First, to get the mandatory coverage out of the way: iPhone line. Ah, I feel better now.
A friend of mine told me he has adopted the “10% of JT” rule to digital “stuff”. I took ~400 pictures in the first 2 days when my son was born, he took 40. I’ve ripped over 600 of my CDs, he’s still not at 60 (but making progress). I think he’s way behind in the video realm, but I’m still just getting started over there.
What it’s really made me think about is the ability I have to truly chronicle the life of my child. I take pictures or video almost every day now, even if it’s just him in the crib or on his playmat. I managed to capture one of his first smiles in video (the real ones, not just the gas). When I talk to my parents about my upbringing, I quickly understand the advantage the digital world gives me. I’ll never ‘wonder’ what my child looked like at 2 days, 2 months, or 2 years.
The other amazing part of it is the ability to share with my family, located around the world. His 94-year-old great-grandmother gets my Flickr updates once a week, and she’s seen a video I made as well (of him sucking on his mother’s nose – quite adorable). My parents and in-laws are able to take the pictures and print them with Shutterfly or other services. I’ll gladly out-digital people by 1000%, it’s worth every megabyte.
But best of all will be the chance to show all these memories to my son when he’s older. And, of course, to every girl he ever dates.
Might sound stupid, but I did the same thing with my dog when I got her as a puppy. I have a folder on my comp called “Abilene” and it’s chock full of pics from when she was first brought home up till a few days ago.
I also have chronicled her training and adventures in videos, most of them on Blip and shared on my blog (or previously posted on MySpace, before I matured out of that). She’s so much fun to take videos of, and it’s different being able to sync to my computer and then wipe the memory card clean, as opposed to buying film and keeping up with film canisters and whatnot.