Recently the kids and I were hanging out in the rec room waiting for someone to do something — long enough that the TV screensaver popped on.
It happens to be linked to Colin’s Amazon photo account. Usually the pics that pop up are the kids and such. Or some random work photos — whiteboards with calculations none of us understand.
A few days ago two strange anomalies occurred however:
The screensaver images lingered much longer that usual. Usually they switch out every 3-5 seconds or so. This time they stayed on screen for at least 30 seconds.
The photo you see above appeared.
Who are you?
The girls and I might not have thought much about it, except for issue #1… the photo stayed there for a long time. We had a lot of time to stare at this strange, unfamiliar image of two people none of us have ever seen before.
So I grabbed a pic to ask Colin. Which I will at some point.
He will probably have an easy answer. Regardless, this photo intrigues me for other reasons besides the remote possibility that Colin has a second family that we don’t know about (heh heh heh very remote, right?)
Why is she wearing a tie?
Why is she so somber?
Why is the cake a beer bottle?
Why is this a photo someone would even take?
More importantly, why does this photo still exist so many years later?
The Photo Storage Dilemma
My best guess is that this pic is from some birthday party at a restaurant that I wasn’t involved in, or I just don’t remember.
And the photo was snapped by Colin mindlessly in a series of pics leading up to the crucial photo of Birthday Boy grinning over the candle flames.
In the meantime, this terrifying image lives in eternity on my husband’s Amazon photo drive:
Why?
Because Colin, like most of us, has neither the time nor the inclination to delete the crap on his phones that he doesn’t want to keep forever.
In honor of this young woman lurking in our little corner of the Cloud, I’ve written a poem for her — wherever she is in the Real World.
Zombie Waitress: A Poem
Zombie waitress, frozen in
2013, locked up in Amazon’s
Digital embrace, who are you?
Have you left the job
Graduated to bartending
Built your own catering
Business, escaped the
Long hours, the tipped
Life? Are you happier now
That you don’t have to
Carry beer cakes to
Alcohol-soaked guests
Who don’t see you who
Don’t know you who
Treat you like a
Human vending
Machine? Are
You awake at
6 a.m. and
Running
Down the
Esplanade,
Glad you
Learned to
Tie a tie, happy
You don’t have
To do it anymore?
Well, I hope you have a great 2022, and that you get a little time to tidy things up.
I personally did clean out my closet earlier today… but I still have over 4,000 photos on my phone — just from the last couple of years! eek!
Feel like starting to clean up your photos in 2022?
Here are a few articles with suggestions for places to get started:
For Apple/iOS users —> from Lifewire: How to Delete Duplicate Photos on iPhone
For all Phones —> From KimKomando: The one trick to finally clean out your photo gallery
Google Drive Users —> from CNET: How to Clean Up Your Google Drive.
Any other thoughts or suggestions? Please drop it in the comment! Thanks!
Happy new year!