Goin' digital

My new year’s resolution is to get dSLR. I have been researching which model to buy. There are too many nice ones to choose. In addition, during my research, new models come out one after another. I was pretty much convinced that my research will never end.

My decision was Canon 50D. Yes, this is my firm decision.

The next research I had to do was to figure out from which shop I should buy. Again, my thorough research went on and on. I aim is, of course, to buy as cheap as I could. But I found out that there are many shops rum by scam artists. There no such thing as free lunch.

One night, I was researching as usual after my supper. I must have clicked something by mistake that I did not even pay attention to.

The page that I opened accidentally carried Canon 30D, which was a dead stock from 2006. Of course dead stock means something that nobody bought and was left over at a corner of a warehouse. Workers in a warehouse must have been kicking the box to kill their time when they had nothing to do.

It was a real bargain. The web site was well known. I thought I could trust them. The price was about a quarter of Canon 50D. It was actually cheaper than used 30D in other web sites.

The moment I found this 30D, I started thinking about a lot of things. “It would be nice to have a family trip during summer. We will go to a restaurant. I would like to order a jog of beer in a restaurant rather than ice tea”. All in all, I thought I should not spend a lot of money to by a camera. For me, 50D is a lot of money. After all, I am not Donald Trump.

My firm decision to buy 50D has gone quickly. My firm decision is, as always, as firm as this.

Now I have a body of Canon 30D in my hand.

What is sad about is the fact that I do not have lens! This is just like I bought a car without steering wheel. I can run an engine but I still can’t go anywhere. With my 30D, only way I can enjoy at the moment is to show the menu. That’s it. That's pretty much it!

I have never thought that camera without lens is only worth paper weight.

Obviously, lens that goes with my 30D will be the next project. But this project will be after my next pay check. Now I have something more to research about.

Grandma's Corvette

In Japan where I come from, their public transport system is lust like human body. There are nerves, veins, and arteries everywhere. You do not need to drive in Japan, especially when you get old.

On the other hand, there aren’t many cities where have good public transport systems. You have to keep driving as far as your eyes are seeing shadows and lights.

This is a story of a grandma of my friend.

She is eighty-something year old. She has been living alone for many years, since her husband passed. As you can imagine, her best days were in 1940’s to 1960’s. The golden era of the U.S. Her dream car was, and has been red Chevy Corvette. She, however, was no way able to afford driving Corvette.

Now she is an octogenarian with bad knees. She needs to have a walker when she walks. Even with her walker, she walks at a snail’s pace. The car she drove was 15-years-old Lincoln Continental. A conservative old American sedan, as we all know.

She came to realize that there won’t be many years before she will leave us and take an eternal residence in the better place. She made a big decision. One day, she drove up to a car dealer in her old Lincoln, of course, to buy a red Corvette. I am pretty sure that a sales person was shocked.

A grandma waking in the parking lot of a supermarket with her walker at a snail’s pace. She folds her walker and slides it on the passenger seat. She drives home in her red Corvette.

One time my friend asked her if she could give him a ride. Her answer was “ it is for may walker. Not for guys”.

How cool this grand ma is!

Here goes her red Corvette through our town in rural Alabama. Nobody has heard about a lucky guy who sat on her passenger seat.