Evil Wayne

Well, it turned out to be a real Evil Tuesday anyway. 

During a production cycle at work, artwork (which is sometimes a most generous term to call it) is often done first, sometimes a month or more before I touch text. But this particular project I got the artwork done way before the book even launched. So it sat there for almost 3 months before I needed it, which turned out to be today.

Only the folder is empty. Empty! 

Okay, so I call down to the tech guys and see about restoring a backup. Only it isn't on the tapes. What? They start going through the monthlies and come up with zip. Holy shit, 20 hours of work just fucking evaporated. They go through everything downstairs and I scour every where it might be on my system (which is nowhere, because I don't work locally). At one point I go to check the hardcopy, because 3 months of blank backups start me wondering if I'm somehow misremembering doing it in the first place (which did happen to me once, when I first started). But the printouts are normal, they even have the date and file locations printed on the bottoms. 

In the end, I'm just screwed. No files, no backups, nothing. A fucking mystery. Now, I have to start over and jam 20 hours of work into about 8 and somehow not blow a budget.