Ghosts in the machine

I was for various reasons (one of which was this brilliant piece of radio from Radiolab) googling a friend who died a few years ago. He's still there, in google, but he's fading. Other people have his name now and they are doing things that Google notes. Vesa is, being dead, at a distinct disadvantage in the rankings because despite doing lots of things noteworthy in his unfortunately too brief life - they are now all in the past. He never got chance to start a Facebook page, so someone else with his name has got that one. He went too early to see the explosion in the popularity of blogging. But his name is still there - it's not gone completely, a ghost in the machine, and some of us still remember him as well in our more organic memories.

The picture above is of me, but it was taken by Vesa - back when photos were on film and had to be scanned. He made the webpage for the climbing club and for some reason I ended up on the front page; I wasn't really even a member, I just went out climbing with them because they were nice guys. I had completely forgotten about it, and it was googling his name that led me to it, the entry tunnel to a now defunct website, but which lives on lurking forgotten on some server. I too am also a ghost in the machine.

Vesa - you are getting a climb named in your honour mate! It's not a very good one, but hey - neither of us were ever really very good climbers were we? ;-) Rest easy now.