Bill

One Street: Market Square, Shipley #150

I thought I recognised Bill when I saw him today. I was sure he was one of my faces. I asked if he remembered me photographing him but he said that he didn't. He'd never seen me before. Bill is a man of very few words. It was hard to engage in any kind of conversation but, then, I wasn't really in the mood for talking either. It's strange how often I'm drawn to people who reflect my own mood. He had no objection to me taking a few pictures though. He was as chilled as anyone I think I've ever met. I was anything but chilled and actually found myself envying him the state of mind he was achieving with a dose of nicotine. My drug of choice doesn't come quite so easily, nor in such a relaxed way .. although it's cheaper.

When I got back tonight, rather late and having not managed to complete one single bug fix from the list with which I started the day, I soon found that I had indeed blipped Bill before. This was the second time this week that this has happened. There was someone else I photographed whose face looked very familiar but when asked denied any knowledge of me having taken their picture. When checked later I was again proved correct. I don't think it's the case that these people really forgot. I just don't think the memory ever got recorded in the first place

As we get older and running out of 'disk' space I think the brain has to be selective as to what information gets stored. Much has to be discarded. I'm aware of this myself now at the office. I have no recollection of having done whole pieces of work. With my blips it's different because I process the picture and then post it and regularly get to revisit it. The memory gets reinforced that way. It is a fact of getting older that if you want to remember something there has to be intention around it. What was once an automatic process now requires some considerable effort.

It's a little disconcerting when someone like Bill has no recollection of me but I'm now beginning to meet people who know me and I've no recollection of them. That's rather disconcerting too. I wish it was easy as just plugging in a few extra Terabytes! Before that's possible I guess blip will have to remain my long-term memory. It's another reason why I make the effort to write a few words every night when it would have been so very easy to have gone to bed half an hour ago.