Sebastian’s Self Portrait
One of the sweetest things happened on the computer the other day with Sebastian. After going to Church on Sunday, we fired up the web cam for Tess’ family in Yellowknife, Canada to view the Terrific Trio and Sebastian. One by one the triplets trickled by as Grandad Blake and Maureen the Gorgeous Gran, (aka MoZiLLa) said hello and flashed smiles to their Hong Kong grandkids.
Sebastian took great interest in this production, pushing in wherever and whenever he could. We put the phone on speaker phone behind the web cam, after which MoZilla and Sebastian were able to have a private chat. Soon it was time to say good-bye and we turned off the web cam.
Later Sebastian asked me if he could watch himself on the computer. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, how long will this last? Long enough for a nap?” Normally I would be protective of the computer… a quick flip of the wrong button and “shazam” something gets deleted. But then again I thought, “why not” and quickly placed Sebastian in front of the web cam program that allowed him to make all sorts of faces at himself. He loved it. After he lost interest we fed the babies and went swimming.
Meanwhile, Sunday evening Tess and I had dinner at some friends in our building. Prior to leaving I checked e-mail on the computer. As I sat down I saw fifteen open windows cascading all over the screen. “Grrrr…” I thought, “NOW what’s wrong with this computer?” I clicked one of the screens and to my affectionate surprise was greeted by a picture of Sebastian. Somehow Sebastian, who knows nothing about how to operate a computer except that it has something to do with clicking the mouse, had found the “still shot” control on the web cam. The little wizard took fifteen pics of himself gazing at the screen and in several cases directly into the web cam. The grainy nature of the pictures gave the self portraits a stirring, timeless perspective. I quickly saved the little treasures and have posted the top two for your viewing pleasure.
