Disaster Central

California is "disaster central" to paraphrase Wolf Blitzer on CNN. I live and work in Southern California, Los Angeles to be exact. It's been a stunning week for LA with huge brush fires devastating two of our most cherished natural recreation spots, Griffith Park and Catalina Island. Since Griffith Park literally is my extended back yard, it was a very distracting Tuesday and Wednesday for me this week. I appreciate the fact that my work can be highly focused and I could "escape" the chatter of the choppers and sirens. The firefighters, police officers, rangers, public servants and all the service people who risked life and health to protect the populated areas of my neighborhood and city have my deepest gratitude.

So here's something I realized about why I like working with collaborative products. It took me less than 30 minutes to collect my belongings in case of evacuation. As I looked around the office I realized that I could pack up my life essentials into 6 easy to carry bags (albeit heavy bags). Of the 6 bags 3 contained laptops, some files (my insurance policy), a book, a friends screenplay (hey it's Hollywood), cell phone, iPod, lots of power cords and a digital camera. Essentially my office. I realized that even if I did have to spend the next few days, weeks, or months somewhere else, that my work life would suffer little disruption. Most of the data and information that I work with is maintained on a secure server and so I would be able pick up my work from any location. This is important to me because I enjoy my work and its nice to know that I can take it with me.