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I've been selling a lot on craigslist recently. As such, I've been taking a lot of pictures of my stuff.

And oddly, I've been noticing that I feel slightly unfulfilled, even uncomfortable, when I take a photo that doesn't make it to Flickr. I don't know when this happened, but posting has made the photo real--like if it's not posted here, it didn't happen. That bothers me.

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	adamgreenfield says: Happens to me too, and also weirds me out. They're like in uncommentable, unlinkable nonspace. See? Our perceptions of what is meet and proper are already being transformed by ubiquitous informatics. ; . ) Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )
	bobulate says: Someone should write a book about that. :) Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )
	bobulate says: Update: I've sold the monitor. Now the photograph becomes even more valuable. If I hadn't photographed it, I would risk forgetting the monitor altogether. Odd. Transformed from nonspace into something that I can catalog in my memory. Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )
	pauldwaite says: Yeah, that's definitely not healthy :) I can only suggest less time taking photos, and less time on Flickr :) Or maybe print some out and hang them on your wall? Maybe then photos won't be real unless they're hanging in your place. Oh, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, etc. Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )
	jetaime says: Gosh, I get that too. If it's not recorded SOMEWHERE (even if only in a paper journal hidden in my room), it never happened. Quite the phenomenon... Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )
	pauldwaite says: "If it's not recorded SOMEWHERE... it never happened." Now that's interesting. I've had lots of memorable experiences that I have no tangible record of, but I don't feel like they didn't happen. Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )
	bobulate says: pauldwaite said: "I've had lots of memorable experiences that I have no tangible record of, but I don't feel like they didn't happen." I do too. Certainly, there are memories from prior to my photo-taking days that are still quite powerful. (Although as I get older, there are fewer of them...) But there's something about documenting a memory through a photograph that allows me to rely on the physical (or digital) object instead of my memory. I feel free to "forget" that event/thing because I know it is recorded somewhere. I'm off the hook. So, if that photo never gets uploaded to Flickr, it's archived in some dusty folder deep in my hard drive where I won't look again. Which is starting to feel the same as if it never happened. Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )
	pauldwaite says: Sure: I was talking more about jetaime's comment than the photo-specific idea you put in your note. Personally, for photos, I use iPhoto, and have my screensaver set to display random photos from my "Good Enough" collection. So I'll always look at them again :) Interesting that you say documenting a memory with a photograph allows you to "forget" it. Photographs might help one recall the emotions and smells and stuff that went along with an experience, but only if they're still there in your head somewhere. A photograph only shows how the light bouncing off an event focused through your lens, after all. Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

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Taken on January 15, 2006

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