Friday's the day that I normally post "Joyful Reads for the Weekend", but this week has been far from normal (or joyful, for that matter). My blog--along with thousands of other blogs using the Typepad blogging platform--was hijacked by computer hacks. I don't want to get into all of the sordid details, but the FBI and the Typepad team finally cleared up the mess. In the end, I learned a lot more than I ever wanted to know about our dependence on technology and the fragile, vulnerable world in which we live.
During the week, I had on-and-off access to my blog and found myself craving good-old-fashioned photocopies of my favorite posts, in case the whole blog ended up disappearing permanently. It's not that I think my writing is so earth-shattering, it's that many of my posts are about the people, places, and times that are dear to my heart...
...Our trip to Israel.
...My daughter's sixth birthday party.
...The day my son met his hero, Derek Jeter.
...A perfect afternoon at my favorite writer's house.
...Meeting the Girl with a Pearl Earring.
...The post I dedicated to my dad about the forest of my childhood.
So many memories! These posts are not just simple scribbles for me--many of them are like a photographic diary of my life. And for about five days, somebody stole the key to my diary.
If you're an artist of any type--a writer, painter, musician, designer, whatever--I urge you to protect your work. Back it up in as many ways as possible, including low-tech ways. Don't just back it up on your computer. Give copies to your mother and your Aunt Lucy and your cousin Sid so that more than one household houses your work. Take pictures of it. Lock it in a fire-proof safe. License your work for free with Creative Commons. Nothing is 100% safe or lasts forever, but by all means, do whatever you can to protect the things you love. You never know when somebody is going to steal the key to your diary.
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© 2014 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com. All rights reserved. Photo and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Site licensed by Creative Commons.
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