Tuesday, July 18, 2006

AW BLog Chain 3 - Confessions of a Geek Girl

This post is another link in the Absolute Write Blogger Chain,round 3. Here's the entry before mine, if you'd like to catch up.

Today we seem to be talking about our geeky-ness. At one time, I was a totally spoiled geek girl and if something was new, cool or beta, I had it. My husband was more than happy to indulge me as it was a real toss up as to who was the bigger geek. I always got the new shiny toy and he took the hand me downs. Being a geek early adopter has its drawbacks; new toys are always expensive and sometimes the initial offering of software isn't as awesome as rev 2 or 3. Another drawback is that once you buy something, it is impossible to, gasp, throw it out so you will end up with boxes and boxes of cables, cards and god knows what. I am also of an artistic mind and my biggest indulgences were graphics programs, scanners and cameras.

Case in point, digital cameras were new and incredibly sexy in 1997. My first camera shot an unbelievable 1 megapixel and was*only* $800. It was an Olympus and I was thrilled. It was silver, cool and pretty heavy. I took pictures of everything and thought I had bought my last camera. Ok, so the printed picture wasn't much, but we could see them on the computer and that was good. Before too long, it started seeming like an antiquated dinosaur as newer models came out that were smaller, lighter and has more features. Time to go shopping.

Camera 2, was a Sony Mavica. Ok, so I didn't get the light small version of my dreams, but it had FLOPPIES! I know, you're shaking your head on that one, but at the time it seemed like the perfect answer to taking lots and lots of pictures. Memory sticks were very new and very,very expensive. Floppies were cheap and no one knew that they have a nasty habit of self destructing in such a short time. Besides, we had a 4x CD burner and I could burn my pictures off on a CD. The theory worked well, we took it on a month long vacation, took thousands of pictures that archived nicely. At 2 megapixels it took a much better picture, had a great zoom,printed pictures were nice and now I was really convinved I'd bought my last camera.

Except, about 2 months after we bought the Mavica, the first 3 megapixel cameras were on the scene. They were beautiful, small, sleek and had totally jaw dropping features and quality for...get this... under $200. I shoved thoughts of the temptresses to the back of the closet and resisted for a full 3 years. One day, it became too much for me. I'd lost my job, I had a little severence cash and a new Cybershot Sony soothed my wounded pride.

My days of spoiled geek girl seem to be temporarily on hold. The job loss thing has really gotten in the way of being an early adopter. Like a smoker going cold turkey, I've stopped watching TechTV, going straight for the CompUSA ad in the Sunday paper and never, ever open the Dell mailers that they keep sending me. Lovely shrinkwrapped boxes of upgraded Photoshop call to me from time to time and I still lust after the newest goodies, escpecially a Canon Rebel XT, but hey, I really can do everything I want with the camera I have. Can't I?


If you're enjoying the randomness of this AW Blog Chain, keep reading...and comment, please. We all love an audience. Next up is Southern Expressions.

AW Blog Chain Round 3


9 comments:

Kelly Curtis said...

Ooooh, A Canon Rebel XT - we want it, preciousssss. Let us touch it, preciousssss. Just let us take one picture with the Rebel, preciousssss.

I succumbed

Kelly Curtis said...

Love your title. Very good post.

Anonymous said...

Geek! :p

We're now thinking about going to Dubai and buying a new phone for Fahim and a new camera for me. Cuz, you know, we NEED new toys. Can't live without 'em. :)

Anonymous said...

Yum. Cameras. I am cameraless right now because people keep borrowing mine. You know the spiel: Ooh, an old-fashioned camera - I want to know what non-digital pictures are like - mind if I borrow it?

Kelly Meding/Kelly Meade said...

Someday I will invest in a digital camera. But at the moment it's just cheaper to develop a roll of film $6 at a time, than to shell out $150+ up front for a camera. And then the printer. And paper. And ink....

::Sigh::

Someday... :)

Peggy K said...

Your first Olympus sounds a lot like my current digital camera. It's a hand-me-down from my dad, who purchased a higher pixel smaller model. It still takes good pictures, but I do get a bit of camera envy when I see the newer models with all their fancy featuers.

Unknown said...

I need to get back into the photography mode. A writer/muscian/photographer friend of mine just came back from Poland and the Ukraine with some awesome and powerful photos. If you want to take a look at them, here is his photo site - http://www.pbase.com/sixfeetover

Andrea Allison said...

Love the post title. Maybe one day, you will be able to relive your spoiled geek days, right? :)

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm not a "spoiled geek girl" just yet! But it's around the corner- I'm also of an artistic mind and can clearly see myself with gadgets and gizmos aplenty once I settle somewhere: a scanner, cameras (yes, plural), a printer, film editing equipment, graphic programs...you name it!