We are all human, even me and we all make mistakes, particularly at work. It may not be the biggest mistake in the history of computing but it was a mistake nevertheless. My colleagues were quick to point out that, "Worse things happen at sea". I was beating myself up about it for a while. It was stupid and foolhardy. There was nothing I could do about it now, the data was gone but I should have checked it. Then double checked. Not sure why I did not carry out the most simple of checks. There was nothing I could do to make it up to the user. Even sorry was not enough. For a few hours at least I wanted a hole to open under my desk and swallow me up in one big gulp! You must know that sinking feeling inside when you know that something bad, really bad is about to happen.
Worse Things Happen at Sea
Later that evening, as I drove home from work, I thought about it. I thought about the significance of all this data we carry around with us, on computers, PDAs, mobile phones. All this personal data? What is it truly worth? Afterall, you can't take it with you. It is afterall just pieces of plastic and metal. Sometimes I wonder why I spend so much time on my computer, building up a big library of meaningless stuff. Hold on, that is the point, it only becomes meaningless the moment you, the author is gone.
Apart from this minor indiscretion, work is going well. We are busy and have had some frantic afternoons recently, with deadlines looming to get laptops out of the door. While there is a minor calm at the moment, perhaps before the storm. I really need to decide on what I want to get out of this job and where I want it to take me. The thing is, for such a control freak individual, I have no idea where this road is going and at which stop I want to get off. Strange I know but rather keep all options open, time (for once) is on my side.
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