Buffaloed by My Blackberry

As my Blackberry pinged, a new message appeared. It announced that I could now have Blackberry Protect. Oh how I wish I had ignored that app.

Seeing the word “protect” led me to add the program to my phone. The information about Blackberry Protect states it is “a free application designed to help find a lost BlackBerry smartphone and keep the information on it secure. That was just what I needed. Without questioning, I downloaded and installed this cursed app. It didn’t take long for me to discover how stupid I’d been.

After rebooting my phone, I checked my information. One place I looked first was Lister, another app. It keeps lists of things that are typed into it and prioritizes them. Over the last year and a half, I’ve typed in no fewer than thirty titles and ideas for columns I planned to write.

When Lister came up, the screen was empty. I read a message that said no lists were available. Yep, everything that I typed into the app had disappeared. It had been zapped into some other dimension where my retrieving it was impossible.

Most folks are probably shaking their heads and thinking, “Why didn’t the moron have the list somewhere else?” That’s a good question for which I have an answer. I put those ideas on my phone as soon as they came to me. At this point in my life, ideas, appointments, and chores flash into my consciousness briefly before evaporating for all time. By typing them onto Lister, I was assured the “next great column” would be waiting for me when I sat down at the keyboard. Then I simply forgot to make a copy of the items.

So, here I am without a clue what those topics were. Oh, a couple returned to my mind, but for the most part, they taken flight. I should have known better. I’m no technical whiz anyway. Computers confound me, and on so many occasions I’ve run to my neighbor Mike Bremseth or to fellow teacher Brad Neal and begged them to save me from the blue screen of despair.

It’s the same way with my iPod. I’ve invested in a library of songs that bring entertainment and fond memories. However, not long ago I hit the wrong key, and an entire segment of them disappeared. I furrowed my brow, cursed, and spent three hours trying to rescue the music, all of it in vain.

I love my flat screen television and Bose speaker system and blu-ray player. But I can’t operate them. The simple act of loading a DVD and watching a movie overwhelms me. Amy or one of the kids, when they’re in town, has to take over the controls and get things running right.

On my night stand sits an alarm clock. It has no radio or CD player. On the back are dials that I can use to set the time and alarm. Simple? You bet your ass because I’m not smart enough to figure out the operations of anything higher level.

So, I sit here and grieve for the list of topics that I lost. My last hope is that someone who reads this can email me instructions on how to find those lost ideas. Whoever can will have earned my undying thanks. Until that happens, I’m going back to paper and pen for cataloging ideas. Things will be fine until I have to remember where I put the paper.