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Allison Berman
Allison Berman is not only a talented artist and decorating guru, she is also a weekly columnist for the Times Herald Record! Every Tuesday 200,000+ readers follow her trials and tribulations of running a successful business and a happy household.

Read her most recent column below, or click here to catch up on some of her oldies but goodies. If you are looking for a writer for your newspaper, magazine, or blog; or if you just want to say hi, shoot Allison an email directly at ali@withlovealib.com.
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I Can't Believe My Computer Crashed

By Allison Berman
December 2, 2009

My computer died. Three bone chilling words. Anyone who has ever experienced this trauma can tell you it is devastating. I lost my Microsoft Outlook contacts (fortunately I keep an old fashioned paper address book too), my updated business database (I had an older version backed up), and many columns I wrote as a stream of consciousness and filed away until I had time to refine them and deem them "print worthy". I had just finished cleaning up one such column -temporarily titled "just say no" when my computer crashed.


I was on the phone with my sister-in-law, when tragedy stuck. She put on my 16 year old nephew to talk through possible fixes. I entered an alternate computer world where the screen resembled DOS. (For all I know it might have been DOS, I just know I wasn't in windows anymore.) I clicked my heels three times and quietly chanted to myself, "my data's not lost, my data's not lost, my data's not lost." Magically the computer turned back on. I quickly emailed my husband the "just say no" column and other files I hadn't gotten around to backing up.


My computer had some sort of seizure during the night and was humming - but not in a good way - so I brought my sad, humming computer to the "doctor" (Computer Depot). My "emergency" email to my husband didn't transmit successfully so day after day the pros attempted data recovery. Eventually they tried heroic measures -freezing the hard drive- to no avail, everything's gone. (I knew I should have printed the files when I managed to recover it temporarily!)


So, here is my predicament (a great Sesame Street "word on the street")... I need a computer to write my column and keep my business records, but a laptop is big expense and I don't want to make a decision with out thoroughly reviewing (read: obsessing) about my options.


My temporary solution (while I make my grand laptop decision) is this: I am sharing my 4 ¾ year old's computer with her. Picture it if you can, I am sitting at a kid's table (read: very low to the ground). My knees are in my chest and to make matters more comical I typed this column in email (not Mircrosoft Word). You see, my daughter only uses this computer to go online so I hadn't bothered with software. My Jack-of-all-trades assistant (house cleaner/babysitter/computer guru/all around good guy) graciously set up everything (a good thing because I have become dependent on spell-check.) Thank you, Michael.


Today, November 25th is my 25th column, Thank you for all of your comments When you are done laughing at my expense, and I hope you are, please GO BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!


What is fast and has a long battery? And can it stand up to being dragged from room to room... and sticky little fingers that slam on the keyboard? Working from home the way that I do, I know it is only a matter of time before something is spilled on it.




Allison Berman, an artist and mother of two, handpaints custom home accessories for interior designers and private customers. She works out of her home studio in Warwick, NY. See her collection at www.withlovealib.com. She can be reached at ali@withlovealib.com. Her column appears Tuesdays.