Am I really this dumb?

Go back to the library and check. It's far from pointless, since, you know, it could still be there. Maybe nobody saw or cared about it--after all, plenty of people have their own flash drives, and you can buy them for, like, five bucks--or maybe you were lucky enough to have someone nice find it and turn it in. I've often lost things and figured they'd get stolen, but they weren't necessarily. I've gotten some of those things back, including a box filled with money for charity. I had to look for them, though. If you give up, of course you won't find the flash drive.

I've done this twice. And yes, there is a point in checking. The university library I lost the last one at had a lost and found box with over 50 flash drives in it.

Good luck.

Still, there's no harm in checking.

BlueLucario said:

i don't know. I can't remember the last time I used it. I'd say a wednesday or thursday. It's so long. i don't know if the school still has it.

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So check!

I left my purse on top of my car once... it skidded off and hit the street two miles from my house.

I was on the way to my folks house - 120 miles away! - and didn't miss it until I got there. I was beside myself with worry... there was money, credit cards, all my personal information, and my checkbook. I just KNEW no one would turn it in.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and had a message from the police on my answering machine. A man had found my bag lying in the middle of May Avenue and had opened it long enough to figure out where I lived and what the nearest police station was. I got the bag back... and it had all the money, the credit cards, the checkbook... everything.

And he didn't even leave his name.

Look for your flash drive... people are perfectly capable of surprising you.

I do hope you find it. It may help to keep two copies.

Can you email your work to yourself at regular intervals?

Girl! I gotta tell you, this is my worst nightmare. NOT the flashdrive part. Just the misplacing ANYTHING. I am so OCD about keeping things in their place (do NOT read that as neat - I love an orderly "mess"). I go nutso if I do not hang up my keys in the same spot every day when I get home from work. OR whatever. If I put my keys in my pocket or handbag, I never check there at all - well until all else checked (even though common sense would say check there first). I go all over the flipping house checking, tearing stuff apart and having a fit saying much the same you say in your post about yourself.

I realize you think you left it at library. BUT, you may actually have it somewhere else that you just do not remember right now for your upset. And, since it is weekend, you will drive yourself batty until you can check at library if you cannot locate at home.

So I will suggest the following. Take it for what it is worth. But, it may assist you and you may gain peace of mind. OR, at least eliminate some possible places that you will have to check if you find it is not at library anyway. Do this:

Relax. Take a deep breath. Think.

Your OP is late evening Saturday night. From that point (8:45 CST) go back in your mind. Think. You know you were going to write for you went for your flash drive. But, what were you doing before? Then, slowly, while sitting down and not thinking on anything else:

Think backward methodically. On every detail. Jot them down as you go. With each thing you jot down move to the next. Then, when you have a list as complete as you can manage for Saturday, start at the BOTTOM of the list (as if starting your day and walking through it again). As you walk through all you did - you may run across your flash.

If not, do the same for Friday (of course school stuff may have to be put off on checking until Monday). Then Thursday. Perhaps your flash will be located on top of the frig - in the freezer - in your backpack stuck between the pages of a book - maybe you left it out and someone else in the house moved it for safe keeping and you need to ask them all. Who knows?

But, you gotta try for it will ease your mind that you have done all you can until you check at school. And, IF you do not locate it at home or at school, you will know you need to buy a new one - that you did the best you could to find it and that you will just start your nano over.

Best lesson?

You will find a secure and constant place for your flash in the future (keyring like someone mentioned) and this will not occur as often (hopefully) once you set up a pattern of where it goes ALWAYS.

Not trying to make you OCD. But, for something this important it cannot hurt to be very diligent.

Good Luck Blue!

Christine

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:

I left my purse on top of my car once... it skidded off and hit the street two miles from my house.

I was on the way to my folks house - 120 miles away! - and didn't miss it until I got there. I was beside myself with worry... there was money, credit cards, all my personal information, and my checkbook. I just KNEW no one would turn it in.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and had a message from the police on my answering machine. A man had found my bag lying in the middle of May Avenue and had opened it long enough to figure out where I lived and what the nearest police station was. I got the bag back... and it had all the money, the credit cards, the checkbook... everything.

