At last, a new camera!

!!!!!

Some of you who have known me for a while know my history with digital cameras. Heck, some of you know my history with disposable cameras, including the summer of 2002 where I easily blew $200 on developing one disposable camera after another at Walmart, of all places.

That was the winning argument in convincing my mom to go half and half with me on purchasing my first digital camera, a Sony DSC-P31 for $200 that October.
For my first digital camera, this was everything I thought I could want. 2MP was about all we could afford, and 5x digital zoom. After all, I didn't really label myself as a photographer nor really even think it would become a hobby. I just wanted it so I could have some control over pictures I took of myself and take pictures where I wouldn't have a double chin. Basically, I just wanted it for myspace photos before myspace existed. LOL.

The summer of 2003 changed all that, when Zack and I went out exploring abandoned places such as Rocky Point Amusement Park, Ladd School, and many other fun & exciting places.
It wasn't like the Sony wasn't without its limitations, however. Vegetation looked a little too radioactive green. Everything in existence looked like it had an unusually high cyan coloration. All could be fixed in photoshop. And 5x digital zoom ROTS.

But...it was what I could afford. And I took some wonderful shots that I would have loved to sell as prints, but at a 2megapixel resolution...the photos looked good only for the web. Too grainy for print. Too obvious that I was too cheap to get a *real* camera.

The breaking point came in 2004 when I had a chance to see John Kerry 2 days before the election. Knowing the digital zoom was crap, I figured it wouldn't be so bad....until I got stuck 200 feet back in a crowd and the zoom was all I had.

Can you see Kerry? He's wearing a yellow coat.

Then I moved closer, maybe 100 feet?

And then I got even closer, maybe 10 feet or so, but at the last moment someone hit my arm and the only shot I had left came out blurry! Love affair with the DSC-P31 was officially over after this day.

Then my 21st birthday was coming, and my mom wanted to buy me a new camera since she knew I wanted one so badly. With a budget of $500, we went camera hunting. I didn't really know what I wanted except that the camera had to have a decent macro setting and an optical, not digital, zoom. We ended up settling on the Kodak DX7590 - 5MP, 10x optical and 3x digital zoom.

And from the start, I was pretty happy with this camera! It took a little more getting used to, some pictures didn't come out quite right, but one of the first places I went to experiment with photography was the Jewett City Flea Market.

And the following week, NYC & Central Park, where The Gates exhibition was going on.

New camera total ♥!!!

And all was well in the land, for the most part. Of course I quickly discovered my Kodak's limitations (low light, blech!!!!) but I figured these were things I could deal with until the day I would ever be able to afford a digital SLR. Note, that day still hasn't come, but all will be revealed shortly.

My Kodak served me well; in its first year I'd taken well over 5000 photos. Working as a journalist will do that though; it was common to take 300+ pictures at a single event, and some days I would cover 3 events. Unfortunately, things never worked out with that newspaper even though I tried working there twice, and I ended up working on the web team of Yankee Retail. And I went back to exploring abandoned places, like Holy Land USA, Fort Wetherill, and a couple other places. The camera continued to serve me well and went to Egypt with me. And so did the Sony DSC-P31, but that did not return.

This photo of the Africano Cafe in the Cairo Mall was pretty disappointing. Like I said, my Kodak hated low light with a passion. 2007 ended up becoming the beginning of the end for the Kodak--it reached 10,000 pictures in January, and then in September things started acting a little funny. Pictures that I had taken right-side up were coming out up-side down. The camera couldn't orient itself. It began to lag. Finally the menu button broke and only worked in one direction. It stayed that way for a couple weeks and then failed altogether. I almost bought the Nikon D40 from Best Buy that Christmas...but decided against it, which was good because I got laid off in January.

So all through 2008, I've taken every photo with a broken camera which has been more than a pain in the behind. In September of this year, something happened to the lens and there's a permanent smudge in the photos when pointing at direct light. (That happened during my trip to Canada).

So...Christmas came and went and I joked that all I wanted was a new camera, blah blah blah. I didn't really expect it to happen any time in the near future. Insert sad Megan here.

Then last Sunday my grandmother called. "Rather than pay you a little bit of money here and there for computer lessons," she said "I'm going to let you get that camera you want...and pick out one for me too while you're at it." (Her camera, an Olympus something or other, has been completely broken since 2005 but it treated her well since 1998.)

