Immortalised through art is the way so many people seem to b able to take a pace in immortality, their art lives and people remember them, authors are much the same, although some
books get lost in dusty shelves.
Google efforts to scan all the known books at least puts these long forgotten people back into the frame through the their search.
But so many get forgotten and never return to recognition except for a line in a private geological chart, and so many more are lost completely no headstone to read, no obituary in a paper.
So for these reasons alone. I am making sure I remain not forgotten, it's a little morbid I know, but as I approach 65, I seem to be thinking of this more. I have no fear of death, just the bit before, although if I go in my sleep then thats fine, as for what happens after, well who knows, I tend to believe that nature wastes nothing, but I would like to go knowing that I have left enough markers in this world to be remembered, and discovered buy the next and many more generations to come. So now it's a race to put in place what I can, so I reach this lofty goal.
First is my internet presence, I own several sites, but there existence is so dependant on several important factors, and quite a few of what I call secondary factors. Will the server company I use to host my sites, last a generation or two, even if I pay now for my sites to last there is no guarantee.
Take overs or just simple bankruptcy might just take them down with a total loss. I thought about this a lot, and decided to mirror my sites in different form, using sites like blogger, Facebook and the like to take the content, as I put it up, at first I use links, but that's no good, so I publish separate copies to each with my name as author.
Google + and Facebook are my first stabs at this, I'll add others as I find them. But still the fragility of the Internet worries me, all the articles and comments I have made, wiped from existence at the failure of the net, for what ever reason.
Books or the written word, has proved a resistance to even the most extreme of earths and mans, destructive tendencies, well mostly, and the older I get the more a good book is so nice, except when I have to carry it on a trip, then Kindle is such a good thing, so I end up buying paper and Kindle version of the book I want to read as I am away.
For a long time I have written several books, but these lie in my hard drive, I now have a plan to publish under
Amazon, I don't really care if their not purchased, its the solid evidence of my writing thats now more important.
I have written several papers over the last few years, and although these are predominately electronic, I plan more, in the vain hope these will survive under some academics research, or university library.
My dad who died last year left loads of photos, some I can remember, but most I have no idea who they are. I will not let that happen to my kids, so I plan on making a book, sort of photo history, with my photos in it, and some form of note, people list, and perhaps story to go with it, again if I can publish this at least it will get some form of future. Afeter all, all my phtos are internet based, and will just fade away.
Which brings me onto the last point, and the one I started with, in my will, oh yes I have made one, all my accounts, passwords are left to the kids, just so at least one of them might want to trawl through my past, if they dare !!. My diary, so often the base line for many archivists, is electronic, well for the last 20 years or so, but before that, its a series of old paper diaries and loose leaf binders, but the electronic version I will print, just in case perhaps every few months.
