Continental Drift

A few days ago, my finger slipped a bit in an online store, as fingers are wont to do (when they're mine anyway)... it's quite scary how dreadfully easily that can happen!

So today the courier came by and I now have an, um, new camera. Because I didn't have a black compact yet. And because it's pretty. And because I really do love Pentax colours outdoors, especially the greens. *hides in shame* It's also smaller and slimmer than any of my other compacts, and as a plus, it shares the battery with my Pentax W10, which is always nice.

And I also got a pretty new mouse - a Razer Diamondback with a frosty blue light - but a new mouse is something I actually need, as the scroll wheel of my current one stopped working ages ago. I just wish I could have got a nice office mouse instead of a gaming one, as I don't exactly need a gaming mouse, but looks like office mice with extra side buttons are hard to come by these days, and it's something I refuse to give up.

And now I need to get back to working. *sighs* The 10-12 hour days, seven days a week, are really starting to get to me - I feel definitely more tired and achy with every passing day. Can't wait for ... hm, December, probably, when I might actually get a day off again.

Finally got around to uploading Measuring Up to the various archives. Up now on FFN, and hopefully within a few days also on TPP and Ashwinder. Provided it doesn't have too many commas in the wrong places, LOL!

As usual, there is also picspam - this time from yesterday, before shopping. ( Cut for picspam. )

juno_magic buying a new camera has made my desire for the Canon A650 IS come back... I've been tempted by that very same model a few times now, but so far, have resisted. I keep reminding myself that I really don't need yet another compact camera, but does my mind listen? Nooo...

Weekend. At last. A long one, at that - Monday and Tuesday are off due to being national holidays.

Which also means that it's two days lost as far as work goes... meaning that yes, I had to take work home, because I really don't want to find that oops, it's deadline day and I'm still sitting on a few dozen files to translate. Even did a bit today - not too much, but then, it is Saturday, and doing a few files is better than none.

I have also got around to attaching the new macro lens to the camera and trying it out. ( Photo talk )

( Picspam. )

Teeth are feeling awkward. It feels as if quite a bit of the temporary filling I got on Tuesday has worn off already, and I've been quite careful with it... not chewing much with it, not using force when brushing teeth, and all that. I don't think it's going to last until October - at this rate I'll be glad if it survives the holiday weekend. Which means I've been trying to eat with the other side now - the one where the ex-tooth was still six weeks ago - and it's making the gums on that side a bit sore. I assume it's just a matter of getting used to it, though. But I do dearly wish I wouldn't need to have these constant teeth issues now... ah well. Porridge and soup are good.

Hands still not the best, so I should probably relocate to the sofa. Football soon, anyway.

On my way to work today, my, um, foot seems to have slipped. So I quite accidentally landed in the camera store which is right beside us. And, uh... somehow I was given the Pentax K20D to play with, and it turned out to be not nearly as much larger and heavier than the K100D as I'd feared, and... um. Do I need to tell the rest? ;-)

Thing is that mum told me this morning that she'd even be willing to buy my K100D from me. So it appears that she really is serious about wanting a DSLR. Which sort of would have meant that I'd have been left quite DSLR-less. And there really didn't seem to be any point (apart from the price) to buy another K100D, or its successor K200D, or K10D (the predecessor to K20D) for that matter, so I decided to go for the biggest and bestest that Pentax has got.

Also, as an excuse, while I got another tooth fixed this morning (nothing awful this time, although I suspect there may be tenderness once the anaesthetics wear off as there was quite a bit of blood around), I also got told that next time (in two weeks, eek) I'll get the one quite irreparable molar pulled out. So I'll need comforting. Lots and lots of comforting. I am thinking a new shiny camera will help. Can't hurt at least.

Right. Should start working now, I suspect, as all that money I've just spent will need to be regained.

I've just read the specs of the Pentax new K200D and K20D cameras... *drools*

( Cut for camera press release squeeing. )

Er, sorry about sounding like a damn camera salesman. ;-) *is in no way associated with either Pentax or Fuji, apart from being a fangirl*

I, er, seem to have accidentally bought a new camera.

