Reading majic's journal

This article got me seriously thinking about something that has glanced my mind a few times over the last few weeks.

Condensing Your Life on to a USB Flash Drive?

In the recent events of Hurricane Katrina and Rita I've been pondering what to do in the event that I'm subject to a mass evacuation of some sort. I'm not sure what the best solutions are. I suppose taking a digital scanner and scanning all important documents and storing them on a thumb drive and cd's is the right thing to do. What do you think?

The question begs an answer, "What is important to save?"...

Obviously my social security, passport, drivers license, US Army contractor id card, credit cards, marriage license, birth certificate are vital items to save, but what else?

What documentation would you save in the event that you had to evacuate your home and never return...

What documentation would you save in the event that you had to evacuate your home and never return...

All the sites, scripts and programs I've made till now. That's a lot. Actually I'm carrying a good load of them already on my SanDisk Mini Cruzer (512 Meg).

Also: some of the graphical work I've done. All the images I made with my digicam. A copy of the configuration of each of my computers (compressed into tar.bz2-archives).

On my 512 MB mp3 player, I'd load all the music which I like as best.

And of course: My notebook would come with me, anyway :P

cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

I'm a girl, so maybe I reason differently from you guys :P But I would save first and foremost my notebook (of course!), my jewelry, the music CDs I like most, some of my books (I know you can always buy them back, but every book has an history which is related to me somehow, and so it's basically irreplaceable).

But this is not all yet; I would save my stuffed animals, and I have a whole load of those. Maybe you consider this a frivolous thing, but every single one was given to me by a person I cherish. For example the very first one I had - a white cute cat of a small/medium size - was given me by my mom when I was sick with rubella and I had quite high fever. Any single one of them has an history, and therefore it's important to me.

Then another very important thing I would save are all my pictures: the ones I took with Neil, and also some of the old albums of when I was younger, because when I have a family of my own I want to be able to show my kids what their mother looked like when she was their age.

Also, you would save some clothes, wouldn't you? I have some I am really affectionated to, and therefore those are the ones I would save.

Last thing I would get are probably my beads along with the beading book (which is probably the most important thing instead of the beads). I have a passion for everything that is beaded, and I love doing such things myself, so I definitely have to save it.

However, this list would be valid only if I had time to prepare to evacuate. If I couldn't because it was an immediate danger, I guess I would grab my notebook, and as many things as I see in my room in a matter of 30 seconds. So probably I would end up grabbing things here and there, and wouldn't get the most important stuff I have mentioned above.

Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".

This post was edited by andromacha on Oct 04, 2005.

My computer's and my server's harddrives, the folder with the important paperwork, the box with pictures and the small wooden box with personal stuff, because these things are irreplaceable. Everything else - furniture, geek toys, CDs, DVDs, etc - would be covered by a very generous new for old insurance. :-)

"*sigh* Some men are really hard to manipulate!" - Orchid

Firstly i think this was an awesome question...as I ave always asked myself if there was a fire at home (God forbid) what would I quickly grab. I suppose if I was in that sort of situation I would just be focussed on my family and cat!

But in an evacuation situcation I actually keep a box filled with photos, letters, diaries, writtings and notes. I would also take my cuddly toy Richie a gift from my lover with great meaning to it! Umm i guess all what you listed passport and persnal documents..and anything of any valuable importance..family airloomes (is that how you spell it, hopefuly you know what I mean!). Lastly my laptop, with all my music and photos and films on...oh and how could I forget my Keanu Reeves collection!

I almost had you

I think the right course of action is to scan all important documents and make them into pdf files or better yet any open format suitable for scanned documents.

I do all my creative stuff on a computer (ie. writing and other stuff that is an extension of me and vital to my well being). So I'd grab my laptop of course. My iPod is a must also and I think that is about it for absolute essential items to grab in the event of an all out emergency that I must leave and never return.

I think it would also be wise to have a packed luggage bag just incase.

One can never prepare too much for stuff that *can* and has happened.

I think the right course of action is to scan all important documents and make them into pdf files or better yet any open format suitable for scanned documents.

Yes, but now I have a question for you. First of all, let me state I don't even know the answer for what concerns Italy, because I have never been in a situation where I needed to ask it. However, you know how those documents are written on parchment, or some kind of paper that is specially printed and everything, with special ink or so; then there are the signatures that are made with real pen. I am getting to my question finally... are you absolutely sure that a photocopy (because if you print it from a pdf or any other thing, or even if you photocopy the original document) would be valid at that point?

I know for a fact that the photocopy of the passport is valid at least to ask a new one... at least for the old passports. Now, there is that magnetic band on it, and I don't know if a photocopy would still be considered valid for you to go and ask just a new material document. But what about everything else? Your marriage certificate and birth certificate for example... would a photocopy of those be valid? Because in theory, if you scan things you also have the way of edit them (of course it would be silly for you, because it is your own stuff).

I don't know... I think I would prefer taking the originals with me. Or maybe put them in the safe of a bank or something. There are some friends who have those boxes which are made of that particular material that cannot burn, and they stored all their important stuff in it. Do you think it would be a good idea? Maybe in case of fire, but not of any other thing heh?

Un bacio è un'apostrofo rosa scritto tra le parole "ti amo".

I don't know... I think I would prefer taking the originals with me. Or maybe put them in the safe of a bank or something.

Well the idea is that maybe something happens that you cannot go home and get any of the documents. I carry my 1 gigabyte thumb drive everwhere with me. If I have to leave I could have every piece of important documentation with me already so that if a major event happened I could identify myself with no question. The idea is that we can leave but still hold our identity if we cannot possibly get important documents from our homes.

I plan on scanning every major piece of documentation that makes up my life and store it in a pdf format. I'm going to carry this on my thumb drive everywhere I go. Hopefully a time never comes where I am in need of this information. I plan on getting additional thumb drives for my family so they can also have this information. One can never do too much preperation for a major catastrophe.

If I have to leave I could have every piece of important documentation with me already

Hm, this is actually not a bad idea!

*shoves ID scans onto cellphone*

"*sigh* Some men are really hard to manipulate!" - Orchid