Case of the Forgotten Hard drive. 1/24

This Day in Animation History 1/24.

1961- Warner Bros. cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc had a terrible auto crash. He lingered in a coma for several weeks. The way the doctor brought him around was to say: “Hey Bugs Bunny! How are we today?” Blanc replied in character:” Ehhh…fine, doc!” To hear this amazing story click the link below!

Listen to this Radio Lab podcast.

2006- The Walt Disney Company acquired CG animation studio Pixar. Apple and Pixar head Steve Jobs got a seat on Disney Board, Ed Catmull was named head of the studio, 1 and director John Lasseter became it’s creative head.

What follows is something that really happened to me last week. I thought I would retell it in a more entertaining way. Let me know if I succeeded.

And now,  
The Case of the Forgotten Hard drive.

It was a cool and cloudy Friday afternoon, a threat of rain hung in the air, but nothing was falling yet. I was interrupted by a Facebook plea of help and the comment peaked my interest.

The Facebook friend told of loosing 18 years of his animated work, family photos and other valuable files he used to teach his craft. A common fear these days of suddenly waking up to find your identity has been stolen and then that you are in the wrong house, with the wrong family. Where did the real YOU go?

I contact the poor sap immediately to find out what had happened.

It turned out that his portable hard drive was missing and had disappeared somewhere between taking it to his animation class and returning that same day to his home. He said he could not find it at home and returned to the classroom, but it wasn't there. He searched the classroom, ask students if they had seen the missing black WD hard drive in its original green cardboard box, but he could not find it anywhere.

The first week of any job is always stressful, even when you haven't suddenly lost your entire digital life. The next day, I arrived at precisely at 12pm on a quite sunny, but still very cool Saturday afternoon. The front door opened to reveal a man of worry. He's eyes where puffy from lack of sleep, his brow furrowed from internal stress. Glancing to the left, outside on the lawn, near small bush sat a black cat. Looking back to my client, I suddenly sneezed. "Bless you," said the man as a smile of relief blossomed on his face in my presence. "You have cats," I replied," Deathly allergic to them, sorry."

My client drove us back to University as he recalled what happened during the day in question. When we arrived, I had him park his car in the same parking spot as he did the day before. I instructed him to repeat every action he could remember, even so slight, as he retraced his day for me.

" I remember putting the hard drive on the floor of the passenger's side of the car." he continued," I thought I might need something from it for class. I also thought I would keep it there, so if I really needed it I could come back for it." "Are you sure you took it with you at this point." I inquired. "Yes, I think I remember taking it with me," he recalled, " Because I had my backpack in one hand and I was holding something in the other." "Perhaps, the hard drive?" I added.

We continued up the front steps to the Design Center's front doors. "Stop." I exclaimed,"Which hand did you use to open the door with?" "Why, my right of course." said the man," I'm right handed." "Yes," I explained," however if you were carrying the hard drive in your right hand at the time." "Then," the man continued," I would have had to have to put it in... Yes, I do remember, I did do that." We continued inside.

The first thing I noticed was a shiny wooden floor made of long, strips of wood. As we walked up a flight of stairs, the man told me that the building use to be an indoor basketball court years ago. The first set of stairs lead up to a turnway and a railing, where we overlooked the rest of the basketball floor below. 

We continued up the second set of stairs to the second floor. "My classroom is over here." said the man as we continued down a small walkway to room 203. The classroom inside, had been cleaned and the desks arranged from the previous day. A slight scent of bleach hung in the air.

"I put everything on this table," the man pointed," I remember now, that I didn't use the hard drive after all, but it was right there during the class." The man's words quickly turned to gravy and disappeared as I entered my mind palace.

Time and space frozen as I examined the possibilities of the case so far.  Various formulas of glowing text revealed information and orbited my head. An outline of a cleaning crew swirled into view. A pair of hands picking up the hard drive, a possibility. Quickly, I swiped my arms causing the text concepts and images to fly together and rearrange themselves.

"Are you, ok?" asked the man staring at me with concern. Suddenly, I was back in the real world, my arms still in motion, until I stopped. "Fine!" I jolted back, slightly embarrassed, "So... how did you leave class?"


The man pointed and we went out a second door at the back of the classroom. We walked along the walkway as the florescent lighting shown down onto the glossy floor below. We made our way to another set of stairs to leave. The man was muttering on about something, but I was too busy putting the facts together.

We rounded the corner to go down these stairs when I spotted it. The tattered green cardboard box sitting perched precariously on the railing, next to the wall to the left. One good push would literally send the hard drive crashing onto the floor below.

I counted the seconds it took for the hard drive's owner to realize it was there sitting only an arm's length from him. " I remember, I think I walked down here to answer my cel phone," the man recalled," Yes, I did get a call and had to put everything down." 

His words faded as I re-entered my mind palace and noticed a stack of mail that had been piling up at the front door. Looking through it only to find an assortment of boring adverts and junk mail.

Its been a while since I visited the other rooms in my mind palace only to discover piles of mnemonic devices and clutter throughout.  I decided to do a load of laundry and ended up mopping the kitchen floor from left over facts and figures from a previous case. Looking out the kitchen window to the backyard, the lawn was really overgrown as well and needed a good mowing.

The key to my mind garage broke in the lock. Lucky, my neighbor and retired locksmith, Randy was home to help. After a replacement key was made and I mowed the yard, I decided to return back to see if the man had noticed the hard drive sitting on the railing to his left. 

And then, finally. "Why, there it is!" he exclaimed in delight. The man turned to his left and saw the box that I had seen only 17 and a half seconds earlier. 

Before I could end this case by giving my brilliant line which I had conceived while mowing the backyard, I sneezed abruptly. " Bless you, Mr. Holmes," the man smiled. I looked around for that black cat that I could not see, but felt sure it was there.  

The missing hard drive was now back in the hands of its proper owner and once again, I had solved, yet another case. 

A common fear of most people today is that they're identity may be stolen or worse, their cel phone. Mine is finding a cat lurking in my mind palace.

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