Sigh

It's almost funny.

[Note to Typepad users: If you are in "compose post" mode (ha, I originally typoed "compost post" - yeah.) and you accidentally hit F5 -- POOF!  Post gone. Composted. Hey, shit happens.] 

Bloody hell. So here's the thing:  I was writing a post with the title, "There Are No Coincidences."

Get it? 

Would you take that as a metaphysical bitch slap, if ever there was one? 

I was talking about the latest medical fuckup for my sister that actually turned out to be a good thing on a number of levels.  (As MamaCate would say, "Fuckup, The Sequel.")

And I was talking about my new cast-on for Crocodile Totem socks -- and the fact that I had decided to adopt the crocodile totem.  And that perhaps crocodiles eat doctors for breakfast.

Well, anyway.  I then accidentally hit F5 (or was it F4?  I don't know -- it was an accident.) and the post page .....uh REFRESHED. Blank slate. And given the title and all, well, I think I'm done for tonight. Perhaps now Typepad should get a piece of my mind. (could there maybe be a fail-safe that says, "Are you SURE you want to delete this post?" Just a thought.) 

But I'm saving all my ire for the doctors. So maybe one of you could tell Typepad of my concerns?

*defeated shrug* (but don't worry; I'm laughing. It IS funny. And my sister is NOW doing fine. -ish. Now that she has told them all to go take flying leaps, and she'll find some decent health care on her own, thank you very much.)

For your lame visuals, here's a picture of the Opal Crocodile yarn I'm using. I obtained it in a swap with Stalker Angie a while back.

Yeah, yeah, I know:  Lots of WIPs to round up.  And there is the story about Norma The Sexist, which is really losing its edge now, with all the other drama, I'm afraid. Sorry to disappoint. 

This is Super Agent F5, codename "The Croc," out.

Comments

[Donna]

Well, I'm glad your sister is doing better!

[Kit]

I'm glad your sis is fine-ish now. And good luck to her and finding some competent doctors (I've had good luck with nephrologists, does she want to borrow?). And, yeah, uh, beware the random buttons. My friend hates computers because she is certain sure that one of them is the self-destruct button. I haven't found it yet, but I know it's one of these. Mark my word, the end of the world is really finding the ctrl-alt-DIE button.

[Susan]

I so stinkin' agree with you. I can't remember how many times I've accidentally deleted a post, it's downright annoying.

[Kim]

After Typepad did that to me the second time, I started using this:http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/ - now I can compose offline and publish when I am ready. Give it a try - I don't work for them - just feel your pain.

[jessie]

Don't try deleting a picture with the backspace key either. Bye Bye post. (And usually only after you've put in lots of links and stuff.)

Do tell. We want to know about Norma the Sexist and how there are no coincidences and all that jazz!

[Dave Daniels]

Mmmm, poor thing. So, is that what you call de-compose? Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Ok, have you tried using comeing offline, like Wordpad, or MS Word? I do my stuff offline because I MUST have spell check. (If you've ever read my blog comments on other people's blogs, there are always mistakes. It's one of my endearing qualities. Sure.) So if you do it offline, you can just paste it in, make adjustments, accidentally delete, etc, with no fear or worry. Just ask me how I know. (And how many times has that happened to me to make me come up with a solution?)

[Kim]

You're a skimmer AND a sexist? Oh, the things I didn't know about you....! Ha!

Thinking of you & your sister, sweetie. xoxo

[Lucia]

Ah, the old disappearing-post trick. It hasn't happened to me with Blogger yet, but if experience is any guide, I will find a way. If you want a piece of software broken, I am your woman. I'll keep my distance, I promise.

[Carole]

What Dave said.

[Norma]

Ah, you cretins without Typepad. Always trying to get me to blog offline. (I know when Ryan gets up on the West Coast, that will be her battle cry, too.) Too much work. An extra step. My creativity doesn't work that way. Can't put the photos in, all that jazz. And guys? Typepad has spell-check. No HTML, either. So I live on the edge. I gamble. I take my licks when "it" happens.

[Scout]

Good news about your sister. Sorry about Typepad though. I hate when shit like that happens!

[Chris]

Glad to hear your sister is doing better!!
*makes mental note that the F5 refresh function is more widespread than previously realized*

[Kathleen]

Very good idea about a little prompt--are you sure you want to delete! They do that for other things. Glad to read your sister is doing better.

[jpt]

The wild plum trees and azaleas are blooming all around town, and the first of my jonquils opened up yesterday. So I promise, February really is over! I am beaming good thoughts about the new "crocodile running on its hind legs" fossil to you.

[Miriam]

Yeah... F5 will refresh any page. I HATE losing posts. It never ends well. Generally my foot ends up lodged in the ass of teh next person who bothers me.

[ann]

laughing over the whole cretins thing!

[Tracy]

My book came yesterday, so once I sort out my book holder (it attacked me the other night and I ended up with it lying on the floor in pieces) I shall give a good go!

[Stalker Angie]

Poor Norma Dear. Don't think of it as a metaphysical bitch slap. Think of it as this was the post you were supposed to do. Maybe the other post had some bad karma to it. Or something. Yeah. Maybe I just need more coffee.

