A Slap in the ...Forehead?

Last week, I had one of those moments where you slap your forehead for having done something really stupid.

I've been taking classes and workshops to help improve my skills and keep me current. In many of these classes, the instructor or engineer will record your work & their feedback so that you can listen to it later and further absorb the lessons they impart. One class I'm taking requires you to provide a cassette (no, you did not misread that - some of my instructors prefer the old-school methods) for such recordings. And every week, you bring that cassette, cued up to the appropriate spot, for the capture of your work & feedback.

I had such a class on Monday, and remembered to bring my tape, cued up to just the right spot about halfway through Side B (as Side A was already full of work from a previous animation class and several sessions of this workshop). We had a very full agenda in class that night, and I was very happy to get lots of practice time in the booth. But when I got my tape back, I realized it was set to Side A. Uh oh.

Sure enough, the recording engineer, not knowing that Side A was full, had flipped the tape over to continue recording the session when Side B had filled up. It was my fault for not bringing a backup cassette or telling the engineer that Side A was full, and when I got home to listen, I realized that the animation workshop & previous weeks' work had been replaced by that evening's session. This is the equivalent of writing your college thesis or creating a major work presentation, forgetting to hit the "Save" button and then having your computer crash.

I was proud of all that previous work, and hadn't yet transferred it to digital so I could reference those characters for future practice. And unlike losing a document on Word or PowerPoint, there is no "AutoRecover" function, so all that work is lost. I was pretty bummed about it.

I think I still have a red mark on my forehead. Note to self: Always back up your work, and always pack an extra cassette!