Saturday, July 17, 2004

So, that's different.



Blogger's added some bells and whistles to the text editing, which is kinda fancy and potentially tacky at the same time. I can imagine all the color-blind bastards making their blogs into some technicolor nightmare with blinking text now. Hopefully most of us will refrain from that.

First of all, Alex is doing great. Still cruising, still picking up new tricks here and there. He's learning to bounce to music a little more, and clapping is still a hit and miss trick for him. He seems to enjoy doing it when I kidnap his hands and force them together, but he didn't really do it himself. Not for me, anyway. He's still shoving entire cookies in his mouth, crawling at the speed of light, and flashing cute little smiles to flirt with the adults. Even though I'm very aware that this is really a special time and I should cherish it, I'm still thinking that I'm missing out on a lot of his stuff. I suppose unless I was independently wealthy and have no social aspirations, I'm bound to miss some of his growth.

So, the last week I've been completely obsessed about getting a better digital camera. Not the video camera, I have one of the best. But a digital camera to capture better stills. My Olympus has given me tons of memories, but I'm ready for more manual controls, and more resolution. I had the hots for the Canon A80 for a long time, and was actually checking it out at Freddys, when my wife showed me another camera. It was a different sort of camera, but the retail was $349.99, which was too rich for my blood.

However, after some research, I found it to be comparable to the Canon, with a very big exception - the Minolta Z1 has a SLR feel, and a 10x zoom. If you know anything about cameras, you should already know that most digital cameras don't have more than a 3x zoom, unless you're willing to sell your cows and work two jobs to attain a camera with that kind of zoom. It also has total manual controls, a pretty decent LCD, and a 3.2MP resolution, for my 8x10 prints of my nose hairs, if I were so inclined.

But talk is cheap. Here's the centerfold.




So, I obsessed about it so much and finally put in an order for it on credit. I know, it's a bad habit, and I was going to save up for it. But using the birth of my daughter as an excuse to get it sooner warranted spending the money for it. They haven't processed my order yet, so I'm a little testy about that. I want the camera! Oh, and I found it about a hundred cheaper online. I love the internet.

So when I get that, I'm thinking about starting a photoblog. That should be fun.

The other thing that's going on is my newfound ability to throw things out, or let things go. All the junk that's accumulated over the years have finally gotten on my nerves, and I'm trying to clean house. I put a bunch of pricey electronics on sale on eBay, my first selling experience, and I'm thinking of having a garage sell, to get rid of all the college books that I think I'm going to reread, but probably would never.

To understand my pack-rat nature, you have to understand my history a little bit. I've always had the impression that I never remember anything, and that things change too much. Usually only when I revisit something, it'll become clearer what the original impact of it was. A big part of my gathering nature comes from the fact that when I was 14, I moved to the States and lost most of my possessions. (I didn't lose them, I couldn't bring them. Immigrants coming and starting new is not a cliche.) Most of the material things that defined me before 14 was mostly gone. I still wish for my notebook with all my compositions - which probably was the origin of my creative writing. So, I started just saving stuff, stuff, and more stuff. I saved stupid things like shopping bags from Disneyland. But I also saved cool things like love letters from my wife. (Interesting factoid, when we used aliases, my name was "Alex".) But anyway, do check out the things that I've managed to let go, and hope I get some good bids on it. I need the money to pay off my camera.

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