Ungh.

Aight, now that my camera's on the fritz, I've finally figured out that I can remove the little thingie on the tripod mount that has been driving me nuts and forcing the mount to keep unscrewing itself and going at an angle. You know the thing - it's a little metal thingie with another piece of metal screwed in in such a way to create a springy tension on the nubby thingie. Heh. That was technical. Anywho, when I screw the mount onto the bottom of the camera, it acts as - heck, I don't know what it's /supposed/ to do, but it pushes on the camera's body, effectively causing me to push against it more firmly as I screw it in. I was thinking this morning about how the threads in the camera are plastic, and began thinking, hm, maybe I shouldn't leave that thing screwed in... I could be wearing out my threads! But then it dawned on me: Why not remove the tension? Then it wouldn't keep unscrewing itself so much, right? And it would stop putting unnecessary pressure on the sides of the threads. One would think. Or maybe it's there for exactly that purpose.

At any rate, I've removed it, and am confident I can reapply if I deem necessary.

I wish I could fix my camera, however. It's out of warranty now, and just a month before our trip out west where I'm going to want to take more photos than ever before, the darned thing decides its batteries aren't charged enough. All five sets of them. Freshly charged. Oh, it'll work for a while, but after a short usage period (say, 10 minutes to a half hour), the indicator comes on saying the things are depleted. Changing batteries at that point is pointless. The best I can do is to keep using it until the camera *thinks* the batteries are completely dead, then wait one minute, turn it back on, and take one or two more shots or until it dies again. This is repeated until I leave it alone for a while, at which point the process starts up all over again.

The batteries are not depleted, I know that much, and I don't need statistical data to prove it to myself because I've been using this camera for over a year /very regularly/ I might add and I know how my camera usually behaves. So, here's my semi-scientific analysis of the problem: I KNOW my batteries last longer than this, not ALL my batteries would go bad at once because I bought them at different times, and if they WERE dead, they shouldn't work fine again an hour later. Some folks may not agree with this analysis, but they don't know my camera like I do, and they don't have a very strong interest in its behaviour like I do because they're not the ones with the problem.

That was a bit of a rant because Dale has asked me several times if I'm sure it's not the batteries. Bless him, he starts simple like a true troubleshooter should, but after the second doubt I get irritable. I know it's just my impatience and defensiveness glowing hotly through the hardened rock, but it's still reminiscent of when this drunken maintenance guy listened to my mom say that she put the five quarters into the machine, they went in fine, but the washer won't start. He bluntly wasted my mother's breath by asking, "Did you put quarters in?" Duh, the thing wouldn't have slid in if she hadn't, but that either means he didn't think that far ahead or he REALLY wasn't listening to a damned thing. But upon his drunken and lessened mental state, I digress: A little active listening would have been nice on his part.

Another rant: I typically enjoy being somewhat on the smart side. It allows me to be a bit lazy yet still retain knowledge. It's exciting to grasp ideas and figure things out on my own without having to ask someone else for lots of help. But. It. Has. Its. Downsides. For one thing, when I'm impatient or on thinking overtime (which usually translates to my being impatient), I have a LOT of trouble communicating and dealing with others. Especially others who are not on the same page as I am - i.e., unable to keep up with my thoughts, or on another tangent altogether, thus interrupting my flow of thinking. And, while I can admit that I can and do make lots of mistakes, it bothers me to no end when I'm trying to express my distaste for a problem that I am feeling unable to solve on my own, and hear basic troubleshooting that I have already considered and compensated for. I know it's all inside me, but dammit, I feel like the other person considers me stupid. (Note to self: I am aware I shouldn't and usually don't care much about what others think. Why does this bother me?) I know how "feeling stupid" is - I do it to people all the time in the field of computers. I understand it VERY well, in fact. So when my customers, especially those I know are somewhat computer-savvy, tell me of their troubles, I calmly say, "You have probably already tried this, but just so I know we're on the same page, would you do this?" Then I outline the basic steps they've done a million times already so I can absolutely rule out that they're technological nincompoops who are only SAYING they've tried everything. And I don't mean that in a particularly bad way, either, it's just fun to call people names. Especially when you have no clue what they actually do in their profession... see, I can imagine a nurse might think at some point in life, "I can not BELIEVE that girl just asked me that... egads, didn't she take health class when she was growing up?!" (No, actually, I wasn't actively listening apparently. I was probably staring at a hidden sheet of paper with lines of code on it because I was more interested in computers than where the groin is. See? We're not that different after all. We just have different interests.)

You know, I was just thinking about some of the "dumb things" I've heard people say. I suspect my reactions are not as subtle or reassuring as I think despite a firm belief that ignorance does not detract from a person's worth. I knew someone once who didn't know Boston, MA was on the ocean. Seriously. (For those of you going, "Huh? It is?" I suggest going to http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=boston,+ma&ie=UTF8&z=11&om=1 and checking it out yourself.) Now, I was not interested in history as a child, so my incredulous stare was due to the fact that even /I/ knew about the Boston Tea Party where they dumped tea into the harbour... which of course is directly attached to... ocean. Now, I figured at that point that while it's possible this guy didn't know harbours were attached to the ocean, after all this time he might have thought ahead to how ships from England got into a closed body of water in the first place and asked questions to find out what I finally explained to him in his late 20's. Savvy? Still, no biggie. Except, I was rather insensitive to this and vocalized my surprise at his ignorance, which he took to be my interpretation of his intellect (which it was not). He got rather defensive and quite abruptly ended the conversation by refusing to talk about Boston any more, regardless of its importance to our conversation. (Apparently of little importance, since I don't even remember what the conversation was originally about. I think it had to do with him driving a truck down there all the time years before, which also fueled my disbelief at his ignorance, I might add.)

You know what? I feel better now. I woke up feeling internalized. Meaning, withdrawn, irritable to some extent. I almost talked myself out of starting my day off badly; it's my day off and I didn't want to be a sourpuss all day long. So I thought about Dale and that led me to think about the trip. I started getting excited until I then thought about all the pictures we'll be taking, which then plummeted me into a horribly frustrated mood of angry insinuations toward Canon for creating a defective product. My problem is more likely not a defect but an unfortunate issue that occurs once in every hundred thousand cameras made, but I happen to be the unlucky consumer stuck with the problem so of course I'm taking it personally.

I think that I'm hormonal again, and anything that I can possibly construe as an irritation is going to become one until the hormones subside. (Sigh.)

Still, I'm now thinking of a few things I want to do today, and that's making me eager to put this blog to rest for the day: Shopping for luggage, fixing Dale's internet issue (Peaches chewed through his lifeline to the outside world), getting Indian Food. I also finally decided on which product I wanted to get Dale for his birthday. The decision was in the works for a couple of months and I fear I settled, but I wanted it ordered before it's too late.

Off I go, then, to find suitable clothing for today's adventures. And food. Yes, food would be good. Drinking less tea would probably be a good idea, too, since last time I got onto this bandwagon, my mood took a dive and almost cracked its neck... (internal child's voice: But I LIKE tea!!)

~nv