Essex, England, May 2003

On May 3rd, 2003, I got a digital camera as a present from my parents. I was 24, living at home, and in the middle of doing my degree. We had two cats, and were soon to get a third.

Like everyone else with their first digital camera, I immediately spent the next month taking pictures of all the incredibly mundane things you were never really allowed to take pictures of before. Bookshelves and bathrooms and carpets and curtains. Desktops, cupboards, TV screens. Cats. So many cats.

Then I forgot all about ever taking them, and never looked at any of them again until now.

So here are nearly a thousand pictures of Essex, England, in May 2003. Almost all of them are extremely boring. A significant proportion of them are either of myself or my cats. 99% of them are in 640*480 format. 23% of them are extremely blurry.

Essex, England, May 2003

3rd May, 2003
5th May, 2003
7th May, 2003
8th May, 2003 (afternoon)
8th May, 2003 (evening)
9th May, 2003
10th May, 2003
11th May, 2003
14th May, 2003
15th May, 2003 (afternoon)
15th May, 2003 (evening)
16th May, 2003 (afternoon)
16th May, 2003 (evening)
17th May, 2003 (afternoon)
17th May, 2003 (evening)
18th May, 2003
19th May, 2003
24th May, 2003
25th May, 2003
26th May, 2003
27th May, 2003
28th May, 2003
30th May, 2003

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Notes:

1. I took these photos in May 2003
2. And made this website on March 12th and 13th, 2021
3. And I was going to write an essay explicating all the things I like about these pictures
4. But then I did not
5. Because it’s better just to look
6. At the past
7. Captured here in aspic
8. For the rest of known time

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Tale #141: If You Describe Each Moment Of A Person’s Life, It Becomes A List Of Crimes, An Endless Recitation of Horrors, A Biblical Judgement Upon Their Worth

“Enjoy your retirement, they said, as they read out the celebratory statement they’d prepared for the occasion.

“Towards the end, they summed up the facts of my life. All the data collated, all the facts and the figures and the failures, recorded at source not just by my devices but by all of theirs, all of yours.

“What struck me the most as I listened, as I watched, as I smiled and reacted exactly how I was supposed to, was not how much of this wasted life of mine I had forgotten, but how much I remembered. All those stupid comments, all those awkward silences, those social embarrassments, those cowardly retreats. All the regrets, all the shame. The lies, the truths. I remembered it all.

“I remembered it all.”

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Notes:

1. Written in December 2019
2. And with probably the longest title anything of mine has yet had
3. Even despite my love of long titles

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Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!


Reality (places in space #14)

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Notes:

1. Written on June 5th, 2019

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!