( Gushing about new camera. )

Anyway. Wrote four more Enchanted drabbles for GS100... I am starting to suspect that my tendency to ramble on is starting to seep into drabbles, too, as I was hoping to actually start getting to the point in this set. Instead I got more background, and not very original one at that. But then, I can always pretend it just needed to be told before moving on to the story proper.

I've also realised I entirely suck at making up titles. Perhaps it would be easier if I had more of a story planned, instead of having to come up with a title before having any idea where the plot might be heading.

I don't really like saying much about the first part of two-parters, as far as TV shows are concerned (especially in new Who, I've found myself repeatedly squeeing over the first half just to find myself let down by the resolution), but without getting too spoilery (I hope), I really, really liked yesterday's episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, i.e. Eye of the Gorgon part 1. Lots of old ladies and lovely ominous looking old buildings... can it get any better? :-D

And Pentax has announced their version of the 18-250mm universal zoom lens - most probably a rebadged version of the Tamron lens, but this is hardly bad news, considering how highly regarded the Tamron seems to be among universal zoom lenses. Plus I like the Pentax design. I was planning to get the Tamron one at some point (have held back so far as it's not that cheap) for a travel/general walkaround lens, but once the Pentax one is out, I can have a choice. Will depend on the price of the Pentax I guess - if it's similar, and if the lens is considered comparable, I'd likely get that one instead.

More annoyingly, stupid MyBook has once again decided to disappear from my drives' list. Meaning I'll need to remember to unplug it again to see if it comes up the next time... gah, now I don't remember what I did the last time, if I unplugged the power or the drive from the computer or both. *scowls at the stupid external drive*

How do I make myself convinced that I don't need another camera, no matter how pretty it is?

Was just looking around in the online version of a local camera/computer store... getting a blower (hoping to finally get rid of the annoying spot of dust on the DSLR sensor) and a cheap (but hopefully not too horrid) pair of speakers for mum's computer, as her old ones were integrated to the old monitor and thus got rid of when I got her the new LCD monitor. And I still needed something else to buy if I wanted to avoid postage (if the amount exceeds a certain limit, postage is free).

So I spent half an hour looking at various pocket cameras, especially the Pentax Optio A30. *sighs* It's a damn pretty little thing, and the Optio A series should have good image quality (on the other hand, they're not the fastest cameras around and as useless in low light as most other pocket cameras - but that's what the DSLR and the Fuji are for, anyway), and I am a hopeless Pentax fangirl... but I finally managed to persuade myself that no, I don't actually need another camera at this point. Not when I hardly use the Optio W10, even though it's almost always with me, and when the Panasonic FZ-5 is gathering dust somewhere.

Then I spent another half an hour considering getting another lens... it's just that both of lenses I still realistically "need" (even though "need" is a very relative issue) are 8500+ kr / € 540-600 each and I had pretty much decided to wait a few months at least until getting them. And then I finally came to the decision that maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't actually be getting a 4000 kr camera or a 8500 kr lens right now just to save 29 kr on postage.

This should not have been such a hard decision. *weeps*

I think I've made a potentially huge mistake in letting mum get more familiar with the DSLR.

If she continues "just practising" the way she has the last few days, I'm going to need another external hard drive for backup very soon.

And I fear that when we go out somewhere interesting the next time, where I could finally give the wide-angle lens a proper workout, she'll want to use it instead.

And I've just realised that there really isn't even a week left until Deathly Hallows. I think I'm a bit scared.

...and ordered the Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 macro lens today.

Actually, I'd decided to stop whining about it and just go and buy the blasted thing today, but as usual, the day I make up my mind and walk into the store, they have all sorts of lenses but the one I'm determined to buy. Typical. Apparently they even had it in their computer as being in stock, but I guess they'd either just run out or the new delivery hadn't come yet, or something. Oh well, ordering means a few more days of waiting, but at least I should get it.

It'd better be worth it, anyway.