So it took three days of really shopping around, comparing features and consumer reviews, but I finally picked my new camera, and it's NOT the Nikon D40 or D60. It's a Canon Rebel XS. Now the waiting for it to ship is going to be the hardest part!

Again, with a budget of $500--I got this one from Amazon for $445. And I picked out an Olympus Stylus 120 35mm camera for my grandmother (she didn't want digital.) I also picked up an IR filter, camera case and some other stuff, but I'm paying for that myself.

New...camera...!!!!! In exchange for computer lessons for the rest of my life (nevermind hers! lol)....I'd say that's a good deal! Computer lesson tomorrow. :)

Merry Christmas Eve! Sea Glass, Dead Cat, VIRUS, Snow, Peter Gabriel, and a Christmas Tree!

Since my last post, I went to the beach (yes SEA GLASS!) we found a dead stray cat on the lawn, my computer caught a virus, and we got incredible amounts of snow in our first snow storm of the season! Those of you who were following me on twitter would have noticed the saga of Cat Doe. I went door-to-door but no one would own up to the dead cat (which had been hit by a car and someone either placed it on our lawn or it died there). So we gave it a home and buried it ourselves in the back yard, before the snow came. The poor thing was frozen when I picked it up with a snow shovel, but I didn't want to leave it there because our neighborhood isn't THAT trashy to the point where we leave dead cats sticking everywhere. And we couldn't stand looking at it because it was only 10 feet from the front door. (We live 15 feet from a main road).

ANYWAY, now for something cute and happy, a Chickadee at the suet feeder!

Now, SEA GLASS! The day before Cat Doe, I went to the beach, and had amazing finds!

The last find of the day was this blue shard from Scarborough Beach.

Many pre-1860 "black glass" deep olive green shards.
And an "upkick" from the pontil of a bottle!
11 cents, the dime is dated 1972.And then, the best find that wasn't discovered until we got home....

Another piece of uranium vaseline glass!


And on that happy note, Merry Christmas!

When I'm faced with a problem, I start whistling the theme for MacGyver.

LOL

And in case any of my readers are too young to remember MacGyver, well here's the theme song for the show.


Anyway, many people know I don't watch TV. Truth is, I don't even have cable (I do have cable internet! lol). However, when I'm too tired to do anything else (such as recent USPS days where I run my behind off delivering packages and 27 certified letters) I love to curl up and watch MacGyver, which makes me feel like I could be smarter if only I knew how to make explosives out of a dead fish, a broken bottle, toilet paper, some buttons, and a shoe. Maybe a stink bomb. lol. And in today's internet age, if you want to use the internet to be more like MacGyver, you could always search "how to make bombs out of common household items" on Google. The first thing you do is put the coffee on, because by the time it's done percolating you'll have the Secret Service at your door.

But it's always good to know that if we were to get kidnaped by Soviet agents, that freedom is just one Swiss Army Knife away.

So I had this dream that someone had this plot to bomb the Norwichtown Mall, and the only people who could save the mall was me and MacGyver. LOL For all my non-eastern Connecticut readers, the Norwichtown Mall is a dead mall, with only three stores inside among about 25 empty storefronts. They would consist of a Dollar Tree, a hair salon, and a GNC vitamin store. The more recent stores to close included a chinese restaurant with only 8 different combo dishes to choose from, and the Radio Shack my parents bought their first computer from in 1988.



That computer still works, by the way.



In other news, I really want to head back to the beach. I wish there were more of me to go around and do things, and that flea markets weren't only open on Sundays.

Raptor Randomness

So I'm listening to iTunes on RANDOM. It's not something I do often because I'll hear something like BEER!!! (Psychostick) followed by MMMBOP (Hanson) followed by the German version of "Komm gib mir deine Hand" (The Beatles) followed by London Bridge (Fergie) followed by something utterly ridiculous like something from the soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog. ha. I'm sure I'll get sick of it in a few minutes, especially when something awesome comes along that I forgot about.

Here's some random pictures from my last day job that I got laid off from in January. I can't help but think these are the reasons that place went out of business. We had a lot of fun...I should get my raptor videos up on youtube. Trust me, you want to view these full size.

The day after Halloween:

Emergency response plan for Raptor attacks:

Emergency response plan in case Millstone (nuclear) in the neighboring town had a meltdownEric's poptarts. Developers and practical applications (microwaves) do not agree.

