A few of my interviewees have repeated the same piece of solid advice: be prepared for the unexpected. Don’t let surprises derail you. Leave 20% of your day to the unknown. Accept that shit happens.
Yesterday morning, a cup of coffee spilled onto my laptop. I watched it coat the keys, seep into the crevices. A mini flood of French Roast. Thankfully, the reaction to recover it was quick, and within five minutes it was powered off and turned upside down. It’s now drying on a grated rack over a fan in the closet. Web forums advise to let it dry for 72 hours before taking it to Apple to be thoroughly assessed. We’re 24 in.
Boy, was I bummed. After spending the past five weeks doing everything other than working on Polynate, I was anxious to get back into the swing of things this week. Clearly, that requires a working computer, my files and design programs. I was also this close to publishing a new Profile after five weeks of silence, and desperately anxious to get it out.
But, as previous Polynators have said before, you’ve just got to make it work and keep on going. So I unearthed my ancient computer from the depths of the closet, powered her up and tried to keep working. Operative word: tried. The thing is so old that the internet barely works because the browsers are so outdated, and the browsers can’t be updated because the operating system is so old. Ugh. But, you keep on going, right? Tim was kind enough to let me monopolize his computer for a while and I was able to piece together some of my files and make do. You can read the new Profile here.
I’m reminded today that there’s no use crying over spilt coffee, even if it is on your computer.