And he didn't even leave his name.

Look for your flash drive... people are perfectly capable of surprising you.

Click to expand...

There ARE good people in the world!

Whilst in school I also misplaced my floppy disks, and I started getting panicky and I think the more I did so the more it influenced finding them again. For most part I found them again, as I didn't want to get too over paranoid with it all, as it was definetly not a matter of life and death. Of course with a few they weren't in the original place I left them, but I asked the I.T unit, and they hadn't seen anything. I did a thorough check in the end of the whole class room and ended up finding it one time. In college it happened with my usb stick, and it wasn't a big deal as I made out to be. I just calmly accepted that I left it there, and the next day went back and found it there.

I think the key is to remain calm about it. You had an accident, and you are definetly not dumb. Why are you even thinking such a thing about yourself? Its the most draining physiological reflexes that can ever happen, especially if you get sucked down with it. You misplacing your usb stick, is an easy occurrence, especially when there is other things on the mind, and you just don't acknowledge its existence there and then. (the usb stick in this case) You will end up finding it again, if you are rational about it and accept it just being an accident. The more you blame yourself, the more you'll end up not finding it. Sometimes just in hope you find it. Even so, don't worry and things will turn out how you want them to. If you think negative, your not going to get anywhere.

Like the previous poster said, when you find your peace of mind, you will know where it is.

I lost all my WIP's once. ALL of them. They were on my hard drive and the computer sh*t itself. What was the problem? Of course, the hard drive.

After tech-minded hubby managed to recover most of the information that was lost (God bless him!), he sat me down and told me a story ...

Jesus and the devil were having an argument about who was the better computer programmer. They argued so much that they decided to get Bill Gates up to judge a contest. They would have one hour to create a computer programme, and Mr. Gates would then judge which one was the best, and settle it once and for all.

So, the day came. Jesus and the devil sat at their computers. Bill Gates started the stopwatch.

They typed furiously for forty five minutes. Jesus was working on a word-processing programme. The devil was creating a shoot-em-up game with amazing graphics and features.

Forty-five minutes in, the power went out.

The hour finished, and it was time for judging. Jesus had a complete programme. The devil had five seconds worth of amazing graphics. Bill Gates declared Jesus the winner.

"How can that be?" protested the devil, "his programme is just simple word processing. I have this amazing game with amazing graphics."

"Ah," replied Bill Gates, "but Jesus wins, because Jesus saves."

chevbrock said:

"Ah," replied Bill Gates, "but Jesus wins, because Jesus saves."

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I managed to leave my mobile phone in a box of legal journals for a week (the light in that stack in the university library is broken so I was using the phone to find the right edition), and it was still there when I finally remembered where I had lost it. I think that might speak for how few people in uni read the Anglo American Journal of Criminal Law, mind you.

There are always emails coming through the uni system too, people asking if anyone's found a flash drive in the library or computer lab, so I wouldn't feel stupid - it's one of those things.

When I go to work, what I do is save the WIP as a 'draft' email in my webmail account, and then just log in and add to it when I have the chance. Found that works.

Someone here advised me to use Mozy online backup. It's really cool and it's free upto 2 GB or something and that's more than enough for word files.

I backup with that each night and e-mail myself every week just in case. AND I have another copy saved in a separate partition, in case I have to format the hard disk and wipe clean the C drive.

there are four things you should do.

first check the library, and any where and everywhere you have used it.

second, check in the dryer/washer/dirty laundry

check under your bed. (i find mine here so often, dont know how it gets there either.)

Komnena said:

Can you email your work to yourself at regular intervals?

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^ I recommend doing this. Make sure the attachments and such are stored serverside, as in the case of most webmails.

I also recommend continuing your flash drive backups. You can never have too many redundant copies, preferably spread over different media in different physical locations.

Furthermore, I recommend creating a readme.txt file on the top level of your flash drive(s) with your name, phone number, and e-mail address. Offer a small reward for the drive's return.

Komnena said:

Can you email your work to yourself at regular intervals?

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Good idea!!!