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Dystopia in RL
Aug. 31st, 2005 09:57 amI have a fascination with novels depicting near-future-earth dystopias: everything has gone completely to hell for one reason or another (environmental disaster, war, whatever.) But it's horrifying to see such scenarios being played out in real life. Yes, these things happen way too often but usually in some far-away place on the planet, where I've never been, so I find a way to stay detached. Not this time. Not when my entire household lived in New Orleans before moving to the Boston area, and they're all posting lists of names on their livejournals: "if you hear anything about the whereabouts of ___________ please let me know."
And I can't imagine what it's like to have your entire home town under water. Not just your own house, but everything: your friend's homes, your grocery store, your favorite hangouts, where you worked until the disaster, everything... Even worse: imagine if you were one of the tens of thousands still stranded in the now-leaking superdome, with no electricity, in 90-something degree heat and high humidity.
So, yeah, I've send money to the Red Cross and I'll probably send another donation to animal rescue people.
I've now known enough people who have lost their homes: to fires, to tornadoes, that I don't take for granted that all my possessions are necessarily safe. I've already lost stuff in a basement flood, stuff I cared about. But this morning I asked myself: if I suddenly lost my home, what, among my possessions, would be most devastating to lose? And the answer was: my photographs.
Therefore I think it makes sense for me to start scanning my most precious photos (I don't have a scanner at home--I'll have to bring them into work). It would be good to have my favorites stored in cyberspace somewhere just in case. Of course if all of western civilization crumbles, cyberspace will go away too but at that point I'd be too busy with day-to-day survival to be missing that photo of my grandmother and me when I was four years old.
And I can't imagine what it's like to have your entire home town under water. Not just your own house, but everything: your friend's homes, your grocery store, your favorite hangouts, where you worked until the disaster, everything... Even worse: imagine if you were one of the tens of thousands still stranded in the now-leaking superdome, with no electricity, in 90-something degree heat and high humidity.
So, yeah, I've send money to the Red Cross and I'll probably send another donation to animal rescue people.
I've now known enough people who have lost their homes: to fires, to tornadoes, that I don't take for granted that all my possessions are necessarily safe. I've already lost stuff in a basement flood, stuff I cared about. But this morning I asked myself: if I suddenly lost my home, what, among my possessions, would be most devastating to lose? And the answer was: my photographs.
Therefore I think it makes sense for me to start scanning my most precious photos (I don't have a scanner at home--I'll have to bring them into work). It would be good to have my favorites stored in cyberspace somewhere just in case. Of course if all of western civilization crumbles, cyberspace will go away too but at that point I'd be too busy with day-to-day survival to be missing that photo of my grandmother and me when I was four years old.
