Fixing Things
My camera is back from Nikon Repair. In case you’re wondering how long it takes, it took 10 days from when I approved the cost to the camera arriving on my doorstep. It took about 4 days from the time I shipped it to their estimate. So, all-in-all, about 2 weeks. Not bad, really.
My media center PC is currently at the Acer repair center. We’ll see how well that goes. I mailed it on June 11th. I got notification that they received it on June 13th. I’m pretty sure it’s just a bad power supply. It’s sad thought that it took 15 email exchanges for them to agree to repair it and only after they suggested I charge the battery which, being a desktop and not a notebook, it doesn’t have. Whatever.
Buying Things
I still want a new bag. A “murse”, if you will. Something that’ll hold diapers and wipes, a sippy cup, a water bottle, a dSLR and a lens, some important papers, a changes of clothes, a book to read, a handful of personal items, and a laptop. Rarely will it need to hold all of that at once. But, it should be able to once in a while. It should be interesting to look at, have lots of pockets, have a durable base, and come in a color other than black. Ideally it would be made out of a more natural material that could then be waterproofed. Ideally it’d also cost less than $100. If you know where to find such an item, please leave a comment. I’ve looked everywhere.
I’ve spent enough time at the pool so far this year that I’m thinking an underwater point-and-shoot digital camera would be a good idea. I have a waterproof bag that I can stuff my dSLR in to. But, all told, it doesn’t work very well. It keeps the camera quite dry, which is the most important part. But the lens port constantly gets in the way of the shot making it very difficult to use and often resulting in bad images. I wish I could attach the lens port to the front of the lens in use. Then it would take care of itself. You hear that, DiCAPac?!
If I get a underwater point-and-shoot I’ll actually just buy a regular, pocket sized camera and then a hard-case underwater housing for it. That way I’ll have one of each for only a little more than what I’d pay for just an underwater camera. See, I’m smart that way. I’m considering the Canon SD1200 because it’s small, inexpensive, and the underwater housing for it is less than $200. But I’d really prefer to have manual exposure available, just in case. Any ideas/suggestions?
To round up the list of things I want to buy, I’m also considering an iPod Touch and a Mac Mini. The original iPhone and Touch could not do what I wanted them to do because they couldn’t do more than one thing at a time. The new iPhone OS 3.0 makes this possible with the Notification API. So, there are quite a few apps I’d like to write and see how well they do. With these two things I should be able to get started.
I’d get an iPhone 3Gs, but AT&T offers bad service, is slow to implement new features, and regularly indicates that they don’t put their customers first. I’d really rather not tie myself to paying them $100/mo for the next two years. That’s just silly. So, iPod Touch it is.
Plans
This weekend is Celeste’s birthday party. There will be roughly 15 kids and 15 adults there. I’m actually a little scared at how it’s all going to turn out but I’m trying to let someone else (my mom in this case) handle something for once and just not worry about it. With my personality, that’s a lot harder than it should be.
Other than that, this week is pretty low key. I’ll probably take Celeste swimming on Wednesday night and again on Friday night because why not? She loves it and so do I. I hope to spend Tuesday catching up on housework and chores and such and maybe spend some time out with friends or at a coffee house reading and writing on Thursday.
An Important Message
According to recent messages that somehow made it into my Inbox, not only is “Enlarging my male tool the best revenge for my ex” but also “my life will be worthwhile if my penis grows a little”. It’s good to know. Such thoughtful strangers to provide me with such valuable information.