Glad to hear your sister is doing better-ish. Sometimes you just have to take those small victories and run with them.

Oh and now you've gone and done it. You've linked me. I'm a day behind on posting. Now I have to post...something. Ummmm grrr. Yeah. Hehe

Hugs to you, Norma Dear. Take some deep breaths, calm your center and then eat a shit load of chocolate. One of those should make you feel better.

[Liz]

Big Hug. As Bean would say, at least you're stylish!

[Lee Ann]

Go, sister! Glad to hear she's taking charge, though it sucks that anyone who is ill has to take charge in order to get decent care.

I'm with Angie on the chocolate. I'm sure she doesn't really believe in the calming the center part ;-)

[--Deb]

Glad to hear your sister's doing better!

[mamacate]

It's just so insanely freakin' easy to lose a post in typepad. I keep telling myself that I'm going to compose my posts in word and c&p them.

And then I don't.

Sigh. I'm sorry you got composted. Here's hoping for no sequel.

[claudia]

I believe that we are all hoping for a better March.

[Marcia]

Um, this would be why I NEVER venture up into that area of the keyboard, and I don't care how much of a shortcut might be lurking up there! Glad to hear about your sister. I could tell you horror stories about Sloan-Kettering. Fortunately, the local hospital is pretty good.

[Elisabeth]

I'm glad your sister is doing better (well, I infer she is doing better, at least she's told all of her "doctors" to go to hell which always makes _me_ feel better!).

As for the post, I know how it goes. It could be worse, though, it could be all of your pictures from a trip to Rome (my poor FIL had an unfortunate incident with the delete button on his digital camera).

[Ryan]

Oh, Norma, you know me too well. You know what I'm going to say: Compose *anywhere* except in your blogging software. Compose somewhere where you can save as you go along like in Notepad or Word. Hell, use Excel; I don't care. Just so long as *you* can save, and *we* can can find out what happened to your sister. What've you got to lose, woman?

Oh, and it was F5 which is, in fact, the Refresh key; sometimes useful, sometimes a pain in the arse.

-Ryan on the West Coast

[Catherine]

De-lurking to explain F5. I know that on occasion the F5 refresh thing can be a little annoying, but it is really there for a good reason (at least if you are as much of a geek as I am). F5 will refresh almost any page under almost any circumstance in almost any Windows based program (and some non-Windows ones too). It will refresh your web browser page, your Microsoft word page or your Windows Explorer browser page. It is there so that people who are making changes to pages, directory structures etc. can easily refresh a page without having to take their hands off the keyboard. As Norma probably knows, when you type around 80 wpm on a standard keyboard, taking your hands off the keys in order to use the mouse slows you down A LOT. So computer people build in shortcuts for themselves. It is generally a good idea to stay away from the function keys unless you are absolutely certain why you are hitting one, and yes I know, you can hit them accidently, but it saves those of us who actually create these things a whole lot of time.

[Chris]

So glad your sister is ok and I hope the medical care improves for her. As for typepad, there seem to be any number of ways to lose a post in composition. Yeah, as others have said, I should compose in word or something but ... well, I dunno, it just seems like compose mode ought to not eat posts.

[adelaide]

Ah, Norma. You never disappoint. Hope all goes well for the sister.

[Carrie]

Hey gorgeous, I have noticed that SOMETIMES, if you Undo after a refresh (CTRL+Z, usually) you can occasionally get your post back. Some sites will let you, others will not. I have also retrieved posts after an accidental refresh by clicking the Back button. I don't know if either of those would save you, but since you'd already lost your post, it couldn't have made it worse, right? Anyway, for next time.
And of course, more good thoughts for the sister. We all knew that eventually, being your sister and all, she'd kick the losers out and go get some REAL medicine. Good for her. And prayers too.

[Imbrium]

WordPress tends to let posts slip away too...I know your frustration.

Glad your sister is doing better(ish)!

[jillian]

Typepad opened a can of whoop-ass on you! I use Ecto, a piece of Shareware found at versiontracker.com, instead of the Typepad web interface. Much better!!

[freecia]

That does suck. At first, I wondered if the <- back button on your browser would de-refresh a page. I dunno if it is an IE thing, but when I just typed the first two sentences, I pressed F5 and firefox kept my text. Ecto is a good little shareware program with some nice editing features. The Harlot uses it, I believe, so that's a good testimonial. Mac and WinXP versions are slightly different but it seems the WinXP version has finally caught up to the great Mac version.

I just tried out a service at writely.com which is an online word processor that can post to your blog. You can edit documents collaboratively, too. Pretty sweet and free for now.

[Kristen]

Bravo for your sister! May she quickly find medical competence!

[sandy]

Love your croc. Honestly, Norma, I never ever thought I'd utter those words in your direction. But there. It's done. Suprises happen!
:)
In gmail, which in my opinion, as you know, is the crapcrapcrappiest of email programs around, there is an autosave that happens once every one point milliwillion seconds automatically. Why can't typepad do that?
Well?