Out Of The 144 Photos I Posted In September, 2011...Only Nine Remain

Every once in a while, I'll check out some past blog posts. I've got a few thousand to choose from (3, 168, to be exact...). I thought I'd see what I wrote about back in September, 2011. Turns out, Google's blog format, Blogger, is great at saving the words, but not the pictures. 

Oh, there are spaces where the pictures once were, but the pictures--almost all of them--are gone. And I don't believe they're ever coming back.

I should say that the pictures weren't that great to begin with. I'm sure some were better than others, but most were...you know...not the most interesting shots out there. Of course, I can't remember all of them. I'm going by memory.

At first, I was a bit disappointed. I thought the words, pictures and videos would be there forever. But of all the blog posts created by bloggers across the world for decades, just keeping track of all the photos would be a massive assignment. I know I wouldn't want it.

I checked out September 30, 2011 and I saw the circle with a line in the middle--missing picture. I scrolled down and saw all the pictures were gone. I looked through all 30 blog posts from September, 2011. I posted 144 photos. Only nine pictures remain, eight from my post on 9/2/11 about a baseball book I bought at the D.I. thrift store (a book, I no longer have...), and one picture of acrylic grapes form a 9/13/11 post--interestingly enough, also about another trip to a different D.I. thrift store. If you've followed this blog, you know I love that place.

I know that over the years I've searched specifically for the post about that book and about acrylic grapes. I believe that's why those pictures pulled up when all the rest are gone. If you want to search those posts, be my guest. They're all located on the right side of this blog post page.

I know nothing lasts forever, even digital blog post entries. Looks like the pictures go first, then I suppose if the internet were to go away, so would all my words. It would be cool to have all these posts published into physical books. But if so, what would I do with them? Of the 144 photos I posted in September, 2011 on my blog, only nine remain. I wonder if anyone will ever see them. Looks like they won't see the others.

And, a decade or so in the future, will the picture I posted today of a missing picture show up? If past is prologue, probably not. Then again, it'll be the right picture after all.