Dang...

...I lost this morning's post. I swear, what will finally kill TOP will be my lack of organization and inability to keep the juggler's balls in the air. Just yesterday I found a "Random Excellence" I wanted to use, and this morning, even though I have the image, after looking for an hour(!) I can't find the link or remember the photographer's name. I spend so much time looking for stuff I should be able to find much more easily...eventually I'll be the blogger equivalent of a mastodon in a tarpit, stuck in place and slowly, helplessly sinking to perdition. Jeez. The wonder is not that I don't get more done, it's that I get anything done at all.

Anyway, please look at the new "Featured Comments" to the previous post. There were lots of great comments yesterday...even by TOP's standard, which is saying a lot.

To quote MacArthur, I shall return...or maybe that's the Terminator, "I'll be back." In a bit.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Marcelo Guarini [from Chile I believe? —Ed.]: "Don't desperate, take it easy. Anyway, it is quite nice to know that this kind of mishaps don't happen to me only  ;-) ."

Comments

[Benjamin Marks]

Mike: "some days you get the bar' and some days the bar' gets you." (Apocryphally quoting Dan'l Boone, I think.)

[Mark Bridgers]

Check your browser history?

[KeithB]

Your browser history might be able to help you there...

[Mike Aubrey]

Google reverse image search?

[JG]

Have you tried this or this or any of the other reverse image search engines? No doubt you have, but in the event that you haven't, there you go...

[David Zivic]

At my age I often "lose" things. By end of day there generally is about 3 items, so I look for all 3 at the same time and usually find about 2 out of 3. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. The 3rd generally turns up on its own although not often in a timely manner.

[Marshall]

I bet that a significant number of TOP readers would be happy to volunteer an image to fill in until you find the originally planned "Random Excellence".

[Pieter]

Hi Mike, have you tried Google's "search with image"? You upload the image and it searches for it.

[Roger Botting]

You are over 40, you have raised a child past the teen years, the occasional brain fart is expected.
Just keep taking photos and writing, it will come to you.

[Dave Stewart]

Perhaps you could check the photo to see if there is EXIF data with any clues to copyright, and identify of the photographer.

[Matt O'Brien]

I have all the apps I needs including the Microsoft and Adobe packages and use them as required. However, when I am compiling stuff for a web post (or similar) I use a simple text editor called Notepad++. I just copy and paste what I need from various sources as they arise and then compose what ever text is required using the same app / page. If I close Notepad++ by mistake or my machine shuts down or my browser hangs .... no worries. When I start Notepad++ again all my text is still there.

When I am happy my post has been published I then clear the page, ready to start the next task.

If I was working on multiple posts over a period of time then I will use Microsoft OneNote (I used to use Evernote) to keep each post in its own little section. Again, if your machine shuts down, etc... all your draft info is still in situ.

Also, Notepad++ becomes my Clipboard... when I want to copy and paste multiple bits from multiple sources.

This workflow arose from frustration of putting a post together, hit the submit button and then something goes wrong and all my effort has disappeared.

OneNote or Evernote are great for keeping unstructured data or text and have super search options if you cannot remember where you filed it.

[Mike]

The mastodon in a tarpit image is concerning - is TOP a modern day predator trap?

[Patrick Perez]

Mike, you can drag/drop a photo onto the Google (image sub page) search and it can do a search on an image. Perhaps it can find the link that way.

Patrick

[Larry Gebhardt]

Try one of the reverse image search tools such as http://tineye.com.

[ShadZee]

maybe you could use "Google's Search by Image" ? ;-)
https://images.google.com/

[Tony Roberts]

Mike:
Have you checked the History of your browser? There should be a list of all the sites you visited within the past few days...if not longer. Your original search should be well down the list but it's probably there.

[eugenio]

Hey Mike, I guess you already know about https://www.tineye.com to find the original image in the web?... it might help you with that random excellence!. Organisation is overrated. I'm sure chaos also generates unexpected results ;-)

[expiring_frog]

You'll probably get a million people telling you this, but just in case you don't already know:

https://www.google.com/intl/es419/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

[robert e]

No photographer info in the exif or iptc data in the image? Mac OS's preview app can read it if it's there.

[Kelly Graham]

Why not just do a reverse image search?

[Miserere]

Might a reverse image search help you find the photographer and the site you got the image from?

Google's reverse image search, and TinEye's.

[Frank]

you might try tineye or google the photo.
Frank

[David Miller]

For every mastodon that sank in the tarpits there were probably thousands living happy and fulfilling mastodonian lives. And given a choice, which would you find more appealing: sharing a coffee with the world's greatest cataloguer, or spending a couple of hours watching (from a safe distance) a mastodon grazing in the forest?

Blog on, Mike!

[Robert Hudyma]

Have you tried out idea, note and document organizers such as Evernote? There are many choices that are available. I found a good set of recommendations here.

[Michael Martin-Morgan]

One simple solution: Screen Grab

[John D.P.]

Not all is lost. You can probably find the source by doing a reverse image search through google.

details:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808?hl=en

[jim woodard]

Was it me?

[Chris]

If you have the image, can you use TinEye to find the web page from whence it originated?

[Bill Tyler]

So which dog ate your homework? My money's on Butters.

[Robert Roaldi]

I have been looking for my B&W negatives from the 1974 World Cycling Championships from Montreal for months. I came across them 4-5 years ago and had them reprinted, but didn't have the presence of mind to have them scanned at the time. Now I want the scans but I can't find the negs or even those reprints. It's not that big a house. I am writing this one blog entry late, so I see that you finally remembered the Random Excellence you were looking for. Man, I'd hate to add up all the time I've wasted looking for stuff that should be right here.

[Michael]

Mike, it gives me great satisfaction and a sense of relief to see that someone else I respect can do just the same silly things I do. I've thought this through often, and have concluded that this is a different form of Schadenfreude, not joy at somebody else's mess and discomfort while one remains crisp and in the right, but rather joy at the fact that one is not alone in the tarpit, but has been joined by admirable friends and colleagues. So thanks and thanks again.

[Jeff Pressman]

If you use a Mac, you can click on the little + in the address bar to add the site to your Reading List. I find it's an easy way to bookmark a web page I want to get back to.

[Steve Jacob]

Shocking. Our humble Ed turns out to be human...

I always had my suspicions ;-)

[Andrew Molitor]

I lose my coffee cup all the time. A great deal of my life is spent wandering about the house looking for it. On one occasion the cup seemed to be well and truly lost, it was definitely gone. My peregrinations stretched on for a while, 10-20 minutes or more, and of course I did other things on my rounds.

I began to despair that I would never find my coffee, and then I took a sip from a cup that was in my hand.

I have no idea when I found the cussed thing. It just appeared after a while.

[Bob Rosinsky]

Bummer.