"I like trying to fit this stuff into the podcast. It's fun to read it along with the music and see if it fists. It's like fisting the podcast. . .with words. I do it lovingly a majority of the time." -- Ogle B Straight
WOW, A COMPLETELY new 10 pager. I was in the middle of one and I deleted it. There’s a thing that I feel I have to do every once in a while, and that’s ‘back up my computer’. I feel like I have to do it. I feel like I’ve been taught to do it, and that I’ve been told “it’s right”. I never really think about it too much. I just back it up every once in a while. I guess it’s generally when I notice that my memory is getting low.
But, there’s two things that always happen when I back up my computer. Well first, there’s my process. I will save the entire computer’s contents onto a 1.5 TB hard drive. Then, I will go through every folder that exists on my computer and I will delete everything that I am not currently working on. Sometimes there’s files that I’m taking a break on. Technically I’m not currently working on them, and they’ll get deleted in the mix. There’s quite a few examples of that. Most recently. . .I started working on a writing project. I fill up 10 pages with short test ideas. Stories or poems. Scripts. It takes a long time to create 10 pages. Occasionally, I do tricks like 4-5 spaces between sections. Use larger, like 80pt font, for some sort of effect. But, eventually I’ll get to 10 and then I’ll post it. I just noticed that on my last backup, I deleted my recent 10 pager when I was halfway done with it.
That is one of the things that always happens as a result of me backing up my computer. I delete shit I’m working on. The other is that I get some odd satisfaction from new amounts of open, usable Gigs on my computer. I’ll free up 200 Gigs of space and I’ll feel like a brand new dad with a newborn baby. Staring at what I’ve just created. This new being that knows nothing. Empty space ready to soak in new information. And me just imagining the possibilities of what that space could become. That feeling doesn’t really last that long because when I start filling that space up, I will inevitably come across the notion that I’m missing a file. I’ll remember working on something and look for it and it’s not there. I’ll start to have a fuzzy memory of backing up files, and I will have to make a big decision: +Do I attempt to find the hard drive with the file that I’m looking for?
See, I’m building up a collection of them, and I haven’t been labeling them too well. I have less then 10 of them. There are occasions where I will feel the need to find a certain file. I’ll plug in each of my hard drives that I store in a cabinet in my desk. I’ll take some time to look through each one in search of that file. I’ll come across other things. I’ll find an old video that I had forgotten about or I’ll see a folder of old photos from some past summertime event. Eventually, I’ll find the file, check it out, and then make the second big decision. This one is more heavily weighted than the first because this one will need to be made regardless of me deciding whether to look for the desired file or not. I will have to decide whether it’s time to put that idea to rest, or dust it off and return to it.
In the case of my last writing project, I guess I decided not to go searching for it. That’s just one of those pieces that get lost in the shuffle. Finished but never finished.