The sagging pocket.

---

Having a diskette in my pocket means that it's always available. I can have my fingers on any keyboard and work on a file popped into any computer from the diskette taken from my pocket, or save a file that I've started or worked on from the computer at which I'm working. I also upload copies of files on which I'm working into at least one web-mail account. Sometimes that's preferable to the diskette because of the problems I often encounter with disk drives, but Murphy's law tells us that it's often a lose-lose situation. If the file is on disk, the disk drive on the computer I'm using can't read it, and if it's in a web-mail account, there won't be a working internet connection when I need it. Thus, having both is advisable.

But that diskette has become, for me, an identifying sign. With at least one diskette in my pocket, along with my pen and numerous slips of paper with phone numbers, URLs, and notes of various sorts, I can never seem to get my shirts to sit properly around my collar. They're always sagging to the left - the side with the pocket. Strangely, over the years I can recall only one person ever trying to straighten my shirt, or suggesting that I do so, and that person didn't have much contact with computers. It's as though people understand that when you do the sort of work I do, your shirts are going to tilt to one side. It's sort of a professional giveaway.

---

Go to: How many versions of that article do you need?, or
Go to: Burning memories.