Can you keep a diary and a blog?

Read an interesting on-line interview with a retired British politician- Tony Benn- in which he derided blogs and said they would mark the end of diary keeping and the rich vein of literature that diaries and personal recollections hold for future generations. I keep a diary and blogging doesn't interfere with it - the two are totally different genres. There are things I record in the diary that I would never think of putting on the blog. Similarly, the ability to take a photo on the phone and post it two minutes later provides and immediacy that the diary lacks.However, he may have a point. Anyone under 30 probably thinks that writing on paper with pen and ink was a process that went out with the ark.

Learning about blogging

I've been trying to use the camera on the mobile phone to take all the pictures posted on the blog. Using the mobile to take pictures is really easy and keeps the news flow current but at the risk of becoming too familiar or pedestrian. - but there again isn't that part and parcel of blogging ? This is a view from the house towards Todi taken this morning and I have to say the quality doesn't seem that different from using the Leica digital even for long shots like this. The Sony Ericsson phone I use in Italy has a pretty good lens but after each snap I have to go back to the menu and reset the photo option which takes time and can be really annoying. When I was back in the UK last week I took lots of pictures on the UK Nokia phone but these can only be downloaded by wireless and the UK and Italian operating systems are compatible at some level beyond my technical understanding.Hence the absence of pictures from London and Brighton.Looking back at the last six weeks worth of blogs it's also apparent that by downloading from the phone I'm probably swamping the blog with pictures of the boyz. It might be better to restrict them to just one a day. I'm finding the map showing geographic spread of visitors to be really interesting - the pattern seems to be entirely random. When I take the time to become more proficient I'll see whether people want a blog about the boyz, about Italy, or about a broader range of topics.