Hulk smash!

I'm angry and need to vent before I punch a hole in the wall. I run a small multimedia production business in addition to my full time job and with my other responsibilities, the only way I can get caught up on my production work is to move all my editing equipment into the kitchen. I know it sounds weird but it's an easy central place where I can get work done while still watching my kid.

A few weeks ago, I put together an intro to Caesar's Community Pulse podcast (which I would highly recommend, it's a great way to keep up on major site events and updates without doing goofy things like.... you know.. reading). Due to time constraints and software issues I produced it in the matter of a couple hours but in all honesty I'm not at all satisfied with it. Caesar is putting a lot of time into his podcast and I just feel like I half-assed my end of a major project.

So today I have the whole day to myself and figured it's about time to re-record the intro. I compiled new music and sound effects and started grabbing sound bites from Podcasts 1 and 2. This was the most time consuming section - consolidating about a dozen 1- to 2-second snippets from 2 hours of audio, editing as I go.

I'm cranking along, so far about 2 hours in. I'm in a groove and focused on this role. All of a sudden, the monitor goes black.

Remember I said I've been doing this in my kitchen? Unlike in my editing office, power is an issue so I have to run a power strip with a long cord across the kitchen floor. Rather than step over the cord, my mother flipping dog stepped on the half-inch-wide power switch on the power strip. This of course shut down power to the PC.

As an "older gamer" you probably played those old Sierra games, ALL of which reminded you to: "Save early, save often". I've retained this old adage for years and even saved early in my editing project. But I made the mistake of not saving often (or at all since I saved the initial project bin).

I turn the computer back on re-open the editing software. It tells me that a project closed unexpectedly and did I want to resume working on it? Yes! I became optimistic as I clicked the affirmative. The project opened back up and there are all my files - EXCEPT the goddamn sound bites I've been working on for the last two hours. Because they were all extracted from two much larger files, they didn't save as seperate files and were therefore all gone. Two hours of work essentially never existed.

I immediately closed down the software and went outside for a few moments. I started writing this because if I can tap hard enough on the keyboard, then maybe I can release enough aggression that I don't have to take it out on a wall or miniature pinscher.

I may go upstairs where BC2 is sitting in my PS3, and start dropping mother fuckers with my sniper rifle. And maybe tomorrow I'll start this project again.