I've had my share of 'special' moments with electronic devices as well. Years ago, I started with an original Palm, upgraded to a V, changed OS'es to Pocket PC with an iPaq and soldiered on with two versions of iPaqs. ActiveSync 'bit me' a few times, losing the identity of the attached device, forcing more than a few restores. Add to this the original iPaq's inability to replace the battery and Microsoft's overall operating system instability (I won't start a flame war on this; suffice to say, I'm an extremely careful OS upgrader and more than a few 'SP's' have bit me very, very well!) and it all started adding up.

I was spending more time supporting my electronic devices than they were supporting me!

So, two years ago, I took the reverse plunge and ditched PDA's from my life. Went back to a good old Franklin Planner and use this with my own 'mod's' to implement GTD with a paper planner. Outlook is still the trusted system (only other plug-in is an auto data backup program on exit) and GTD is my control panel. But I print on blank Franklin Paper (well, on Jeppesen paper but it works and is far cheaper) and yes, I do lug around a planner with me again.

But I've got to say, it's still cathartic to hand write in an appointment and no, it doesn't bother me that I have to re-enter things in my weird world of paper/electronic 'syncing'. All of that is a small price to pay for KNOWING that everything I have is backed up on paper and the darned electronics can take a hike if they want to.

Just this past Monday, we had a major lightning storm here in Carolina and even though everything in the company is surged protected and runs through a gen set and TVSS system, my LCD monitor still took a hike. Went to power it on and nothing. Was keeping my fingers crossed the pc didn't take a hike too (it didn't). But it sure felt GOOD to know that lowly paper planner was right there, unaffected by everything that seems to plague electronic devices.

Yes, I'm a 47 year old dinosaur and lately, darned proud of it!