justin:

juliaallison:

On Friday I found out that Meghan left my external hard drive on the subway by accident, with every video I’ve ever taken (as well as every photo before 2006) … and no back up. None. Everything gone … literally hundreds of videos and photos, every family event, every birthday, every lip dub I never posted, every sex tape (kidding) … gone. I was in shock the entire day - I’ve always been the scrapbook-kind-of-girl, and memories (if you haven’t noticed) are incredibly important to me.

That evening was the Jetblue-Thrillist event in Vegas, and I was so upset I vowed to go out of character and get very, very drunk at the party. I didn’t. I tried a glass of wine and it wasn’t making me feel any better. What I did do was stress-eat every chocolate in the entire mini-bar. 10,000 calories later, I was still thinking about what a goddamn idiot I was for not backing up my backup. Theoretically the external WAS the backup, but with my new Air, I don’t have enough storage capacity for the videos and archived photos, so … well … my backup turned out to be my only-up. And now, my fuck-up.

So. I continue to hold out hope that some kind soul will find it and return it to me. I’m praying. Videos of me talking to my grandparents, Lilly when she was a baby, my parents on their anniversary, etc … those can’t be replaced. I actually cried. I would give anything to get them back.

But in the meantime, let this be a lesson to everyone who stores precious memories on their all too fallible computers. BACK. YOUR. SHIT. UP

And tech community? Can we please see some innovative ABS solutions (especially in the clouds) that work better than the ones currently available? I’ve tried a few (which shall remain nameless) and I’ve been underwhelmed. My tech guy friends insist that if I want an online backup system, Mozy and S3 are about it. Anyone in love with one I may not know of?

Being the victim of at least two project-wiping hard drive disasters, I know well the deep, stomache-punch of a feeling that overwhelms a person when they realize that they’ve lost something they can literally never get back. In 2003, I lost every video I had ever made for the past 4 years and it was brutal.

To keep myself from going apeshit I just made a pledge … fuck that stuff I just lost. I’ll make things that are ten times better. And I did.

What a HUGE bummer. This is exactly how so many people felt after the hurricane in New Orleans. Luckily I’d only lived there a couple years and had not accumulated too much. Still, so many times I think “Where is that…oh right, destroyed in the hurricane.” And these are just material possessions. Imagine losing something so much more valuable.