Virtual Life

I had a bit of a scare this morning when my office computer started to do some strange things. A couple years ago I had a huge crash and had to re-do everything (before the days of back-up - but also before the days of huge hard drives fortunately - I think my first computer had a mere 600MB!). The glitches this morning made me more than a little nervous...

Now I'm no IT pro. I know some stuff about computers, but sometimes the language is like speaking in tongues and I get lost. When funny messages pop up on my blue screen of death and the machine restarts, I worry.

So as soon as it was functioning again I started to burn CDs. All my digital photos from this year, sheet music scanned from my worship team days (hundreds of songs that took hours to rework into digital format). A folder of downloaded stuff that took 2 CDs to cover - again, hours worth of work. Still to go is a couple GBs of music.... but I'm starting to run out of CDs! :)

Fortunately all my official work files are stored on a remote machine, but they also need a bit of an update to be completely relevant. Just busy burning stuff that isn't backed up anywhere else.

In doing so I realized how much information, how much history and bits of my hobbies are electronic. I've worked my way through a pack of 10 CDs, and that's just this year's files! I did the same thing at the end of last year, and ended up with a box of CDs there too.

My blog is electronic, my photos are electronic, the music is electronic...

But on the other hand - if it all disappears what does it really matter? Yeah, I'll lose stuff, but fortunately the Real Me is not tied in to a computer or its functions. I live and breathe and exist outside of cyberspace, circuits and power supplies. Although it would be sad to lose things like my photos - well, life will still go on.

Sometimes when the power goes off and we all sit around twiddling our thumbs for a few hours, you realize that it's very easy to become dependent on technology. To tie your life up to what goes on inside a metal box or on a screen. To exist more in electronic form than Real Life.

Me, I'd rather be Real than electronic. Lift my eyes from the screen and watch swallows dip and whirl outside the window. Breathe fresh air and feel sun on my face. Those are things you simply can't back up to CD.