Always something, part 2

So I'm getting ready to give a big presentation and show these local CIOs the organizational process analysis tool I have developed. The day before I'm to go, my notebook computer crashes. Well, it doesn't crash, just parts of the hard-drive stop working. I spent several hours with it yesterday, and now it boots but it is way screwed up. The HD errors have stopped, but it runs slow, beeps a lot, and generally is a hunk of junk. So THAT'S not going to work.

Fortunately for me, I have Groove (you should check out this program if you do consulting. Best purchase I've made in a long time.) I have a backup notebook -- a big, honking Media Center Toshiba that I use sometimes as a TiVo. I load up the materials on it last night and it's looking good. So I show up today and start the spiel.

About 5 minutes into my presentation, the Toshiba just -- stopped. No error, no beeping, no clicking. In fact, nothing. All the lights went out and so did the computer. Nothing. Nada. It was like the computer was playing possum.

So on to plan 3! I had handouts of the presentation available and in by bag (do you remember to make hard copy backups? Saved my bacon today.) Pass those rascals out and finished the presentation pointing to graphs and slides on a piece of paper.

The moral to the story? Life sucks. No really. There is no moral. You try to make plans for the worst, but somehow even the worst never happens like you think it will. I'm glad I had the hard copies, and I'm glad I had a web application to demo. I always love getting up in front of people because I never quite know what is going to happen. This time was no different! In short, it was a hoot.