Can technology help?
We spent most of the afternoon today walking around St
Ives. On the way back to the car we decided to take a
break to take in the views from the cliffs above the
beach. Whilst sitting and enjoying the sea crashing on
the beach I noticed an old gentleman sat doing the same
as us. He looked a little sad though as he sat there
dosing off every now and then. Just then a Seagul flew
down and rested on the railings just in front of him.
After a few seconds the man shuffled quickly inside his
trouser pockets and after a bit of a struggle he
eventually revealed one of those cheap disposable
cameras. He then tried to frame a picture of the gul,
but by the time he had taken control of the camera the
bird flew away. Over the next 30 minutes or so I
continued to watch the man as he fumbled to take two
more pictures of resting Guls on the Railings.
I wondered if this was now the old man's daily routine,
spending the hours wandering and resting around the
streets of St Ives trying to take pictures of the local
wildlife, whilst sneaking in a quick nap here and
there. This got me thinking; if only he had a digital
camera and even a photo printer how easier this task
might be for him. He wouldn't have to worry about
wasting film and could take hundreds of shots on the
hope that just one would capture the subject as
intended. Having the small photo printer may also work
out cheaper allowing him just to print out the best
shots without the worry of having to pay for developing
the whole film roll.
The problem with this scenario though is that even if
the old man had a digital camera and printer he
probably would not be able to use it. It makes me
wonder just how much easier the lives of our
grandparents would be if we could spare a few hours to
show them how to use technology and help build their
confidence in using it?
The above photo was snapped using my iPhone.
Emergency Room
I wonder if the creators of
Emergency Room, or as it is better known ER, ever
believed back in 1994 when it first aired that they
would still be going strong 14 series and over 300
episodes later. I can still remember how amazed I was
when I first watched ER at 9pm every Thursday night,
every episode provided this feeling of a movie
production and not a TV episode. It was certainly great
for 1994, and now 14 years later it still holds it own.
I only actually ever watched the first 4 or 5 series
and recently thought it would be great to catch up on
the series missed. However we decided not just to watch
the missed series but actually start from the beginning
again and work our way through all 14 series. So far we
have managed to watch the
ER Series 1 DVD Box Set 
