It is common opinion that the human lifespan is relativley short. It hadn't quite hit me fully until the recent death of my grandfather. A man who lived a very full life and dies under the most loathesome of circumstances (see my writeup under grandfather). In sifting through his belongings I saw a record of that life. It was laied out in pictures, letters and newspaper clippings, telling me the story my grandfather never had the opportunity to tell me himself.

Now I ask myself, "self, what will my grandchildren know of me?, what legacy will I leve behind?". In this day and age most of the records of my exploits are kept digitally. Sitting on magetic plates, easily wiped from existance with a simple rm command. Then again it's caused me to ask myself what it is I've really done with my life. In comparison my life seems a mere shadow of my grandfather's. He was an archery champion, a accomplished hunter, veteran of the Korean War, little league coach. Will my son or daughter tell their children "well your grandfather was a Linux Geek during the great Open Source Revolution and Served in the military during peacetime"?

I now feel the need to save those old prgrams form the plays I've been in, the photographs I have that are actually prints now must be preserved. I feel a strong urge to create something lasting, something permanent. Perhaps it took the loss of my Grandfater to cement this in my brain. A human being, in the long term, will always be known by what they leave behind. My goal is to makes sure that I leave behind something positive.