Company paid for snacks, these were usually our month's worth of beverages.

To do list:

Found near the emergency response plans:

And to think...we got PAID for this! Then again, they did go out of business. LOL

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got our first snow of the year, which is already starting to melt. I'm actually glad because I have to deliver the worst route in the office tomorrow driving from the wrong side of my jeep in Bozrah...and frankly don't feel like dealing with iced over roads and the rest. I mean, it's not like I can wear a seat belt while driving from the passenger side (wouldn't be able to reach brake/gas pedals) so to say I'm nervous while driving on less than ideal roads like that is an understatement.

Anyway! Since many bloggers are posting their Christmas lists, I'm going to post mine.


And here we go!

1. Nikon D60 D-SLR camera. I've only wanted a new camera for a year now, especially ever since my Kodak DX7590 that I got for my 21st birthday (I'll be 25 in February) broke in the fall of 2007.. Many of the buttons wore out suddenly and my camera lags in orienting itself (so pictures that I take right-side-up come out upside-down...this problem preceded the buttons failing by about 2 months but easily fixed in any photo editor). Anyway...A digital SLR would be a logical upgrade now that they're affordable. My Kodak cost almost $500 in 2005, and the Nikon D60 costs about $550. I would also settle for a Nikon D40, but for about $50 more you can get the D60 so therefore the D60 is a better value. One of the differences is that the D40 is 6 megapixel, and the D60 is 10.2MP. I would be extremely happy if I got this and nothing else...the Kodak is still going but the last 5000 pictures have produced more than its share of disappointments. (During its whole life, my Kodak has taken roughly 18,000 pictures.)

2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Wally Lamb is my favorite author by far, though I could be biased because my mom had him for a teacher for her poetry class at NFA around 1975. He's since been on Oprah's Book Club. His books are well written and if you grew up in and love eastern Connecticut, it's fun to try to relate to the story by finding the little clues he leaves that you would only know if you lived here. Not to mention his plots are fantastic. I often wonder if he would remember my mom. It's not like she looks any different. lol

3. Elect the Dead (CD by Serj Tankian, lead vocalist from System of a Down). I love SOAD and I don't listen to the radio much anymore since I have a CD player in my car, so I only found out recently that Serj has solo projects going on. I like what I've heard so far.

4. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime Boxset. It's the Talking Heads. I love them. A lot. Watched True Stories last night and still never cease to be amazed by how much that movie had an influence on current pop culture (or late 90's at least...both American Beauty and Titanic have obvious references to two clips from that movie less than 5 minutes apart.) I'm sure there's others. Not to mention the Love for Sale video, which is the most demented music video I've seen. Even Hell by the Squirrel Nut Zippers takes a back seat to Love for Sale.



and Hell (not that great quality):



5. Custom Nightmare Snatcher Journal - Mugwump (in blue!). From the Spiderbite Boutique on Etsy. Looks like she shut down for a bit to fulfill a large order. Oh well, my birthday is coming too.

Also, please support your local brick and mortar stores, buy as much handmade as you can! The big box stores will survive.

This vaguely reminds me of 2006, when I boycotted all malls and Walmart for my holiday shopping, just to mix things up a bit. Of course, in 2006 I got strep throat out of the blue just before I bought plane tickets for Egypt, and so my entire Christmas budget that year was $125. I think I did end up going over that, but it was such a blast! This year I've done most of my shopping on Ebay, Etsy, and Amazon. But I do avoid the huge powersellers on Ebay...you know, those people with 100,000 positive feedbacks. Take a closer look, 4000 positive feedback in one month with 50 negatives that they never even reply to...well...I'd be willing to pay just a little bit more to a seller with 300 positive feedbacks and only 1 negative, just so I know I'm helping someone in their quest to be successful independently!

I have several ebay auctions ending today but have to work extra hard to get the next round of items up. I'm going to have a very long day at work tomorrow and be exhausted when I get home. Better to be productive today!

Day at the beach...SCORE! And a new toy!

