This was originally posted on The Pastry Box for 10 October 2015.

My nephew has a social media account. He probably has a few I haven't found, and a dozen that his parents don't know about. In looking at what I believe is his main account, I have to wonder if he will ever move beyond this moment.

See, the Internet has a long memory.

When he is at his first job, the Internet will still remember his college days. When he is in college, the Internet will still remember his high school days. When he is in high school, the Internet will still remember his junior high school days, his elementary school days, and, thanks to me, his toddler and infant days.

He won't be able to move beyond those moments. They are there online. On Facebook. On Twitter. On Instagram. Out there for the world to see.

He won't be able to move beyond his mistakes, if he decides later that what was a good idea now turns out to be not such a good idea then.

He won't be able to reinvent himself in ways that I could when I was younger and my family moved to a different state, or when I moved away for college, or on to my first job.

There's a release in being able to reinvent yourself, in being able to leave a space and time, and become who you want to be, become who you can be. There's a growth that happens when you learn from your mistakes and leave a part of your history behind.

I worry about my nephew, about his generation and those after him. I don't know that they will ever have that chance to reinvent themselves.

The Internet has a long memory.

Night before my workshop. No, I'm not completely and totally nervous, why do you asK?

I went for a walk around downtown Milwaukee today. I've been working on my workshop examples, having arrived a day early because of my typical travel karma. I'm enjoying the time to go over the material again, but the stomach demands, so the rest of me complies and off for a walk I went.

For the parts I saw, I can say that Milwaukee is a lovely city. I had a great conversation with my driver last night (at midnight, no less), and with several other people here, so the people are Midwestern friendly as I'd expect them to be.

What I find most interesting in a delightful way is ALL THE INDIANA LIMESTONE.

I am such a sucker for the old architecture made with the limestone.

Of course, there's the flip side of the limestone:

Mixed poorly, it makes crappy cement.

Having walked around for an hour or so, I was amused to walk close to what I am convinced is the inspriration for the cube computer. Except when I go to look up which one it was, apparently I'm remembering wrong, because I can't find a blue cube apple computer. I am really confused by this, as I have a strong memory of a blue cube computer, with the CDROM slit along the top of the computer.

It looks something like this:

I might be confusing it with the G4. Shrug.

I enjoyed walking around Milwaukee. Here, I can definitely tell it's fall.

I might be giggling a bit. The room is small and this is my view.

Matters little, I have a workshop to practice another dozen times.