Browser BACK Button = Whole Weeks Worth Of Work GONZO

I'm sure at some point you've all hit the BACK button on your browser, and much to your dismay realized that everything you'd just written on the previous page has completely disapeared. you know... like entering in a bunch of information into an internet 'form' for school registration, or signing up for something online? Maybe you've written a long heartfelt email or a huge blog post and somehow, some way, with the click of your mouse, the internet connection 'timing out' or some part of your hand touching a wierd key you didnt know had a 'function' you've lost it ALL. i'm assuming you know the feeling... anger - disbelief - annoyance. well last saturday i brought this feeling to a whole new level.

ive been working on a website for a P.E.T.A. like company. its the first 'non-creative' type website ive had to make. certainly no pretty pictures to work with, no creative layouts to imply... just a straight forward site with lots of written info and disturbing content. ive been putting off taking on these types of sites because it meant learning code. (click on the picture to get a better view of the dreaded code...) all that jibberish stuff thats in behind many of the sites we surf... but the money was good so i took it on.

pretty much everything i know about anything comes from consuming ALOT of coffee and teaching myself through online tutorials, forums, reading other peoples solved problems and my own trail and error... i dive in head first, barely coming up for breath of air (or food and sleep) until i have a pretty good understanding of what it is im doing AND a finished product to prove it.

for this new job i chose to make the site using 'Joomla'. (won't expain, its just another of the many ways to make a website). so i was working on the site via my own site (heres where it gets complicated) and my site is 'hosted' by my dad who has his own 'server'. well it came to the point where i needed to switch what id been working on (over a weeks worth of work, i was 1/2 way done!) over to the server that the finished site would be residing on. dad and i decided that it would be best if first we got it onto my computers local server (sorry, boring... i know) and THEN put it up on their server... bla bla bla... for some STUPID reason he had me log into his SQL server and started talking me through what i needed to do...

dad: "OKaaaaayyyy. see on the left theres a drop down menu?"
me: "yuuup..."
dad: kay, click on it and you'll see your name."
me: "kay, clicked it."
(my dad is also logged in and can see everything im doing.)
dad: "ok, so its brought up a table on the right now. do you see where it says Joomla?"
me: "yaaaaah... ok clicked it"
dad: "now click on the bla bla bla"
(don't remember much after this part of the conversion.)
me: "sorry, the what? i dont see that."
dad: "ok you're in the wrong part of the bla bla bla, you need to be in the bla bla bla"
Heres where i clicked the BACK button so i could go BACK A STEP. makes sense right?
dad: "dalyn, what did you just do?"
me: "what do you mean? im looking for the bla bla bla."
dad: "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE."
(i hear my dad feverishly clicking around on his keyboard...)
dad: "well. its gone. you deleted it."
me: "WHAT??? no i didnt! hows that possible???"
dad: "did you press the BACK button?"
me: "YES!"
dad: "i should have never let you in here... just log out"
me: "WHY THE HECK DID YOU LET ME IN HERE!!?? its GONE??? isn't there like a 'trash' or something?"
dad: "afraid not hun, sorry. you've gotta start from scratch."

there was this empty hollow feeling that came over me. i hung up the phone and just stared at my screen for a while. in a haze of numbness i spent the next 2 hours googling what i had just done, searching for solutions to my problem. turns out there weren't any within my price range.

i plan to make at least 2 to 3 blog entries a week, and i would have last week had the above bullshit not happened! but im back on track now. so, as i said earlier, im sure you've all had something similar happen... leave a comment or personal experience and help me deal with my grief!!! *d