16 years of memories & tech

One of the things that has boggled my mind since my geektastic brother died in early 2009 is how quickly personal technology has advanced since then.

When Nathan died, the iPhone had only recently been introduced; MapQuest was on the cusp of being overshadowed by Google Maps; Avatar was about to hit the big screen as the most ambitious computer-generated film in history; the first Iron Man movie had just kicked off what would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe; “Artificial Intelligence” or A.I. was simply a far-fetched sci-fi film by Steven Spielberg.

It's hard to believe that 16 years have passed already. I often wonder what Nathan would think about the world today. Instead of thumbing through old photos and feeling sad – Jan. 23 always seems to hit me like a load of bricks – I decided to experiment and get a bit creative this year to get my mind out of the doldrums. 

I found an old photo of Nathan and our dad sitting on a couch together. I don’t know the exact date, but he looks about 16, so I think it’s a pretty fair estimate. (I just wanted to find one of him at 16 or so to coincide with him being gone for that many years.) I fiddled with the image using some digital photo tools and AI to adjust the sharpness, replace the background, and clean up some of the old film blemishes. I was even able to create an AI-generated avatar of teenage-Nathan based on that photo.

It was fun to play with the tech, and I think Nathan would get a kick out of what I came up with. I still miss him like crazy, and there are so many things I wish we could hang out and discuss, but somehow, some way, life keeps on keepin’ on.

Love you, big-lil’ bro. 💙