What a world we live in, am I right? The start of 2025 has been interesting to say the least. As part of the chaos that has unfolded around me, my country, and the world, I have made some changes to my online presence.

On Jan. 20 I deactivated my Facebook and deleted my Instagram. It would have been easy to miss my cryptic post about moving over to Bluesky (and yes, I do still have that account, so give me a follow if you like!) and I only sent out a handful of direct messages informing folks of my intentions. It was important for me to complete the task on that date, so I moved quickly.

Anyway, I’m glad to have my website as a platform. I’ve been seeing new subscribers come through, which is a great way to keep up with my blog posts. Admittedly I have not been super on top of updating this blog, and mostly have used it to share stories I wrote for other outlets, emergency prep tips, and suggestions for photography clients.

Now, in the wake of my absence from traditional social media platforms, I intend to be a bit more purposeful with the use of this site to share information with my people.

Given the state of *gestures broadly at the world* I think now is a great time to do some practical preparations, and I’d like to refer everyone to look at other previous blog posts on the topic of emergency preparedness as well.

Practical Prep Steps

• Freeze your credit, and your child’s. It costs nothing and you can unfreeze it anytime you intend to make a big purchase or open a new line of credit. This is a good general safety rule that I encourage everyone to do right now. It takes about 15 minutes and the directions are easily found online.
  
• Connect with your folks off of social media platforms. Using social media is a morally neutral act in our world today, so I hope you know it’s not wrong to maintain your accounts. Many small businesses, artists, and worthwhile organizations need access to these platforms, and I am not one to tell anyone what they should do with their accounts. However, I feel that there will be increasing censorship and potential data leaks that could endanger relationships which rely solely on social media. So I urge you all to find your trusted people and connect with them additionally through Signal (a free, encrypted text app), text, or email or something like that.
  
• Be prepared for a brief power or water outage. We really don’t need an end-of-the-world scenario to result in a temporary disruption of these services. When you get groceries, get an extra jug of drinking water and store it somewhere dark and secure. Invest in solar power battery packs (like my Jackery which I love) and think about what you’d need if it was 2-3 days of no power. My goal is always to make those circumstances inconvenient but not dangerous.
  
• This is a great time to invest in a chest freezer, if you’ve ever thought of doing so. We found one on sale and will be setting it up in our basement. I intend to stock up on our regular items (like bags of frozen veggies, nuggets and fries, pizzas) as well as items that may skyrocket in price when we find it on sale (yes, you can freeze coffee, but there are proper steps to do so to prevent them from going stale).
  
• If possible, hold onto some of your funds in small bills kept in your home. With threats to federal agencies that oversee our banking system, I think it’s not a bad idea to have a little bit of money in cash just in case there is a temporary interruption to those systems.

---

I will almost certainly have more insights as time goes on, but I thought it might be a good idea to confirm my absence from meta platforms as well as put a few updated survivalist thoughts together for my readers.

As a reminder, I am still at the helm of the Avondale Arts Alliance, and we have regular programming (art exhibitions, community events, summer camps, and more) that you can get involved with. Sign up for the monthly AAA Newsletter here. I also still pen the free weekly Sketchbook arts email via Rough Draft, which goes out on Wednesdays at 4pm.

Stay safe out there, and look out for each other. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

Sincerely, Isadora.