STAY COMM

My abnormal breathing began Monday around noon, at the instant that my personal GMail account went down.  In true Geek fashion, the first thing I did was do a Twitter search for "gmail".  Sure enough, I was not the only one whose very existence was being jeopardized by this bizarre situation.

As a devout advocate of all things Google, Cloud, Web 2.0, etc., I felt violated and betrayed.  You see, Google keeps me organized and sane in my otherwise ass-backwards routine.  When I can't find my keys at home, I run around in circles checking places like the freezer and my shoes.  When I can't find important information, I just go into my GMail, search for it, and - voila! - I am a functioning member of society.

But on Monday, August 31, 2009, there was nothing keeping me afloat.  Rushing in heels to a meeting in the middle of Manhattan, I couldn't remember the exact address of the person I was going to see.  "No problem, Sarah," I assure myself with confidence as I reach for my Blackberry, except #$%#^!!!!!  GMail is down.  GMAIL. IS. DOWN!  GMail is down????  Enter hyperventilation.

Worry not, Dear Reader, I figured it out and made it to my meeting on time, but not before grinding down a good millimeter of my back teeth from anxiety as I performed some serious workarounds involving a few good friends and some expert Internet searching (read: stalking).

On Tuesday morning, I woke up to a fully-functional suite of Google products and used Apple Mail for the first time in my life to back-up all of my mail on the ol' MacBook (and you thought my head was just a pretty display for hippie-headbands). By 3:30pm I was down again, along with the rest of the world for the next hour and a half. 

Let's all learn something from this terrible experience and start backing up our data.  Unfortunately, the Cloud isn't impermeable no matter how much we believe in her.  And even though I am completely head-over-heels in love with her, the Cloud can be a real bitch.  GMail has been running fine for the last few hours, but it's going to take a while for the Cloud to earn back my complete trust. 

In the meantime, here is a great recent article from Lifehacker that highlights some great tools to help us Cloud-lovers back-up our data.