Curious Incidents of a Flailing Mermaid

Today's Annoyances: Good luck? Bad luck?

Today was one of those days. Here's what's irritated me:

I'm self-employed. I don't get paid until I do a job, even then I have to wait a month to get the money (jobs I do in December are paid for in January). So, cancelling me a day before I'm due, is NOT cool. It's Christmas, dude! I'm not working enough this month as it is.
Bad star ratings for my writing without good reason. This is not really a 'today' thing, just in general. saying "I love this piece" then giving just three stars? Really? Not cool! Especially when the piece already has three 5 star reviews. Give me something to work with, at least.
Prezi. I love Prezi, But today, we fell out. Big time! The other day, I was clearing up my MacBook Air - it only has 250gb so I don't want it filling up too much. I found tons of photos that were all multiplied by fifteen. That's unnecessary, I thought. Delete! Then I found a stack of files that were not connected to anything and looked a bit too dodgy for my liking. Delete!
Today, about 10 minutes before heading out to a job, I loaded up Prezi (I use the desktop version). Nothing! 90% of my presentations were empty, including the one I needed for today. I managed to cobble something together, but now I have to rewrite all my presentations.
There's two tenuous positives to this. Firstly, I get to rewrite and freshen up my material. Secondly, at least I'm not working much this month!

Good Luck Bad Luck!

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

Everything that seems on the surface to be an evil may be a good in disguise. And everything that seems good on the surface may really be an evil. So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and what misfortune, and thank him that all things turn out for good with those who love him.

Author Unknown