First off, beach finds from yesterday. I hit the beach at low tide finally (those online tide charts are so handy!) and it wasn't too cold. Here is one of the best finds of the day, which was this lime green patterned piece that's now one of my new favorites.
When I had first arrived at this beach (where we found 99% of the day's glass), there was this neurotic woman who was dashing all over the place picking up small bits of something and hiding it in her hand like the nearest person who might be looking for the same thing would mug her for it or something...I discovered she wasn't picking up sea glass, but rather bits of brick and shells. Seriously, this is why I take a ridiculously large bag. Anyone wants to mug me, feel free, I'll hit you with 5lbs of sea glass and then pelt you with any nearby rocks. Shows you. Anyway, Neurotic Woman and I were heading in the same direction down the beach, but then I found this!
My third marble, and second from this beach! I started jumping for joy and celebrating. Well, Neurotic Woman just turned around and ran away as fast as she possibly could. This is now the second time I have managed to scare someone away from the beach just by being myself. Also in that picture is an awesome piece of sea pottery, and the back is marked Greenwood Trent.
I also found my first piece of true teal, one of the hardest colors to find in the blue category. This is a lovely piece and only found at the end of the day, far far away from the other awesome finds at the same beach.
Some other finds. Who's ever lost a cell phone at the beach? Well...I found it. haha. The knob is pretty cool and the other thing is bronze and copper.

All finds for the day! After a day like that it's really hard not to hop in the car and go back, especially since gas is now $1.81 (compared to $3.81 when I was going back in the spring!)

Now, new toy! I finally bought a handheld UV light to test for uranium glass (better known as Vaseline glass). My first sea glass post back in March mentions Vaseline glass because I suspected that one of the pieces I found at Charleston beach on March 7 was a piece of Vaseline glass. (Below, it's the light green piece near the center).
It barely glowed at all when I held it up to my mom's blacklight lightbulb from the 70s.
So...while I was disappointed, I tried to tell myself it really was there, and freaked out about it anyway. On March 10, I found a piece that I suspected glowed (below, next to the cobalt blue pieces)...

...and I found another piece on March 11 (below under the marbles)...

...but under the blacklight there was NO GLOW AT ALL. So no pictures.

I had better luck with finding glowing things while bottle digging. They showed up slightly under the light

And need I say that unscrewing a lightbulb in the dark stairwell and screwing in a blacklight which gets impossibly hot after 30 seconds is a huge pain in the behind for a glow that sucks anyway? I held off on testing this beautiful heartbreaking shard I dug in August until I got a REAL light.


So finally, after months of disappointments, I got my handheld UV light from apexminerals on Ebay. And here's the difference between a normal $5 blacklight and a UV light:

And I was in for a surprise with my sea glass collection!

The two on top, Charleston Beach finds from March 7 and March 10, and the large frosty one on the bottom was found on March 11. I also found that old clear glass that will turn lavender/purple in the sun turns light yellow under UV light, and some of my clear buttons with a quartz content turn orange. Awesome. When I get some extra time I'm going to make a video on the difference between black lights and UV "black light".

After I run all my errands today I'm going to poke through my collection of sea glass from this year and thin it out a bit and put it up for grabs on ebay (or Etsy...haven't decided). I have a few pieces of plain sea pottery/porcelain and of course many shards of beach glass that's still glassy...I'm sure there's some mosaic artists out there who'll have a field day!

Another day at the beach!

Yesterday I went to breakfast at Olde Tymes in Norwich and afterwards decided that despite the 18 degree weather, I was going to head to the beach anyway. What fun! Charleston and Scarborough were both bust, though both were lovely and not as cold as I thought they would be. Of course, the last beach, as usual, did not disappoint. Too bad I didn't hit it at low tide, and had some fun running from waves while trying to dig in the sand.I know the color balance is off in the photo above, but I got this piece of China (lol) and a piece of porcelain (Charlestown, 1 of only 2 pieces I found).

Odd embossing on a lime green piece. Not sure what pattern this is.

I discovered this thick clear piece was embossed when I got home, but it's awesome nevertheless! Wish I could ID the bottle this came from :). It would have been read while lying on its side, which is odd because it was a round bottle and not your typical medicine bottle (rectangular shape). Other round embossed bottles would be read while the bottle was standing up.

Best find of the day, olive green rounded lip. Wasn't quite expecting this when I picked it up. Wish I found it earlier as the breaks are pretty new, but after the stormy weekend I'm not too surprised.

All finds! Loving the pink lizard and the bullet shell. There's some kind of writing on the bullet shell but I can't read it :(.

Sooooo...there you have it. The vintage plug was also found at the last beach and will be turned into some kind of steampunk wire-wrapped pendant. Stay tuned!