in loving memory

I found out today that i'm not the only one who cant bring himself to delete the contact details of deceased friends and family from his mobile phone.
It seems to me to be a little bit too..... "Final", to simply erase an old friend from memory - and perhaps this is the problem - perhaps I have personalised the word "memory" and consider my phone now as an extension of my very being. I have no doubt that these past friends will stay with me for ever in my head, so why does it feel so wrong to delete them from my phone?

And the realisation that other people might have the same anxieties, made me think - perhaps in this digital age we need a 'digital resting place' where we could go with our mobile phones to transfer the 'memory' of a deceased friend with a little more respect and dignity than simply clicking 'delete'

I love Paris in the Springtime,

I love Paris in the Fall.... etc etc but man, its a pain in the neck to get out of during the rush hour on a cold, wet Thursday evening. As I sat at the drivers wheel of my car staring at the miles of red brake lights ahead of me, I had a lot of time to think.
Why on earth had we come into to Paris for the day? We're we mad?
I love Paris. We had walked from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe, through the Tuileries and along the Champs-Élysées. We visited the Centre Pompidou and of course we shopped. All fabulous real-world physical expereinces - there is no substitute for "being there"..... or is there?
A quick search on the internet suggests that maybe we are not so far away from being able to experience foriegn travel without the hassle of rush hour traffic jams.

There are hundreds of websites that claim to provide a "virtual tour" of paris - certainly some do provide great photos of the scenary and interesting snippets of history - http://www.virtourist.com/europe/paris/

want some sounds too? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yDVIem1k-YU

why I can even do my own walk through paris with google streets -
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=37.09024,-95.712891&spn=47.167389,92.8125&z=4&om=1&layer=c&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google-svn&utm_medium=ha

How about if i want try some of that lovely French wine? Well it looks like i can have an online wine tasting with http://www.tastoria.co.uk/node/1

But what about the smell of being there? http://www.rru.com/webodor/

Ah but surely you cant experience that miserable feeling of the rain online can you? Well it might not quite be rain yet, but the idea is getting closer - http://www.margaretdmcgee.com/_real_hands__real_water__57839.htm

So perhaps, we're not so far away from being able to enjoy the experiences of foriegn travel without the traffic jams...... without the travel..... without the foriegn???