PicasaWeb

This weekend I have uploaded some photos to the cloud at last. I'm happy that Picasa is a good app and that Flickr are miserly in their free hosting. But perhaps my confidence is just a reflection of Googles' in the sustainability of an economy of clicks and views.

My first unintentional disclosure on Wave just now was luckily safe material to a trusted friend and colleague, but shows me how risky the set-up is in Preview. In "add contact" you are one click away from the same mistake and only luck meant she was online and sorted to the top of the list.

Interaction improved - at least as a superficial measure. Two conversations online, effectively a chat with my brother, also a phone call to my Mum and sister yesterday. But with only days to go until Christmas I have to admit I'm below where I could be on the social activity stakes. Animal spirits these last weeks are driving me to just want entertainment and seek a drink with a business contact or a dance at a Christmas party, effectively both with strangers, over and above organising some event with real friends. I must have reasons, but I feel they don't bear public scrutiny and know I will regret this missed opportunity later. The payoff I think is to feel volatility, and the "deserving to miss out" is maybe easier than the effort required to really engage.

So to sum it up, my memories are located by people's faces, places and situations, my states of mind and only a few strong cues of smell and sound remain the best permanent evocations I have are old favourite things and I'm an old man now in that sense, though have been sentimental and backward looking for a long time. This Saturday we watched "Secret Life of the Brain" and in the second episode - the child's brain - initially covering sight but most interesting about recognition of sounds and development of language and specialisation of the left hemisphere on grammar. We see children that are missing about half their brain. We also learn that it is the loss of connections and the apparent certainties that build up which structure our thinking and must guide our futures.

Peri now tells me imagination is like the inside of a pumpkin.