And then I dropped my phone in the toilet...

What follows is a continuation of backup backup backup - day 10 without a functioning laptop where I talk about my laptop giving me a hard time.

Two days ago, about an hour after I learnt from my handyman / repair guy friend that my laptop‘s harddisk had gone to harddisk heaven, something unexpected happened when I was about to go for a pee...

I lifted the toilet seat and - having to bend over for this - my not-so-smart-phone slid out of my vest’s pocket and took a dive into the loo.

It seemed okay, at first, after fishing it out.

I thanked the universe for not having to fish it out of the toilet after having gone for a pee. Or - even worse - after a number 2 ( rhymes with... )

And then, not much later, my screen started acting up.

This stressed me out a little, as I realized that my crypto (key) back ups were among my iPhone‘s photographs ( as I told in that recent post )

After chatting with family about all this, I decided to switch off my phone and put it in a bowl of dry rice.

It has probably spent almost 24 hours in there, since the day before yesterday and it’s doing better.

It was tough though, as it’s my only access to the outside world ( now my laptop is out of order ) and I‘m living by myself in a pretty isolated area and without a car.

Also, I was close to winning a chess game against @inuke so I didn’t really want to put my phone away.

More on chess games and how I integrated that in my dino writing can be found in my recent A chess game, a wolf, a raptor and oatmeal pancakes write up

To make a long story short(er), my phone is still working but all of this - combined with my laptop issues - made me think even more of backing up my important stuff ( preferably offline), as well as of having backup devices.

I don’t want to be too much of a consumer though and am considering secondhand options for both laptop and phone as well as actually getting another harddisk for my laptop ( to keep using it for crypto stuff and as a media center connected to my movie projector ) and seeing if my phone can be saved.

It kind of sucks that it might need a new battery once again though ( I replaced the original in November 2019 and my phone is from March 2017 ) , it’s draining way too fast. Not sure what to do yet...

From Friday onward, I will borrow my awesome and always helpful twin sister’s secondhand ( and only ) laptop for a bit.

I plan to use it to do some research on a replacement phone ( if I can’t find a used one ), probably get another harddisk for my laptop and, more importantly, arrange some crypto stuff ( double check backups ), sell a bunch of coins to do all of the above.

Interesting times, to say the least ( and I’m not even talking about the soap my future housing situation is turning into ( fingers crossed for all of that to go well ) ;<)

All of the above tech issues also led to what might be an interesting development in my writing process. I will save that for another post though ;<)

Lunch time. I hope you’re all well. Sending you a big hug and good vibes from Central Portugal,

Vincent