There's something about flowers.  Sometimes, I look at a photograph of a flower and I think: that reminds me of something ... .  But I can't work out what.

Modern surveillance

So now you meet a group of strangers, people you might meet again, and you look them up on Google. You see who their friends are on Facebook. You see what petitions they have signed, what comments they have made in various campaigning guest books, what they regard as their best photographs and so and so on.

Well, that's handy. That means I can work out what we have in common; how I can find a common start point to build a friendship; how I can avoid social difficulties by steering clear of sensitive issues.

And then there is that potential to manipulate, to demonstrate greater similarities than exist, to get people on my side in an argument because I know what gets them interested, what issues they support.

And then I wonder what messages I have left scattered about. And who could use those; and for what.

And then there is the other stuff, the information that is collected that is not on Google, that someone, somewhere, might think of interest, that might be useful, to prompt me or point me out in schemes of which I have no knowledge.

Watching

From my office window, the city crawls up the hill and fragments into the usual geometry of towers and aerials. It's not an interesting view. Sometimes, I think that, if I were a better photographer, I could make it interesting. But I can't. Not even with those rare, rosy sunsets.

So I tend to focus more on the three buildings opposite: the mysterious private bank; the bookshop; and the big office block that fills promptly at 9 and empties promptly at 5. These three buildings become the big picture: it's like seeing the world with only one lens.

The photography is only an ambition, really. You can't make money from photography except on the whim of corporations or Kings. Or weddings. I never thought I could be polite enough to do weddings. Anyway, I have plenty of time to do photography while waiting for clients for my design work.

And then this guy in a pub asks me if I am interested in doing some surveillance work and I am talking about the world is how you watch it and of course I say yes. So I wonder what I am getting into.