So here's the thing: I don't want to be lectured about my reliance on thumb drive technology. I've gone over the pros and cons with a dozen people, and for the most part, my methodology is very safe. I perform frequent backups of the whole drive, as well as doing local file backups and mailing files to off-site readers. I avoid contact with magnets and with other things that seem likely to do me a mischief in the woods. I am a careful person. Internet storage systems don't work for me, for a lot of reasons, and as long as I have a day job, I need to be able to transport my work with me, without being tied to a specific system or reliant on a stable Internet connection.

With all that said, this has been my weekend:

Friday night, I got home, watched an episode of The West Wing, and did my basic household chores. Then I sat down to get some work done. This began with the insertion of my thumb drive into the USB port. "The format of Drive G is not recognized. Format Drive G?"

Uh, no. I removed the drive, blew on it, and tried it in a different port. Same result. I rebooted. Same result. I pulled out my netbook, booted it up, and tried again. Same result. I called Rey in tightly controlled hysterics. He came over, and—after spending about an hour and a half fighting—took my thumb drive away. He's supposed to come back tonight to finish file recovery. I've done basically no work this weekend, but I've only cried myself to sleep once, so that's something, right? Right?!

Oh, Great Pumpkin, I need a drink.

In happier news, there are still pendants created from A Local Habitation available from Chimera Fancies. Not only are these amazing pieces of unique, wearable art, but there are three extra-special pendants currently up for small-scale auction, here:

1. Born to Neverland.
2. Save Faerie.
3. Tybalt's Magic.

These are just incredible. Plus I got to write BPAL-style bumper text for them, which was, like, super-fun, and I will probably be unable to resist doing in the future. I am such a geek. Anyway, pretty shinies to admire and desire and obtain, and you should totally take a look. I love Mia's work so.

More contests next week, more review roundups, and hopefully, more sanity, once I have my files back. I have not had a good weekend.