ITTLE more than two years ago we set up a self-hosted album (no Flickr/Facebook/whatever) and have probably proven, in terms of numbers at least, that one does not need to rely on centralised networks that spy on users and treat them like products. This week we pass 300,000 views in our albums and we are planning to publish more albums for many years to come. This is not just a hobby but also a way to preserve one’s memories without relying on services that have little or weak or no long-term commitment to preservation of so-called ‘content’ (that’s how they view photos ‘generated’ by so-called ‘users’).

The so-called ‘cloud’ is a dangerous trap and even this week I experience this because clients and friends foolishly put their blogs or sites on third-party ‘cloud’ services which limit functionality and basically lock people in, giving them no control over the software even if the back end runs Free software.

VER three years ago Rianne and I met. The following year I set up this album, not imagining that it would attract 275,000 page views in just 2 years. Photography was never a hobby of mine, but as we traveled to many nice places including Scotland (hence the image above), Chester and Cyprus it turned out to be a nice way by which to travel back in time and recall the past. Rianne quit using Facebook when she was able to put photos in our own, self-hosted album, demonstrating, hopefully, that people do not need Facebook to share photos with a lot of people (this is what people use Facebook for, perhaps the most). To be frank, I had been hosting photos in this site since almost a decade ago (starting with Switzerland photos), but it never developed into a habit. The same software was used (Gallery), but a different version of it.

WING to Valentine’s Day I recently found myself singing again, just like I did about 10 years ago when I was 19 or even 20 (I uploaded some stuff that I amateurely recorded on my PC). Much of it is stuff that Sinatra, my favourite singer, had sung.

n December 17^th I will turn 30 and I recently went through some old photo albums trying to gather some memories from favoured times in the past — times when life when generally quite easy and fun. This made possible and easy to assemble the following collage which spans mostly a year or more after birth, 15 years after that, and another ~15 years later, at age 29 and 11 months.

1983

1983

1983

1983 (with my dad)

1983 or 1984

1991

1998 (age 16)

1998

1998

1999

2011 (days ago)

2011

2011

ust over 15 years ago I started lifting weights. I had only just turned 14 at the time. The memories are many and it was only about 7 years ago that I started writing abut it. I can probably reference my older blog posts about health and exercise, starting with recent and older photos of times when I was in top shape and before I turned to more running (I could run long distances well) and cycling. Back in the days I competed in Mr. Fitness contests (see 2008 victory and photos also from prior years as I had won several times since 2004). I did well at strength events of all kinds. My main competitor was Mike Coogan, who won previous contests (here are some highlights and awards).

I participated in mini triathlons and won rowing competitions too, several times in fact, until recent years.

As a scientist, I strongly reject sport quacks and embrace solid, credible research instead. Although I did not pursue sports professionally as a child (I preferred it being a hobby/game), I do maintain a high degree of knowledge and skill in the area and I spent most of my life (over 15 years) doing regular exercise without ever taking a long break, even when time management seemed hard.

T HAS BEEN many years since I last updated or maintained the family tree pages on this Web site (not public), but moments ago I expanded the collection and also found this old photo of my great grandmother, whom I never met in person. It is saddening that several generations down the line people are no longer remembered, neither by their photo/s (they are not tagged with names, so blurring and fading are not the main issue, which digitisation can slow) nor their name; often enough not even a date of birth is recorded, let alone a short biography. It will be interesting to see what the Internet generation can do to change this.

I watched the film Mamma Mia a couple of days ago with my 12-year-old sister. it was only then that I discovered this song, which dates back to older days — prior to my birth.

So, the song now reminds me of my little sister. I too will have children when I grow older, but the lyrics can be generalised to other family relationships.