I spent the majority of today sitting in front of my laptop, conducting interviews with people for an article I am writing. When I finally finished interviewing one of my most important subjects, my computer decided to freeze and crash. And then my digital voice recorder (I always use at least two recording devices as a precaution; too bad it didn’t work this time) decided to go berserk. So I don’t have a single tidbit from my most important interview. Even though I made sure to record it twice.

Like any desperate journalist would, I emailed my interviewee and explained my situation. It was even more embarrassing because he is a very accomplished figure in the journalism industry himself. Here I am, interviewing someone with so much wisdom and experience in journalism, and both of my recorders managed to die right when I’m about to save the interview. Do I still have a future in journalism? Ha.

Now, I cross my fingers and pray for a 10-minute redo. I’ll wake up at 3am, travel across Los Angeles, or even buy a meal for my interviewee if I need to. From now on, I’m recording my interviews with three devices.

P.S. I received an email from a potential interviewee who no longer does interviews. He wrote, “Good luck on your career. I can see from your posts on your blogs that you are a superior writer. I look forward to seeing your byline in the near future.” He called me “Noel/MissCouturable,” which horrified me at first, because he’s a very experienced journalist and one of the pioneering Asian Americans in the industry, and I really don’t know what “serious” journalists think of my fashion blogging. However, he looked beyond what a lot of people consider to be “frivolous.” Warm fuzzy feelings to make up for my journalism failure today, eh?