What a month June was!

Interview with MANDA SCOTT The Templar’s Penance by Michael Jecks

What a month June was!

I have been suffering recently from a series of disasters.

Early this year I had the horror of a computer failure. Before anyone says (again) that I ought to back up the damn thing, I do. I routinely back up to a local second disk, and to remote disks, and to the cloud. However, once in a while things go wrong. I clearly remember with horror the time some years ago when a backup failed. I saw that there was some kind of glitch, so I hurriedly backed up the disk to my Zip files (remember them?) and the result was, I copied the virus to all my back ups. That cost me about two months of work.

This year it was more disastrous. That failure cost me because it wiped out my current work in progress. This year was worse.

My “vintage” Apple and an old leather chair. Both defunct!

In February I saw that there was a minor problem with a mail file. I tried the usual, turn off, turn on again etc, but there was no joy. So I decided I’d use Apple’s backup. Every day for years I’ve used my Time Capsule with Time Machine to backup every keystroke. All one need do is recover to the most recent copy of the computer, and hey presto! Life can continue. However it didn’t for me. Time Machine works by overwriting the entire disk with the data it’s stored on the Time Capsule. I restored, and then lost everything – because my Time Capsule had a fault. It had nothing stored on the disk, and as a result when I restored it wiped my disk – completely.

It’s been much more catastrophic than the earlier failure, because not only was my WIP affected in February, I also lost all my photos. 13,000 of them. Now they mostly still exist. They are on Flickr. My work in progress tends to be safe on remote sites, too. But I did have plans, notes and essential records on the computer. They were all lost, and that cost me a month.

In June, however, things went much worse. Another glitch (pink squiggles all over the screen) and after getting the machine in to the menders, I was told that my machine was “vintage” at eight years old, and therefore there were no spare parts. My graphics card was blown, and that meant the computer was, basically, so much junk. But, at least I had the disks still. Helpfully the menders put the disks into a cabinet so I could use them again.

Except I can’t. The latest update of OS X means those disks don’t work with my new machine. So a bunch of work was again lost.

The worse thing about this second failure was really the lost time in setting it up. In the past, when I’ve bought a new Apple, I’ve stuck a wire between the two and left them to get on with things. Somehow, they chat for a while and then my new computer has all my settings there ready and waiting. With the new machine this time, there was nothing. It took me a total of two and a half weeks to get the new machine operating as I expected it. I still don’t have my mail folders working as they should – that’ll take a while to get fixed – but at least I now have all my essential software.

However, the first day I sat at my desk, the chair broke. Oh, it wasn’t a critical breakage, it was merely the blasted height adjuster. Since the chair was a rather special sort, there was no way to mend it. Perhaps it should also be called “vintage”! In any case, I suddenly had a need for a new chair. So off I toddled to the usual shops.

Now, here’s a thing. There are great chairs to be had. You can buy leather chairs for really very little. I was surprised to find really very good chairs for £70-80. I tried them, and some were very comfortable. I rocked (one essential for my chairs is that I can doze in them!), I swivelled, I twisted and raised and lowered the mechanism – and was very happy. Except, when I checked, the damn things weren’t leather.

This may sound daft, but if you’re sitting in a room for 14-16 hours in a day, plastic just doesn’t work. It may look, feel and sound like leather, but the smell and the overall experience are not right. They grow uncomfortable. So, after thinking about it for a while I went to first principles and figured out what I wanted.

I wanted a good tilting mechanism. I wanted it to be good and ergonomic. I needed an adjustable back, squab and arms. I needed a head rest. Oh, and I needed the lowest possible budget, especially having had to buy a new computer already.

The only ones I found were approaching £1,000. I couldn’t get close to that.

One salesman (?) wrote to me with the details of a couple of £500 chairs and when I asked if they had any seconds or slightly soiled models, got a sniffy response that if I wanted cheap chairs, many shops sold Chinese imports, but he personally wouldn’t touch them. A nice way to tell a prospective client that I was a fool for thinking about such chairs. He didn’t win my vote.

My new computer, new chair, new working environment!

However, a quick check led me to a Humanscale Freedom chair. It’s superbly comfortable, almost infinitely variable, and has all the flexibility I need. And I was fortunate enough to find one for only £160 second hand. Except that I had to drive to Oxford to collect it, a round trip of some six hours. It was worth the money. I can recommend them!

But it does mean I’m even further behind. My poor, long-suffering editor must be fed up with hearing my tales of woe. All in all, this year, because of computer failures, chair failures and other issues, I’ve lost about two and half months of work. It’s horrible.

So, if you’re wondering why I’ve been a little quiet for the last few weeks, now you know!

Hopefully normal service will return shortly.