Robert Holden is asking people a simple question: what would you take with you if your house was burning down? The limitations create "a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental." Pictured above is the selection by photographer Porter Hovey. Why the shuttlecock? Hovey explains that's is actually a Christmas ornament:
A nice reminder of where I’m from — people never realize how cosmopolitan Kansas City really is. From an aerial view, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art looks like a gigantic badminton court with gigantic shuttlecocks scattered about on the lawn. The Nelson also has one of the best collections photography there is in the world. It always inspires me.
What would you take with you?
http://the-burning-house.com/ via Nerdcore
(With apologies to Terry Pratchett.)
Serious answer: once I'm sure my family is safe, i grab the go-bag from my office and sweep as many books from the shelf above into it as i can. Then before i leave I pull the hard disk from the hotswap bay in the server.
Yes, I've thought about this...
Second trip, cornet and euphonium.
Third trip, hard drives.
Fourth trip, the whiskey.
I get the other kid and my laptop.
Yes, I've had it planned for a while, too.
My mother reacted wisely. She grabbed a coat for everyone in the family (it was January), and her purse, which contained car keys. Believe me, car keys are important, because we could move the cars away from the house ...and then we used the microbus to corral all the dogs and puppies in until we could figure out where to take them. Mom didn't have keys to MY car, so we had to push it out of the way. What a hassle.
We lost all my baby pictures. Since I've had kids, I always printed out two copies, and gave one copy away. Now that pictures are digital, I email them to relatives, or store them online, so they can be recovered.
My family has a fire plan. Get out, leave the door open for the pets; they will take care of themselves. I love my pets, but I refuse to allow my children to waste time looking for them. We have a meeting place so we can know who is where. I have a file box that will be the first thing I grab after getting the kids out of a burning house. It has the irreplaceable documents, like my daughters' overseas documents and citizenship papers.
Having a laptop makes it much easier, because it's all the important papers and numbers, as well as old letters and photos.
My spouse might also grab one guitar, if possible.
We've been through a lot of alarms at various apartments. The cat goes under the sofa and freezes, so we know how to get him.
Staceyanncdolenti
After that - a box with important documents (although that's fire proof, so screw it). Definitely mortgage papers and photographs. If its winter - blankets and shoes for my little son. Maybe a toy of his.
If I can though, I will carry my PC out. Good idea about the car keys actually! Ill grab those along as well.
Its amazing how fast you can:
-get a cat in a carrier
-unplug a desktop from everything
-find that box of your prized 80s punk 7" vinyl that you got at shows
-get the guns in their hard cases
-dig the firebox of documents, passport, etc out of the closet
I think all in under 3 minutes. Its great incentive when you look out your front door and flames are shooting 12 feet out your neighbors windows.
I love all of my "things" but there really isn't any one thing that I can think of that I MUST save other than my husband and my pets. My poor fish would die though which would be heartbreaking :(
* Failing that, take other people away.
* Beforehand, store copies of important documents at a separate location.
* Store important computer files at another location.
* Store a videotape of your entire house, for insurance purposes.
* I'm tired of making this list.
In actuality? Assuming my wife is out of the house I'm getting my dog. No way am I letting Scruffy burn.
My main concern are my pets-especially the caged ones. I'll be breaking windows and tossing guinea pigs like grenades. And I'd take my hubby of course :)
I had nothing before, and I'll have nothing after. It will be as if I was reborn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu80Ml9rGhI
My kids.
My computers.
My cellphone.
If I had pets (currently looking), they would come after the kids and before the computers.
Everything else is replaceable. I know, I know, the computers and cellphone are replaceable, but the information I have stored isn't.