleared up ok, but that was a good sign to me that I’m letting myself get too busy.

Your idea about writing blogs and such ahead of time is a really good one. I’m going to have to put that to use next time my workload slows down.

As far as computer crashes, thumb drives save my sanity often. I had one laptop’s motherboard (which to me sounded too close to being a mothership) melt down suddenly and another fade out slowly like yours. Both times I had to take my hard drive to a tech friend to get my files back, because I hadn’t backed anything up. Now I use the thumb drive before I shut down each day.

By: Micah

Micah — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:25:59 +0000

Also, having back up articles is a great idea too. I have some ideas that I havn’t finished that seem to pop up at a good time. Most is having to write fresh though. Besides the ongoing notebook that I’m about to start, it looks like I’ll be starting a little folder too. Out of sight, out of mind is so true for me.

By: Micah

Micah — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:13:15 +0000

This is great information. I back stuff up on a floppy but not as often as I should. This week is about getting ready for the school year again so it would be a horrible time for a power outage. My pc is on all the time. Good luck Deb with your power problems.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:48:22 +0000

I have two blogs that I have to post to daily. The week before last, I encountered an outage on my internet service. I scrambled to call a friend, have them hop on the internet, and get their number for me so I can call the company to let them know that I would be late with my posts for that day. Come to find out, I can set the timestamp to the future, and it will post the blog on the designated day for me ( similar to your “drip”). This has become a godsend for me!! I hope that things get worked out for you, Deb! I always check your website first thing week day mornings for the latest in writing assignments. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

By: Phil

Phil — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:10:46 +0000

As John says, be ready with another keyboard, unless one is easily accessible. Luckily I live near an Office Depot. They do monthly business with me because keyboards don’t like coffee.

But at least when I go out to get another one, I know why my wife is rolling her eyes at me (usually I don’t know the reason).

By: John Platt

John Platt — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:05:44 +0000

Another good “be prepared” tip — have a backup keyboard and mouse at hand. You never know one of them will crap out, and not having a backup means you have to go out into the world to get one.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:00:56 +0000

Yes we must live in the same area. The short power flicks are my favourite. Just one second and your computer is rebooting. What fun. I have not backed up data in a while and your blog was a great reminder. First on my to do list tomorrow.

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:44:35 +0000

For me, I light candles and read books instead. I live in a rural town. WiFi is not available in much of Vermont, so if the power’s out, there is nothing I can do. And we’ve had this happen a number of times this summer. The weather’s been odd, so for a six week stretch in my area we were having thunderstorms routinely on Friday mornings. One day the power was out for 10 hours. A week ago, we had massive storms that caused what the weather service is saying was a straight line wind sheer that snapped four power poles 1/2 a mile up and down the road from me. We were without power and phone for a full day.

Our local library has internet, but they limit the amount of time you can spend on any of the computer stations, so there’s no point in wasting the gas. In these cases, I simply call the people I write for, tell them what’s happened, and usually I’m far enough ahead on deadlines that it doesn’t matter if I lose a day.

By: Candace

Candace — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:47:10 +0000

Hey, Shannon, I’m a writer and a graphic designer/illustrater also. I find backing up my writing files to be a piece of cake next to backing up high-res photoshop files! I can just drag my whole entire writing folder onto a separate hard drive and the whole thing only takes a couple of minutes to copy. I wouldn’t try that with a folder full of photos or tiffs unless I was doing something else, like making dinner!

I back up my projects, but there are other files that it’s difficult to lose. I had to reformat my hard drive once and thought I’d backed up thoroughly, but it turned out I’d lost some old emails that I wished I could refer to later.

As to preplanning my blogs…boy, I really need to do that. Ideally, I want to update my author’s blog weekly, and it’s just not happening. I’ve got all kinds of resistance to updating it regularly.