Today, I interviewed three elderly residents at a nursing home, hoping to use the transcript for a very important paper due next week. It went great, so I wrapped up and drove home. I sat down to start typing, and realized that my recording had stopped ten minutes in. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, after our teacher had said this class would be very important and that we should take notes, instead of writing notes, I brought a recorder to class. After class, I listened to the recording, and all I could hear was muffled voices. FML
Today, I had a phone interview, my first job interview in months. Two seconds in, I not only lost my signal, my phone froze up and stopped working completely. For six hours. FML
Today, I had a video call with a couple of old friends, but the conversation sort of got boring, so I started mouthing words so they'd think the connection was bad and end the awkwardness. Then, as soon as they hung up the call, I realized I'd left my music on in the background the whole time. FML
Today, I forgot what I was doing while listening to a voicemail and started talking back to it. FML
Today, while at work, I had to spend an hour and a half on the phone, listening to an old lady relive her entire day in excruciating detail. We're not allowed to hang up on customers, and she was extremely quick to dismiss all my attempts to steer the call back on topic. FML
Today, I gave an online presentation to an important client. After I'd done my thing, I asked if there were any questions. No one responded, so I confidently ended the call… except I hadn’t ended it and they heard me mutter, “Thank fuck that’s over.” FML
Today, I was busy writing my English final paper and all of a sudden my computer just chose to freeze. I thought Microsoft Word would save it, but alas, 4 pages down the dumpster. Plus my earphones stopped working and I can't afford to buy a new pair. FML
Today, I scored an interview with a hospital nearby my house, and so I ordered a car 30 minutes before. There were four people in the same car that were picked up AFTER, and dropped off BEFORE me, causing me to miss my interview. The hospital then stopped interviewing for the same position I wanted. FML
Today, I witnessed a horrible car accident and was interviewed by the local news. During the interview I said, "It was terrible. It was like watching a silent movie... but there was sound!" The interview has been aired 6 times. FML
Today, I spent 3 hours in my home recording studio. I was recording vocals and was trying to hit a very hard series of notes. I nailed it after 2 hours and listened. You can hear the vocals, but the EQ settings were tweaked in just the right way where you can hear my dog licking his nuts. FML
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Top comments
slooby_fml 25
You can probably remember the jist of what they said; fill in the gaps with plausible things
FlyingPie 17
I bet that kind of thing gets old after a while.
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Comments (55)
blankjack 6
Hope you have good memory :)
sugoine 12
Maybe you should have intermittently checked the recording device??
mattlw 25
Well just go back. If the are old, you may be able to convince them that the first time never happened.
empbob 20
The good thing is you can prob re interview them, it's unlikely they'll remember you anyway....
moosy0_o 15
As a researcher, that's something we know happens quite a lot: the batteries could die during the interview (even though you just put in new ones!), or somehow it just stops out of the blue. We usually take two of those recorders with us and set them up at the same time. But yes, someone had to go through that entire "I had a focus group interview for three hours and it didn't record anything"-phase as well in order for us to stop taking risks.
great_just_great 22
Just go back and redo the interview.. It's not like they'll remember the interview anyway... ;)
BobbieH 19
Always verify your equipment. Especially if it was important. At least you should have learned a lesson for the future.
lucilu89 12
Maybe you could ask them if they wouldn't mind doing a follow up interview? Good luck with your paper! I'm sure you'll figure it out =)
pipinya 8
Depending on how elderly they were, you may be able to quickly go back and do the exact same thing again, and hope they don't remember
Dashelle 25
Sucks! Hope you were able to do well!