Preaching | Bible Study | Theology | Life

My son, who is four, is learning to read. He’s read three or four books now, all of them full of words that are three letters or less: “Tab is a cat.”

Recently, he was reading a book to me, and he kept saying “had” instead of “has,” meaning he was recognizing the word by sight, but not making a distinction between the two related words. Wanting him to slow down and identify the word properly, I said, “Stop. Read that sentence again.” He looked at me and said, “What?! A complete thought?”

That response, frankly, shocked me. I used the word “sentence” with the expectation that I would have to define a sentence for him. Instead, he defined it for me.

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So, we’ve talked before about SuperDuper and the fact that you absolutely, positively need to back up your files.

Every.
Single.
Day.

I was recently reminded how important this is.

Because it happened to me again.

Last Friday.

Now the backstory: I have two Macs—a trusty black Macbook that I’ve had for almost two years and a beautiful 24″ iMac in my office that is a little over a year old. When I arrive in my office each day, the first thing I usually do is synchronize the files on these two computers using Chronosync.

(I don’t sync all the files as the Macbook as only a 160 GB hard drive while the Big iMac has a 750GB drive. But Chronosync syncs my Documents folder where all the important work is stored and my desktop where all the current work I do is managed, mainly through aliases.)

So last Friday, as I do everyday, I came into my office in the morning and synced my Macs. I worked all day on stuff—-mostly my sermon for last Sunday. At the end of the day, I opened the Macbook to sync the files and heard an ominous clicking with nothing showing up on the screen. I held down the power key to force a restart and got the dreaded question mark folder. This was a sure sign of what I was already afraid of: my hard drive died a hard cold death.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that all my files were backed up, that I still have 2 years of AppleCare left on the Macbook, that I have an Apple store in my town, and that I was able to get an appointment with a Mac Genius that night. When I arrived for my appointment, the Genius diagnosed the problem and replaced my drive in about ten minutes.

True, I had to restore all my data which took a long time, but I didn’t lose any of it. I still have all my sermons, all my academic papers, research in progress, music files, movies, and pictures of my children.

But there are a few lessons to be learned here:

1. Seriously, back up your hard drive, OK? You don’t want to lose all those great pics of your kids. Don’t be stupid.
2. Your hard drive will fail someday. If you have a notebook computer, it will fail faster than a desktop because you keep picking up the computer and moving it around. This leads me to:
3. Buy the AppleCare on your notebook. If you have an iMac, it is probably a good idea to buy it for that, too. If you have a Mac Pro, maybe you can fix that yourself. But, with any portable computer, get the extended warranty. One repair will often pay for the warranty, not to mention the time cost involved with you trying to fix it yourself.
4. The drive on a Macbook is easy to replace. I watched the Genius do it and I could easily have done it myself. When my warranty expires, I will probably put a bigger drive in there. I know now that it is easy to do.
5. Live near an Apple store. Back in the caveman days, Apple would FedEx you a box and you would FedEx your computer to them. And wait. For at least a week. How do you do any work? You can’t, unless you have another Mac. Nowadays, just make an appointment and it will often be fixed right away.
6. If your hard drive fails, INSIST that Apple give you the old one back. They’ll try to tell you that Just Isn’t Done. They’ll tell you that it will be securely destroyed. Don’t fall for it. Be prepared to throw a fit and hold your breath if necessary until you turn blue and pass out on the Genius Bar. You will get your broken drive back, if you insist. And you should insist! Your data is on there. Your credit card numbers, passwords, and other important information. People buy broken drives and retrieve the data on them. It happens. Don’t let it happen to you. If I hadn’t read this story by Dave Winer a few weeks ago, I might have fallen for “Oh, we’ll just destroy it for you. No worries” line that the Genius tries to feed you. Beware!

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On Monday my kids spent some time painting. My son doesn’t color or paint or do other art projects often, but when he does he is very productive. When I came home for work Monday afternoon, there were several paintings laid out on the counter to dry.

Yesterday, before I left for work we looked over the now-dry artwork. The boy asked me which one of the paintings I wanted to take to work to put up in my office. I couldn’t decide.

A bit later, after grandma had arrived and I was getting ready to leave, he asked me again. I told him to pick one out for me. Here it is:

Then he asked grandma which one she wanted. She made her choice, then the boy said, “But you have to pay me dollars for yours, grandma.”

Grandma and I both erupted into laughter. He clarified: “Daddy, yours is free, but grandma has to pay me dollars for hers.”

That’s my boy. Don’t do ANYTHING without charging someone for it. He has the entrepreneurial spirit I always wanted to have, but was never able to develop in myself.

Today he had a change of heart and told me, “I guess grandma’s can be free, too.” So, maybe he won’t be as successful as I thought. But maybe at least he’ll be kind and giving toward his family.

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