Freelance Writer and Social Worker

Step Away from the Desk

My home office is located in a cozy corner of my one-bedroom apartment. The desk is spacious, well able to accommodate my monitor, my printer, my in- and out-boxes, and up to one cat. My chair is comfortable. My walls are lined with my favorite picture, motivational quotes, and notes of encouragement from loved ones.

In other words, my set up is ideal--for me, anyway. I imagine a lot of people could do without the cat. Even though I love my workspace, there are some days when I get stir-crazy and feel like I'll go insane if I spend one more moment at that desk. When those days come, I know that if I want to be productive, it's time to take my show on the road.

What Is My %$^&# Password?

An old friend of mine called me the other night. "Who was I dating in 2000?" she asked me.

I searched my memory. I could barely recall whom I was dating in 2000. Finally a name came to me. "Elizabeth?"

"No. Before Elizabeth."

I thought some more. "Diane," I said finally.

"Yes, that's it. Hold on a minute," my friend said. I heard the sound of fingers striking a keyboard. Then my friend came back on the line. "Oh, damn," she said. "That wasn't it."

I knew immediately what was going on. It's a cognitive impairment that seems to be unique to my generation: password dementia. I've signed up for probably a dozen online accounts that I can't access now because I've forgotten my user name or my password.

In the Writing Business? Back Up Your Files!

Okay, I've spent the last ten years reading the horror stories of other writers who didn't protect their files adequately. Now I've got a near miss of my own to share.

The whole story started when I went to visit my parents about a month ago. One of my older sisters was also visiting. Sharon and I are both writers. The difference is that her education is in microbiology, so she does literature and editing reviews for the scientific journals. I'm an MSW, so I write more of the touchy-feely stuff. Since we're obviously not competing for the same clients, we share all kinds of information and ideas when we get together.

We were swapping war stories when Sharon asked me how I backed up my data. "I don't," I confessed. "My computer is pretty new, and I'm careful about viruses, so I never thought it was necessary."

"It is," Sharon said, in the tone of voice of one who knows all too well. "Suppose your computer took a direct lightning hit, or suppose your hard drive just crashed. How would you retrieve all of that data?"