Crisis and Opportunity by Matthew Presley

My laptop died.

And not just died as in needed repairing. Whatever killed it killed the hard drive beyond affordable repair, so I lost all my files. It’s a write-off. It’s been Path to Exiled, banhammered, twin struck by Frostmourne and the Soul-Edge. By the Snarl. All my photographs, drawings, music, three years’ worth of Minecraft- all gone. My writing was luckily backed up to a pen drive- but the files are outdated for the most part. Not only do I need to get a new laptop; until I’ve assessed exactly how outdated these files are (Through deduction and evidence gathering that should earn me a deerstalker) I can’t throw out any of the paper copy notes. Really, I know I should be more frustrated by this than I am. I’ve lost at least 17,000 words from the last month alone. The neck pain that’ll come from replacing the music isn’t going to be much fun either. I know I should be annoyed, but once the shock wore off I realised;

I’m free.

You I have to start again with a lot of stuff. Luckily not everything (touch wood), but within crisis in opportunity. This is a mix of both; a Crisportunity, if you will. Yes, a lot of things will start again. But sometimes you need an event to kick you out of endless procrastination and distraction. I now have the opportunity to start with a clean slate, rather than eight years of accumulated rubbish to dredge through. My Minecraft world is lot to the time-draining void which ultimately created it. I now have a reason to sell off the card collection I’ve been ignoring for a year and a half. I can get a new, compact laptop that can fit in a backpack, not a temperamental giant with a cracked casing held together with duct tape and which weighed more than a waterlogged tracksuit. I don’t have to worry about hiding the dead albatross every time I’m out of the flat for more than two days because carrying it would be too much hassle.

In conclusion; back up your work, and back it up often. We live in an age of pen drives, external flash-sticks and the strange moon magic called ‘The Cloud’, which my old laptop predated. But remember; if your laptop dies, or if you lose your work and get set back, you can either dust yourself off and start again, or you can start something fresh. Stay positive, and philosophic, and think of it not as a setback, but a Joseph Campbell death-rebirth journey.

Oh yeah, and don’t trust iTunes. I’ve no idea how I’m getting that music back.