"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Time Capsule

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:  

Time Capsule

The Brief:
 1.      You can choose who to create the time capsule for as that will influence what you put (or would put into your time capsule)

2.      The creation of a time capsule

a.       you can do this in the literal sense or

b.      you can simply write what you would place into your time capsule and why. It is much more fun to create though!

• You may choose to create a time capsule for your children, or a niece/nephew, for grandchildren – A physical item that you will give to a named person.
• Why have you chosen that person and when do you intend for them to have it?
• You may choose to create a time capsule of your home and leave it for someone in the future to find.
• You may want to create a time capsule relating to an actual event or anniversary
• If you create a physical time capsule, what did you choose to use as your capsule and why?

 

Time Capsule - Yes or No?

I have had the thought of a time capsule come up when I was in high school, when someone suggested it. However, no one, until now, brought it up for discussion and it was only through this group I'm in for doing the "The Book of Me, Written by You" topics.

In the sense of creating something for the future generations, I am putting the research I do for my

family, up on DropBox for anyone in the family who wants to look, add to and/or check information. I also have part of this done in ancestry.com, so I can keep track of information. Further, I do have a binder (that was once a group of pages) which has much of timelines and backed up information.

In the upcoming months, I plan to start recording verbally some memories. Further, all information and photos will be on either external hard drive and/or DropBox. I am taking to doing quite a bit of scanning due to the drastic conditions here in Australia. This way, I can have information in multiple locations and if a fire does come through (as it had a few years ago in the neighbourhood which we lost 10 houses nearby in the Black Saturday fires), the information and history won't be lost. I don't care about having the physical paperwork - only electronic and our lives are more important than anything.

 

My husband recorded the video on his way and during his breaks of fighting the fires

That being said, having the tiny objects which belonged to either myself, my grandmother and/or other memories will be sad, but we can live with the memories as long as they are recorded some place.

A small cup my grandmother gave me

The last Christmas card my grandmother gave me

The Future

As for when I'm gone, and hopefully this won't be for awhile yet, it will probably fall to my nieces as they have shown interest in the family history. I can hear people thinking "why not to
her children" and that is a simple one. My husband and I have been trying for over 14 years, at this point, to have children, and so far none have survived. As I only have a few reproductive years ahead of me, I have to face that we might never have children, so as my nieces have shown interest, the information will go to them, if they want it, so it will stay within the family. If they do not want it, then I guess it'll be lost, but I'm hopeful they will want to continue with the research I started.

I understand that some people will want to do time capsules, and I support them. However, over the years, I've moved enough to know what is buried today, will stay, but I probably won't be there in 10 years time due to moving.

 Check back next week for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.    

Climate control or Green House effect - Does it affect you?

How many of us have heard of the Greenhouse Effect? How many of us know exactly what that is? It is defined as the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere trap energy from the sun. Most of you out there are saying “Yes I know this already” but what you might not know that this term also covers the 2 types of greenhouse effects - The ‘natural' greenhouse effect (it keeps the Earth's climate warm and habitable) and the 'man-made' greenhouse effect (the enhancement of Earth's natural greenhouse effect by the addition of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels (mainly petroleum, coal, and natural gas)). The first has always been there and been normal but the other is due to man-made machinery and use. 

The first type of greenhouse effect, is normal and we cannot and don’t want, to do anything about. Why? Because this keeps Earth the warm and breathable place that everyone loves. 

The second type of greenhouse effect is not normal and we CAN do something about. If we do not do something soon, it will tip the weather balancing scales and all hell will break loose. 

 
There are some who don’t care – It won’t affect me.

This will affect all of us here on Earth. How?

Glaciers Melting 

Some people will be forced from their homes because the oceans will rise due to the glaciers melting. Don’t think this affects much? How about the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and in the longer term, the level of the oceans. Further evidence is shown by the pictures which show just how much they have melted. 

Retreat of Whitechuck Glacier, Washington

Glacier in 1973

Same place in 2006. The glacier has retreated 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi)

Droughts, heatwaves, bushfires, and flooding

If that doesn’t convince you, about the number of droughts, heatwaves, bushfires and flooding that every continent has been experiencing? I currently live in Australia, and we have experienced each and every one of these. We’re setting new records since records began in the 1800’s. There have been fires in places that either seen them a very long ago or haven’t seen them – ever. It’s the same with flooding, heatwaves and droughts - from Europe, to Canada, to the US, and Australia. As I said
above, I live in Australia and we are hotter, more humid and have seen bigger and angrier bushfires and droughts than I’ve ever seen before. When you look outside of your house at noon and see what should be sun and it’s almost like a fog until you open the door up and it’s smoky like someone left the wood fire door open outside and the smoke backed up out there, you know there’s trouble some place and you go looking. That was what it was like for us on Black Saturday. The trouble was less than 2 blocks away in the form of a bushfire that was moving very fast. My husband took off to help the neighbors up there and I stayed back grouping things together and to look after the house so our house could be protected from embers. We did loose homes that day – about 10 from memory – but at least others weren’t lost due to people like my husband and the volunteer firemen. Beyond that, there were 173 people who died and many others that were affected either by that lost or by other losses or traumas. 

Because of the loss of homes, life and agriculture, this affects everyone because of costs going up in things like insurance (for the home, car, life, etc), food (due to loss of crops, equipment, water to be brought in due to not having any to grow the crops, etc), and life (due to workers not being there or not being able to bring in the crops that are there).

We all eat, we all have to live some place and we all have to have water to live. Still doesn’t affect you? I think not as these are the basics that we need to live, so yes it will affect you. 

What will happen if the major climate control factor – the Gulf Stream – stops?


Most people don’t know it, but the thermohaline circulation, which supplies the ocean currents around the world, is a major factor in keeping the climate like it is. However, there is evidence that shows this circulation slowing down due to the warmth of the oceans. It’s also due to the salinity of the oceans which is lessening due to the glaciers melting. This trigger has localized cooling in the North Atlantic and can lead to cooling or lesser warming, in that region. There could be sufficient freshwater could be provided to interrupt thermohaline circulation. It is believed that the Younger Dryas are a period where this might have been the case, although there is some disagreement as to its cause. 

If this does happen, it could trigger something that changes Earth’s entire climate. It could either make the temperatures get very warm or it could even throw the planet into another ice age. I have read and watched programs which have cases for either of these events happening. The way I look at it, if the circulation stalls, then something bad is going to happen either way. Then look out because no matter where you are on Earth, you’re in the crapper. If you don’t believe me, watch the video below from someone that makes a career out of science. 



If we all chip in and do something now, then we can slow these events down and, in time, turn it back to make sure Earth will stay liveable – not only to us but for the future generations.