For the second time in the last few weeks, a loved one posted pictures of my son online without my permission. Neither person involved thought anything of it but that they love my son and wanted to share happy memories with their friends. Unfortunately, our culture has embraced technologies without understanding them, and there is *huge* social pressure not only to share intimate details of our lives online, but to think nothing of sharing others' info. In other words, everyone assumes it's not a problem because everyone else assumes it's not a problem.

This is mostly a note to myself, so feel free to ignore if you find gadget-oggling dull. A friend gave me enough disposable AA batteries to keep my shutter going for a while, but rechargables and a good universal (US wall/car, Euro wall) charger are on the future purchase list somewhere. Of more immediate concern are a very slim camera case (haven't found one I like yet) and enough memory to be able to take more than 6 or 7 pictures at a time. The high-speed SD memory cards I'm looking at come in 2 GB, 1 GB, and 512 MB (0.5 GB) sizes, for about $90, $50, and $31, respectively.

I finally broke down and bought a digital camera. I've been putting off spending the money, but now that I have, I'm glad I did.

The camera I purchased is a Nikon Coolpix L1. I was apprehensive at first, as I'd intended to save up for a different, more expensive camera from the same maker. Having tried the L1 out for a day or so, I am impressed.