Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Beck's Got Nothing on Moi


Each of my clients requires that I format my documents in a certain way. My book clients in particular are, well, particular. They like the pages to be double spaced, line numbered, with headers and footers and true tabs so that the designers don't have to waste time monkeying around with weird formatting.

To save ME the trouble of recreating this formatting for every single piece of work, I simply pull up a previous document, do a Save As, and proceed. Only yesterday? The brain tumor must have been acting up, because I inadvertently did a regular save. And lost the entire contents of my first chapter opener. Every. Single. Word.

How many times in my life have I done this? Zero. Nunca. Nada. Zilch.

And because I'm on a Mac, had I only set up Time Machine (hell, I didn't even know it existed until yesterday!), I would have had all those precious words back. BACK, I tell you!

So, make me feel better; what's the dumbest thing you've ever done in the work place?

* * *

And now, for Movie Clip Wednesdays . . . Want to check out everyone's fave Sci-Fi movies? Head on over to Boxer's Place:


Here's mine:


20 comments:

Milk River Madman said...

Dumbest thing I've ever done at work? Hmmmm. I might have to get back on this one. I have a long and distinguished list from which to choose.

I haven't seen this but I remember I was intrigued by the previews. Good luck to day on starting over.

LẌ said...

Work: Log on to the wrong computer and ruin some configuration files. Still haunts me to this day.

I have not seen the movie yet. Did you like it?

Jenny said...

Ohhhhhhhhhh Honey-Girl, I'm so sorry. AGHGHGHGGHGH.

The dumbest thing I ever did is how/why I created "Red" Posts. I sent a scathing email about a customer.... to the customer and not my friend. Nearly three years later I'm still mortified.

DISTRICT 9 - ooohhhh, can't watch. Mr.Boxer did and it creeped him out and that's not easy to do. Great pick, nice to see a current film.

xoxox - I hope today is a better day.

chickory said...

when i spilled coffee into my keyboard on my laptop. all that cream and sugar crystallized the motherboard. ruined.

district 9! i will look for it on on demmand!

happy MCW

moi said...

Y'all District 9 is the BEST! Boxer, have a drinkee or two and watch it. The squick factor is high, but so is the intelligence and pathos.

Buzz Kill said...

I once e-mailed a guys-only off-colored joke to a female customer - by mistake. That was a pretty embarrassing appology phone call.

My kids just rented District 9 last week and they said it was really good. Than they promptly returned it to Netflicks so I never got a chance to see it. The trailers look great.

Happy MCW!

Aunty Belle said...

Oh NO!!!

Oh poor chile'! Moi--really sorry.

I has done EGGSactly the same.

I knows yore pain-- An iffin' ya wanna see a grown woman in fetal position on the floor keening, jes' let it happen again.

I'se PC, and lemme tell ya, nowadays? the auto save is every 3 minutes. On long projects I emails mahself --at the inbox in the sky--copies of the day's work in case a tornado hits my house an the computer fries...then I can go to Kinkos and fetch my work afore the deadline.

District 9? Doan know it but now I will check it out.

Pam said...

I don't know this movie, but since it is Sci Fi, I wouldn't watch it anyway ...

Dumbest thing at work? How long do you have to discuss?

1. Hitting reply instead of forward to an e-mail and then saying something inappropriate. And then that person contacted The Boss personally to tell him how horrible I am.

2. Opening an attachment to an e-mail from a friend who was sending me a photo of a good luck fairy. Then turning around immediately to talk to a Very Important Person who walked in and needed to leave a message. And when he kept glancing over my shoulder at my computer and starting to twitch in they eyebrow ... well, I looked and was startled to see that the good luck fairy was actualy NAKED FAT LADY. Lucky I didn't get fired on that one.

But Rule #1, and I taught this to my girl very early one .... YOU DON'T "F" WITH YOUR SOURCE DOCUMENT. I've lost plenty of docs, especially in Excel, because I didn't follow that rule. So I feel for you, I really do.

czar said...

Too many to count, but falling asleep with the finger on the delete key while writing an index is one that comes to mind quickly that I'll admit to.

Why this mutual client of ours has been line numbering documents lately is quite the irritant. Are we publishing depositions all of a sudden?

LaDivaCucina said...

LOVED this movie and esp. how the writer became the best person for the lead role! He was extraordinary and may I say how refreshing to see a really good "unknown" actor play the part?

As for stupid stuff done at work, I manage to put my foot in my mouth once in a while but have not done anything too stupid lately.

DJ did something really stupid the other day. CC'd an industry contact for me on a personal email we'd been going back and forth on....He called her and she said she deleted without reading. (maybe!) Yikes! Looks like email can be a very dangerous "tool" to all of us!!!

Keep on, keepin' on girl and get that time machine running!~

moi said...

Buzz: Luckily, I have never sent an inappropriate email to anyone I shouldn't have, but I have been cc'ed in on a few by mistake. Embarrassing regardless.

Aunty: I actually threw up my breakfast, it was that horrifying. Great idea, emailing your work to yourself. I remember doing that a couple times but have gotten out of the practice.

Pam: "Don't F with your source document!" Bwahahahaha! Another tee shirt . . .

Czar: Seriously? I think that takes the cake. You know, I have no idea, either. Everyone edits right in the document these days; no one's emailing or phoning with, "Lines 32-76, take them all out and start over." Knock wood, they're not . . .

La Diva: Ran into town for a Passport drive yesterday and Time Machine is up and running. It's kind of creepy, actually . . .

Gnomeself Be True said...

Just popping in for an off topic link.
Any opinions on this bit of food photography?
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/smoked-salmon-carpaccio-with-brioche-and-caviar

LẌ said...

@ Gnome: I have a pairing suggestion!

moi said...

Gnome: Oooooo, yes! An ice cold sake would be my choice, too.

xl: Spill it!

Heff said...

I've OFTEN been told I should see District 9....

Dumbest thing I've done on the job ? Hmmm.....Back in the Eighties I MAY have "hit some herb" whilst on the clock....I can't remember, lol.

Gnomeself Be True said...

Dumbest thing I ever did at work was an engineer at the Naval facility where I worked. Actually, she wasn't dumb at all, but doing her at work was.

moi said...

Heff: They don't call it reefer madness for nothing!

Gnome: See now? That's why you need to visit more often. My comments section is in dire need of more dirty jokes.

Jenny said...

Gnomey!!!!!!!!!

Come back, come back, come back.

Karl said...

Good afternoon Moi,

Sorry about being late. Most of my time connected this week would not allow viewing videos.

I haven't seen the film yet it seems similar to a problem we actually have going on all over the country: illegal aliens.

My dumbest thing is similar to yours. I'm still not clear on what I did wrong, it was several years ago. I was involved in writing the training manual for some specific diving activities. Now you've read how I write, I'm no writer. But I put a lot into the section and the folks that were reviewing it were very positive. So any way, the funding gets cut and no more manual. Well I must've sent them the original for the backup file I have is empty and what I sent in can't be found. Recreating it means starting all over again.

Long story short backup early backup often.

moi said...

Boxer: Gnomy's like those little squiggly floaties in front of your eyes. Try and look at one straight on, and it vanishes from your vision.

Karl: Oh no! Did you recreate it despite the funding being cut?